Chen Duxiu Co-Founder and First General Secretary of the CCP

Compiled by Lionel BopageChen Duxiu was a revolutionary socialist, educator, philosopher and author, who with Li Dazhao co-founded the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1921. From 1921 to 1927, he served as the first General Secretary of the CCP. Chen was a leading figure in both the Xinhai Revolution that overthrew the Qing dynasty and the May Fourth Movement for scientific and democratic development in the early Republic of China.

He studied French, English, and naval architecture and went to Japan under a government scholarship. While in Japan, socialist ideas and the growing Chinese dissident movement influenced him.

Chen helped setting up two radical political parties there, but refused to join a Revolutionary Alliance, which he considered as narrowly racist. In the late 19th century China, Government corruption was rampant and led to an economic crisis and widespread impoverishment.

He was critical of the corrupt bureaucracy and became increasingly influential within the revolutionary movement, which was agitating against imperialism as well as against the Qing government. He founded the Anhui Patriotic Association in 1903, the Yue Fei Loyalist Society in 1905 and became an outspoken writer and political leader during the time of the 1911 Wuchang Uprising.

This uprising started the Xinhai Revolution that led to the collapse of the Qing Dynasty. In 1912, Chen became secretary general to the new military governor of Anhui, while serving as the dean of a local high school.

There he contributed to establishing a student organization, pro-rebel Qing soldiers and secret society members.Chen established the influential Chinese periodical New Youth for this purpose.

Believing social progress cannot be achieved without accurately reporting on the prevailing social issues and deficiencies. Chen introduced many new ideas into popular Chinese culture.

Confucianism was unacceptable to him because it preached orthodoxy of thought, while rejecting freedom of thought and expression. It advocated submissive compliance to the inequitable status quo.

Chen rejected the concept that the individual was the basic unit of society. Instead of Confucianism, Chen advocated progressive social and political values; independence instead of servility; cosmopolitanism instead of isolationism; utilitarian beliefs instead of impractical traditions; and scientific knowledge instead of visionary insight.

In January 1917, Chen joined the Peking University as its dean. As a professor and...