On July 23, 1921, the Communist Party of China opened its First National Congress in Shanghai. Following an intrusion by the French concession police, the deputies decided to move the congress to Jiaxing, a water town in Zhejiang Province about 100 km south of Shanghai. This enabled the congress to be continued and concluded on a sightseeing boat on the South Lake. This boat therefore witnessed the birth of the CPC, giving rise to the idea of "the spirit of the Red Boat", which is the spirit of the Party's founders – a spirit of pioneering and resolve.

In June 2005, Xi Jinping, secretary of the provincial Party committee of Zhejiang Province, published an article on the pioneering "spirit of the Red Boat". On October 31, 2017, one week after the close of the 19th National Congress of the CPC, Xi Jinping led the newly-elected members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee to visit the site of the Party's First National Congress in Shanghai, and the Red Boat in Jiaxing.

The spirit of the Red Boat is a pioneering spirit, a spirit with a firm ideal that remains indomitable in the face of adversity, and a spirit of dedication to serving the people wholeheartedly and running the Party for the public good.