List of political parties in China
In practice, only one political party holds effective power at the national level, namely the CCP. Its dominance is such that China is effectively a one-party state. The eight minor parties are part of the United Front and also take part in the political system, but they have limited power at a national level. The minor parties must accept the "leading role" of the CCP as a condition of their continued existence. According to Human Rights Watch, these parties "play an advisory rather than an oppositional role". The Chinese political system allows for the participation of some members of the eight minor parties and other non-CCP members in the National People's Congress (NPC), but they are vetted by the CCP. The Constitution of the People's Republic of China states in the preamble: "The system of the multi-party cooperation and political consultation led by the Communist Party of China will exist and develop for a long time to come. " The following parties formed in China are (or have previously been) banned by the government: The Republic of China (ROC) was founded by the Kuomintang (KMT) leader Dr. Sun Yat-sen in 1912. The Kuomintang's prior revolutionary political group, the Revive China Society, was founded on 24 November 1894. It later merged with various other revolutionary groups to form the Tongmenghui in 1905. In August 1911, the Tongmenghui further merged with various other political parties in Beijing to form the KMT. In July 1914, the KMT re-organized itself as the Chinese Revolutionary Party in Tokyo, Japan. In 1919, the party officially renamed itself as Kuomintang of China, which literally translates to Chinese Nationalist Party. It was China's first major political party. In 1921, the CCP was founded by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao in Shanghai as a study society and an informal network. Slowly, the CCP began to grow. These were the two major political parties in China during the time when the ROC ruled mainland China from 1911 to 1949. During the Chinese Civil War, under the leadership of the CCP the People's Liberation Army defeated the National Revolutionary Army of the Kuomintang in 1949. The Kuomintang had no choice but to leave mainland China and relocate to the island of Taiwan in 1945 from Japan, then fled there with the aim to retake mainland China and retained the name Republic of China even though the CCP claimed that it had ceased to exist after 1949.
Relationship with the Chinese Communist Party
The People's Republic of China is a one-party state ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).