Founding of the PRC (1949)
The 1949 founding of the People's Republic: the CPPCC, the Common Programme, state structures, and the early consolidation of CCP power.
From Civil War Victory to Statehood
The People's Republic of China (PRC) was proclaimed by Mao Zedong from the Tiananmen rostrum in Beijing on 1 October 1949, the culmination of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) victory in the second phase of the Chinese Civil War (1946–1949). The military decision came in three campaigns of 1948–1949: the Liaoshen Campaign (September–November 1948) secured Manchuria; the Huaihai Campaign (November 1948–January 1949) destroyed Nationalist (Kuomintang, KMT) field armies in the central plains; and the Pingjin Campaign (December 1948–January 1949) delivered Beijing (then Beiping) and Tianjin. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) crossed the Yangtze on 21 April 1949 and took the KMT capital Nanjing on 23 April 1949. Chiang Kai-shek's government retreated to Taiwan in December 1949.
Mao's Doctrinal Framing
The ideological architecture of the new state was set out in advance. On 30 June 1949 Mao published "On the People's Democratic Dictatorship" (论人民民主专政), which defined the regime as a dictatorship of a coalition led by the working class (through the CCP) and based on the worker–peasant alliance, exercised over the "reactionary" classes. The essay announced the policy of "leaning to one side" (一边倒) — alignment with the Soviet Union in the emerging Cold War. This doctrine reconciled the United Front strategy (broad class coalition) with single-party CCP supremacy, and it pre-scripted the constitutional language adopted that autumn.
The CPPCC and the Common Programme
State-building was formalised through the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC, 中国人民政治协商会议), convened in Beijing on 21 September 1949 with 662 delegates representing the CCP, the eight legally tolerated "democratic parties," mass organisations, and regional and minority groups. In the absence of an elected legislature, the CPPCC functioned as a provisional National People's Congress. Between 21 and 30 September 1949 it adopted three founding instruments: the Common Programme of the CPPCC (中国人民政治协商会议共同纲领), which served as the interim constitution until 1954; the Organic Law of the Central People's Government; and the Organic Law of the CPPCC. It also fixed the national symbols — Beijing as capital, the March of the Volunteers as the (provisional) national anthem, and the five-star red flag.
The Common Programme described China as a "New Democracy," preserving a mixed economy and a multi-class coalition rather than immediate socialism. The CPPCC elected the Central People's Government Council with Mao Zedong as Chairman and named Zhou Enlai as Premier and concurrently Foreign Minister of the Government Administration Council. The Soviet Union recognised the PRC on 2 October 1949, the first state to do so, confirming the "lean to one side" orientation that would be sealed by the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance of 14 February 1950.