Wang Ming

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Wang Ming (May 23 1904 - March 27 1974), was a senior leader of the early Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as well as the mastermind of the famous 28 Bolsheviks group. Wang was also a major political rival of Mao Zedong during the 1930s, opposing Mao's nationalism deviation from the Comintern and orthodox Marxism and Leninism line. Wang epitomized the intellectualism and foreign dogmatism Mao criticized in his essays "On Practice" and "On Contradiction". The competition between Wang and Mao was a reflection of the power struggle between Soviet Union,Comintern and CCP to control both the direction and future of the Chinese revolution.

Early Life

In May 23, 1904, Wang was born in Jinzhai (Anhui), as Chen Shaoyu to a poor peasant family. In 1920 he entered the Zhicheng Elementary School in Gushi County. Wang then entered the Third Agriculture School of Auhui Province, which was founded by the revolutionary Zhu Yunshan . Zhu had a strong influence to the school's students, by introducing many progressive journals and books such as New Youth and Communism ABC. At the school, Wang would encounter another strong influential figure in his life, AYing (Qian Xinchun), his teacher. AYing would teach Wang about Lenin and Chen Duxiu.

During his school years, Wang was also active in political movement. He led boycotts of Japanese products and corrupt elections. After his graduation in 1924, Wang enrolled in the Wuchang Business School, where he studied for a year. There he published several articles on revolutions and Communism. That same year he joined the May 30th Movement, which involved strikes and protests against imperialism during the Northern Expedition in Wuchang. In the summer of 1924, Wang joined the CCP.

From Moscow to Shanghai

In November of 1925 the CCP sent Wang to Moscow Sun Yat-sen University, founded by Chinese nationalist Sun Yat-sen. During this time, Wang mastered both the Russian language and Marxist-Leninist theory. It was also during this time, Wang encountered his first major political adversary, Ren Zhuoxuan. Ren was appointed as the secretary of Moscow Sun Yat-sen University's student CCP Branch. Eventually Wang's elloquence had won over Ren's authoritarian style in various debates. Consequently in April 1926, Wang was elected as chairman of Moscow Sun Yat-sen University's CCP branch. After the election, Pavel Mif, Moscow Sun Yat-sen University's vice president, would become fond of Wang. In January of 1927 when Mif came to China as the head of a Soviet Union delegation, Wang was his interpreter.

After CCP's split with the KMT in 1927, Wang and Mif attended the CCP's 5th National Congress in Wuhan. After the congress, Wang became the Secretariat for the CCP's Propaganda Department for two months. Wang was also a part-time editor of Guidance journal where he published a few articles. After the July 15 Coup in Wuhan, Wang returned to Moscow with Mif.

After the purge of Karl Radek by Stalin, Mif was appointed as president of Moscow Sun Yat-sen University, and then vice minister of Eastern Department of Comintern. For his service and loyalty, Wang became Mif's protoge. Wang along with other activists such as Zhang Mintian, Bo Gu and Wang Jiaxiang founded the 28 Bolsheviks group. They labelled themselves as orthodox communists.

In 1929 Wang along with the 28 Bolsheviks were sent back to China with the goal of taking leadership of CCP. However they met strong resistance in CCP from members such as Zhang Guotao and Zhou Enlai. Not surprisingly they were assigned insignificant positions. Wang found comfort in dating a member of 28 Bolsheviks, Meng Qingshu, who later became his wife. In 1929, Wang was transferred to the Propoganda Department of CCP, Li Lisan being the incumbent minister and actual Big Brother of CCP at that time. During the half year from 1929 to 1930, Wang published many articles on the party newspaper Red Flag and magazine Bolshevik, which supported the leftism embraced by Li. In 1930 when Wang attended a secret meeting in Shanghai, he was promptly arrested.But Wang was lucky enough to be ignored by KMT secret police, who had no idea what important value this young man might be to them. After Wang paid bribery to the guard, he was released very soon.

Wang was transferred to CCP's Central Labor Union after his release. Although Wang was a leftist and abided by the Communism dogma strictly in essence, his belief was different from Li in that Wang was more strict with or constrained by the dogmas of Marxism textbooks and policies of Comintern. So Wang quickly found a temporary alliance with old CCP members, labor activists such as He Mengxiong(何孟雄 in Chinese), Lin Yunan (林育南 in Chinesea relative of Lin Biao too) against Li. In a meeting, Wang argued with Li and offended Li. As a price for his being impulsive and immature, Wang was discharged of his position and demoted to Jiangsu division of CCP.

In Aug 1930, Zhou Enlai and Qu Qiubai were sent back to China by Comintern to correct the leftism of Li, and Li was called to Moscow for repentance and lost his power. In Dec of the same year, Mif came to China as envoy of Comintern. With his mentor's strong support, Wang and his associates in 28 Bolsheviks entered the power center of CCP in the 4th Plenary Meeting of 6th National Congress of CCP by way of labelling both Li and old CCP members such as He and Luo Zhanglong(罗章龙 in Chinese) as dissidents. Wang was elected as member of politburo of CCP although himself was not a Commissioner of Central Committee of CCP yet, which was a prerequisites for being a member of politburo under this system proposed by Wang himself. With Mif staying in China for almost a year, CCP was under his control, and Wang played an important role as his consultant. Although Xiang Zhongfa was incumbent General Secretary, he was just a puppet of Mif and Wang. While He and Luo still were active to set up another group to divorce from this centre, they suffered deadly loss for He and more than 30 senior associates being arrested by KMT in a secret meeting. He and 24 others were excuted later. There was a rumor that it was Wang who sold them out to purge these dissidents. But it was baseless and without strong evidence. The only thing for certain was Wang did benefit from this mysterious incident.

Before long with the arrest of Gu ShunZhang(顾顺章 in Chinese), who was in charge of security guard for CCP, lots of senior leaders such as Xiang and Yun Daiying(恽代英 in Chinese) were arrested and executed. Living under the "white terror" need great courage. Maybe his arrest a year previously gave him too much shock. Wang went back to Moscow with his wife for the excuse of medical treatment. After Wang's departure, under the direction of Zhou Enlai, an acting politburo was set up in Shanghai. Zhou, Zhang Mintian, Bo Gu, Kang Sheng, Chen Yun, and Lu Futan(卢福坦 in Chinese）, Li Zhusheng (李竹声 in Chinese）in Chineseboth Lu and Li defected to KMT later) were selected as members to in charge of daily work of CCP, among which Zhang, Bo Gu and Li were members of 28 Bolsheviks and close associates of Wang, so Wang could still keep great remote control over CCP through his pals.Furthermore, Kang and Chen would meet him and become his supporters in Moscow several years later.

From Moscow to Yanan

From Nov 1931 to Nov 1937, Wang worked and lived in Moscow as the Director of CCP's delegation to Comintern. During that period, he was elected as Executive Commissioner, member of Presidium, and Alternate General of Comintern. This indicated his prominence and popularity in the Comintern.

It was also during this time, under the direction of Bo Gu, the CCP suffered greatly against the KMT both in the cities and the countryside. This lead to a general retreat of the CCP to the distant countryside, called the Long March. In the Zunyi Conference, the 28 Bolsheviks dissolved. Key members of the group Zhang Mintian, Wang Jiaxiang, and Yang Shangkun defected to Mao Zedong's camp. Moreover, Mao had replaced Bo Gu as head of the military, which was unknown to Wang and Comintern. As Mao consolidated his power, he became the actual paramount leader of CCP, even though Zhang Mintian was officially appointed as General Secretary of CCP in Zunyi Conference.

In 1931 Imperial Japan succesfully invaded China's Manchuria province. Wang made his contribution to China by lecturing on the United Front of anti-imperialism in the 7th Congress of Comintern in 1935. In Aug 1935, the CCP delegation to Comintern issued Aug 1st Manifesto, which called upon Chinese against Japan by means of union. In the same month, CCP delegation to Comintern held meetings to discuss the united front for anti-imperialism.In the meeting Wang pointed out the archenemy of Chinese was Japan instead of Chiang Kai-shek, there was possibilities for Chinese revolutionaries to set up alliance with Chiang.

After that, the delegation sent Zhang Hao{(张浩 in Chinese，with real name Lin Yuying(林育英 in Chinese),also a relative of Lin Biao and a senior worker actvist of CCP} back to Yanan to herald the decision of this meeting.In the CCP politburo meeting (Wa Yaobo Meeting)in December, CCP made decision to set up united front for anti-Japan ,but still held out by labelling Chiang as the archenemy of revolution as Japan. In 1936 Secretariat of Comintern issued a telegram to Secretariat of CCP to point out it is wrong to list Chiang with Japan as the archenemy of Chinese revolution, and it is necessary to include Chiang's army in the war against Japan.

With the occurrence of Xi'an Incident in 1936,the following Marco Polo Bridge Incident and Shanghai Hongqiao Airport Incident in 1937, a general war between China and Japan was unavoidable. Wang's blueprint of United Front against Japan was under construction with Red Army of CCP transferred into 8th Route Army and New 4th Army fighting against Japan.

For the further direction of United Front, Wang was sent back to Yanan with Kang Sheng and Chen Yun in a same plane after his leaving from China for 6 years. After return of Wang, Mao expressed his respect for Wang for his being envoy of Comintern and his great influence for putting forward concept of Unite Front against Japan, or more for Mao wanted to appeal to Comintern and Soviet Union behind Wang, from whom Mao need their supports both in money and weapon desperately. So when Wang brought forward a new list of leaders of CCP, Mao showed his humility by putting Wang in the first place. But how could Mao shared the power with others for a long time? It was a pity Wang didn't see through Mao's cover.Maybe it was Mao's cover fooled Wang, Wang turned his brain by demoting his former ally Zhang Mintian from the No 1 in name to 7th place, which weaken his own camp and created new opponent by driving Zhang to Mao's group. Wang ,Kang and Chen were elected into the new politburo, and Wang as Secretary for Secretariat of Central Committee of CCP which was in charge of daily operation of CCP headquarter, Chen in charge of organization and Kang in charge of security guard,but it was quite strange Chen and Kang turned to Mao's camp instead of Wang's quickly and as a result Wang lost two important potential supporters. Moveover, when Wang passed by Xingjiang during his trip to China, he ordered Deng Fa, the notoriuos securtity guard boss for CCP to arrest senior leaders of CCP Yu Xiusong,Huang Cao Li Te and two others,who were his former opponents now working for the warlord Sheng Shicai under the direction of CCP. Five of them were tortured and executed in the prison of Sheng in the name of Trotskyist. When Wang boasted about his dirty work to Zhang Guotao, Zhang who was regarded as dissident himself, was greatly irritated for he had known these old CCP members quite well and worried about himself being persecuted. After this incident Zhang despised Wang and would never support him.

When Wang returned to Yanan , he was adored by most of the CCP members as a talent of Marxism for his being an erudite and deep insight of Marxism and Leninism. Some senior CCP leaders including Zhou Enlai and Peng Dehuai showed their respect and favor to Wang. All these made Mao jealous and irritated him very much.

Furtermore, Wang began to disagree with Mao over major issues on United Front, of which Wang believed all CCP 's work should be carried out and under the direction of United Front,Mao insisted CCP should maintain its independence in the United Front instead. In order to enforce his policy, Wang made another big mistake by leaving the position of Secretariat of CCP who were in charge of daily operation of CCP headquarter and went for the position of General Secretary of Yangtze Division of CCP to handle United Front issues with KMT in Wuhan, which meaned Wang had left the power base in Yanan and with Mao able to use all means to strengthen his power grip without any interference.

Decline

In its battle against Imperial Japan, the KMT suffered great losses due to heavy internal corruption, incompetence in military command, and outdated military supply and logistics. As a strong advocate of United Front, Wang was collateral damaged by KMT's failure in the battlefield.Especially after KMT lost the Xuzhou and Wuhan battle, in 1938 Wang suffered a heavy blow for Yangtze Division being abolished and himslef being dismissed by Yanan , which was divided into Southern China and Central Plain Division, led by Zhou Enlai and Liu Shaoqi respectively ,which was Mao's plot to break up the alliance of Wang and Zhou, and then promote his associate Liu. Wang was called back to Yanan and wait for his fate.

Wang was reassigned for several insignificant ceremonial jobs, iclusive of work for women which he should discuss with illiterate women all days over trifles which would rather be a humiliation than a honor.Moreover, Mao deprived Wang's authority in propaganda, keeping Wang from publishing his opinions and articles by all means.With the dissolution of Comintern in 1941, Wang lost all hope for saving his political life. In 1942 Mao launched Cheng Feng or "Rectification" Movement against dogmatism, and empiricism. Obviuosly Wang became Mao's main target as representative of dogmatism and Zhou as representative as empiricism. Although Wang experienced great humiliation, he was still fortunate to free from torture iuflicted by Kang's secret police to other CCP members. Nonetheless, in Wang's later book CCP of 50 Years and Yanan Diary written by a reporter from Soviet Union, they accused Mao of implementing plot to murder Wang by poison.Although there are still disagreements over this accusation, Wang' health was greatly damged under this stress for certain.In the late stage of Cheng Feng, Wang had to announce his confession and apology in a public meeting.It was only after Mao receivecd the telegram from Georgi Dimitrov did he stop the persecution.As a show of leniency and a sign of appeasement to Dimitrov and the Soviet Union standing behind him, Mao put Wang into the CCP's Central Committee in the 7th National Congress. Eventually as Wang's credibility and influence waned, Moscow's leaders began to acknowledge Mao's leadership. During the period of Chinese Civil War, Wang was appointed as director of policy research of CCP and responsible for some insignificant legislation work. Wang shed all his enthusiasm on these work.

From Beijing to Moscow

It was only after the establishment of People's Republic of China in 1949, Wang reappeared in the political stage from the shadow. He was elected as Director of Central Legal Committee of CCP and Central People's Government.It was an irony for him to be responsible for advising on legislation in a dictatorship regime. The life of rubber stamp must made him frustrated and distressed. Before he was elected as Commissioner of Central Committee of CCP in the 8th National Congress of CCP in 1956, Wang went to Moscow for medical treatment and never returned.

Wang wrote lots of articles denouncing CCP during the conflict between CCP and CP of Soviet Union in 1960 and 1970's. It might be embarrassed for a Chinese to fight against China. But in his memoirs did provide some useful information about CCP histories .Above all Wang was lucky to escape the persecution of Cultural Revolution and lived in peace till his death in 1974 in Moscow.

Wang's thoughts and works

There are great controversies on the appraisal of Wang ,his works and thoughts.

According to the orthodox appraisal of Wang, they think the label given by Mao for Wang as representative of dogmatism, subjectivism and sectarianism hits the nail on the head.Wang stuck and constrained to the principles he learned from Marism textbooks. For example, in the struggle with Li Lisan, in his pamphlet Two Routes ,Wang showed more leftism than Li by declaring proletariates and low level bourgeois as the only revolutionists in China ,and there was no third parts or middle camp in the revolution, all capitalists and upper level bourgeois should be overthrown. Wang advocated revolution of extremism in several parts of China to spread to whole country in spite of CCP's being so weak compared with KMT at that time.Wang insisted the city revolution be preferential to peasants movement despite China was a country of agriculture in fact. Furthermore, Wang advocated obedience to Comintern and Soviet Union unconditional without regard to Chinese reality and keeping independence of CCP, which should be harmful to Chinese natioanl interest and pride.

Furthermore, Wang was a theorist or lecturer rather than an activist, an idealist rather than a realist, an intellectual rather than a politician. But devil lies in detail, and action speaks much louder than words.Only by speeches and theories can CCP never win the revolution. When Wang won great power, his weakness of being immature and reckless, with few experiences of struggle under tough conditionn uncovered. He could hardly persist in this toughness and would rather escaped. He seldom realized his power was built on the sand.Compared with Mao, who was a veteran survived in cruel power struggle inside and outside CCP, Wang was destined to fail once he lost the support from Moscow.

But some believe it was without any doubt Wang was a good Marxism learner and practitioner.The best proof for Wang's talent and deep understanding of Marxism and Leninism was he had written a large number of articles and given speeches before his thirties,of which most of the Marxists could not achieve even in their whole lives.His talent in theory and propaganda won him fame and power, and he did make contribution to Chinese revolution in some extents,among which the main thoughts of Wang Ming consists in his theories on Chinese revolution and United Front, for which he wrote for his pamphlet Two Routes and lecture in Comintern in 1935. Moveover, Wang did provide valuable information about CCP of early stage in his memoirs especially the book CCP of 50 years.

In particularly,unlike Mao ,who is a pragmatist and worldly-wise politician learning all his experiences from Chinese history books instead of Marxism and Leninism classics,Wang is a zealot of Marxism and Leninism. He might long for power, but the ultimate goal is the realization of Communism. Judging from the power stuggle between Wang and Mao, Wang still preserve some kind of intellectual mercy and innocence,compared with Mao's being merciless and profane.

It is without any doubt the controversy over Wang will keep on going.There is only one thing for certain.With more and more new findings, we can be closer and closer to the truth of history.

Reference

• Gao Hua. How Did The Red Sun Rise:The Cause And Effect Of Cheng Feng In Yanan The Chinese University Press 2000

• Wang Ming. CCP of 50 Years Orient Press 2004