Zang Airong and Guo Shangji: Profoundly Grasping the Contemporary Value of the "7th National Congress of Unity"
In October 2022, while visiting the site of the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “The Seventh National Congress holds an extremely important position in the Party’s history, pointing out the correct direction and opening the correct path for the Party to continuously move from victory to victory.” He required that we “tell the story of Yangjialing [1] well, and tell the story of the Seventh National Congress well.” Mao Zedong called the Seventh National Congress “a congress of victory, a congress of unity.” In the New Era and on the new journey, we must profoundly grasp the contemporary value of the “United Seventh National Congress” and draw the spiritual strength of “united struggle” from it.
Firmly Upholding the Correct Political Direction
“Taking the inevitable path of history” is the prerequisite for condensing the force of united struggle. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized in the report to the 20th CPC National Congress that “united struggle is the inevitable path for the Chinese people to create great historical achievements.” For a Marxist party, firmly upholding the correct political direction means always persisting in ideals, strengthening convictions, and struggling for the realization of communism. Chinese Communists have always persisted in the communist ideal and conviction that “we cannot and should not abandon,” always followed the laws of the development of human society, especially the laws of the Chinese revolution and the laws of China's socialist construction. They clearly proposed to “take the inevitable path of history,” neither impatient nor rash, yet neither compromising nor yielding, resolutely leading the completion of the New Democratic Revolution and conducting the socialist revolution on this basis. Regarding how to firm up the correct direction, the CPC made up its mind long ago and gave a resounding answer: to dig up the two mountains of imperialism and feudalism. Mao Zedong gave the answer in The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains [2]: “We must persevere and work unceasingly, and we, too, will touch God's heart. Our God is none other than the masses of the Chinese people.”
A banner hanging directly above the rostrum of the Seventh National Congress venue read: “Advance Victoriously Under the Banner of Mao Zedong.” This served as the compass for condensing the force of united struggle. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “Most of Chairman Mao’s works were completed during the thirteen years in Yan’an. Facing the loess walls, his reflections in the cave dwellings were about the future and destiny of China. This laid the foundation for Mao Zedong Thought. Starting from the Seventh National Congress, the Party’s ideology and action were 'settled in one supreme authority' [3].” Through the Yan’an Rectification Movement [4], “the whole Party recognized the correctness of Comrade Mao Zedong's line with unprecedented consistency, and united under the banner of Mao Zedong with unprecedented consciousness.” The new Party Constitution adopted by the Seventh National Congress stipulated: “The Communist Party of China takes Mao Zedong Thought—the thought that unifies the theory of Marxism-Leninism with the practice of the Chinese revolution—as its guide for all its work.” Thus, it truly achieved what Mao Zedong described: “An ideology is like a flag; only when the flag is raised do people have something to hope for and know which direction to pursue.”
Keeping Firmly in Mind the Fundamental Purpose of Serving the People Wholeheartedly
In his opening speech at the Seventh National Congress, The Fate of Two Chinas, Mao Zedong called on the whole Party to be “modest, prudent, guarded against arrogance, and guarded against rashness, and to serve the Chinese people wholeheartedly.” In the report On Coalition Government, he emphasized: “Another hallmark distinguishing us Communists from any other political party is that we maintain the closest links with the broadest masses of the people. To serve the people wholeheartedly and never for a moment divorce ourselves from the masses; to proceed in all cases from the interests of the people and not from one’s self-interest or from the interests of a small group; and to identify our responsibility to the people with our responsibility to the leading organs of the Party—these are our starting points.”
The CPC has always stood on the fundamental position of “siding with the greatest majority of the working people,” unifying the Party’s thought and practice around the fundamental purpose of “serving the people wholeheartedly.” In economic construction, it maintained that all empty talk is useless and one must “provide the people with visible material benefits,” launching the Great Production Movement [5] to achieve ample food and clothing. In political construction, it “followed the line of unity and democracy,” allowing the people to supervise the government to escape the historical cycle of "rise and fall" [6]. In social construction, it resettled refugees, transformed "loiterers" [7], established schools and education, eliminated the scourge of banditry, and promoted benefits while removing harms, creating a clean and righteous social atmosphere where “one sees only public servants and no officials.” In cultural construction, based on the concept that “literature and art are for the service of the masses,” writers and artists created a large number of works that were popular and well-loved by the people, enriching their spiritual world.
“The people’s aspiration for a better life is our goal.” In the press conference after the closing of the 20th National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping’s statement—“continuously turning the people’s aspiration for a better life into reality”—was both an echo of history and a declaration of the CPC’s consistent people-centered sentiment and awareness of its purpose. In the New Era and on the new journey, as long as we always persist in the fundamental purpose of serving the people wholeheartedly, insist that development is for the people, development relies on the people, and the fruits of development are shared by the people, and unswervingly follow the path of common prosperity for all, we will surely lead the people to win new and even greater victories for socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Persisting in Emancipating the Mind and Seeking Truth from Facts
History is the best textbook. In the New Era and on the new journey, General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized that seeking truth from facts is an important "magic weapon" [8] for the Party to lead the people in continuously achieving victories in the cause of revolution, construction, and reform. On the walls on both sides of the Seventh National Congress venue, slogans were posted: “Persist in Truth, Correct Errors.” This is the basic requirement for persisting in the ideological line of seeking truth from facts, embodying the political courage and sense of responsibility of Chinese Communists, and is also the essential political character they must possess. Chinese Communists persist in truth and correct errors at all times. The CPC is a great, glorious, and correct party, not because it never makes mistakes, but because it can correctly recognize mistakes, learn from them, improve its understanding of objective laws through the lessons of mistakes, and subsequently rectify them, making the mistake a precursor to correctness. It is precisely because the Party can persist in truth and correct errors that it can find life in desperate situations and bring order out of chaos after setbacks, becoming a Marxist party that can never be knocked down or crushed.
In October 1938, in The Role of the Chinese Communist Party in the National War, Mao Zedong proposed: “Communists should be models of seeking truth from facts.” During the New Democratic Revolution period, guided by the ideological line of seeking truth from facts, the CPC led the Chinese revolution from one victory to another, finally “achieving national independence and people's liberation, completely ending the history of semi-colonial and semi-feudal society in old China, completely ending the history of a tiny minority of exploiters ruling over the broad masses of working people, completely ending the state of old China being like a heap of loose sand, completely abolishing the unequal treaties imposed by the powers and all imperialist privileges in China, and realizing the great leap from thousands of years of feudal autocracy to people's democracy.” The victory of the Chinese revolution verified that “the Communist Party does not rely on scaring people to make a living, but on the truth of Marxism-Leninism, on seeking truth from facts, and on science.”
Persisting in United Struggle and One Heart and One Mind
The unity of the Party is an important guarantee for the success of its cause. The four large characters for “One Heart and One Mind” (tong xin tong de) were hung on the back wall of the Seventh National Congress venue. At the congress, Mao Zedong emphasized the strong unity of the entire Party and people, specifically proposing the "alignment" (kanqi) principle. He pointed out: “You should know that a troop is often not very neat, so it is necessary to frequently call out for alignment—align to the left, align to the right, align to the center. We must align with the benchmark of the Central Committee and the benchmark of the Congress. Alignment is the principle; having deviations is actual life. When there are deviations, just call out for alignment.” The ultimate purpose of proposing this principle was the unity of the whole Party.
The purpose of the Yan’an Rectification Movement was both to clear up the situation and to unite comrades. This required starting from a desire for unity, because if there were no subjective desire for unity, it might lead to the result of "ruthless struggle and merciless blows" [9], and would not achieve the goal of uniting comrades. To achieve being of one heart and one mind and truly realize Party unity, one must distinguish right from wrong ideologically through criticism or struggle. On February 15, 1945, Mao Zedong pointed out in a speech at the Central Party School: “Starting from the desire for unity is first; applying analysis and criticism is second; and then achieving unity again. Unity-criticism-unity—this is our method.” The Rectification Movement, adopting the “unity-criticism-unity” method, enabled the whole Party to achieve unprecedented unity and unification, laying a powerful ideological and political foundation for winning the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and national liberation.
Viewing the Seventh National Congress from the perspective of the Party’s century-long history of united struggle allows us to profoundly grasp its contemporary value. By firmly believing that “unity is strength, and only unity leads to victory,” and by following the “inevitable path,” we will march with more solid and powerful steps to struggle in unity for the comprehensive building of a modern socialist country and the comprehensive promotion of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.