Chapter 4: How Did the CPC Maintain Power When the Eastern Bloc Communist Parties Fell?

On December 25, 1991 the red hammer-and-sickle flag that had been flying over the Kremlin for more than 70 years was quietly lowered, and the tricolor flag that symbolized Russia was raised, marking the demise of the Soviet Union, the world's first socialist country, founded by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and governed by the Soviet Communist Party.

Two years before, on the same day, Romanian Communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife were executed. Before and after, the governments of the socialist countries in Eastern Europe collapsed one after another like dominoes.

Though political turmoil occurred in socialist China in 1989, China under the leadership of the CPC not only withstood the antisocialist wave, but also walked with more confidence and composure on the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Since then the secret of survival of the CPC-led socialist China has been a focus of discussion and wonder worldwide.