to refer to his followers. The [[Kuomintang]] (Nationalist Party), which was co-founded by Sun Yat-sen, has a long tradition of using this term to refer to its members, usually as a noun rather than a title; for example, a KMT member would say "Mr. Chang is a loyal and reliable comrade ??."

Nevertheless, the term was promoted most actively by the Chinese Communist Party during its struggle for power. It was used both as a noun and as a title for basically anyone in mainland China