Zhang Guotao (Simplified Chinese: 张国焘; Traditional Chinese: 張國燾; pinyin: Zhāng Guótāo; Wade-Giles: Chang Kuo-t'ao; 1897 - December 3, 1979) was a founding member and leader of the Communist Party of China (CPC) during the late 1920s and 1930s. He wrote several memoirs on the CPC that provide valuable information on its early history. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Traditional Chinese (Traditional Chinese: 正體字/繁體字, Simplified Chinese: 正体字/繁体字) refers to one of two standard sets of printed Chinese characters. ... Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ), commonly called Pinyin, is the most common variant of Standard Mandarin romanization system in use. ... Wade-Giles, sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a Romanization (phonetic notation and transliteration) system for the Chinese language based on Mandarin. ... 1897 (MDCCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... December 3 is the 337th (in leap years the 338th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the song by the Smashing Pumpkins, see 1979 (song). ... The Communist Party of China (CPC) (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ), also known as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the ruling political party of the Peoples Republic of China, a position guaranteed by the countrys constitution. ...

Early and student life

Born in Pingxiang County, Jiangxi Province, Zhang was involved in revolutionary activities during his youth. Zhang studied Marxist thought 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 CPC in October 1920. At the same time, Mao Zedong was a librarian working at Peking University and was unknown to the public. It is uncertain whether Zhang and Mao became acquainted with each other at that time. Zhang attended the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 1921 and was elected a member of the Central Bureau of the CPC in charge of organising the work of Professional revolutionaries. After the congress, Zhang held the position of Director of Secretariat of the China Labor Union and Chief Editor of Labor Weekly, from which he became an expert in labor unions and mobilization. He led several major strikes of railway and textile workers, which gave him great prestige and made him a pioneer of the labor movement in China along with such figures as Liu Shaoqi and Li Lisan. Pingxiang (simplified Chinese: 萍乡, pinyin: Píngxiāng) is a medium-sized prefecture-level city located in western Jiangxi province, China. ... Jiangxi (Chinese: 江西; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chiang-hsi; Postal System Pinyin: Kiangsi) is a southern province of the Peoples Republic of China, spanning from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south. ... Marxism refers to the philosophy and social theory based on Karl Marxs work on one hand, and the political practice based on Marxist theory on the other hand (namely, parts of the First International during Marxs time, communist parties and later states). ... Li Dazhao (李大釗, Wades-Giles: Li Ta-chao) (October 29, 1888 - April 28, 1927) was a Chinese intellectual who cofounded the Communist Party of China with Chen Duxiu in 1921. ... Peking University (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ; pinyin: Běijīng Dàxué), colloquially known in Chinese as Beida (北大, Běidà), was established in 1898, and is one of the oldest universities in China. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... “Mao” redirects here. ... Look up cadre in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This is a Chinese name; the family name is 劉 (Liu) Liu Shaoqi (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Liú Shàoqí; Wade-Giles: Liu Shao-chi) (November 24, 1898 – November 12, 1969) was a Chinese Communist leader. ... Lǐ Lìsān (李立三, Wade-Giles: Li Li-san) (March 1899 - June 22, 1967) was a Chinese communist leader in early stage, the actual paramount leader of the Chinese Communist Party from 1928 to 1930. ...

Communist Party career

In 1924 Zhang attended the First National Congress of the Kuomintang during the policy of alliance between the Communists and the Kuomintang and was elected as Substitute Commissioner of Central Executive Committee. This was despite the fact that Zhang had opposed the alliance with Kuomintang in the Third National Congress of the CPC and had been reprimanded. In 1925 in the Fourth National Congress of the CCP, Zhang was elected Commissioner of Central Committee of CPC and Director of Labor & Peasant Work Department. In 1926 Zhang was the General Secretary of Hubei Division of CPC, and in 1927 he was Commissioner of Interim Central Committee of the CPC after the failure of the CPC uprising. Zhang with Li Lisan and Qu Qiubai were the acting leaders of the CPC. At that time Mao only led a small number of troops in Jiangxi and Hunan. In 1928 Zhang was elected as a member of the politburo of the CPC in the Sixth National Congress held in Soviet Union, and then as delegate of the CPC in Comintern. But because of his disagreements with the Soviet Union and Comintern policies on the Chinese revolution, in the 1920s Zhang was taken into custody and punished in order to correct his mistakes. However, due to his fame and popularity in the communist world, he wasn't executed or exiled like other dissidents were at that time. The Kuomintang of China (abbreviation KMT) (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Tongyong Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chung1-kuo2 Kuo2-min2-tang3)[1], also often translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party, is a political party in the Republic of China, now on Taiwan, and is currently the largest political party in... Hubei (Chinese: 湖北; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Hu-pei; Postal System Pinyin: Hupeh) is a central province of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Lǐ Lìsān (李立三, Wade-Giles: Li Li-san) (March 1899 - June 22, 1967) was a Chinese communist leader in early stage, the actual paramount leader of the Chinese Communist Party from 1928 to 1930. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Jiangxi (Chinese: 江西; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chiang-hsi; Postal System Pinyin: Kiangsi) is a southern province of the Peoples Republic of China, spanning from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south. ...   (Chinese: ; pinyin: Húnán) is a province of China, located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting (hence the name Hunan, meaning south of the lake). Hunan is sometimes called 湘 (pinyin: Xiāng) for short, after the Xiang River which runs through the... Politburo is short for Political Bureau. ... The Comintern (Russian: Коммунистический Интернационал, Kommunisticheskiy Internatsional – Communist International, also known as the Third International) was an international Communist organization founded in March 1919, in the midst of the war communism period (1918-1921), by Vladimir Lenin and the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik), which intended to fight by all available means, including...

In 1931 Zhang expressed his repentance and was sent back to China by the Comintern to clean up the mess left by the power struggle between the 28 Bolsheviks, Li Lisan, and other old CPC members. Zhang used his fame and popularity to correct their extremism and appeased the old CPC members. But the damage done by the power struggle was so great that it was too difficult for the CPC to survive in the cities governed by the Kuomintang. Therefore, Zhang and other acting CPC leaders decided to move their groups to bases in the countryside. Zhang was assigned to lead the daily operation of Eryuwan Revolutionary Base at the border of Hubei, Henan, and Anhui provinces as General Secretary and chairman of the military committee, and then Vice Chairman of the Interim Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic when Mao was the chairman. Possibly influenced by life in Stalin's Soviet Union, Zhang carried out cruel cleansings to persecute dissidents which resulted in his defeat and evacuation in 1932. 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1931 calendar). ... The Twenty Eight Bolsheviks were a group of Chinese students who studied at the Moscow Sun Yat-sen University from the late 1920s until early 1935. ... Hubei (Chinese: 湖北; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Hu-pei; Postal System Pinyin: Hupeh) is a central province of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Henan (Chinese: 河南; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Ho-nan), is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. ... Anhui (Chinese: 安徽; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: An-hui; Postal System Pinyin: Ngan-hui, Anhwei or An-hwei) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Anhui (Chinese: 安徽; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: An-hui; Postal System Pinyin: Ngan-hui, Anhwei or An-hwei) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China. ... “Stalin” redirects here. ...

Military leadership

In 1932 Zhang led the 4th Red Army into Sichuan and set up another base. Slowly he turned it into a prosperous autonomous region by way of land reform and enlisting the support of locals. However, once the prosperity was in reach, Zhang repeated the Stalinist style purges again, as a result, he and the Red Army lost the popular support, and was driven from the Red base and had to start their part of the Long March. In 1935 Zhang and his troops of more than 80,000 reunited with Mao's 7,000 troops in Sichuan after the Long March. It was Zhang's arrogance due to his superior strength at this time which sowed the seeds of conflict between the two men. It was not long before Mao and Zhang were locked in disagreements over issues of strategy and tactics, causing a split in the Red Army. The main disagreement was the Zhang's insistence on moving southward to establish a new base in the region of Sichuan that are populated by minorities. Mao correctly pointed out the flaws of such move, pointing out the difficulties to establish any communist base in regions where the general populace was hostile, and insisted on moving northward to reach the communist base in Shaanxi. Zhang tried have Mao and his followers arrest and killed if needed, but his plan was foiled by his own staff member Ye Jianying and Yang Shangkun, who fled to Mao's headquarter to inform Mao about Zhang's plot, taking the all of the code books and maps with them. As a result, Mao immeidately moved his troop northward and thus escaped arrest and possible death. Year 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ...   (Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: SzÅ­4-chuan1; Postal map spelling: Szechwan and Szechuan) is a province in the central-western China with its capital at Chengdu. ... Overview map of the course of the Long March The Long March (Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ChángzhÄ“ng) was a massive military retreat undertaken by the armies of the Communist Party of China with the support of the Peoples Liberation Army, to evade the turning point of the Kuomintang... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar). ...   (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ShÇŽnxÄ«; Wade-Giles: Shan-hsi; Postal map spelling: Shensi) is a north-central province of the Peoples Republic of China, and includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River as well as the Qinling Mountains across the... Bo Gu, Ye Jianying and Zhou Enlai in Xian Ye Jianying (simplified Chinese: 叶剑英) (Wade-Giles:Yeh Chien-ying) (April 28, 1897-October 22, 1986) was a Chinese Communist general and the chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress from 1978 to 1983. ... Yáng ShàngkÅ«n (May 25, 1907–September 14, 1998) was President of the Peoples Republic of China from 1988 to 1993, and was permanent Vice-chair of the Central Military Commission. ...

Zhang decided to carry out his plan on his own, with disastrous results: over 75% of his original 80,000 + troops was lost in his adventure. Zhang was forced to admit defeat and retreat to the communist base in Shaanxi, as Mao had predicted. More disastrous than losing most of his troops, the failure discredited Zhang among his own followers, who turned to Mao. Furthermore, because all of the code books were obtained by Mao, Zhang lost contact with Comintern while Mao was able to establish the link, this coupled with the fact of Zhang's disastrous defeat, discredited Zhang within Comintern, which begun to give greater support for Mao.

Zhang's remaing troops of 21,800 were later annihilated in 1936 by the superior force of more than 100,000 combined troops of warlords Ma Bufang, Ma Hongbin and Ma Zhongying during efforts to cross the Yellow River and conquer Ma's territory. Zhang lost the power and influence to be able to challenge Mao and had to accept his failure as a result of the disaster which only left him 427 surviving troops from the original 21,800. 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Ma Bufang 馬步芳, (1903-1975), was a prominent Ma clique warlord in China during the Republic of China era, ruling the northwestern province of Qinghai. ... Ma Hongbin 馬鴻賓 (b. ... Ma Chung-ying (Ma Zhongying ) was Hui (Chinese Muslim) leader and a warlord of the Gansu province during the 1930s period. ... The Yellow River or Golden River (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ; Hanyu Pinyin:  ; Wade-Giles: Hwang-ho, sometimes simply called the River in ancient Chinese) is the second longest river in China (after Yangtze River) and the seventh longest in the world, at 5464 km long [1]. Originating in the Bayankala...

End of CPC career and exile

When Zhang reached the new CPC base at Yanan, he had fallen from power and became an easy target for Mao. Zhang kept the now figurehead position of Chairman of Yanan 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 CPC 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 CPC. All five were tortured and executed in a prison under the control Sheng Shicai, having been labeled as Trotskyists. However, Sheng Shicai was acting under direction from the CPC under Wang Ming. After that incident, Zhang despised Wang and would never consider supporting him. Yanan (延安, pinyin Yánān, or Yen-an in Wade-Giles), is a city in Shaanxi province, China. ... This article needs copyediting (checking for proper English spelling, grammar, usage, etc. ... Location Position of Moscow in Europe Government Country District Subdivision Russia Central Federal District Federal City Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov Geographical characteristics Area  - City 1,081 km² Population  - City (2007)    - Density 10,469,000   9684. ... Sheng Shicai (Chinese: 盛世才; Pinyin: Shèng Shìcái; Wade-Giles: Sheng Shih-tsai) (1897 - 1970) was a Chinese warlord who ruled Xinjiang from 1933 to 1944. ... For the county in Shanxi province, see Xinjiang County. ... Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. ...

Without any supporters, Zhang was purged in 1937 at the Extended Meeting of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China, after which he defected to the Kuomintang in 1938. But without any power, resources, and support, Zhang never held any important positions afterwards and only did research on the CPC for Dai Li. After the defeat of the Kuomintang in 1949 he went into exile in Hong Kong and later in Toronto Canada. There he died in a beadhouse during an unusually cold winter in 1979, having converted to Christianity the year before. The Politburo of the Communist Party of China ( Chinese: 中国共产党中央政治局 pinyin: Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng Zhōngyāng Zhèngzhìjú) is a group of 19 to 25 people who oversee the Communist Party... Dai Li General Dai Li (戴笠) (Tai Li) (1897-1946) was born in Zhejiang Province, China, the home province of President Chiang Kai-shek, and studied at the Whampoa Military Academy, where Chiang served as president. ...