Wang Ming

From Moscow to Shanghai

In November 1925, the CCP sent Wang to Moscow Sun Yat-sen University in Russia. During this time, Wang mastered both the Russian language and Marxist–Leninist theory, becoming known by the Russian name Ivan Andreevich Golubev (Russian: Иван Андреевич Голубев) or simply Golubev. It was also during this time that Wang encountered his first major political adversary, Ren Zhuoxuan. Ren was appointed as the secretary of the university's student CCP branch. Eventually Wang's eloquence won over Ren's authoritarian style in various debates. Consequently, in April 1926, Wang was elected as chairman of the university's CCP branch. After the election, Pavel Mif, the university's vice president, became fond of Wang. In January 1927, when Mif came to China as the head of a Soviet delegation, Wang was his interpreter.

After the CCP's split with the Kuomintang (KMT) in 1927, Wang and Mif attended the CCP's 5th National Congress in Wuhan, after which Wang became Secretary for the CCP's Propaganda Department for two months. Wang was also a part-time editor of the 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 Joseph Stalin, Mif was appointed as president of Moscow Sun Yat-sen University, and then Vice Minister of the Eastern Department of Comintern. For his service and loyalty, Wang became Mif's protégé. The circle of Chinese students centered around Mif, which included Wang as well as Zhang Wentian, Bo Gu and Wang Jiaxiang, became known as the "28 Bolsheviks" because of their strict adherence to the official party line. There was an ongoing struggle between Trotskyists and Stalinists among the Chinese students, and Wang was involved in suppressing the Trotskyists.

In early 1929, Wang left Sun Yat-sen University to return to China. Wang began dating Meng Qingshu, who later became his wife. Wang was then transferred to the Propaganda Department of CCP, where Li Lisan was the incumbent minister. During a half year from 1929 to 1930, Wang published many articles in 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 the KMT secret police, who had no idea what value this young man might be to them. Wang was soon released after bribing the guard. Wang was transferred to CCP's Central Labor Union after his release. Although Wang was a leftist and abided by Communist dogma strictly in essence, his beliefs were different from those of Li. Wang was more strict about adhering to the policies of the Comintern. He quickly found a temporary alliance with old CCP members, labor activists such as He Mengxiong (何孟雄), Lin Yunan (林育南, a relative of Lin Biao) against Li. In a meeting, Wang argued with Li and offended him. As a price for his being impulsive and immature, Wang was discharged from his position and demoted to the Jiangsu division of CCP.

In August 1930, the Comintern sent Zhou Enlai and Qu Qiubai back to China to reign in Li Lisan's aggressive policy. However, the CCP did not adopt any meaningful policy changes at the 3rd Plenum of the Sixth Central Committee in September. This led the Comintern to order Li Lisan himself to come to Moscow, and Pavel Mif was sent to China ensure a new policy was implemented. Mif arrived in December. The CCP issued a resolution renouncing Li Lisan's extremist policies from the previous year, and on December 16, they reversed Wang Ming's punishment.

At the Fourth Plenum of the Sixth Central Committee in January 1931, Wang's was promoted to a position on the CCP's Politburo, although he was not given a seat on the Standing Committee. He was not a Commissioner of the Central Committee of CCP yet, this being a prerequisite for being a politburo member under the system proposed by Wang himself.

The first half of 1931 saw a number of senior Communists in Shanghai expelled from the party for supporting Li Lisan's policies or captured by the Kuomintang thanks to the defection of Gu Shunzhang. According to Ben Macintyre, Wang Ming may also have been responsible for some of the arrests. On January 17, 36 Communists, including five leaders of the League of Left-Wing Writers, were arrested by the KMT. Macintyre writes that Wang "regarded the League as a cover for 'dissenting comrades' and wanted them killed. 23 were executed the next month. By April, part of party leadership left the cities for security. These arrests, expulsions, and departures left the Politburo members who remained in Shanghai in a position to dominate the party. On June 22, the General Secretary himself, Xiang Zhongfa, was arrested and quickly executed by the KMT. After Xiang's death, Wang Ming, Zhou Enlai, and Lu Futan became the most important CCP leaders left in the city. However, they would not remain there long. In October, Wang Ming left Shanghai for Moscow as the CCP's representative to the Comintern, a position he would retain for the next six years.

CCP's representative to the Comintern

From November 1931 to November 1937, Wang worked and lived in Moscow as director of the CCP's delegation to the Comintern. During that period, he was elected as Executive Commissioner, member of the Presidium, and Alternate General of the Comintern. This indicated his prominence and popularity in the Comintern. During this period, the CCP suffered major defeats in both urban and rural areas against the KMT and made a strategic retreat in the Long March. At the Zunyi Conference, Wang and the 28 Bolsheviks lost the support of key party and Red Army leaders; Bo Gu, Zhou Enlai and Otto Braun were criticized for their poor strategy. Zhang Wentian succeeded Bo Gu as provisional party leader. Mao emerged from Zunyi as the politburo's dominant member with the support of the army and his opponents discredited.

The Japanese invasion of Manchuria in November 1931 posed a clear threat to both sides of the Chinese Civil War (as well as to the Soviet Union), but it did not lead to an immediate cessation of hostilities. The failure of the First United Front four years previously had created deep, lasting distrust. Chiang Kai-shek articulated his policy as "first internal pacification, then external resistance." The CCP called for simultaneously "Resisting Japan and Opposing Chiang".

But by 1935, the Comintern had decided that the threat posed by Japan in Asia and the rise of Adolf Hitler in Europe called for a less dogmatic response. The 7th World Congress of the Comintern called for Communist parties to participate in "anti-fascist united fronts" across the globe. In July 1935, Wang had begun work on a document that explained how the new policy would apply to China. This was published in October, but was dated August 1, and subsequently became known as the "1 August Declaration". It called on all parties in China to form a united front against Japanese Imperialism and proposed creating a united government of national defense. Importantly, though, the offer did not extend to Chiang himself; Wang and the rest of the CCP delegation still considered him and his central government the "running dog" of the Japanese.

However, the attitude of Wang Ming and the Comintern towards Chiang began to shift when the full details of the Long March and the CCP's devastating defeats in south China reached Moscow. Wang Ming even published a series of articles where he called for Chiang to either join an anti-Japanese united front or be overthrown by KMT patriots. But historians disagree on how seriously to take this change in tone: Michael Sheng dismisses the articles as propaganda intended to encourage anti-Chiang dissent in the KMT, whereas Gao Hua argues that Wang sincerely believed that Chiang could and should be brought into a united front. In either case, this propaganda line was abandoned after Chiang suppressed the December 9th Movement.

The CCP itself (cut off from radio communication with Moscow) learned of the 1 August Declaration in November 1935. Party leaders held a conference at Wayaobu in December to discuss the implications of this new policy. Their Wayaobu Manifesto marked an important retreat from the hardline positions they had held during the early civil war. It called for "the most broad national united front" to resist Japan, and announced that the CCP would suspend class conflict in the interests of cross-class collaboration. However, it also made clear that they did not want to give up their military strength. As a basis from which to resist the Japanese, the Manifesto called for the Red Army to be expanded to 1 million men and for the Chinese Soviet to dramatically increase its land area.

Over the course of the year, the Comintern became more convinced that the united front should include Chiang. Wang Ming was reluctant to accept this idea. In March, when the Comintern abandoned the slogan "resist Japan and oppose Chiang", he suggested replacing it with "resist Japan and oppose the villain". In June, when the Liangguang Incident took place, Wang Ming supported the uprising against Chiang even after Pravda condemned it. In late June, the CCP re-established radio communications with Moscow. They transmitted the Wayaobu Manifesto and informed the Comintern of their alliance with Zhang. They asked for assistance in carrying out their plan to form an anti-Japan, anti-Chiang base. The Comintern responded with a telegram on August 15 admonishing the CCP for continuing to oppose Chiang. The Comintern did approve the other provisions of the Wayaobu Manifesto, agreeing that neither soviet power nor the independence of the Red Army should be sacrificed. But they absolutely vetoed the CCP's plan to form a base in the northwest, knowing that such a move would scuttle any chance for a united front with the KMT. The CCP accepted the new directive from the Comintern. They adopted the new slogan "compelling Chiang to resist Japan," and Pan Hannian was sent to Nanjing to begin negotiating a truce with Chen Lifu.

When the Soviets sharply criticized the CCP for failing to include Chiang in their plans for a united front, Wang joined in their criticisms. However, head of the Comintern Georgi Dimitrov pointed out that many of the criticisms Wang was making against the CCP could just as easily be made against Wang's attitude for the past few months. The Soviets asked the CCP to send a replacement for Wang, although he remained on for almost a year until his replacement arrived.

With the occurrence of the Xi'an Incident in 1936, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident and the Shanghai Hongqiao Airport Incident in 1937, a general war between China and Japan was unavoidable. Wang's blueprint for a united front against Japan was under construction, with the Red Army of the CCP transferred into the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army fighting against Japan. Wang was sent back to Yan'an in July 1937 when Wang Jiaxiang arrived to take up his place. After the return of Wang, Mao expressed his respect for Wang as an envoy of the Comintern and for his great influence for putting forward the concept of United Front against Japan. Mao possibily wanted to appeal to the Comintern and Soviet Union behind Wang, from whom Mao desperately needed support both in money and weaponry. When Wang brought forward a new list of leaders of CCP, Mao showed his humility by putting Wang in the first place. Wang demoted his former ally Zhang Wentian from the number 1 place to the number 7 place, which weakened his own camp and created new opponents by driving Zhang to Mao's group.

Wang, Kang Sheng and Chen Yun were elected into the new politburo, with Wang as secretariat for the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the CCP which was in charge of the daily operation of CCP headquarters. Chen was in charge of organization and Kang in charge of security, but oddly enough, Chen and Kang turned to Mao's camp, and as a result, Wang lost two important potential supporters. Moreover, when Wang passed by Xinjiang during his trip to China, he ordered Deng Fa, the notorious security 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, accused of being Trotskyists. 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 being persecuted himself. After this incident, Zhang despised Wang and would never support him.

When Wang returned to Yan'an, he was admired by most of the CCP members as a talent of Marxism for his erudition and deep insights into Marxism and Leninism. Some senior CCP leaders, including Zhou Enlai and Peng Dehuai, showed their respect for Wang, which reportedly made Mao jealous and irritated. Furthermore, Wang began to disagree with Mao over major issues on the United Front. Wang believed all CCP work should be carried out within the framework of the United Front; Mao insisted CCP should maintain its independence from the United Front instead. In order to enforce his policy, Wang made the mistake of leaving the position of Secretariat of the CCP in charge of the daily operations of the CCP headquarters, and went for the position of General Secretary of the Yangtze Division of CCP to handle United Front issues with the KMT in Wuhan, which meant Wang had left the power base in Yan'an, with Mao now 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 internal corruption, incompetence in military command, outdated military supplies and logistics, and the general strength of the Japanese military. As a strong advocate of the United Front, Wang was damaged as well by the KMT's failure in the battlefield as the KMT forces bore the brunt of the fighting; under Mao's urging the Communists rarely engaged the Japanese army in significant battles. After the KMT lost the battles of Xuzhou and Wuhan, in 1938, Wang suffered a heavy blow as the Yangtze Division was abolished and he himself was dismissed back to Yan'an. Yan'an was divided into the Southern China and Central Plain Divisions, led by Zhou Enlai and Liu Shaoqi respectively; this was part of Mao's plot to break up the alliance of Wang and Zhou, and to promote his associate Liu. Wang was called back to Yan'an to await his fate.

Wang was reassigned to several insignificant ceremonial jobs. Moreover, Mao deprived Wang of authority by use of propaganda, preventing Wang from publishing his opinions and articles. With the dissolution of the Comintern in 1943, Wang lost all hope for saving his political life.

In 1942 Mao launched the Yan'an Rectification Movement against dogmatism and empiricism. Wang became Mao's main target as representative of dogmatism and Zhou as representative of empiricism. Among the texts studied collectively as part of the movement were two volumes of documents from the Sixth Party Congress which Mao edited, Before the Sixth Party Congress and After the Sixth Party Congress. These volumes contended that Mao represented the correct political line of the CCP and contended that Wang Ming and other rivals of Mao were "rightists."

In his later book 50 Years of the CPC, and in Yan'an Diary, written by a reporter from the Soviet Union, Wang accused Mao of plotting to murder him by poison. Although there are still disagreements over this accusation, Wang's health was certainly greatly damaged under this stress.

In the later stages of the Rectification Campaign, Wang was forced to make a confession and apology in a public meeting. It was only after Mao received a telegram from Georgi Dimitrov that he stopped the persecution. As a show of leniency and a sign of appeasement to Dimitrov (and the Soviet Union standing behind him), Mao placed Wang on the CCP's Central Committee in the 7th National Congress. (It is noteworthy that back in 1931, Dimitrov and his wife Roza Yulievna Fleishmann had adopted Fani, Wang's daughter.) Eventually, as Wang's credibility and influence waned, Moscow's leaders began to acknowledge Mao's leadership. During the period of the Chinese Civil War, Wang was appointed as director of policy research of the CCP and responsible for some insignificant legislative work.

From Beijing to Moscow

It was only after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 that Wang reappeared from the shadows on to the political stage. He was elected as director of the Central Legal Committee of the CCP and the Central People's Government. Before he was elected as commissioner of the Central Committee of CCP in the 8th National Congress of CCP in 1956, Wang went to Moscow for medical treatment and would never return.

Wang wrote many articles denouncing the CCP during the conflict between the CCP and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s. His memoirs did provide some useful information about CCP history. Above all, Wang was lucky to escape the persecution of the Cultural Revolution, and lived in peace until his death in 1974 in Moscow.