The Communist Party of China was organized in Shanghai in 1921 and was formally inaugurated in Canton in 1922. A number of Chinese students visited Moscow and on return carried on propaganda in favour of Communism.
However, Sun Yat Sen, the Republic’s leaders, was not quite hopeful about the success of Communism in China. He said, “Communism or even the Soviet System cannot be introduced in China because there do not exist here the conditions for the successful establishment of either Communism of Sovietism.”
But in view of the Russian sympathies for national independence of China, he was attracted towards Russia and told the Russian people in December 1923 “We no longer look to the Western Powers. Our faces are turned towards Russia.” Thereafter he proceeded to reorganize his Kuomintang Party on the model of Communist Party of Russia.
In the meanwhile, the Communist Party under the leadership of Chen Tu Hsin tried to organize labour unions and promote communism among them. It may be noted that at this stage Chen was mainly interested in improving the working conditions of men, women and children and was not animated by any ideology or rigid party discipline.
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It was even keen to co-operate with the Kuomintang Party for this purpose. On the other hand, Sun Yat Sen, who staged a counter coup in 1923 (Earlier he was ousted in 1921 through a successful coup by Chen Chinag Miang and forced to fly to Canton) also stood for co-operation with the Communists. In fact the government which he formed in 1923 contained a number of Communists.
In January 1924 Sun Yat Sen convened the First National Congress of Kuomintang (KMT or Nationalist People’s Party), which was also attended by the Communist leaders like Mao Tse Tung and Li Ta Chao.
The Congress endorsed an anti-imperialist, anti-feudal policy and reiterated the principle of ‘land to the tiller’. The Communists were accepted as members of the party in their individual capacity.