The China Democratic League is one of the eight legally recognised political parties in the People’s Republic of China.
It is mainly composed of high- and intermediate-level intellectuals engaged in cultural education and scientific and technological work. This party fully cooperates with the Chinese Communist Party.
The China Democratic League was secretly established in Chongqing on March 19th, 1941, under the name of the “China Democratic Political League”. At that time, due to the occurrence of the “Southern Anhui Incident”, the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party was destroyed, and the anti-Japanese national united front was perilous. Some parties and personages outside the KMT and the Communist Party who advocated resistance to Japan hope to unite, trying to provide a “Third Way” from the Nationalists and the Communists and fight for persistence in unity and democracy against Japan. As a result, based on the “Comrades’ Association for the Founding of the People’s Republic” established by some national politicians in November 1939, the China Democratic Political League was established.
Participants include: the Chinese Youth Party, the National Socialist Party (later renamed the Democratic Socialist Party), the Chinese National Liberation Action Committee (later renamed the China Peasants and Workers Democratic Party), the China Vocational Education Society, members of the Rural Construction Association and others.
Huang Yanpei (1st October 1878 – 21th December 1965) was elected as the first chairman. He was a Chinese educator, writer, and politician. He was a founding pioneer of the China Democratic League.
Ding Zhongli (January 14th, 1957 -), male, from Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, Chinese geologist, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, currently vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People’s Congress, chairman of the Central Committee of the Chinese Democratic League, formerly President of University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.
中国民主同盟 (mmzy.org.cn)
