Long March to national rejuvenation: Key to China's enduring strength

Editor's note: Fan Peng, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is a research fellow at the Institute of Political Science of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Ninety years ago, after an arduous 12,500 kilometers trek and surviving numerous grueling battles, the Chinese Red Army reached a new starting point in northwestern China. The Long March tested its fighters to the limits of human endurance, but it also reshaped the course of the Chinese revolution. Today, as China pursues modernization and national rejuvenation, why does this arduous journey still matter?

Because as General Secretary Xi Jinping said at a ceremony marking the 90th anniversary of the victorious Long March, it embodied the principles that enabled the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the armed forces it led to advance and prevail. The Long March provides a lens through which to examine the sources of China's political resilience, its approach to development and its direction in the years ahead.

Four interconnected lessons stand out: the importance of leadership, the power of conviction, the ability to adapt to reality, and the support of the people.

Conviction: A purpose worth enduring for

The Long March unfolded against a backdrop of national crisis. For the Communists of that era, their political aspirations were inseparable from the urgent tasks of resisting oppression, liberating the people and securing China's independence. Their objective was not simply to survive militarily, but to change the country's future and improve the lives of the people.

The determination of individual soldiers ensured that this larger purpose was achieved. There are countless examples of revolutionaries like Zhong Chibing, a Red Army regimental political commissar who lost a leg during fighting and yet insisted on continuing with his unit and eventually reached northern Shaanxi. His experience illustrates how an abstract ideal can acquire extraordinary force when people are prepared to make personal sacrifices for it.

American journalist Edgar Snow, who visited the Communist-controlled areas in northwestern China in 1936 and interviewed veterans of the Long March, was struck by their enduring enthusiasm, unwavering hope and remarkable revolutionary optimism. In Red Star Over China, he portrayed young people whose resolve survived extraordinary hardship.

What sustained them was the belief that their struggle could transform China's destiny. That conviction helped turn a retreat under military pressure into a journey with lasting historical consequences.

Leadership: The courage to correct mistakes

Conviction alone, however, cannot guarantee success. A clear objective must be accompanied by sound judgment and the ability to make difficult decisions.

The Zunyi Conference in January 1935, the critical meeting of the CPC central leadership in the city of Zunyi in southwestern Guizhou Province during the Long March, marked a turning point. Amid the crisis following severe military losses, the Party reassessed its strategy, corrected errors in military command and established Mao Zedong's leadership within the Party's central leadership and the Red Army. It also marked the beginning of a new stage in which the Chinese revolution increasingly sought to resolve its own problems independently.

The significance of the historical meeting lay in more than a change in leadership. It demonstrated the consequences of recognizing strategic failure and changing course before it was too late.

For any political movement or country, leadership is tested not only by its ability to maintain unity in difficult circumstances, but also by its capacity to confront mistakes, reassess assumptions and build consensus around a workable path forward. The Long March showed how a critical reassessment could alter the trajectory of an entire movement.

Independence and pragmatism: Finding a path in practice

The Long March was also a search for a viable path through trial and error. Where to go and how to fight could not be determined by abstract formulas alone; the decisions had to reflect actual conditions, available resources and the changing balance of forces.

Through painful experience, the CPC gradually moved away from dogmatic approaches and sought to apply Marxist principles to China's specific circumstances. Flexible tactics helped the Red Army break through successive blockades and escape encirclement.

This combination of strategic independence and practical judgment remains central to the way China interprets its revolutionary experience. A firm objective does not mean rigid methods. On the contrary, the more ambitious the goal, the more important it becomes to understand reality clearly and test ideas through practice.

That principle has contemporary relevance as China deepens reform and pursues its own path of modernization. Development models cannot simply be transplanted from one country to another without regard for differences in history, institutions and social conditions. Nor can a long-term strategy succeed if it becomes detached from changing realities.

The Long March suggests that independence is not merely a matter of declaring a distinct path. It also requires the capacity to learn, adapt and make decisions suited to one's own circumstances.

The people: The foundation of collective strength

No account of the Long March is complete without the role played by ordinary people.

The story of the "half-quilt" has become one of its most enduring episodes. Three female Red Army soldiers billeted with Xu Jiexiu, a poor villager in Shazhou, Hunan. When they departed, they cut their only quilt in half and left one portion with her. The gesture conveyed to the villagers that the future the Red Army sought to build was connected to their own lives.

Along the route, local people provided food, treated wounded soldiers, passed on intelligence and guided the troops through unfamiliar terrain. Some joined the Red Army themselves. Their contributions were not incidental to the journey's success; they were part of its foundation.

As Xi reiterated in his speech, the people have always been a source of strength and a firm foundation for the Party and the armed forces it leads. The relationship worked in both directions: People saw the possibility of changing their circumstances through the revolutionary movement, while their own actions helped sustain it.

This history underscores a broader point about political legitimacy and collective action. Long-term projects require more than organizational capacity. They also depend on whether people see their own interests and aspirations reflected in the objectives being pursued.

From historical experience to China's future

The Long March has become part of China's collective memory, with its legacy expressed through four sources of strength: loyalty, truth, justice and solidarity. Together, these ideas connect commitment to a shared cause with practical inquiry, a sense of purpose and the ability to act collectively under pressure.

Xi's speech linked these historical lessons to China's current objective of building a modern socialist country and advancing national rejuvenation through Chinese modernization. It also emphasized the need to sustain high-quality development, address risks and challenges, modernize national defense and strengthen Party leadership and governance.

Turning these ambitions into tangible results requires more than invoking historical experience. It requires sustained effort to build new capabilities and create conditions for long-term progress.

China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System offers an example. Initiated in 1994 and completed as a global system in 2020, the project took 26 years and involved successive generations of researchers and engineers. Through continued research, repeated testing and coordinated work across institutions, a long-term goal of independent technological development became a functioning system serving users around the world.

The project illustrates how conviction can be translated into practical capacity through sustained investment, organizational coordination and cumulative innovation. It also shows how capabilities developed in pursuit of national objectives can generate services with international applications.

China's development path continues to face risks and uncertainties. Maintaining the ability to determine its own course, as Xi emphasized, requires economic and technological strength as well as credible safeguards for national sovereignty, security and development interests. It also places continuing demands on the Party's own governance and institutional discipline.

Today's challenges differ profoundly from those of the 1930s. But the underlying questions remain relevant. How can a society sustain a long-term purpose through adversity? How can it correct mistakes without losing sight of its objectives? And how can it mobilize collective effort to turn aspirations into results?

Nine decades after the Long March, these questions help explain both the historical roots and the contemporary foundations of China's approach to development.

The pursuit of independence and dignity, and the effort to build a better life through collective endeavor are aspirations that people in many countries can understand. Recognizing the historical experiences that have shaped China's political outlook can help international audiences better understand not only the country's own development ambitions, but also why it presents its future as sharing prosperity with the wider world.

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