Wang Ming (; May 23, 1904 – March 27, 1974) was a Chinese politician and senior leader of the early Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He led the CCP delegation to the Communist International (Comintern) from 1931 to 1937. After returning to China, he came into conflict with Mao Zedong.

From 1925 to 1929, Wang studied in Moscow at the Sun Yat-sen University, where he was a supporter of Joseph Stalin's during the Soviet Union's leadership struggles. After returning to China, he was briefly purged by Li Lisan's faction before being fully reinstated in late 1930. In January 1931, he was promoted to the Politburo and rose rapidly in importance during a time of high attrition in the CCP's top leadership due to purges, arrests, and flights into hiding.

Wang became the CCP's leading representative to the Comintern and left for Moscow in October 1931. In that role, he helped promote the idea of an alliance between the CCP and the Kuomintang (KMT) to resist Japanese imperialism, which would eventually come to fruition as the Second United Front. After he returned to China in 1937, Wang vocally opposed what he saw as Mao's "nationalist deviation" from orthodox Marxism–Leninism. According to Mao, Wang epitomized the intellectualism and foreign dogmatism Mao criticized in his essays On Practice and On Contradiction.

Early life

thumb|left|Wang Ming and his wife Meng Qingshu, 1938, Hankou

On May 23, 1904, Wang Ming 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 Agricultural School of the Anhui Province, which was founded by the revolutionary Zhu Yunshan. Zhu had a strong influence on the school's students, introducing many progressive journals and books such as New Youth and Communism ABC. In the school, Wang would encounter another strong influential figure in his life, A Ying, his teacher. A Ying would teach Wang about Vladimir Lenin and Chen Duxiu.

During his school years, Wang was also active in the 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 revolution and communism. That same year he joined the May 30 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

thumb|left|upright=1.2|Members of the [[Executive Committee of the Comintern at the 7th World Congress, 1935.<br /><small>Seated (L-R): Georgi Dimitrov, Palmiro Togliatti, Wilhelm Florin, Wang Ming.<br />Standing: Otto Kuusinen, Dmitry Manuilsky, Klement Gottwald, Wilhelm Pieck.</small>]]

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 () 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. 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 became the most important CCP leaders left in the city. 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.

thumb|Wang Ming in 1938

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.") 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

thumb|Wang Ming and his wife visiting the Soviet Union with their two sons, October 1950

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.

Notes

References

Sources

  • Wang Ming, 50 Years of the CCP, Orient Press, 2004
  • The Revolutionary Movement in the Colonial Countries - Speech at Seventh Comintern Congress, 1935