Talking Politics

We talk to historian of China Hans van de Ven about the origins of the CCP and its extraordinary rise to power. How has it managed to adapt to the changes of the last forty years and what lessons will be drawn as it approaches its one hundredth birthday?Talking Points:The Chinese Communist Party is an incredible success story. A group of students met in Shanghai; 30 years later, they were running a vast country.A lot of luck was involved. If the Japanese hadn’t invaded, they never would have gone anywhere.The CCP didn’t become a Maoist party until the Second World War.Communist parties are supposed to thrive in cities, but Mao turned his attention to the countryside.Mao was a great tactician of violence. He was heavily influenced by Clausewitz.Mao was also able to draw in both the youth and the intellectuals.The West tends to see Mao’s death as the decisive shift, but Mao himself allowed new people to come to the fore, including Deng Xiaoping.Tiannamen was an existential threat to the Part