Looking for answers: An American communist explores China’s system chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2021-06-07 06:30 Share CLOSE Ian Goodrum, a member of the Communist Party of the United States, is traveling around China to find out how the Communist Party of China works. He wants to know how a party that started 100 years ago, with just over 50 members and 13 delegates at its first National Congress, has grown to become one of the largest political organizations in the world, with more than 90 million members. He is interested to learn how they have put into daily practice the Marxism-Leninism theories he read about during college.