III Congress of the CPC

The main issues on the agenda of the congress were the attitude towards the Kuomintang and the role of the CPC in the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal revolution. The Executive Committee of the Comintern in its resolution of January 12, 1923, as well as a letter to the Third Congress of the CPC (May 1923), drew the attention of the Chinese Communist Party to the need to create a united front and the importance of solving the peasant question. During the congress, the then leader of the CPC, Chen Duxiu, argued that the bourgeois-democratic revolution in China should be led only by the bourgeoisie, and the proletariat could render the revolution only passive support. On the other hand, the so-called “leftists”, whose position at the congress was voiced by Zhang Gotao , rejected the united front tactics, considering the working class to be the only revolutionary force.

The Third Congress of the CPC decided to join the Kuomintang by the communists in order to create a united revolutionary front and adopted a declaration criticizing the erroneous guidelines of the Kuomintang. This declaration had a significant impact on the leaders of the Kuomintang, in particular, on Sun Yat-sen , who established cooperation with the CPC and in the fall of 1923 reorganized the Kuomintang on the basis of cooperation with the communists. ^[one]

The congress elected the Central Executive Committee of the CPC, which, in turn, elected the Central Bureau, which included Chen Duxiu, Mao Zedong , Luo Zhanglong , Cai Hesen , Tan Pingshan . Chen Duxiu was elected chairman. ^[2]