Minutes of the [First] National Congress of the
Chinese Guomindang
(Session 12, January 28, 10:00 A.M.)

No. 105 Fang Ruilin: ... I advocate adding, after Chapter 1, article 2 [of the
statutes], an article reading: "Members of this party may not join any other
party."

Chairman: Does anyone second Mr. Fang's proposal? (There are more than ten
seconders.)

Member of the Presidium Li Shouchang:¹ [Mounts the platform and says in
essence] I want to state on behalf of the Third International and of the Communist Party that if all of our comrades join this party, it is to obey the principles of
this party, observe the statutes of the party, and participate in the revolutionary
cause of the Guomindang. It is absolutely not with a view to turning the
Guomindang into the Communist Party, but in order that members of the Third
International and of the Communist Party, in their individual capacity, may join
the Guomindang and work effectively for the cause of national revolution. We
wish, moreover, to be guided in all things by comrades of the older generation.

Member of the Presidium Hu Hanmin:² [Mounts the platform and says in
essence] I have been listening to your debates, and in reality, there is not that
much disagreement. The focal point of the discussion lies in the fear that our
party's doctrine or ethos, or its statutes, may be violated. These concerns merely
This text has been translated from the same source as that dated January 20, 1924.
1. Li Dazhao.
2. Hu Hanmin (1879-1936), zi Zhantang, hao Bukui Shizhu, was a native of
Guangdong. He studied briefly in Japan and was an early member of the Tongmenghui. In
1911 he was appointed governor of Guangdong, and in 1917 he was named minister of
communications in the new government headed by Sun Yatsen, later moving to Shanghai
where he was active in disseminating Sun's ideas. At the First Congress in January 1924,
Hu was appointed head of the Shanghai Executive Bureau of the Guomindang, of which
Mao was named as an alternate member.
need to be dealt with in terms of discipline, and it will be all right. There are
already special chapters on these matters, so it seems that we do not need to add
articles to the statutes specifying which kinds of behavior should be banned. We
only need to explain clearly the importance of discipline.

No. 39 Mao Zedong: Please put this to a vote.

Chairman: Now let's put it to the vote that there should be no specific regulations in the statutes that do not allow party members to join other parties. We
only need to stress the importance of discipline and that will suffice. Those who
are in favor, please raise your hand. (Majority.) It is so resolved.