Yan Ling, the author, is the former deputy editor-in-chief of the journal *Chinese Social Sciences* published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. This article was originally published in *Eyewitness Accounts: The Road to 1949*.

    Sixty years have passed, and I can’t help but wonder: On what date was the founding ceremony of the People’s Republic of China held? And where did it take place?

    Is that even a question? Nowadays, it’s generally said to be October 1, 1949. At the Tiananmen Gate and Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

    Isn’t National Day on October 1? Doesn’t that famous oil painting, *The Founding Ceremony*—which was revised several times amid shifting political winds before eventually being restored to its original form—depict the leaders of New China holding a celebratory ceremony on the Tiananmen Gate?
 
    Yes, we’ve grown accustomed to this. However, it does not reflect historical reality. ”National Day” and the ”Foundation Ceremony” are not the same thing. Referring to the scene on the Tiananmen Gate as the ”Foundation Ceremony” is actually a misunderstanding.

1. The True ”Foundation Ceremony”

Take a look at the front-page headline from the September 22, 1949, edition of *People’s Daily*:

    Victory in the People's War of Liberation and the Great People's Revolution

    Ceremony Marking the Founding of the People's Republic of China; Opening of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference

    [Xinhua News Agency, Beiping, 21st] The grand ceremony marking the founding of the People’s Republic of China—the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference—which the Chinese people have been eagerly awaiting, opened at 7:00 p.m. today in Beiping.

   Mao Zedong, Director of the Preparatory Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, delivered the opening address to the Congress. Representatives included Liu Shaoqi of the Communist Party of China, Song Qingling as a specially invited delegate, He Xiangning of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, Zhang Lan, representative of the China Democratic League; Gao Gang, representative of the Chinese People’s Liberation Areas; Chen Yi, representative of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army; Huang Yanpei, representative of the China Democratic National Construction Association; Li Lisan, representative of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions; Sai Fuding, representative of Xinjiang; Zhang Zhizhong, specially invited representative; Cheng Qian, specially invited representative; and Situ Meitang, a representative of overseas Chinese—a total of twelve people—delivered speeches one after another at today’s session.

    Before the conference opened, Zhou Enlai, Deputy Director of the Preparatory Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, reported on the quotas for various categories of delegates and the number of delegates who had already arrived in Beiping.

    Zhou Enlai, on behalf of the Preparatory Committee, proposed a list of 89 members for the Presidium of the Congress and a candidate for Secretary-General, which was unanimously approved by the entire assembly. The 89-member Presidium included seven representatives each from the Communist Party of China, the Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang, and the China Democratic League; three representatives from the China Association for Promoting Democracy; four representatives from non-partisan democratic figures; one representative each from the China Association for Promoting Democracy, the China Zhi Gong Party, the Jiusan Society, the Taiwan Democratic Autonomous Alliance, and the China New Democratic Youth League; nine representatives from various regions; eleven representatives from the People’s Liberation Army; three representatives from the All-China Federation of Trade Unions; two representatives from farmers’ organizations in the liberated areas; two representatives from the All-China Democratic Women’s Federation; eight representatives from other national-level people’s organizations; two representatives from Shanghai people’s organizations; three representatives from democratic figures in the industrial sector; two representatives from domestic ethnic minorities; two representatives from democratic figures among overseas Chinese; one representative from democratic figures in the religious community; and eleven specially invited democratic figures. Lin Boqu served as Secretary-General of the conference.

    After the Presidium members had taken their seats on the rostrum, Chairman Mao Zedong declared the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference open. At this solemn moment, the military band played the “March of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army” in unison, while 54 ceremonial cannon shots were fired outside the venue; all the delegates rose to their feet in unison and applauded enthusiastically for five minutes.

    Chairman Mao Zedong’s opening address vividly and concisely outlined the historical context and historical tasks underlying the convening of the conference.
 
    Chairman Mao Zedong announced: ”The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference will, as part of its agenda, draft the Organic Law of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the Organic Law of the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China, and the Common Program of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, elect the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, elect the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China, adopt the national flag and national emblem of the People’s Republic of China, determine the location of the capital of the People’s Republic of China, and adopt a calendar system in line with that used by the majority of countries in the world.”

    Chairman Mao Zedong’s persuasive and optimistic speech drew thunderous applause from the audience after nearly every sentence.

    After Chairman Mao Zedong’s opening address concluded amid prolonged applause, the entire audience rose to their feet and observed a three-minute moment of silence in memory of the people’s heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice during the People’s War of Liberation and the People’s Revolution.

    The speeches by the twelve speakers were all met with enthusiastic applause from the audience. Representing various sectors of New China, they expressed a shared conviction in the bright future of New China……

     The many names of individuals, organizations, and the number of representatives listed here may seem rather dry, but I have taken the trouble to reproduce them here in the hope that readers who have seen this before will be able to revisit the spirit of great unity among the people that prevailed back then;

    I also hope that young readers who haven’t read it yet will take the time to carefully appreciate its profound political and historical significance.

    We must not forget Chairman Mao Zedong’s famous words: ”The Chinese people, who make up a quarter of the world’s population, have now stood up”—spoken on this very day in his opening address at the First Session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

     It was in this opening address that he declared: ”We have united to overthrow our oppressors, both internal and external, through the People’s Liberation War and the Great People’s Revolution, and have proclaimed the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.”

    The CPPCC session decided that the new China would adopt the name "People's Republic of China" and explicitly stipulated that:

   “Pending the convening of the National People’s Congress elected by universal suffrage, the Plenary Session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference—that is, this Session—shall exercise the powers of the National People’s Congress, elect the Central People’s Government Committee of the People’s Republic of China, and confer upon it the authority to exercise state power.”

     The CPPCC session adopted the design of the national flag of the People’s Republic of China—the Five-Star Red Flag—designated “The March of the Volunteers” as the national anthem, designated Beiping as the capital and renamed it Beijing, and adopted the Common Era calendar.

    On September 30, the *People’s Daily* published the *Common Program*, which had been unanimously adopted by the CPPCC session.

   The *Common Program* stipulates that ”the nature of the government of the People’s Republic of China” is that of a people’s democratic united front comprising the Chinese working class, peasantry, petty bourgeoisie, national bourgeoisie, and other patriotic democrats, based on the alliance between workers and peasants and led by the working class.

    The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, composed of representatives from the Communist Party of China, the various democratic parties, people’s organizations, all regions, the People’s Liberation Army, ethnic minorities, overseas Chinese, and other patriotic and democratic figures, is the organizational form of the People’s Democratic United Front.

    ”The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, representing the will of the entire Chinese people, proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China and organized the people's own central government. The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference unanimously agreed that New Democracy—that is, People's Democracy—would serve as the political foundation for the establishment of the People's Republic of China."

    The *Common Program* stipulates: The people of the People’s Republic of China have the right to vote and to be elected in accordance with the law, as well as the freedoms of thought, speech, publication, assembly, association, communication, personal liberty, residence, movement, religious belief, and demonstration and procession. All ethnic groups within the territory of the People’s Republic of China have equal rights and obligations. State power in the People’s Republic of China belongs to the people. The organs through which the people exercise state power are the People’s Congresses and the People’s Governments at all levels. The People’s Congresses at all levels are elected by the people through universal suffrage. All state organs must rigorously uphold a revolutionary work style characterized by integrity, frugality, and service to the people; severely punish corruption; prohibit waste; and oppose bureaucratic practices that alienate the masses.

   The *Common Program* stipulates: The fundamental policy for the economic construction of the People’s Republic of China is to pursue the development of production and economic prosperity through policies that balance public and private interests, benefit both labor and capital, promote mutual assistance between urban and rural areas, and facilitate domestic and international exchange.

    The state should, in areas such as scope of operations, raw material supply, sales markets, working conditions, technical equipment, fiscal policy, and financial policy, so that the state-owned economy, the cooperative economy, the individual economies of farmers and artisans, the private capitalist economy, and the state-capitalist economy can each play their proper role under the leadership of the state-owned economy, thereby promoting the development of the entire social economy.

    Cultural and educational efforts in the People’s Republic of China are based on New Democracy—that is, they are national, scientific, and mass-oriented. The primary tasks of the People’s Government’s cultural and educational work are to raise the people’s cultural level, cultivate talent for national construction, eradicate feudal, comprador, and fascist ideologies, and foster an ideology of serving the people. …

   A headline in *People’s Daily* referred to the *Common Program* as the ”Great Charter of the People,” while an editorial on October 1 called it the ”fundamental law of the state.”

    The “Declaration of the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference,” which was published in the same newspaper, is also worth a careful re-reading.

Declaration:

“This conference brought together representatives from all of China’s democratic parties, people’s organizations, the People’s Liberation Army, various regions, ethnic groups, overseas Chinese, and other patriotic democrats. It represented the will of the people nationwide and demonstrated an unprecedented level of unity among the people of the entire country.”

At that time, the Communist Party of China was included among “all democratic parties in China.”

The Declaration states to our compatriots across the nation:

   “The People’s Political Consultative Conference elected the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China.” “The People’s Republic of China has now been proclaimed, and the Chinese people now have their own central government.” “A new era in China’s history has thus begun.”

    At the same time, the closing address delivered by Zhu De, Vice Chairman of the People’s Republic of China, at the closing ceremony of the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference was published. The closing address announced:

    “The work of the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference has been successfully completed. We have unanimously proclaimed the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.” Cheers rang out: “Let us celebrate the complete success of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference! Let us celebrate the birth of the People’s Republic of China!”

    The title of that day’s People’s Daily editorial was “Long Live the People’s Republic of China,” and it began by stating clearly:

   “The People’s Republic of China, with a future full of boundless promise, has been born; 475 million Chinese people have begun to govern the country themselves; and our ancient Eastern nation has turned a new page in history.”

    Pictured: The opening ceremony of the First Political Consultative Conference: From September 21 to September 30, 1949, the First Political Consultative Conference was held in Beiping. The conference adopted the *Common Program of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference* and elected Mao Zedong as Chairman of the Central People’s Government.

2. It turned out to be the ”Celebration of the Establishment of the Central People’s Government”

    The National Day celebrations have already taken place, so what is the nature of the grand rally at Tiananmen Square on October 1?

    Please also take a look at what the *People's Daily* had to say at the time.

    The headline on October 2 read:

    300,000 People in the Capital Gathered at Tiananmen Square for a Grand Celebration Ceremony
   
    Establishment of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China

    It is clear that this is a grand ceremony to announce and celebrate the establishment of the Central People's Government.

    On that day, Chairman Mao Zedong solemnly proclaimed from the Tiananmen Rooftop to all of China and the entire world:

   “The Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China was established today.”

    Many people once believed that what he proclaimed from the Tiananmen Rooftop that day was: “The Chinese people have stood up!” This was clearly a misattribution of his remarks from his opening address to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and the wording was not entirely accurate either.

The report on the October 1 celebrations, released by Xinhua News Agency, began as follows:

    “Chairman Mao Zedong of the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China today issued a proclamation of the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China in the capital of New China. This was announced at the ceremony in Beijing celebrating the establishment of the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China. The ceremony was held in front of Tiananmen Gate in Beijing…”

An editorial in the *People's Daily* on October 1 stated:

    “Now that the Central People’s Government has been proclaimed, we, the Chinese people, can be certain that we are now an invincible nation. We must swiftly mobilize all the nation’s forces to systematically implement the Common Program of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and realize the great charter of the Chinese people’s revolution.”

    To be a bit more flexible, one could say that the period from the opening of the First Session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference on September 21, 1949, to the celebration marking the establishment of the Central People’s Government on October 1 can be collectively referred to as the ”National Founding Ceremonies,” but we must never refer to only the October 1 gathering as the ”National Founding Ceremony” while ignoring the true National Founding Ceremony—the opening of the CPPCC session on September 21.

    Perhaps because the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference was held at Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai at the time, while the Central People’s Government’s celebration took place at Tiananmen Square, the latter tended to attract more public attention than the former;

    Perhaps this is because many people do not clearly distinguish between the concepts of “the nation” and “the government”; or perhaps because October 1 was later designated as National Day, and people tend to confuse the founding ceremony with National Day; or perhaps because the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and the *Common Program* were later downplayed, whether intentionally or unintentionally…

    For various reasons, the “National Founding Ceremony” and the “Celebration of the Establishment of the Central People’s Government”—which had originally been clearly distinguished—gradually became conflated over time, to the point where the original, true National Founding Ceremony was forgotten.