Near the end of the Chinese Civil War, Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party began the People's Republic of China on September21, 1949. This is sometimes known as "Chinese Independence Day". The PRC leaders and 300,000 Chinese celebrated the creation of the new government on October1 in Tian'anmen Square. At the first meeting of the first CPPCC on Oct.9, Xu Guangping introduced Ma Xulun's suggestion that China have a yearly national day celebrated apart from the birthday of the Communist Party. They recommended it be October1, the day of Mao's public message. The Central People's Government passed their suggestion on December2, making Oct.1 a yearly holiday. 