On June 21, 2005, a 5,000-character article titled “Promote the Spirit of the Red Boat and March Ahead of the Times ”was published in Guangming Daily by Comrade Xi Jinping, when he was the Party Secretary of Zhejiang Province.

In this article, he introduced the idea of Spirit of the Red Boat and expounded on it as “the pioneering courage to break open a new world and to lead the rest;

the hardworking attitude with indomitable determination to survive all the defeat; and the devotion commitment to building the Party for the public and loyalty to the people.”

In early August 1921, the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) concluded on a boat on Nanhu Lake in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, announcing the founding of the CPC.

The boat would go down in history as the Red Boat, a name to be remembered in the Chinese revolution.

In October 2002, the newly-arrived Comrade Xi Jinping went to Nanhu Lake in Jiaxing to pay his respect to the Red Boat, where he was reminded of the goals set out on the Red Boat and the source of what the Party stands for.

He later “left footprints all over Zhejiang and, along the way, deepened the emotional ties with the Party cadres and the people” (from the author’s preface in Down to Earth and Lead the Way by Xi Jinping).

In an article he wrote while working in Zhejiang, Xi said that “if we left the people, we would have nothing and could achieve nothing; if we betrayed the people, we the servants of the people would be abandoned by history.”

In his article “Promote the Spirit of the Red Boat and March Ahead of the Times,”

Xi pointed out that “to go with the stream and be loyal to the people has become the theme of the revolution and construction in China, and the essence of the Spirit of the Red Boat.”

On October 31, 2017, one week after the conclusion of the 19th National Congress of the Party, 

General Secretary Xi Jinping took the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 19th CPC Central Committee on a special trip to Shanghai and Jiaxing to pay respect to the site of the First National Congress and the Red Boat on Nanhu Lake.

At the Nanhu Revolutionary Memorial Hall, Xi Jinping meant every word when reiterating the Spirit of the Red Boat

pointing out that we must promote the Spirit of the Red Boat to address the needs of the times and let the Spirit shine forever.

The original goals set out on the Red Boat were for the people.

The Spirit originates in the past and traverses the time as a theme of the Chinese revolution, construction, and reform.

It demonstrates the Party’s idea of serving the people.Just as General Secretary Xi Jinping said, “The Red Boat remains on the Nanhu Lake. The time changes, but the Spirit does not.”

The tides are high and the banks are wide; the wind is blowing our way for the sails to go. The Red Boat where the CPC set the original goals is bound to navigate to a wider water.