Pioneering PLA unit vows to maintain its long traditions

By Jiang Chenglong

Members of Red Company One are put through their paces during combat drills. JIANG DONGPO/ZHANG ZENGYAN

Nearly 100 years ago, Red Company One was the first army unit to join the CPC. Jiang Chenglong reports.

"Every soldier in our company has great courage and determination to fulfill his tasks 100 percent, no matter how difficult they are. That's the glorious tradition that has been inherited generation by generation."

Those were the words of Ke Changshui, a former soldier in the People's Liberation Army who retired last month, as he introduced the unit in which he served for 16 years — Red Company One.

The 35-year-old said the company was named Red Company One, Hongyilian, in Mandarin, because of its "glorious historic tradition".

Having started as a peasant self-defense force, the unit was integrated into the Red Army (the PLA's predecessor) in the 1920s, and pledged the first oath of admission of the Communist Party of China in the history of the modern Chinese armed forces 95 years ago.

In 1927, Mao Zedong, one of the founders of the PLA, admitted six soldiers from the company into the CPC and set up a Party branch, the first at company level in the army.

The establishment of what became known as the "Party branch built on a company" was significant because it started the practice of building a new type of people's army with a primarily political nature, contributing to the eventual victory of the revolution as well as the company itself in the nearly 100 years that followed.

The unit has upheld the name of Red Company One by fighting in more than 300 battles and winning numerous awards: four first-class merit honors; 10 second-class merits; and 14 third-class merits.

It has also received five honorary titles, including "100 Battles, 100 Victories" in 1942, "Model Party Branch" in 1991, and "Role Model of the Times" last year.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the company has undertaken numerous major missions.

They include international peacekeeping roles and rescue and disaster relief, taking part in international military competitions and joint exercises, and it has been recognized as an advanced PLA unit.