From June 15 to 19, 1949, the Preparatory Committee for the New Political Consultative Conference held its first plenary meeting at the Qinzheng Hall in Zhongnanhai, Beiping. At the meeting, Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People's Democratic Republic of China. At the end of his speech, Mao Zedong repeated three slogans, one of which is: Long live the People's Democratic Republic of China!

       So how did the original name of the People's Democratic Republic of China change to the official name of the People's Republic of China? Here is a story, which condenses the solemn deliberations and prudent considerations of the delegates of the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

       At that time, the state system of New China had been defined as the people's democratic dictatorship based on the alliance of workers and peasants under the leadership of the Workers'Stage (after the Communist Party). At the same time, the new China's political system should be determined. In order to implement democratic centralism, the people's congress system should not adopt the parliamentary system of separation of powers as in the West. These basic issues concerning the founding of a new country have been publicized and explained to all the representatives of the Preparatory Committee for the New Political Consultative Conference and reached a basic consensus. But there is no official name for the coming new China. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Mao Zedong are usually called the People's Democratic Republic of China. Accordingly, among the organizational regulations agreed upon and drafted by the Preparatory Committee of the New Political Consultative Conference, there is a plan for the establishment of the Government of the People's Democratic Republic of China. A fourth group, led by Dong Biwu, is designated to draft the Organic Law of the Central People's Government of the People's Democratic Republic of China.

       In the process of drafting various documents by the Preparatory Committee for the New Political Consultative Conference, some delegates put forward different views on the original name of the country. Lei Jieqiong said that if the name of the country is too long, it should be indicated as abbreviated without full name. Mr. Huang Yanpei and Mr. Zhang Zhirang's opinions were arranged into written reports, and they put forward that: "Our country may change the original People's Democratic Republic of China into the People's Democratic Republic of China, referred to as the Republic of China or the People's Democratic Republic of China for short." In the future, when we enter the stage of socialism, we will be renamed the Socialist Democratic Republic of China.

       Professor Zhang Xiruo of Tsinghua University questioned the original name of the country and made a third opinion. Zhang Xiruo said, "Some old gentlemen suspect that the name of the People's Democratic Republic of China is too long. They said that the word"democracy"should be removed to call the People's Republic of China. Zhang Xiruo went on to say, "If there are people, we can avoid the word"democracy". Are there people who are not democratic? And the word"democracy"comes from the Greek word, which means the same as the word"people". After removing the word "democracy", it is easy to understand from the following explanations: for Republic rather than dictatorship, it is democracy rather than monarchy. The concept of "people" has already expressed the meaning of "democracy", so it is not necessary to repeat the word "democracy".

       However, in the discussion, Mao Zedong supported the use of the name "Republic of China", on the grounds that the Communist Party was saving China rather than subjugating it, that the new China was replacing the old government, that the new country was not replacing the old one, and that the Communist Party was not anti-Chiang Kai-shek or anti-Sun. Later, He Xiangning made a roundhouse and said, "The People's Republic of China contains the four words of the Republic of China. Its essence is the same. The people of the Republic of China are the people. Mr. Zhongshan struggled for the Republic all his life, and this country is naturally the Republic." Mao Zedong felt justified, but he did not insist.

       The fourth group summarized the opinions on national names into three names, which were left to the Drafting Committee of the Organic Law of the Government for consideration. The preliminary draft of the Organic Law was amended and adopted by the Group at its third plenary meeting on 17 August. In this preliminary draft, the word "democracy" has been removed from the new national name.

       On September 22, Dong Biwu delivered a report entitled "The Drafting Process and Basic Contents of the Organic Law of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China" at the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. The report gives some explanations on the general outline of the draft Organic Law. The first point is about the name of the country. Dong Biwu said: In the past, many people used the People's Democratic Republic of China to write articles or make speeches. Mr. Huang Yanpei and Mr. Zhang Zhirang wrote an abridgement advocating the use of the People's Democratic Republic of China. In the discussion of the second plenary meeting of the fourth group, Mr. Zhang Xiruo thought that the People's Democratic Republic of China was better than the People's Republic of China. We now use the last name. Because the Republic has explained our state system, the word "people" refers to the four classes of workers, peasants, petty bourgeoisie and national bourgeoisie and patriotic democrats in today's new-democratic China. It has definite explanations and has expressed the meaning of people's democratic dictatorship without repeating the word "democracy". Second time. This opinion was accepted by the plenary session of the CPPCC.

       In several documents submitted to the General Assembly, the original People's Democratic Republic of China was changed to the People's Republic of China.

       Source: Party Construction Microjournal