A Turning Point of the CPC: CPC's watershed Zunyi Conference marks 90th anniversary
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Today marks the 90th anniversary of the Zunyi Conference, regarded as a life-and-death turning point in the history of the Communist Party of China. It was held during the Long March in southwest China's Guizhou Province. The three-day meeting, from January 15th to 17th, 1935, rectified the mistakes of the then-military leadership and confirmed the military principles of Mao Zedong. It was also the occasion where Mao was elected as a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau. The Zunyi Conference is acknowledged to have saved the Party, the Red Army and China's revolution. Zhou Jiaxin has this report. 

This is where the Zunyi Conference took place ninety years ago. The three-day session attended by twenty members of the Communist Party of China, including Mao Zedong, formed a new CPC Central Committee, the supreme decision-making body of the Party that began to solve China's practical issues.

ZHANG XIAOLING, Deputy Director, Zunyi Conference Memorial Museum "The conference solved the most pressing military and organizational problems at that time, put an end to the rule of left-leaning dogmatism within the Party and established Mao's leadership in the Central Committee and the Red Army."

The Communists were facing a defeat in their fifth battle against the Nationalist enemy's encirclement campaign in the early period of their year-long trek, known as the Long March. Having reflected on that, the Party applied what it descried as Marxist-Leninist principles with China's realities and corrected errors in military affairs. 

The top leader Mao changed the crippled strategy, breaking the Red Army into several columns in order to confuse the enemy. Critical decisions from the conference are believed to have secured the eventual triumph of the CPC and the Red Army.

ZHANG XIAOLING, Deputy Director, Zunyi Conference Memorial Museum "The conference saved the Party, the Red Army, and the Revolution. It was a vital turning point in the Party's history, marking the beginning of the CPC stepping up its political maturity."

Now, the cultural heritage site has turned into a museum for patriotic education and is a spiritual source for CPC members.

YU FUREN, Deputy Director, CPC History Research Office of Guizhou "The connotation of the Zunyi Conference is about firm conviction, upholding truth, independence and unity, which has great significance for us today. The conviction that China advances the socialist modernization; the truth of Marxism and socialism with Chinese characteristics; the independence in the cause of national rejuvenation; and the unity to create great undertakings."

ZHOU JIAXIN, Beijing "Cherishing the spirit of the Zunyi Conference, the CPC reminds its members to be clear-headed and determined when carrying through reforms and preparing for tough tests of time in the new era. Zhou Jiaxin, CGTN, Beijing."