Each time it has been tested the CPC has emerged stronger

Monday marks the 98th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. China Daily writer Li Yang comments:

When the Japanese invaders took possession of a large part of China in the 1930s and 1940s, when the US-backed Kuomintang started the civil war to decimate the communists, when the Chinese economy faced extreme challenges in the 1960s, when the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) wrecked havoc on Chinese society, when the Soviet Union collapsed with other socialist states in Eastern Europe in the early 1990s, many across the world predicted the demise of the Communist Party of China.

However, it emerged stronger from every crisis. Even the boldest prophet would not have foreseen a small party of not more than 60 members when it was formed in 1921－when the country was ruled by many warlords with the help of external powers－would turn the national situation and in the process become the world's largest political party.

The CPC has lived with the pride and prejudice of some since day one. But China's remarkable economic growth and social development since its reform and opening-up have awakened more and more foreigners to the fact that, despite its uniqueness, the CPC is probably one of the most successful ruling parties in history.

It is under the Party's leadership that over 700 million people have been lifted out of poverty in four decades, and a war-torn semi-colony and semi-feudal country has been turned into the world's second-largest economy in seven decades.

Since the CPC's 18th National Congress in 2012, about 3.9 million people have applied to join the Party each year on average. The number of CPC members increased to more than 90 million by the end of last year, among whom more than 30 percent were born after the 1980s, and nearly half have college degrees, showing the vitality of the Party.

To satisfy the people's needs, which have become more diversified with the development of society and the economy, the Party has to constantly improve its ability to respond to the appeals of the people and the times through self-reform and even self-renewal, which has helped it maintain its vitality, and to stay close to the people. As a result, the number of grassroots Party organizations has increased from about 195,000 in 1949 to 4.61 million in 2018.

Almost all of the Party's operating models have resulted from and been tested by the changing times and actual national conditions, and their effectiveness and pertinence to China's realities have already been proved by the development of the Party and the nation.