Zhang Guotao (November 26, 1897 – December 3, 1979) was a Chinese revolutionary who was a founding member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and rival to Mao Zedong. During the 1920s, he studied in the Soviet Union and became a key contact with the Communist International, organizing the CCP labor movement in the First United Front with the Kuomintang. From 1931 to 1932, after the CCP had been driven from the cities, Zhang was placed in charge of the Eyuwan Soviet. When his armies were driven from the region, he joined the Long March but lost a contentious struggle for party leadership to Mao Zedong. Zhang's armies then took a different route from Mao's and were badly beaten by local Muslim Ma clique forces in Gansu. When his depleted forces finally arrived to join Mao in Yan'an, Zhang continued his losing challenge to Mao, and left the party in 1938. Zhang eventually retired to Canada in 1968. He became a Christian shortly before his death in Scarborough, Ontario (a suburb of Toronto), in 1979. His memoirs provide valuable and vivid information on his life and party history.

Early and student life

Born in Pingxiang County, Jiangxi, Zhang was involved in revolutionary activities during his youth. Zhang studied Marxism under Li Dazhao while attending Peking University in 1916. After his active role in the May Fourth Movement in 1919, Zhang became one of the most prominent student leaders and later joined the early organization of the CCP in October 1920. At the same time, Mao Zedong was a librarian working at Peking University; the two knew each other. Zhang acted as the CCP's top party official at the first National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921

End of CCP career and exile

thumb|Zhang with Mao Zedong in Yan'an, 1938

When Zhang reached the new CCP base at Yan'an, he had fallen from power and became an easy target for Mao. Zhang kept the now figurehead position of Chairman of Yan'an Frontier Area and was frequently subjected to humiliation by Mao and his allies. Zhang was too proud to ally with Wang Ming, who had recently come back from Moscow and was acting as the Comintern's representative in China. Zhang's popularity in the Comintern might have given him another chance of returning to power if he had allied with Wang. Another reason why Zhang did not ally with Wang was that Wang boasted that it was under his order that five senior CCP leaders (Yu Xiusong, Huang Chao, Li Te, and two others—all opponents of Wang) had been arrested, and now worked for warlord Sheng Shicai in Xinjiang under the direction of the CCP. All five were tortured and executed in a prison under the control of Sheng Shicai, having been labeled as Trotskyists. However, Sheng Shicai was acting under direction from the CCP under Wang Ming. After that incident, Zhang despised Wang and would never consider supporting him.

Without any supporters, Zhang was purged in 1937 at the Extended Meeting of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, after which he defected to the Kuomintang in 1938. But without any power, resources, and support, Zhang never held any important positions afterward and only did research on the CCP for Dai Li. After the defeat of the Kuomintang in 1949 he went into exile in Hong Kong. He emigrated to Canada with his wife Tzi Li Young in 1968 to join their two sons who were already living in Toronto.

References

Further reading

  • Chang Kuo-t'ao, The Rise of the Chinese Communist Party (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1971).
  • Tony Saich, ed. with a contribution from Benjamin Yang, The Rise to Power of the Chinese Communist Party: Documents and Analysis (Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1996 ). Extensive commentary and primary documents.
  • Sun Shuyun, The Long March (London: HarperCollins, 2006).
  • Benjamin Yang (Bingzhang Yang), From Revolution to Politics: Chinese Communists on the Long March. (Boulder: Westview, 1990; 338p. ). Detailed analysis of the conflict with Mao after the Zunyi Conference.
  • Bill Schiller, "The man who could have been Mao", The Toronto Star, September 26, 2009. Useful summary of Zhang's life based largely on Chang Jung, Jon Halliday, Mao The Unknown Story (2005).