Originally published on July 12, 2021 (Episode 213)
Introduction
In July and August of 1921, a group of young men met in Shanghai to found the Chinese Communist Party. They undoubtedly had great dreams, but even so they might have found it hard to believe that they were initiating the largest revolutionary movement of the 20th century, and that their party would thirty years later rule China.
They might have dreamed that in a hundred years their nation would be one of the great powers of the world. But they would have—at best—scoffed at the idea that this would occur by their party’s far from doctrinaire market reforms. Yet that is of course what happened, and that is a tribute to the party’s adaptability.
With me to discuss the history of the Chinese Communist Party is Anthony Saich, the Daewoo Professor of International Affairs and Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard’s Kennedy School. His most recent book is From Rebel to Ruler: One Hundred Years of the Chinese Communist Party, which is the subject of our conversation today.
It is not a book about Mao, Deng Xiaoping, Xi Jinping, or any one personality. Nor is it about the Chinese Civil War, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, the economic transformation of the late 20th century, or any one event. It is instead about all those things, as reflected in the one-hundred-year life of what is arguably the most powerful and adaptable political institution in the modern world.
About the Guest
Anthony Saich is the Daewoo Professor of International Affairs and Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University’s Kennedy School. His research focuses on contemporary Chinese politics, governance, and the role of the Communist Party. His books include Governance and Politics of China.
For Further Investigation
Anthony Saich, From Rebel to Ruler: One Hundred Years of the Chinese Communist Party (Harvard, 2021)
Anthony Saich, The Governance and Politics of China (Palgrave, 5th ed., 2015)
Elizabeth Perry and Sebastian Heilmann, eds., Mao’s Invisible Hand: The Political Foundations of Adaptive Governance in China (Harvard, 2011)
Frank Dikötter, The Age of Openness: China Before Mao
Rana Mitter, China’s Good War: How World War II Is Shaping a New Nationalism (Harvard, 2020)
Listen & Discuss
How has the Chinese Communist Party endured for a century when so many other revolutionary movements collapsed? Does adaptability make it more dangerous—or more fragile?
Share your thoughts in the comments below, and consider forwarding this episode to a friend who wants to understand modern China.
