Speech at a symposium to commemorate the 120th anniversary of the birth of Comrade Ren Bishi
(Morning, April 28, 2024)
Cai Qi
Comrades and friends,
Today, we are holding a forum here to solemnly commemorate the 120 th anniversary of Comrade Ren Bishi's birth, deeply cherish the memory of his immortal historical exploits, and study and carry forward his lofty spiritual character.
Comrade Ren Bishi was a great Marxist, an outstanding proletarian revolutionary, statesman, and organizer, an outstanding leader of the CPC and the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and an important member of the first generation of the CPC's central leadership collective with Comrade Mao Zedong as the core.
In his youth, Comrade Ren Bishi established the revolutionary ideal of saving the country and the people. In 1920, at the age of 16, he joined the Chinese Socialist Youth League, and soon went to Moscow to study at the Communist University of Eastern Workers, and in 1922 he became a member of the Communist Party of China, and since then he has become a staunch communist fighter. Comrade Ren Bishi has always stood at the forefront of the revolutionary struggle and devoted his life to the cause of the independence of the Chinese nation and the liberation of the Chinese people. Comrade Ren Bishi was one of the main leaders of the party during the period of the new democratic revolution, and his revolutionary career was closely linked with the establishment, development, and growth of the Communist Party of China and the entire history of the victory of the new democratic revolution in China.
In the torrent of the Great Revolution, Comrade Ren Bishi was re-elected as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China for two consecutive terms, making pioneering contributions to the building of the Communist Youth League and the Party's youth work. He clearly put forward the fundamental principle of placing the CYL under the party's absolute leadership, stressing that CYL organizations must resolutely accept the party's leadership and become the party's most powerful assistants. At the critical juncture when the Great Revolution was on the verge of defeat, he resolutely waged a resolute struggle against the right-wing mistakes in the Party and advocated arming the workers and peasants and launching an agrarian revolution.
In the Agrarian Revolutionary War, Comrade Ren Bishi, together with Comrade Mao Zedong and others, waged an arduous struggle to explore a revolutionary road suited to China's reality. In 1927, at the 87th Party Congress, he was elected as a member of the Provisional Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and assumed the leading position of the Central Committee. In 1934, Comrade Ren Bishi and others led the Red Sixth Army Corps to march westward, and together with the Red Second Army Corps led by Comrade He Long and others, they jointly established the Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, and Guizhou Revolutionary Base Areas, which effectively responded to the strategic transfer of the Party Central Committee and the Central Red Army. During the Long March, he resolutely waged a struggle against Zhang Guotao's separatism, safeguarded the unity of the party and the Red Army, and made important contributions to the realization of the victory of the three main forces of the Red Army.
After the outbreak of the National War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Comrade Ren Bishi resolutely supported the correct line of the anti-Japanese national united front represented by Comrade Mao Zedong. He served as director of the Political Department of the Eighth Route Army and director of the General Political Department of the Central Military Commission, and on the North China Front, he jointly commanded the Eighth Route Army with Comrades Zhu De and Peng Dehuai to carry out guerrilla warfare and open up anti-Japanese base areas. He attached great importance to the political work of the army and led the restoration of the political commissar system, which had been abolished after the reorganization of the Red Army into the Eighth Route Army. In 1938, Comrade Ren Bishi was appointed by the Party Central Committee to go to the Soviet Union to explain to the Comintern the actual situation of the Chinese revolution, which played an important role in basically correcting Wang Ming's right-leaning mistakes and further consolidating Comrade Mao Zedong's leading position in the whole Party at the Sixth Plenary Session of the enlarged Sixth Central Committee of the Party. After 1940, Comrade Ren Bishi returned to Yan'an, participated in the work of the Secretariat of the Central Committee, assisted Comrade Mao Zedong in leading the rectification movement and the large-scale production movement, preparing for the convening of the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and drafting the "Resolution on Several Historical Issues", becoming Comrade Mao Zedong's right-hand man. In 1945, at the First Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Comrade Ren Bishi was elected as a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, becoming an important member of the first generation of the Party's central leadership collective.
During the War of Liberation, Comrade Ren Bishi, together with Comrades Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, stayed in northern Shaanxi to command the National Liberation War. He carried out in-depth investigations and studies, promptly pointed out and corrected the "leftist" tendencies that had emerged in the course of land reform, and mobilized the vast numbers of peasants who had turned out to actively participate in the people's liberation war. He attended the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and participated in the formulation of a series of major decisions such as shifting the focus of the party's work from the countryside to the cities, making outstanding contributions to the birth of New China.
In the practice of struggle, Comrade Ren Bishi was good at summing up experience, giving in-depth thought to the major issues of the Chinese revolution, and putting forward a series of important ideas and viewpoints, which played an important role in the victory of the Chinese revolution.
Comrade Ren Bishi had the courage to promote theoretical exploration and made profound expositions on issues related to the Sinicization of Marxism. He stressed that Marxism should be "infinitely faithful and firm" and that "one should not be an imitator who does not care about the environment," "should not become a formulaist, dogmatist, or subjectivist," and "learn to use its stand, viewpoint, and method to solve practical problems in the revolution." He clarified that the goal of Sinicizing Marxism is to systematically sum up the rich experience in the party's struggle practice and "create new principles to replace outdated ones." He insisted on integrating theory with practice and proposed that "the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism be truly and closely integrated with China's specific revolutionary practice." These important expositions have made positive contributions to breaking the shackles of dogmatism, establishing a scientific attitude toward Marxism, and establishing the guiding position of Mao Zedong Thought.
Comrade Ren Bishi attached great importance to party building and put forward many insightful views on safeguarding and strengthening the party's leadership. He put forward such important assertions as "it is of special significance to guarantee the party's absolute leadership" and "it is extremely urgent for the party to unite as one and establish an absolutely unified and centralized supreme leadership." He profoundly pointed out that only by upholding the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee can the party become a "solid whole" and undertake the great historical task. He took a clear-cut stand to safeguard Comrade Mao Zedong's position as the core of leadership and called on the whole party to "especially study Marxism-Leninism in China, Comrade Mao Zedong's writings and the party's decisions," and consciously apply them to their work. These insightful views have played an important role in establishing and safeguarding Comrade Mao Zedong's position as the core of leadership and in enabling the whole party to achieve new unity and unity under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Mao Zedong at the core.
Comrade Ren Bishi was full of political foresight and gave forward-looking thinking on leading and carrying out economic construction work. He stressed that "the purpose of the revolution is to build" and "to build a new social system and economic relations so that the people can lead a truly civilized material and spiritual life." He soberly analyzed the complexity and arduousness of economic construction and held that "economic construction is 100 times more difficult than seizing political power." He pointed out the need to strengthen the party's unified leadership over economic work, and demanded that "the whole party must carry out ideological education in economic construction" and "enable many capable cadres within the party to be transferred to the front line of economic construction and struggle." These profound reflections have made theoretical explorations for the Party to scientifically study and judge the situation at a turning point in history and to correctly formulate the basic policies after the victory of the national revolution.
Comrade Ren Bishi paid attention to cultivating new leadership methods and work styles, and made unremitting efforts to enrich and develop the party's mass line. He pointed out that as economic construction has become "the central link in our work," it is necessary to "thoroughly change the outdated leadership methods and work styles" and "gradually cultivate a new leadership method and work style." He demanded that "Communist Party members should be good at learning from the masses," be good at listening to the voices of the masses and understanding the needs of the masses, and be good at summing up the experience and laws of the mass struggle, so as to "establish correct leadership." He stressed the need to "improve the working methods of the party and the government, learn the art of leading the masses," and "understand some practical problems among the masses and deal with them appropriately and in a timely manner to meet the demands of the masses." These valuable efforts have set an example for the whole party to learn from by deepening its understanding of the mass line and enhancing its consciousness in implementing the mass line.
The lofty spiritual character displayed by Comrade Ren Bishi in his lifelong struggle has set a glorious example for the whole party, and has been vividly praised as the "camel spirit" by everyone, nourishing and inspiring generations of Chinese communists.
In 1921, 17-year-old Comrade Ren Bishi wrote this oath: "The survival and life of the present society also depend on the future creation of the world of great fortune by the young people of our generation, and this is also the hope and responsibility of the young people of our generation. Today, we can comfort Comrade Ren Bishi and other revolutionaries of the older generation that the party has united and led the people to achieve the first centenary goal through continuous struggle, and has embarked on a new journey of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way and marching toward the second centenary goal;
On the new journey, we must unite more closely around the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, take Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the guide, fully implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, deeply understand the decisive significance of the "two establishments", strengthen the "four consciousnesses", strengthen the "four self-confidences", and achieve the "two safeguards", vigorously carry forward the party's glorious traditions and fine style, strengthen confidence, forge ahead, and strive to comprehensively promote the construction of a strong country with Chinese-style modernization. Unremitting struggle for the great cause of national rejuvenation!
(Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, April 28)
Guangming Daily (2024-04-29 03 edition)
Source: Guangming Net-Guangming Daily