ABSTRACT
The Communist Party of China (CPC), founded July 1, 1921 by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, seized control over the Middle Kingdom under the leadership of Chairman Mao Zedong on October 1, 1949. 9 Chen, Li and Mao were Marxists of diverse persuasions. Their notions of communist utopia and tactics differed, but all agreed on fundamentals. The task of the Chinese Communist Party was to eradicate capitalist political and economic rule, install a worker-peasant state, criminalize private property, the market and entrepreneurship, and establish an exploitation-free, harmonious, egalitarian order. The dictatorship of the proletariat (and peasants) was seen as a sine qua non to thwart counter-revolution and foster rapid industrialization during a “socialist” transition period, but all agreed that in the fullness of time the Communist Party would turn over the reins of government to self-regulating co-operators.
