On the Historic Development of the CPC's Knowledge of Its Own Nature

At the initial stage of its establishment,the Communist Party of China inherited the theories of Marx,Engels and Lenin on the nature of the communist party,namely,the communist party is the vanguard of the working class.It is a great breakthrough in theory when,in the light of China's special conditions,the Communist of China later declares that the Party is the vanguard of the working class as well as the vanguard of the Chinese nation.After the founding of the People's Republic of China,retrogression once arose with regard to the knowledge of the Party's nature.After the third plenary session of the 11th Party congress,the Party's nature was reiterated at the 12th Party congress in 1982 and the 16th Party Congress in 2002,thus greatly enriching and developing the Marxist theory of the communist party's nature in the new historical circumstances.