Zhao Shiyan

Biography

Zhao was born in Youyang Zhou, Sichuan (now Youyang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County, Chongqing), on 13 April 1901, to Zhao Dengzhi (赵登之). In 1915, Zhao went to Beijing to study at the High School Affiliated with Beijing Normal University and majored in English. In 1919, he participated in the May Fourth Movement, China Youth Association. The following year, he went to France to study, co-founded the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In 1922, Zhao Shiyan and Ho Chi Minh were invited to join the French Communist Party. In 1922, he went to the Soviet Union and studied at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East. In 1923, he was appointed as CCP Committee Chairman of Beijing. In the same year in December, he was appointed as Chairman of the Northern Bureau of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

In 1926, Zhao was sent to Shanghai with Zhou Enlai to lead the workers' armed uprising during the Northern Expedition. On 12 April 1927, Chiang Kai-shek launched a coup against his communist allies and massacred them in Shanghai. After Chen Yannian was arrested by Kuomintang, Zhao took over as secretary of Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the CCP. Zhao was arrested at his home on North Sichuan Road on 2 July because a renegade betrayed him. He was executed in Shanghai on 19 July.