CCP Party Congresses

The 18th Party Congress will not be held until 2012, but it is almost for sure that it will be held. But this predict-ability has not always been the case.

In the Chinese Communist Party's 85-year history, it is only during the last two decades that the the Party Congress has "gradually been institutionalized and followed increasingly predictable patterns." (Wang Zhengxu, What to Expect From the 17th Party Congress, in Interpreting China's Development, Ed. Wang Gungwu and John Wong, World Scientific Publishing, 2007).

In the Party's early years, its first six Congresses were held in the space of seven years, from 1921 to 1928.

The Congress did not meet again until 18 years later, in 1945 after the Long March.

The Eighth Congress met in 1956, 11 years after the Seventh, while the Ninth did not meet until 13 years later in 1969, followed four years later by the 10th Congress in 1973.

"The arrest of the Gang of Four and the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976 made another Party Congress inevitable, which met in 1977," Wang wrote.

It is only under Deng Xiaoping that the Party Congress began to stabilize. Since the 12th Congress in 1982, Party Congresses have met every five years.

And starting from the 14th Congress in 1992, the Congress "gradually assumed two important roles: succession and consensus building."

"Now at every Party Congress there is either succession or adjustments to the top Party leadership, and an emphatic effort by the Party to achieve ideological unity. At the 17th Party Congress, this pattern will be institutionalized even further," Wang noted.

One major function of the Party Congress is for the Party leadership to set the ideological platform of the Party.

"The work report read at the opening session of each Congress normally bears the most significance in expressing the Party's ideological thinking and policy orientations. This report always gives a comprehensive reexamination to the Party's work record in the past five years, while at the same time setting the goals and directions for the Party for the coming years. One or a few central concepts are emphasized in official documents throughout the Congress, and will dominate Party discourse in the years to come. By informing party members of the most important goals and policy directions of the Party, the leadership hopes to achieve ideological unity within the Party."

For instance, the 12th Congress in 1982 officially embarked on economic reforms, the 13th of 1987 recognized China as being at the preliminary stage of socialism, and the 14th of 1992 called for transition into socialist market economy.

The 15th Congress of 1997 (pictured) called for the whole nation to strive toward a comprehensive well-off society by the end of the century, while at the 16th of 2002, the Theory of the Three Represents was officially hailed.

As for the most recent 17th Congress, the concepts of scientific development, building a harmonious society, and ensuring sustainable and even development were officially endorsed.