Translated by ChatGPT, edited by Sinocism.com.

Source: People's Daily | Author: Zhou Xin (周鑫), PLA Party History and Military History Research Center, Institute of Military Political Work, Academy of Military Sciences; Li Zezhong (李泽中), PLA Party History and Military History Research Center, Institute of Military Political Work, Academy of Military Sciences | October 22, 2026 Page 6

Ninety years ago, the great victory of the Long March of the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army under the leadership of the Communist Party of China brought about the historic transition of the Chinese revolution from peril to safety and opened a new phase in which the revolution moved toward victory. The Long March was never a simple straight line through time and space; it traced a winding path of survival, an independent path of seeking truth, and a path of rejuvenation that opened the future. To understand this path is to truly understand the Long March and the profound truth that “the path is the life of the Party.”

90年前，中国共产党领导中国工农红军长征的伟大胜利，实现了中国革命转危为安的历史转折，开启了中国革命走向胜利的崭新局面。长征一路走来，从来不是一条简单的时空直线，而是走出了一条蜿蜒曲折的图存之路，一条独立自主的求真之路，一条开创未来的复兴之路。读懂了这条路，就真正读懂了长征，真正明白“道路就是党的生命”的深刻道理。

General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: “Following our own path is the foundation of all the Party’s theory and practice, and even more importantly, the historical conclusion drawn from the Party’s century of struggle.” The Long March is always ongoing. As we advance on the new journey, we must, with a high degree of historical consciousness, remain steadfast in following our own path and, step by step, turn the beautiful blueprint of Chinese modernization into reality.

习近平总书记指出：“走自己的路，是党的全部理论和实践立足点，更是党百年奋斗得出的历史结论。”长征永远在路上，奋进新征程，必须以高度的历史自觉坚定不移走自己的路，一步一步把中国式现代化的美好蓝图变为现实。

That we can only follow our own path is a profound conclusion drawn by our Party through enormous sacrifice amid tests of life and death

只能走自己的路，是我们党在生死考验中付出巨大牺牲得出的深刻结论

After the failure of the Great Revolution, Chinese Communists with Comrade Mao Zedong as their chief representative independently opened a revolutionary path of encircling the cities from the countryside and seizing political power through armed struggle. Yet the “Left” dogmatists declared that “Marxism-Leninism cannot emerge from the mountain gullies.” Severely divorced from China’s realities, they proceeded from books in everything, mechanically copied foreign models, and acted blindly and recklessly, causing the failure of the fifth counter-encirclement campaign and forcing the Central Red Army to begin the Long March. From the outset, the Long March taught Party members and Red Army officers and soldiers in a brutal and direct way that the laws of China’s revolutionary war could not be grasped by dogmatists who could only recite classical phrases and mechanically copy foreign experience. Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out: “The victory of China’s revolutionary struggle will depend on Chinese comrades’ understanding of Chinese conditions.” Victory could be achieved only by following our own path.

大革命失败后，以毛泽东同志为主要代表的中国共产党人独立自主地开辟了农村包围城市、武装夺取政权的革命道路。然而，“左”倾教条主义者却宣称“山沟里出不了马列主义”，他们严重脱离中国实际，一切从本本出发，照搬别国模式盲目蛮干，导致第五次反“围剿”失败，中央红军被迫长征。长征，从一开始就用残酷而直白的方式让广大党员和红军将士懂得，中国革命战争的规律不可能掌握在那些只会背诵经典词句、机械照搬外国经验的教条主义者手中。毛泽东同志指出：“中国革命斗争的胜利要靠中国同志了解中国情况”，取得胜利只能走自己的路。

General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized: “Only by integrating the basic tenets of Marxism-Leninism with the specific realities of the Chinese revolution and independently resolving its major problems could the revolutionary cause be led to victory. This is a truth derived from bloody lessons and the tests of struggle.” Looking back at the painful price paid by our Party at the beginning of the Long March, it is not difficult to see that resolving China’s problems must be grounded in China’s national conditions. Modern China was a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society; there were no ready-made answers for carrying out revolution in such a country. Departing from China’s national conditions inevitably exacted a bloody price. The failure of the fifth counter-encirclement campaign was precisely such a painful lesson. China’s revolutionary war had marked particularities, and the scientific theory capable of guiding the Chinese revolution to victory had to be explored through the Chinese Communists’ own practice. At the critical moment of life and death during the Long March, painful failures awakened our Party’s consciousness as an independent actor to an unprecedented degree. Practice proved that the Chinese revolution could not rely on a “foreign crutch”; Chinese Communists had to make their own judgments and decisions. Only then could our Party truly become the agent that actively grasped the laws of the Chinese revolution and independently chose its revolutionary path.

习近平总书记强调：“只有把马克思列宁主义基本原理同中国革命具体实际结合起来，独立自主解决中国革命的重大问题，才能把革命事业引向胜利。这是在血的教训和斗争考验中得出的真理。”回顾长征之初我们党付出的惨痛代价不难发现，解决中国的问题必须立足中国国情。近代中国是一个半殖民地半封建社会，在这样的国家开展革命，没有现成的答案可循。脱离中国国情，必然付出血的代价。第五次反“围剿”的失败，就是惨痛的教训。中国革命战争具有显著的特殊性，指导中国革命取得胜利的科学理论，必须通过中国共产党人自己的实践摸索而来。长征中生死存亡的紧要关头，惨痛的失败教训，让我们党主体意识空前觉醒。实践证明，中国革命不能依赖“洋拐杖”，必须由中国共产党人自己作判断、拿主意。这样，我们党才能真正成为主动把握中国革命规律、自主选择革命道路的实践主体。

History has amply demonstrated that whenever our Party has been able, through independent thinking, to integrate the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s specific realities and with China’s fine traditional culture, and to persist in following its own path, the cause of the Party and the people has flourished. Conversely, it has suffered severe setbacks. This historical experience applies not only to the era of revolutionary war but also offers important lessons for advancing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. Facing the overall strategy for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and profound changes unseen in a century, we must clearly recognize the risks, challenges, and strategic opportunities they contain; firmly grasp the primary stage of socialism as China’s most fundamental national condition; uphold independence and self-reliance; and neither take the old road of isolation and rigidity nor the erroneous road of abandoning socialism, but instead forge ahead unwaveringly along the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics independently chosen and jointly created by the Chinese people.

历史充分证明，什么时候我们党可以通过独立思考，把马克思主义基本原理同中国具体实际相结合、同中华优秀传统文化相结合，坚持走自己的路，党和人民的事业就会兴旺发达。反之，则会遭受严重挫折。这一历史经验不仅适用于革命战争年代，对于新时代推进中国特色社会主义事业同样具有重要启示意义。面对中华民族伟大复兴战略全局和世界百年未有之大变局，必须清醒看到蕴含其中的风险挑战与战略机遇，牢牢把握社会主义初级阶段这个最大国情，坚持独立自主、自力更生，既不走封闭僵化的老路，也不走改旗易帜的邪路，而是坚定不移沿着中国人民自主选择、共同创造的中国特色社会主义道路奋勇前进。

Exploring and opening our own path is the key to our Party’s continually winning still greater victories by turning crises into opportunities

探索走出自己的路，是我们党在化危为机中不断取得更大胜利的关键所在

During the Long March, after preparations made at the Tongdao, Liping, and Houchang meetings, the Zunyi Meeting—which brought about a great turning point—was convened in January 1935, solemnly opening a new chapter in which the Party independently resolved the practical problems of the Chinese revolution. From this starting point, following our own path—a precious lesson purchased with countless lives and blood—guided the Chinese revolution into a new course toward victory. Thereafter, the Party led the Red Army in breaking through repeated encirclement by a superior enemy, pushing beyond the limits of human endurance in the snow-covered mountains and grasslands, and leading the Chinese people step by step toward victory in the revolution. Every major strategic choice and practical action embodied our Party’s profound grasp of and resolute answer to the proposition of “following our own path.”

长征途中，经过通道会议、黎平会议、猴场会议的准备，实现伟大转折的遵义会议于1935年1月召开，党独立自主解决中国革命实际问题的新篇章就此郑重翻开。以此为起点，走自己的路——这一用无数生命和鲜血换来的宝贵经验，指引中国革命通往胜利的崭新历程。此后，党领导红军在长征途中冲出优势之敌的重重围堵，突破雪山草地的人类极限，领导中国人民一步步走向中国革命的胜利。其中的每一次重大战略选择与实践，无不是我们党对“走自己的路”这一命题的深刻把握与果敢作答。

Following our own path requires a strong leadership core to chart the course and steer the ship. The various setbacks and failures confronting the Party and the people’s cause in its early years were often closely related to the absence of a firm, mature, and powerful leadership core. Tempered and tested by prolonged revolutionary practice, a leadership core capable of independently resolving the problems of the Chinese revolution emerged at the Zunyi Meeting and became the central force driving the Party and the Red Army to achieve a historic turn at a moment of crisis. As General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: “The Zunyi Meeting began to establish the leading position in the CPC Central Committee of the correct Marxist line represented chiefly by Comrade Mao Zedong and began to form the Party’s first generation of central leadership with Comrade Mao Zedong at its core. Only from then on could the Party advance from victory to victory.” This fully demonstrates that a correct Marxist line never arises out of thin air; it is a path forged step by step in struggle by a mature and stable leadership core that brings together the will of the entire Party, the entire military, and the people of all ethnic groups nationwide. It was precisely because it had such a leadership core that our Party was able time and again to turn the tide at moments of danger and transform peril into safety. China’s development is now in a period in which strategic opportunities coexist with risks and challenges and uncertain and unpredictable factors are increasing; we must be prepared at all times to withstand major tests involving strong winds, high waves, and even perilous storms. The fundamental reason we can, in the face of severe risks and tests, “sit calmly in the fishing boat despite the wind and waves” (an allusion to a line associated with Mao Zedong) is that we possess a strong leadership core capable of exercising overall leadership and coordinating all sides. By upholding the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, following the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, always maintaining strategic resolve, refusing to change our path or our aspirations, and continuing to travel the Long March road of the new era well, we will surely advance courageously toward the grand goal of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.