Second Party Congress and Democratic Program

After its founding the Party began exploring a revolutionary path suited to China's conditions. In early 1922 the Comintern held the First Congress of the Toilers of the Far East, which stated that the present task in Eastern countries was a national democratic revolution against imperialism and feudalism, and the Chinese Communist Party sent delegates. From 16 to 23 July 1922 the Party held its Second National Congress in Shanghai, attended by 12 delegates representing 195 Party members nationwide. The congress analyzed the nature of Chinese society, stating that China was a semi-colonial, semi-feudal country and that the revolution was a bourgeois democratic one. It reaffirmed the Party's ultimate goal of realizing communism as its maximum program, and drew up a minimum program for the democratic revolution stage: end internal strife, overthrow the warlords and establish peace at home; overthrow oppression by international imperialism and achieve the complete independence of the Chinese nation; and unify China as a true democratic republic. This was the first time the Party clearly put forward an anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution program, pointing the way for the revolutionary struggles of China's peoples. The congress also raised the idea of a democratic united front, calling for the union of all revolutionary parties and bourgeois democrats in the country. It adopted the first Constitution of the Communist Party of China and decided to join the Comintern. Chen Duxiu was elected chairman of the Central Executive Committee. The Second Congress was an important achievement of the Party in its infancy.