THE ROLE OF THE NEW DEMOCRATIC YOUTH LEAGUE IN THE NEW CHINA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-00915R000400210016-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 8, 1998
• Sequence Number: 16
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2001/0A9RcflJ -RDP78-00915R000400210016-7
OF THE
NEW DEMOCRATIC YOUTH LEAGUE
IN THE NEW CHINA
The China-New Democratic Youth League resolved in September 1955 to
change its name in 1956 to the China Communist Youth League because the
present name "does not accurately indicate the nature and tasks of the
Youth League." The League has demonstrated very clearly and frankly its
nature and tasks in numerous publications and announcements.. One'of
these shows how no aspect of personal life is left outside C munist
direction:
"The work style and group life within the League must
not rely on abstract political talk, nor the preac
ing of dry dogma,
The. League, should use Marxism..
Leninism to analyze correctly and solve the..proolems..
that are closely related to the interests of.
of labor already imposed upon them by the first Five Year Plan.. The Second
Congress of the League was called in 1953, the year of the inauguration of
.,examination systems,
books and text
and the suitabla
The League has. been even more: explicit an the role of ;thie;`Leiague in
increasing the pressure on workers to continually add to the crushing burden
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the first Five Year Plan,for the purpose of "mobilizing all sections of
Chinese youth for the great tasks that lie ahead in the period of planned
economic construction". Senior party leader LIU Shao-ch'i urged his audi-
ence at that Congress "to rally around the Party and march in'thefront
ranks of the struggle for the industrialization of the country".
In 1955, "to stimulate still greater enthusiasm for the coimntryes
development and to carry the creativeness and activity of young people one
.step further, the Central Committee of the New Democratic Youth League of
.. China:; decided to hold a national congress of 1500"young activists in social-
a. =construc
"New Democratic Youth League-Closest Assistant of the. Chinese ,Communist
arty"` by HU Yao-pang, Secretary of the Secretariat of theCentz'al Com-
mittee of the League, in : the September 2, 1955 issue of the organ of the
zform, "For a Lasting Pease, for a People's Democracy 04:16,
'Sep-
:tember, the Central Standing Committee of the League discussed:and~a
-',Hula article in the Cominform Journal clearly delineates how the
League fosters that "creativeness and activity of young people" which
:.proved the report to be delivered-by Hu at the Conference.
the "Conference of Young Activists" is designed to "carry.,one. step fur-
ther". According to Hues review of progress since the 1953 Second Congress;.'
"In factories and mines throughout the country where
.young people make up nearly 50% of the staff, the
League branches urge them to take an active part in
socialist emulation, strictly to observe. labor dis.
cipline and to put forward rationalization proposals:
which will make it possible to surpass old produc-
tion quotan..,Written pledges to fulfill personal
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work quotas were handed in.by over 80% of the
League members in factories and mines, as well
as by a number of young workers outside the League.
Advanced young workers are coming forward in an
unending stream.
"Youth organizations have done a great deal
to popularize the achievements and ideas of these
advanced workers, and have thereby inspired more
and more young people to greater, efforts.
"In response to the call of the League, 759
shock brigades were formed throughout the country,
comprising over 13,000 young people. At the same
being, constituting together a mighty army on the
production front,,..,. Ina iculture young
people have set examples in reaping good harvests
and earned the title of model workers by fail
fully carrying out and.making knowithe Party
policy, and by. their industry."
iat`tbeae practices are to: be' intensified is illustrated by 'September
.gay.:".prediction" by a "leading member of the Secretarial" 4 the Central
.Committee of the Youth League, that "a new tide of lab r;-en:
follow the Conference,,,"
.In these statements the League leadership make clear the role of the
league in maintaining and extending the forced labor system fow'.inati-
tutionalized in China. "Socialist emulation" means copying the example
of."labor model heroes" who regularly owerfulfill production quotas
assigned to them under the speedup system copied by China from the Soviet
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Union* The emphasis on "labor discipline", illustrates vividly the exist-
once of military-type control of factories and mines by the government
management, a system under which strikes or other demonstrations of die-
satisfaction are forbidden. In view of clarity of League statements on
these matters, the change of name from New Democratic Youth League to
Communist Youth League is natural and inevitable, and illustrates the
-rapid transition of China beyond the stage of "New Democracy" outlined by
MAO Tse-tung in 1940, into that of a totalitarian state.
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