Professor Fairbank of Harvard University in the United States once raised the following question in his book "The Great Chinese Revolution": "In 1928, China's hope seemed to be on the side of the Kuomintang, why did the situation turn upside down 20 years later?" His reply was: "The leadership of the Kuomintang has become obsolete" and "thus lost the support of the people"; The leaders of the Communist Party of China, on the other hand, "are extremely enthusiastic and loyal to their cause, and act as pioneers for a great nation." As a bourgeois scholar, it is rare for him to see the problem of the people's aspirations, and this has indeed revealed the fundamental reason for the victory of the Chinese revolution -- the flesh-and-blood ties between the Communist Party of China and the broad masses of the people.

-- "The Basic Skills of Cadres -- Close Contact with the People" (January 1989), excerpted from "Getting Rid of Poverty", Fujian People's Publishing House, 1992

Further reading:

Fairbank is a tenured professor at Harvard University and the most prestigious observer of China issues in the United States. In his autobiography, he confessed that he "has been working to understand China for the past 50 years." Fairbank came to China in the 30s of the 20th century to teach at Tsinghua University, and became acquainted with Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin. The Chinese name Fairbank was chosen for him by Liang Sicheng. The Great Chinese Revolution is one of Fairbank's masterpieces, showing the political situation and social changes in China that lasted 185 years from 1800 to 1985.

Why the Kuomintang was defeated from the mainland and how the Communist Party won the victory is a question that has been debated endlessly in the historical circles at home and abroad, and it is also a question worth thinking about in the development of modern China. As early as 1946, Time Magazine's reporters in China, Bai Xiude and Jia Anna, published the book "China's Thunder", which objectively and comprehensively displayed the corruption of the Chinese Kuomintang regime in front of the American public. Fairbank wrote a book review that "China's Thunder" "really lifted the lid," and he made a bold prediction of the Kuomintang-Communist civil war, arguing that the mass line would enable the CCP to penetrate deep into the countryside and mobilize the masses, and that the final victory would belong to the CCP.

Unlike the top level of American politicians, who are accustomed to looking at the China issue from an ideological point of view, Fairbank, who is familiar with Chinese history, pointed out with his profound and clear observation that only the will of the people is the key to the survival of the regime. He wrote these observations and judgments into the book "The Great Chinese Revolution". Coincidentally, the American scholar Yi Laoyi also pointed out in his book "Seeds of Destruction: Kuomintang China in War and Revolution (1937-1949)" that the failure of the Kuomintang was not due to the lack of "American aid", but because of its own shortcomings and divisions, such as corruption and incompetence, and lax discipline, so it lost popular support and lost political power.

Although the length of the book is only 120,000 words, it can be seen that he thinks about many important issues such as the construction of a clean government, the mass line, and common prosperity, and shows his profound grasp of the power of the people. "There are many difficulties and problems on our way forward, where to start to solve the problems, and what to rely on to overcome the difficulties? Different ideas and methods can be discussed from different perspectives. However, the fundamental one is to mobilize the masses and rely on them. Xi Jinping's important judgment still seems to carry a lot of weight.

People's hearts and minds are a question that Xi Jinping has been thinking about. "We must remember the word 'people' in front of the government." "Always be heart-to-heart with the people, share weal and woe with the people, and work in unity with the people." "Love the people as you love your own parents." At different times and on different occasions, he used simple language to express his deep feelings for the people and his deep understanding of the relationship between the party and the masses. He used Fairbank's research results as circumstantial evidence to explain the historical enlightenment that the victory of the Chinese revolution depended on the will of the people, so as to warn party members and cadres not to forget the original intention of serving the people and always maintain flesh-and-blood ties with the people.