Zhang Wentian (30 August 1900 – 1 July 1976) was a Chinese politician who was a high-ranking leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Born in Nanhui, he attended the Hohai Civil Engineering School in Nanjing and spent a year at the University of California. He later joined the CCP in 1925 and was sent to study at Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow, from 1926 to 1930. He was a member of the group known as the 28 Bolsheviks, but switched to supporting Mao Zedong during the Long March. He was General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party from 1935 to 1943, when the post was abolished.Snow, Edgar. Red Star Over China, Pelican edition 1972, page 553. He remained a member of the Politburo, but ranked 12th of 13 in the 7th Politburo and reduced to Alternate Member in the 8th Politburo.
He was First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China from December 1954 to November 1960.Zhang Wentian (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China) He was a participant of the Long March, and later served as an ambassador to the Soviet Union from April 1951 to January 1955. At the Lushan Conference in 1959 he supported Peng Dehuai and lost power along with Peng.Great Soviet Encyclopaedia During the Cultural Revolution he was attacked as an ally of Peng and Liu Shaoqi; he was rehabilitated by Deng Xiaoping after Mao's death.
Life
Early life On 30 August 1900, Zhang Wentian was born in Deng San Village, Nanhui, Jiangsu Province. Zhang's ancestors migrated to Pudong from Qinghe County to avoid the war. His grandfather Zhang Xiangfu and father Zhang Qimei were farmers, and his mother Jin Tianhua had attended a private school. Zhang Wentian was the eldest son of the family. In 1915, he was admitted to the Jiangsu Provincial Fisheries School (Wusong Fisheries School). After studying for two years, he decided to transfer because he could not physically get used to the studying environment there. In 1917, he entered the Hohai Civil Engineering School. At this point, Zhang Wentian became exposed to the Chen Duxiu's journal New Youth, and started to lean toward the idea of Bolshevik revolution.程中原, 张闻天传. p. 13.
After the outbreak of the May Fourth Movement in 1919, Zhang Wentian participated in student movements and began to engage himself in literary creation and translation. In July 1920, Zhang Wentian and his classmate Shen Zemin went to study in Japan. They studied Japanese, philosophy and other texts in social sciences.程中原, 张闻天传. pp. 23-24. In January 1921, Zhang Wentian returned to China, and became an editor for Zhonghua Book Company, working with colleagues Zuo Shunsheng, Tian Han, Li Da, He Shuheng.程中原, 张闻天传. p. 28. On January 5, 1922, Zhang Wentian published "China's Source of Chaos and Its Solution(中国底乱源及其解决)".程中原, 张闻天传. p. 30. The article stated: "We are so uneasy about this unreasonable society, but what methods should we use to transform it? What should it be transformed into? Nonresistance? Resistance? Anarchism? Socialism? Like the water flowing in the river, it constantly troubles me. However, life cannot continue without a decision. Then, naturally we cannot but go down the socialist road." In August, Zhang Wentian went to study in University of California, Berkeley at his own expense. He took several courses, but was not formally enrolled.程中原, 张闻天传. p. 40.
Zhang also participated in the Young China Association, a patriotic cultural society that promoted modernization and reform among Chinese students in the early 1920s.
Zhang Wentian returned home in January 1924, continuing his work as an editor for to Zhonghua Book Company.程中原. 张闻天传. p. 45. In October 1924, Zhang Wentian received an invitation from the Juvenile Chinese Society Chengdu branch and took up the job as an English teacher at the Second Chongqing Women's Normal School with colleagues and .程中原. 张闻天传. p. 53. In May 1925, Zhang Wentian left Sichuan and returned to Shanghai with Xiao Chunü to propagate revolutionary ideas.程中原. 张闻天传. p. 62. In June, Zhang Wentian was introduced by Shen Zemin and Dong Yixiang to join the Chinese Communist Party.程中原. 张闻天传. p. 64. He went to Moscow to study at Sun Yat-sen University in October.程中原. 张闻天传. p. 69.
While Zhang was studying and teaching in Moscow between 1925 and 1930, Nikolai Bukharin was still in power. Zhang learned about Bukarin's theory of allowing private rural economy through supply and marketing cooperatives, and this would later deeply influence Zhang's own policy perspectives. Zhang was much respected in the CCP circle for his thorough knowledge of Bukharin, in addition to Marxism and Leninism.Kong, Hanbing. ""Get Organized": The Impact of the Soviet Model on the CCP's Rural Economic Strategy, 1949-1953." In China Learns from the Soviet Union, 1949 - Present, edited by Thomas P. Bernstein and Li Hua-Yu, 167-196. 1st ed. Vol. 1. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2010. p.173.
In early 1928, some members of the Chinese Communist Party branch at Sun Yat-sen University were dissatisfied with the work of the school branch office. The school branch office ignored the leadership of the party and sought to restructure the Communist Party branch. The power struggle between the two factions in Moscow reached its peak in the summer of 1928, and a ten-day meeting was held to discuss the workings of the school office. The secretary of the Soviet Communist Party Committee supported the school branch office. Despite the opposition from majority of students, under the support of minority factions including Bo Gu and others, the vote was passed to support the school branch office. After the meeting, the proud supporters of the school branch office were given the nickname "28 Bolsheviks" by the oppositional faction, and Zhang Wentian was one of them.吴葆朴、李志英. 秦邦宪（博古）传. p. 62.
On 19 May 1930, Zhang Wentian published "On the Two Lines of Struggle." The article pointed out that the Communist Party not only needs to oppose the right-wing within the party, but also needs to oppose the left-wing inside the party.程中原. 张闻天传. p. 83. This article was considered to be directed against Li Lisan and his extremism which later came to be known as "Li Lisan line".程中原. 张闻天传. p. 84.
The First Chinese Civil War (1927-1937) In February 1931, Zhang Wentian returned to Shanghai, and soon served as the Minister of Publicity Department of the CCP Central Committee.程中原. 张闻天传. p. 88. In September of the same year, the provisional central political bureau was established by Bo Gu, Zhang Wentian, Lu Futan, Li Zhusheng, Kang Sheng, Chen Yun, Huang Ping, Liu Shaoqi, Wang Yun Cheng and other nine; Bo Gu, Zhang Wentian, Lu Futan as the Standing Committee.吴葆朴、李志英. 秦邦宪（博古）传. p. 85. After the outbreak of January 28 Incident in 1932, Zhang Wentian was disturbed by the class struggle mode of thinking, which denounced the Nineteenth Route Army generals as reactionary and counter-revolutionary "anti-Japanese warlords". He pointed out that the Party's strategy is "supporting the soldiers to struggle against Japan automatically and to oppose their superiors, using every opportunity to expose the deceptions of these officials" and making them to think that "they must kill their reactionary superiors in order to win the war."
In December 1932, the Shanghai underground party was once again destroyed.程中原. 张闻天传. p. 106. Lu Futan and others in Politburo Standing Committee were arrested, resulting in Zhang Wentian, Chen Yun and others to almost get arrested. In January 1933, Zhang Wentian moved to the Central Soviet Area with the temporary central government, and served as the Minister of the Central Bureau of the Soviet Union, and as the chairman of Ruijin Workers and Peasants Democratic Government.程中原. 张闻天传. p. 107.
At that time, the Nationalist Government was preparing for the Fourth Encirclement Campaign against the Jiangxi Soviet. Chiang Kai-shek personally commanded the attack. Bo Gu held a meeting of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, arguing that they should stick to their positions. This proposal has been opposed by the Chinese Communist Party Fujian Provincial Party Secretary Luo Ming, who said that they should continue the guerrilla warfare since people do not have the strength to resist long-term warfare. Luo Ming pointed out straightforwardly that the resolution of the Central Bureau was an "empty preaching".吴葆朴、李志英. 秦邦宪（博古）传. pp. 110-111. Bo Gu was enraged and wrote "The Central Bureau's position about Decisions from Fujian Provincial Committee," in which he accused Luo Ming of "opportunism" (Luo Ming doctrine), followed by the launching of anti-Luo Ming campaign. Many grassroots and front-line cadres involved were dismissed from their posts.
On 18 February 1933, Zhang Wentian published an article entitled "What is the opportunist line of Comrade Luo Ming" published in the Struggle, a bulletin for the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.张闻天，责任编辑：萧淮苏(1995). 张闻天文集·第一卷. 北京: 中共党史出版社. p. 325. . Since then, Bo Gu criticised "Jiangxi Luo Ming line," and Zhang Wentian also published "Luo Ming line in Jiangxi," "Fire toward the Opportunism of the Right-wing" and other articles to support Bo Gu's action. Communist cadre including Zhang Dingcheng, Liu Xiao, Deng Xiaoping, Mao Zedong, Xie Weijun, and He Shushing were criticised as followers of the "Luo Ming line".程中原. 张闻天传. p. 111.
In January 1934, Zhang Wentian was elected member of the Central Political Bureau and secretary of the Central Committee of the Fifth Plenary Session of the Sixth CCP Central Committee. In February, he was elected as the Chairman of Central Government People's Committee.程中原. 张闻天传. p. 124. After the fall of Guangchang, Zhang Wentian criticized the military command of Bo Gu, Li De (Otto Braun) and others at the first meeting of the Central Military Commission, and began to be estranged from them.程中原. 张闻天传. p. 122. In August 1934, the authorities of the Central Soviet area stationed at Shazhou Dam was bombed by the Kuomintang, and they were forced to relocate to Ruijin. Since then, Zhang Wentian began to communicate with Mao Zedong and became close to him.程中原. 张闻天传. p. 126.
In October 1934, Zhang Wentian participated in the Long March with Mao Zedong and Wang Jiaxiang.程中原. 张闻天传. p. 130. Three people communicated many times during the march on the way and formed an alliance against Bo Gu and Li De.程中原. 张闻天传. p. 131. On 15 January 1935, the First Red Army occupied Zunyi, Guizhou during the Long March, and held a meeting. At the meeting, Bo Gu took the lead in making a report to discuss the errors of military command during the fifth anti-encirclement campaign, but mainly asserted that the difficulties were unavoidable due to circumstances.程中原. 张闻天传. p. 135. Zhou Enlai then made a deputy report, saying that it was the tactical errors made by the military command, and admitted responsibility.程中原. 张闻天传. p. 137. It was followed by Zhang Wentian's report opposing the Central Committee's military strategy that solely focused on defense. Then, Mao Zedong made a long speech, pointing out that the cause of serious loss and defeat in the fifth anti-encirclement campaign was due to the military's simple defense line, and this was manifest in the adventurism during the attack, the conservatism during the defense, and conservatism during the sortie.程中原. 张闻天传. p. 136. Mao Zedong had planned this outline in advance with Wang Jiaxiang and Zhang Wentian. Immediately, Wang Jiaxiang, Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi expressed agreement. The meeting was held for three days, and the final decision was to dismiss the leadership of Bo Gu, Li De, and Zhou Enlai.程中原. 张闻天传. p. 139. Mao Zedong was co-opted onto the standing committee of the CCP Central Committee Political Bureau by military commanders Zhu De and Zhou Enlai, and was also restored to the position as the military commander of the Red Army.程中原. 张闻天传. p. 138.