Towards a New Political Order: Re‑Establishing the Youth League after the Sino‑Japanese War (1946‑49)

Recent studies on the history of the Communist Youth League in China have complicated the image of a symbiotic relationship with the Communist Party, by shedding light on internal dynamics and rivalries that characterized the 1920s. Yet, the revival of the Youth League following the Sino‑Japanese War has been almost completely ignored in the international literature. This essay examines the institutional and organisational development of the Youth League in the late 1940s, focusing on the Party’s policy design and decision‑making and showing how the process of re‑establishing the Youth League as a distinct organization under the firm leadership of the Communist Party dates back to 1946, when the Party started discussing the revival of the organisation and adjusted the system so as to limit its development and accumulation of power, by considering previous mistakes and addressing issues regarding age limits, differentiation of work and leadership.