Fully 50 years have elapsed since the Communist Party of China held its First National Congress in Shanghai on July 1, 1921.

The birth of the Communist Party of China ushered in a new epoch in the development of Chinese history. For more than 70 years from the Opium War of 1840 to the May 4th Movement of 1919, the longsuffering Chinese people had waged heroic struggles to resist oppression by imperialism and feudalism. But all these struggles, including the large-scale revolutionary movements led by Hung Hsiu-chuan and Sun Yat-sen, had failed. Let us thank the great Lenin-the 1917 Russian October Socialist Revolution led by him brought the Chinese people Marxism-Leninism. The integration of Marxism-Leninism with the Chinese revolutionary movement gave birth to the Communist Party of China, the vanguard of the Chinese proletariat. As Chairman Mao said, "In China, the Communist Party was born, an epoch-making event."

At the time of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party there were only a few dozen members organized in a few communist groups. But they represented a new force, and new forces are always invincible by nature. Nothing could wipe out the Chinese Communist Party, neither the aircraft and guns of the imperialists and the Kuomintang, nor white terror and the tyranny of secret agents, nor the machinations and sabotage of renegades and hidden traitors. On the contrary, in half a century's arduous struggle it has grown into the Party leading the People's Republic of China. Semicolonial and semi-feudal old China has been transformed into socialist New China with its first steps on the road of prosperity.

The 50-year history of the Chinese Communist Party proves that the success or failure of a political party depends on whether its line is correct or not. A wrong line will lead to the loss of political power even if it has been seized. A correct line will enable a party which has not attained political power to achieve it. However, a correct line does not drop from the skies or emerge and develop spontaneously and peacefully; it exists in contrast to erroneous lines and develops through struggle against them.

In his report to the Ninth National Congress of the Communist Party of China Comrade Lin Piao said: "The history of the Communist Party of China is one in which Chairman Mao's Marxist-Leninist line combats the Right and 'Left' opportunist lines in the Party. Under the leadership of Chairman Mao, our Party defeated Chen Tu-hsiu's Right opportunist line, defeated the 'Left' opportunist lines of Chu Chiu-pai and Li Li-san, defeated Wang Ming's first 'Left' and then Right opportunist lines, defeated Chang Kuo-tao's line of splitting the Red Army, defeated the Right opportunist anti-Party bloc of Peng Teh-huai, Kao Kang, Jao Shu-shih and others and, after long years of struggle, shattered Liu Shao-chi's counter-revolutionary revisionist line. Our Party has consolidated itself, developed and grown in strength precisely in the struggle between the two lines, especially in the struggles to defeat the three renegade cliques of Chen Tu-hsiu, Wang Ming and Liu Shao-chi which did the gravest harm to the Party." It is precisely Chairman Mao's Marxist-Leninist line that has guided our Party and the Chinese people on the tortuous road of revolution in surmounting danger, developing from a small and weak force into a big and strong force, and advancing from defeat to victory and to such a great victory as we enjoy today.

Chairman Mao teaches us: "We have won great victory. But the defeated class will still struggle. These people are still around and this class still exists. Therefore, we cannot speak of final victory. Not even for decades. We must not lose our vigilance."

In celebrating the 50th birthday of the Chinese Communist Party, the whole Party faces the task of following Chairman Mao's teachings, carrying out the line laid down by the Ninth National Congress of the Party, Unite to win still greater victories, and fulfilling the fighting tasks set by the Congress and the First and Second Plenary Sessions of the Ninth Central Committee of the Party. At present, it is particularly necessary for the whole Party to launch the movement of criticizing revisionism and rectifying the style of work, carry out education in ideology and political line, conscientiously study Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, and study and sum up the historical experience of inner-Party struggle between the two lines. This is the fundamental guarantee of further great victories for the cause of our Party.