Volunteers from Shanghai University arrive at the site where the first Communist Party of China (CPC) National Congress was held in 1921, in Shanghai on June 22, 2019. (File photo: Xinhua)

Peking University, one of China's top universities, has established a new academic institute for researching the history of the Communist Party of China (CPC), signaling that research and education on the Party's history are strengthening as the 100th anniversary of the CPC's founding is being celebrated this year, experts said.

The establishment ceremony of the Peking University Institute for Historical Studies of the CPC was held on Tuesday. Chen Jin, former vice director of the Party Literature Research Center of the CPC Central Committee, will be the director of the new institute. 

Chen said at the ceremony that studies of the CPC require a combination of history and theory. Research needs to touch upon the key figures, meetings and events throughout the history of the CPC, while theory is the soul, "so we need to research key literature and the basic theories of the CPC."

"We need to cultivate the correct view of the Party's history, to learn what happened throughout the journey of the Party and the country… and better understand the connections between history and reality, reality and future."

After the ceremony, Peking University held a forum on the research and education of the CPC's history with experts from other top Chinese academic institutes and universities, including the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Renmin University of China, and Tsinghua University.

Lu Keli, an associate professor at the School of Marxism Studies at Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Wednesday that many top universities in China have established institutes or schools to research Marxism and other key theories of the CPC, but institutes that specifically focus on the Party's history are still needed. 

In the year of the 100th founding anniversary of the CPC, "we should use the time as an opportunity to further promote this research, which will benefit unity within the Party and make more people, especially the young, better understand the nature of the CPC and how it attained legitimacy," Lu said.