| Native Name: | 中华人民共和国开国大典 |
| Native Name Lang: | Zh |
| English Name: | Founding Ceremony of the People's Republic of China |
| Venue: | Tiananmen Square |
| Location: | Beijing |
| Participants: | Mao Zedong Chinese Communist Party People's Liberation Army |
| Partof: | the Chinese Civil War and the Chinese Communist Revolution |
The proclamation of the People's Republic of China was made by Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), on October 1, 1949, in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The government of a new state under the CCP, formally called the Central People's Government, was proclaimed by Mao at the ceremony, which marked the foundation of the People's Republic of China.
Previously, the CCP had proclaimed the establishment of the Chinese Soviet Republic (CSR) within the discontinuous territories of China they controlled, on November 7, 1931, in Ruijin, Jiangxi. The CSR had lasted seven years until it was abolished in 1937.
"March of the Volunteers" was played as the new national anthem, and the new national flag of the People's Republic of China (the Five-starred Red Flag) was officially unveiled to the newly founded state and hoisted for the first time during the celebrations as a 21-gun salute fired in the distance. The first public military parade of the People's Liberation Army took place following the national flag raising with the playing of the PRC national anthem.
The Republic of China (ROC) had retreated to the island of Taiwan by December 1949.
The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang (KMT)-led Nationalist government of the ROC and the CCP lasting intermittently between 1927 and 1949. The war is generally divided into two phases with an interlude: from the August 1927 to 1937, the First United Front collapsed during the Northern Expedition, and the Nationalists controlled most of China. On November 7, 1931, the Chinese Soviet Republic (CSR) was declared by the CCP in Ruijin within Communist-controlled areas of China and the CSR government moved north to Yan'an during the Long March until the CSR's dissolution. From 1937 to 1945, hostilities were put on hold, and the Second United Front fought the Japanese invasion of China with eventual help from the World War II Allies. The civil war resumed with the Japanese defeat, and the CCP gained the upper hand in the final phase of the war from 1945 to 1949, generally referred to as the Chinese Communist Revolution.
Major combat in the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949 with the CCP in control of most of mainland China, and the Kuomintang retreating offshore, reducing its territory to only Taiwan (a former Japanese colony that was received in 1945), Hainan, and their surrounding islands. On 21 September 1949, CCP Chairman Mao Zedong announced the establishment of the People's Republic of China with a speech at the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.[1] This was followed by a mass celebration in Tiananmen Square on October 1, at which the proclamation was made publicly by Mao at the Tiananmen Gate, the date becoming the new country's first National Day.[2]
At exactly 3:00pm Beijing Time on October 1, 1949, Mao announced to the nation from the top of the Tiananmen Gate:
After the national anthem had been played, Chairman Mao proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China that day on top of the Tiananmen Gate, declaring:
The first National Day military parade took place right after the proclamation of the PRC. Commanded by Nie Rongzhen, the Commander of the Northern China Military Region and inspected by Zhu De, the Commander-in-Chief of the PLA, the parade involved around 16,000 PLA officers and personnel.[3] The parade, which was approved in June 1949, was the first large-scale and modern Chinese military parade, with the country having never done a public review of troops before under previous governments. Liu Bocheng proposed to parade directors Yang Chengwu and Tang Yanjie be organized in the Soviet format, having personally witnessed a military parade on Red Square in Moscow. The Northern Military Region Band (now the Central Military Band of the PLA) provided musical accompaniment which included the Military Anthem of the People's Liberation Army’.
The Republic of China retreated to the island of Taiwan by December 1949. The CCP remains the sole ruling party of China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), since October 1, 1949. The PRC officially claims Taiwan as its 23rd province as Taiwan Province, People's Republic of China in its constitution. The People's Republic of China on mainland China and Republic of China on Taiwan both officially claim to be the legitimate government of all China. No armistice or peace treaty has ever been signed over the Chinese Civil War.[4]
Shortly after the proclamation occurred, the Soviet Union and other communist states were the first to recognize the PRC. Moreover, many Western countries, including the United States, initially continued to recognize the move of the ROC to Taiwan as the legitimate government of China.[5] Following the proclamation, the PRC moved quickly to consolidate its power from the ROC and began nationalizing industries. [6]