(See first post for background: #1 Cultural Revolution, previous post: #4 Founding of CPC and Creation of Platform of Democratic Revolution)
A Concise History of the Communist Party of China (2021, ISBN 978-7-5117-3978-0), pg. 23-30
《中国共产党简史》, pg. 19-24
(Chapter 1)
4. The Rise of the First KMT-CPC Cooperation and the Climax of the Great Revolution
The Third National Congress of the CPC and the Establishment of KMT-CPC Cooperation
Chinese Communists saw from the failure of the Beijing-Hankou Railway strike that revolutionary forces in China were far less powerful than their imperialist and feudal counterparts. The CPC recognized the importance of forming the broadest possible united front. It thus decided to take positive steps to unite with the Kuomintang (KMT), which was led by Sun Yat-sen.
At that time, Sun Yat-sen had become disheartened by a series of setbacks resulting from his policy of relying on warlords to fight warlords. Having witnessed the influence of the CPC-led workers’ movement, Sun saw that it was an emerging and vibrant revolutionary force that he must cooperate with. In January 1923, the Executive Committee of the Communist International issued the Resolution on the Relationship between the Communist Party of China and the Kuomingtang, which gave support for cooperation between the two parties.
The Third National Congress of the CPC was held in Guangzhou in June 1923. The Congress was attended by more than 30 delegates, representing 420 CPC members.
The Congress made an accurate assessment of Sun Yat-sen’s revolutionary position and the possibility of reorganizing the KMT, and decided that CPC members should join the KMT in an individual capacity in order to realize cooperation with it. It was clearly stipulated that while Party members were to join the Kuomintang as individuals, the Party itself should maintain its political, ideological, and organizational independence.
At the Congress, the Party’s Constitution, adopted at the Second Congress, was revised for the first time to stipulate that those who wished to join the Party must complete a probationary period and that members may withdraw from the Party of their own free will.
The Congress elected a Central Executive Committee and set up the Central Bureau, of which Chen Duxiu was chairman.
After the Congress, KMT-CPC cooperation was accelerated. CPC organizations at all levels mobilized their members and young people to join the KMT and actively promoted the National Revolutionary Movement nationwide. In early October 1923, at the invitation of Sun Yat-sen, Soviet representative Mikhail Borodin arrived in Guangzhou. Sun Yat-sen appointed Borodin to the KMT’s organizational instructor post, and later the position of political advisor. The reorganization of the KMT soon entered the implementation phase.
The First National Congress of the Chinese KMT was held in Guangzhou in January 1924. Among the 165 delegates at the opening ceremony, more than 20 were CPC members. Li Dazhao was appointed to the presidium of the Congress by Sun Yat-sen.
The Congress adopted the Declaration of the First National Congress of the Chinese Kuomingtang. The document contained a new interpretation of the Three Principles of the People, which were rechristened the New Three Principles of the People. “Nationalism” now referred to anti-imperialism; “Democracy” stressed the democratic rights shared by all ordinary people; and “People’s Livelihood” incorporated the major principles of “equalizing land rights” and the “regulation of private capital.”
Shortly after the Congress, Sun Yat-sen also put forward the slogan “Land to the tiller.” The political program of the Congress was consistent with certain basic principles of the CPC’s political program for democratic revolution, and as such, it became the political basis for the first instance of KMT-CPC cooperation. The Congress confirmed the principle that CPC members should join the KMT on an individual basis.
The Congress elected the Central Executive Committee of the KMT. Ten Communists, including Li Dazhao, Tan Pingshan, and Mao Zedong, were elected as members or alternate members of the Central Executive Committee, accounting for about a quarter of the total. After the Congress, CPC members with important posts in KMT headquarters included: Tang Pingshan, director of the Department of Organization; Lin Boqu, director of the Department of Peasantry; and Mao Zedong, acting director of the Department of Publicity.
The Congress also established the Three Great Policies—alliance with Russia, cooperation with the CPC, and assistance for peasants and workers, marking the start of the first instance of KMT-CPC cooperation.
A New Revolutionary Landscape and the Fourth National Congress of the CPC
Soon after KMT-CPC cooperation began, the revolutionary forces of the country, centered on Guangzhou, opened a new phase of revolution against imperialism and feudal warlords.
KMT-CPC cooperation helped restore and develop the workers’ movement. In July 1924, in the Shamian Concessions in Guangzhou, several thousand workers staged a political strike to protest against a new police regulation, issued by the British and French authorities, denying Chinese citizens free access to the concessions. Chinese police also participated in the strike, which lasted for over a month and ended in victory. In May of the following year, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions was founded at the Second National Labor Congress in Guangzhou.
The peasant movement was also developing steadily. Peasants in various counties of Guangdong launched peasant associations and organized self-defense armies to fight local tyrants, evil gentry, and corrupt officials. Beginning from July 1924, six sessions of the Peasant Movement Institute were held in Guangzhou, presided over by Communists Peng Pai and Mao Zedong. The institute helped train a number of leading activists for the peasants movement. In addition, the student movement and the women’s movement also grew.
In order to foster a backbone force for armed revolution, the KMT decided at its First National Congress, at the suggestion of the Communists, to establish an army officer school—the Whampoa Military Academy. The CPC sent a large number of its members, members of the Socialist Youth League, and revolutionary youths from all over the country to study at the academy. There were 56 CPC and Socialist Youth League members among the academy’s first group of enrollees, representing one tenth of the total.
Thanks to the joint efforts of the KMT and CPC, the ideas of the National Revolution spread across the country from south to north on an unprecedented scale. In October 1924, General Feng Yuxiang of the Zhili clique of the Northern Warlords staged a coup and overthrew the Beijing government, which was controlled by the warlords Cao Kun and Wu Peifu. After taking over Beijing and Tianjin and reorganizing his army into the National Army, Feng sent a telegram to Sun Yat-sen inviting him to come north to “discuss state affairs.” In November, Sun Yat-sen left Guangzhou to travel north. He promoted the idea of holding a national assembly and abolishing unequal treaties along the way. People’s organizations from all over the country sent him telegrams expressing their support for him. The trip grew into a broad-based publicity campaign.
In order to strengthen the leadership of the growing revolutionary movement, the CPC held its Fourth National Congress in Shanghai in January 1925. The Congress was attended by 20 delegates, representing 994 CPC members in the country.
The great historical achievement of the Fourth National Congress was that it discussed the leadership of the proletariat in the democratic revolution and called for an alliance of workers and peasants. It enriched the content of the democratic revolution, pointing out that while opposing international imperialism, it was necessary to also oppose feudal warlord politics and feudal economic relations. This showed that the CPC’s understanding of Chinese revolution had greatly improved, based on its review of the practical experience gained since its founding, particularly during the previous year of KMT-CPC cooperation.
The Congress also decided to strength CPC organizations throughout the country, expanding its numbers and consolidating discipline. It specified branches as the basic organizations of the CPC.
The Congress revised the section of the Party Constitution dealing with Party branches to stipulate that Party branches may be organized wherever there are three or more Party members.
The Congress elected the Central Executive Committee, which in turn elected the Central Bureau with Chen Duxiu as the general secretary.
On March 12, 1925, Sun Yat-sen passed away in Beijing. Following Sun’s death, the anti-communist right-wingers of the KMT sprang back into action, resulting in a deeper split between the left and right wings of the KMT. The united front based on KMT-CPC cooperation was now facing a much more complex situation. This proved to be a great trial for Chinese Communists.
The May 30th Movement and the Unification of the Guangdong Revolutionary Bases
The nationwide Great Revolution culminated in a workers’ strike against foreign capitalists in Shanghai in May 1925.
On May 15, 1925, a Japanese capitalist at the Naigai No.7 Cotton Mill shot dead Gu Zhenghong, a worker and CPC member. On May 30, workers and students took to the streets in Shanghai under the leadership of the CPC. British constables in the Concession suddenly opened fire on Nanjing Road, killing 13 people, students and workers among them, and injuring countless others. This atrocity, which became known as the May 30th Massacre, shocked the entire country. Over the next few days, another series of incidents occurred in Shanghai and other places where British and Japanese soldiers and police fired on common people.
The May 30th Massacre enraged people all over China. Fury over imperialism, which had for many years built among the Chinese people, suddenly erupted, sparking strikes by workers, students, and merchants. The CPC Central Executive Committee established the Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions, and at the same time set up the Shanghai United Committee of Workers, Merchants, and Students to provide stronger leadership for the movement, which drew about 17 million people from all over the country. Roars of “Down with imperialism” and “Abolish unequal treaties” rang out all across the country, from bustling cities to remote towns. The massacre triggered a national wave against imperialism that surged across the nation with unstoppable momentum. This is remembered in history as the May 30th Movement.
The Guangzhou-Hong Kong Strike, involving 250,000 people, was an important component of the May 30th Movement. Striking workers established the Guangzhou-Hong Kong Strike Committee, with CPC member Su Zhaozheng as chairman, and imposed a blockade on Hong Kong. The strike lasted for 16 months. The over 100,000 organized strikers who had gathered in Guangzhou became a strong pillar of the Guangzhou Revolutionary Government.
The CPC grew considerably during its leadership of the May 30th Movement. It expanded from less than 1,000 members at the beginning of the year to 10,000 at the end. New CPC organizations were established in many places in the country. To adapt to the new situation arising from the climax of the Great Revolution, the CPC Central Executive Committee promptly put forward the idea of “transforming itself from a small organization to a centralized mass party” in a very short time. It also stressed the importance of education and training for CPC members and set up an advanced CPC school in Beijing to train cadres.
Under the favorable conditions, the KMT and the CPC worked together to unify the revolutionary bases in Guangdong. In 1925, after two eastern expeditions and a southern expedition, the troops of the warlord Chen Jiongming and the troops of the warlord Deng Benyin were eliminated; a rebellion staged by the troops under the command of Yang Ximin and Liu Zhenhuan in Guangzhou was quelled. These actions unified the Guangdong revolutionary bases and created a far more reliable rear base from which to launch the Northern Expedition.
In addition, the CPC also made an attempt to create armed forces directly. Sun Yat-sen gave his support to Zhou Enlai and the Guangdong Regional Committee of the CPC to reorganize the armored corps of the headquarters of the Army and Navy Grand Marshal’s Office into a revolutionary armed force under direct CPC leadership, with members of the CPC and Communist Youth League as its mainstay. In early 1926, an independent regiment was established within the Fourth Army of the National Red Army (NRA) under the command of CPC member Ye Ting.
The revolutionary movement in the North prospered due to the hard work of Li Dazhao and other Communists. At the beginning of 1924, the northern workers’ movement gradually rose out of the despondency which ruled in the aftermath of the February 7th Massacre to recover and gain momentum. Workers held many strikes in Beijing, Qingdao, and Tangshan. In October 1925, at an enlarged meeting, the CPC Central Executive Committee stressed the importance of work in the North and decided to strengthen leadership over the revolution there. After the meeting, the CPC Northern Executive Committee was established with Li Dazhao as secretary.
By July 1926, more than ten local committees and dozens of special and independent branches had been created in Beijing, Tianjin, Tangshan, Taiyuan, and Northern Manchuria, with more than 2,000 CPC members. Li Dazhao and the Party organizations in the North also worked to win over Feng Yuxiang and his National Army, and launched a movement for tariff autonomy. These struggles demonstrated an awakening of the revolutionary consciousness of the people of the North and dealt a blow to the reactionary government of Duan Qirui who controlled Beijing.