History of China from 1600 to 1987 - Page 10

History of China: A College Paper By Paul Noll

L. Mao Zedong Emerges

In 1917, Mao Zedong the future leader of the CCP published his first essay. Mao studied the works of Mill, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Spencer, and Kant. Sympathy for the fledgling Soviet Union reached new levels when the Russians in 1919 announced that the government renounced the past policies of Tsarist Imperialism. Henceforth, the Soviet Union would relinquish its special rights in Manchuria, cancel all Tsarist secret treaties with China, Japan and the European powers, cancel all indemnities due to the Boxer Uprising, and return the rail line to the Chinese without any demands for compensation. This, in so much contrast with the other Western powers, made the Soviet Union appear as China's truest friend. By 1919 Mao and some friends met regularly in a study group in Beijing under the leadership of Li Dazhao. Despite their initial enthusiasm for Bolshevism and Marxism, a need remained to reformulate certain Marxist principles to have relevance to social conditions in China. Li wrote on the need for intellectuals to work along side the farmers in the field to escape the corrupting effects of city life.

A group of Chinese went to France to do work study with a socialist organization. Among these students, several figured prominently in future Chinese politics. Among these, Zhou Enlai, leader of the May Fourth movement, and Deng Xiao Ping attended demonstrations and worked as political activists in other ways. By 1922, the CCP had about 200 members and climbing to 300 by 1923. In 1922, the Soviet Union invited 40 Chinese delegates to Moscow to participate in a meeting of "Toilers of the Far East." By 1924, the Soviet Union gained diplomatic recognition by China. The Soviets sent Borodin to work with both the Nationalists and the CCP. He succeeded in setting up the Whampoa Military Academy and got Zhou Enlai as its first commandant. They received first class military training using some Soviet advisors. This academy would graduate 7795 officers by 1926. One of the new officers Lin Biao would play an important part in the CCP struggle to unify the nation under the banner of the CCP.

Sun Yat-sen died from cancer in 1925. The government gained several important victories over various warlords by the Whampoa-led armies and the Soviet advisors particularly at the military academy showed pleasure. In 1926 an incident with a gunboat commanded by a CCP officer occurred. Chiang was alarmed and arrested the officer and thirty Russian advisors. He also held a number of senior CCP commissars for "retraining". He forbade any CCP members to hold office and demanded a list of CCP member to be turned over to the government.

A series of incidents showed that the Chinese had become irritated enough at the foreign influence that they would riot in defense. At that time, the foreign powers also showed that they would fire upon Chinese crowds and the Americans would shell Chinese cities. At that time, the foreigners had 22,000 troops in Shanghai along with 42 warships at anchor with 129 additional warships in Chinese waters.