China Democratic League

China Democratic League 中国民主同盟 Zhōngguó Mínzhǔ Tóngméng
Chairperson	Ding Zhongli
Founded	19 March 1941; 83 years ago (1941-03-19) Chongqing
Headquarters	Dongchang Hutong, Dongcheng District, Beijing
Newspaper	Popular Tribune Central Communications of the League Guangming Daily (1949–1982)
Membership (2023)	356,900
Ideology	Socialism with Chinese characteristics 1941–1947: Big tent Centrism Multi-party democracy
National People's Congress (14th)	56 / 2,977
NPC Standing Committee	9 / 175
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference	65 / 544 (Seats for political parties)
Website
mmzy.org.cn
Politics of China Political parties Elections

The China Democratic League (CDL) is one of the eight minor political parties in the People's Republic of China under the direction of the Chinese Communist Party. The CDL was originally founded in 1941 as a pro-democracy umbrella coalition group of the Chinese National Socialist Party, the Chinese Youth Party and the Chinese Peasants' and Workers' Democratic Party to fight the Imperial Japanese Army while providing for a "Third Force".

As of December 2023^[update], the CDL had around 356,900 members. Its membership mostly consists of mid and senior-level intellectuals in the fields of culture, education, natural and social sciences, and technology. The CDL is the second-ranking minor party in China after the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang. It currently has 56 seats in the National People's Congress, 9 seats in the NPC Standing Committee and 65 seats in the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Its current chairman is Ding Zhongli.

The China Democratic Political League was established in Chongqing on 19 March 1941, and changed its name to the China Democratic League in September 1944.^[1] At its formation, it was a coalition of three pro-democracy parties and three pressure groups. Its two main goals were to support China's war effort during the Second Sino-Japanese War and to provide a centrist "third force" between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party.^[2]: 127 Influential members or supporters included Zhang Dongsun, Carsun Chang, Luo Longji, Pan Guangdan, Huang Yanpei, Fei Xiaotong, Li Huang of the Young China Party, Wu Han, Chu Anping, and Wen Yiduo.^[3]

After the war, many Americans in China were sympathetic to the League. Theodore White wrote that if "the men of the middle group were well organized, they could guarantee peace. But they are not. They lack an army, a political machine, roots in any social class. Only the spread of education and industry can create enough men of the modern world to give them a broad social base."^[4]

In October 1945, the League released a report reaffirming its political commitments and outlining its goals.^[5] In it, the League declared themselves to be neither left nor right, favoring neither liberal democracy nor socialist democracy. Although the report praised elements of Western liberal democracies, it also criticized the economic inequalities that existed in Western capitalist societies. The report thus concluded that the best form of democracy for China would incorporate elements of both "Western political democracy" and "Soviet economic democracy". To achieve this, the League hoped to work with both the Nationalists and the Communists in a coalition government to write a new constitution.^[5] However, the League is also seen as a liberal-democratic "third force" alternative movement compared to the Nationalists (Chiangism) and the Communists (Maoism) who favor authoritarian political agendas.^[6]

Disillusionment with the Nationalist government, which outlawed the League in 1947, and infiltration by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) caused the League to lean towards the CCP during the second phase of the Chinese Civil War.^{[citation needed]} Thereafter, two of its constituent parties, the China National Socialist Party and the Young China Party, left the League to join the Nationalists in Taiwan. The remaining constituent party left later and eventually became the Chinese Peasants' and Workers' Democratic Party in February 1947.^[7]

The three interest groups were the National Salvation Association, the Rural Reconstruction Association, and the Vocational Education Society. The NSA, by far the largest and most popular of the interest groups, was inspired by the National Salvation Armies and existed to encourage resistance against Japan, but became irrelevant after the war's end. The RRA was an agrarianist lobby formed from the Rural Reconstruction Movement, which was originally hostile to communism but their interests in peasant welfare gradually intersected. The third interest group, the Vocational Education Society, wanted to establish vocational schools throughout China and became the core of the China National Democratic Construction Association.^{[citation needed]}

Its chairman Zhang Lan served as the vice chairman of Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China from 1949 to 1954.^{[citation needed]}

In 1997, the League adopted a constitution, which stipulated that its program was "to hold high the banner of patriotism and socialism, implement the basic line for the primary stage of socialism, safeguard stability in the society, strengthen services to national unity and strive for the promotion of socialist modernisation, establishment and improvement of a market economy, enhancement of political restructuring and socialist spiritual civilisation, emancipation and development of productive forces, consolidation and expansion of the united patriotic front and realisation of the grand goals of socialism with Chinese characteristics."^[8]

According to its constitution, the CDL "holds high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics" and upholds the leadership of the CCP.^[8] The CDL is the second-ranking minor party in China after the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang.^[9]

The CDL's highest body is the National Congress, held every five years.^[8] The National Congress has the powers to amend the Party constitution, elects the Central Committee, and hears the outgoing Central Committee's work report. The Central Committee is the Party's highest body between Congresses. The Central Committee convenes annually, and elects the Standing Committee of the Central Committee, including its chairperson and vice chairpersons.^[8] As of December 2023^[update], the party has 30 province-level, and 412 prefecture-level city and county-level organizations.^[10] The CDL publishes the newspaper Popular Tribune (群言)^[11] and the Central Communications of the League (中央盟讯).^[12] Historically, the newspaper published the Guangming Daily.^{[citation needed]}

The League is mainly made up of mid and senior-level intellectuals in the fields of culture, education, natural and social sciences, and technology.^[13] As of December 2023^[update], the CDL had around 356,900 members. Of this total, 23.26% were from the field of advanced education, 27.46% were from the field of compulsory education, 6.79% were in art and the press, and 5.35% in other key areas of labor.^[10]

The leader of the Party is officially called the Chairperson of the Central Committee of the China Democratic League. Between 19 March 1941 and 19 September 1944, the office was known as the Chairperson of the Central Executive Committee of the China Democratic Political League, which changed to the Chairperson of the Central Executive Committee of the China Democratic League in 19 September, which again changed and assumed its current name on 27 December 1949.^{[citation needed]}

No.	Chairperson		Took office	Left office	Ref.
1		Huang Yanpei 黄炎培	March 19, 1941	October 10, 1941	[citation needed]
2		Zhang Lan 张澜	October 10, 1941	February 9, 1955	[citation needed]
3		Shen Junru 沈钧儒	February 10, 1955	June 11, 1963	[citation needed]
4		Yang Mingxuan 杨明轩	June 12, 1963	October 1965	[citation needed]
Cultural Revolution Interregnum			August 26, 1966	1979
5		Shi Liang 史良	October 23, 1979	September 6, 1985	[citation needed]
–		Hu Yuzhi 胡愈之 Acting	September 27, 1985	January 16, 1986	[citation needed]
6		Chu Tunan 楚图南	January 31, 1986	January 9, 1987	[citation needed]
7		Fei Xiaotong 费孝通	January 9, 1987	November 1996	[citation needed]
8		Ding Shisun 丁石孙	November 1996	December 2005	[citation needed]
9		Jiang Shusheng 蒋树声	December 2005	December 2012	[citation needed]
10		Zhang Baowen 张宝文	December 2012	December 10, 2017	[citation needed]
11		Ding Zhongli 丁仲礼	December 10, 2017	Incumbent	[14]

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