Chinese Communists in Austria and Germany and Their Later Activities in China

Asian and African studies XI, 1-2(2007), pp. 21 −30

Thomas KAMPEN ∗

Abstract This article provides a brief survey of the Chinese communists who lived in Germany and Austria form the early 1920s to the late 1930s. As there were only around forty (identifiable) Party members and as the availability of biographical data on Chinese communists has dramatically improved during the 1990s, it is now possible to look at the identities and activities (in Germany and China) of most of them. They include well-known Party leaders (Zhou Enlai and Zhu De), senior government and party officials (Cheng Fangwu and Liu Ding), communist academics and spies (Du Renzhi and Liu Simu) as well as early ‘martyrs’ (Xiong Rui and Xiong Xiong), ‘Trotskyites’ (Gao Yuhan and Li Ji) and independent-minded intellectuals who left the Chinese Communist Party in the mid-twenties (Liu Qingyang and Zhang Shenfu). The paper is based on files of the Comintern Archive in Moscow, the Bundesarchiv in Berlin, the municipal archive of Göttingen and numerous Chinese memoirs and reference works.

Keywords : Chinese Communist Party, Communist International, People’s Republic of China, Germany, Austria, students, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De

In the first half of the 20 th century, most of the Chinese communists who studied abroad (Wang 1992) went to just three countries:

− Japan (Chen Duxiu, Dong Biwu, Guo Moruo, Li Da, Li Dazhao, Lin Boqu and Wang Xuewen), − France (Cai Chang, Cai Hesen, Chen Qiaonian, Chen Yannian, Deng Xiaoping, Fu Zhong, He Yiduan, Li Fuchun, Li Weihan, Nie Rongzhen, Ouyang Qin, Xiao San and Zhao Shiyan), − and the Soviet Union (Ke Qingshi, Kong Yuan, Li Qiang, Li Zhusheng, Liu Shaoqi, Qin Bangxian, Shen Zemin, Sheng Zhongliang, Wang

∗ Thomas Kampen, PhD, University of Heidelberg, e-mail: [email protected] 21 Thomas Kampen: Chinese Communists in Austria and Germany

Jiaxiang, Wang Ming, Wu Xiuquan, Xu Guangda, Yang Shangkun, Zhang Qinqiu and Zhang Wentian). 1

Japan was cheap and near, France and the Soviet Union actively encouraged Chinese to study and work there. As there were thousands of Chinese students in each of these countries their activities have received a lot of attention and they have been covered by numerous publications (Sheng 1971; Price 1976; Levine 1993; Kampen forthcoming). But smaller numbers of Chinese students and Chinese communists also went to other European countries, including Germany and Austria. Before 1920, both countries, which were among the losers in World War I, were not attractive for Chinese leftists. Most of the students who went there were interested in natural sciences, technology, medicine and philosophy; some were attracted by Prussian militarism and, later, fascism. 2

In Europe

In the early 1920s, the main reasons for settling in Germany were high inflation, cheap rents and low prices for foreigners (with foreign currency). We find the following description of living conditions in post-World-War Berlin in the memoirs of Zheng Chaolin:

“In France, I had never lived in such a splendid house. None of the work-study students, semi-official students, or self-financing students had ever, as far as I know, lived in such beautiful accommodations. The landlady was an army officer’s widow. Her daughter, who was engaged to be married, used to play the piano every day in the drawing room. To supplement their income, they rented out their best rooms to foreigners. ” (1997: 42)

Berlin was also a centre of activities of the Communist International and associated organisations, e.g. the Anti-Imperialist League, the International Workers Aid (IAH) and International Press Correspondence. As travelling between Paris, London, Brussels and Moscow increased, hundreds of Chinese communist passed through Berlin and some stayed there for a few months or years. In addition to Berlin, the major centres of Chinese student activities were Göttingen and Frankfurt, but it seems there were no comparable activities in the university cities of Bonn, Cologne, Leipzig

1 Very few Chinese communists (Chen Zhongjing, Ji Chaoding, Rao Shushi, Shen Jian, Tang Mingzhao, Xiong Xianghui and Zhang Wentian) went to America which was very popular for KMT students. The United States and the United Kingdom were too expensive for most Chinese communists; as the main imperialist power of the 19 th and early 20 th century, the UK also had a very negative image. 2 One prominent example was Chiang Kai-shek’s son Wei-kuo. 22 Asian and African studies XI, 1-2(2007), pp. 21 −30 or Munich; Hamburg with its big harbour was important for organising Chinese seamen. 3

Chinese communists in Germany included:

− Zhang Shenfu, Liu Qingyang, Zhou Enlai, Zhang Bojian, Zhang Bojun, Zheng Taipu, Zi Daokun, Wang Gui, Xia Xiufang, Liao Huanxing, Cheng Fangwu, Hu Lanqi, Jiang Longji, Wang Bingnan, Yang Yizhi, Zhang Wenjin and Zhang Tiesheng (in Berlin); − Pan Fang, Li Ji, Du Renzhi and Liu Simu (in Frankfurt); − Zhu De, Fang Shiliang, Li Fujing, Liu Ding, Sun Bingwen, Wu Zhaogao and Xie Weijin (in Göttingen); − Dong Wenqiao and Liao Chengzhi (in Hamburg).

Liu Simu and Yang Yizhi also lived in Austria. The first Chinese communists arrived in Berlin in 1921 and 1922, and soon afterwards Zhang Shenfu (from Hebei, 1893 −1986) established the first communist cell in Berlin (Schwarcz 1992), which was the centre of communist activities in Germany. Following a disagreement (and power struggle) with Zhou Enlai, Zhang Shenfu, Liu Qingyang and some other early activists left Germany and withdrew from the Chinese Communist Party (ibid.: 117). These included some intellectuals later regarded as Trotskyites. After 1923, the CCP’s leading activists in Berlin were Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Liao Huanxing, Xie Weijin, Cheng Fangwu, Liao Chengzhi, Wang Bingnan and Zhang Tiesheng. The Chinese communists in Germany had originally little contact with the Communist International and the German Communist Party (KPD), but this changed in 1925. After Zhou Enlai’s departure in summer 1924, Liao Huanxing (from Hunan, 1895 −1964), a friend of Chen Duxiu, Dong Biwu and Mao Zedong, was the main communist activist and a proponent of the First United Front in Germany (Kampen 2001c). In public he represented the KMT, but secretly worked for the Communist Party and the Communist International. He was a friend of Willi Münzenberg, who was a leading member of the German Communist Party and the head of International Workers Aid (IAH). In early 1927, both organised the Anti-Imperialist Conference in Brussels and established the Anti-Imperialist League. Liao also worked with Karl August Wittfogel a sinologist and Communist Party member who was writing a book about Sun Yatsen (Wittfogel 1927). Liao Huanxing was married to a German woman and he spoke German better than most of the other Chinese communists. Following

3 Austrian university towns became important after the Nazi victory in Germany in 1933 when many Chinese communists left the country. 23 Thomas Kampen: Chinese Communists in Austria and Germany the breakdown of the First United Front in summer 1927 and the failure of the Canton Uprising in late 1927, which led to a more leftist Comintern policy, Liao Huanxing lost his position and was transferred to Moscow.

In the late 1920s, Cheng Fangwu (from Hunan, 1897 −1984) and Xie Weijin (from Sichuan, 1904-1978) 4 played a major role in Germany (Cheng Fangwu zhuan 1988). Cheng left Berlin in 1931 and went to one of the communist bases in China, but Xie Weijin stayed in Berlin until 1933, then fled to Switzerland and later participated in the Spanish Civil War. Xie Weijin had contact with the communist journalist Egon Erwin Kisch in Berlin and was involved in the planning of Kisch’s trip to China which led to the publication of the book Secret China . Xie met Kisch again when both went to Spain five years later.

Hu Lanqi (from Sichuan, 1901 −1994) a friend and secretary of Song Qingling, was the most important woman among the communists; in Berlin, she had contacts with some prominent German communists, including Klara Zetkin and the famous writer Anna Seghers (Hu Lanqi huiyilu 1987). In 1933, Hu Lanqi was briefly arrested by the Nazis and, after her release, fled to France; after visits to London and Moscow she returned to China (Kampen 2001a).

Liao Chengzhi (born in Tokyo, 1908 −1983), the son of the assassinated KMT leader Liao Zhongkai, who was mainly involved in the organisation of Chinese seamen, lived in Rotterdam, Hamburg and Berlin, where his mother and sister stayed (Radtke 1990). Du Renzhi and Liu Simu studied philosophy in Frankfurt. After 1933, Wang Bingnan was the most important Chinese communist in Germany and studied at Berlin University; in 1936 he returned to China with his wife Anna Wang (Wang 1964). After that, only Qiao Guanhua – foreign minister in the 1970s – stayed on, but he was quite isolated in the small university town of Tübingen where he did his PhD.

Back in China

Some Chinese communists returned to China in the early 1920s and soon left the Communist Party (Zhang Shenfu and Liu Qingyang); Li Ji and Gao Yuhan were regarded as Trotskyites; some were killed in or around 1927 when the CCP and KMT split (Sun Bingwen, Xiong Rui, Xiong Xiong and Zi Daokun); others soon rose in the CCP and Red Army hierarchies and became leading politicians (Zhou Enlai, Zhu De and Cheng Fangwu) or served as academics and spies (Chen Hansheng, Du Renzhi,

4 Xie Weijin first went to France and Great Britain, went to a school in Yorkshire, then studied with Liu Ding and Zhu De in Göttingen (Kampen 2001b). 24 Asian and African studies XI, 1-2(2007), pp. 21 −30

Liu Simu and Wu Zhaogao). Wang Bingnan, Qiao Guanhua, Zhang Tiesheng and Xie Weijin only returned to China in the second half of the 1930s and concentrated on united front and Anti-Japanese propaganda work. By 1940, all of the Chinese communists we know had left Germany.

Political and military leaders

Among the communists who studied in Germany, Zhou Enlai (from Jiangsu, 1898 −1976) and Zhu De (from Sichuan, 1886 −1976) were the most successful politicians. Zhu De went to the communist bases in 1927; Zhou Enlai joined the Northern Expedition, spent some years in Shanghai and went to the Jiangxi Soviet in late 1931. Both participated in the Long March and went to Yan’an. During the Anti- Japanese War, Zhu De was the main military leader, while Zhou Enlai mainly did united front work in Wuhan and Chongqing. At the Seventh CCP Congress in 1945 both were elected to the Secretariat of the Politburo. As their careers are well-known, it is not necessary to discuss them in detail, but it should be emphasized that they first met in Germany and that Zhou introduced Zhu to the Communist Party – long before they met Mao Zedong. Zhu De was later often described as close to Mao or Maoist, but he was originally closer to Zhou Enlai. Other important politicians were Liao Chengzhi, Wang Bingnan and Qiao Guanhua who were all involved in United Front Work and, after 1949, in foreign affairs. Their experiences abroad certainly contributed to their careers. Liu Ding (from Sichuan, 1903 −1986) who studied in Göttingen and was a friend of Agnes Smedley and Rewi Alley, played an important role as Zhang Xueliang’s adviser at the time of the Xi’an Incident (1936). Wang Bingnan advised general Yang Hucheng.

Academics and spies

The careers of Chen Hansheng (1897 −2004) (Chen 1988: 156f), Du Renzhi (1905 −1988) (Du 1983: 133ff), Liu Simu (1904 −1985) (Liu and Liu 1987: 118ff) and Wu Zhaogao (1899 −1973) are particularly interesting. In the 1920s and early 1930s, they all pursued academic studies in Germany – Chen Hansheng (from Jiangsu) studied politics in Berlin, Du Renzhi (from Shanxi) and Liu Simu (from Guangdong) studied philosophy in Frankfurt and Wu Zhaogao (from Henan) mathematics in Göttingen. In the 1930s, all worked for Richard Sorge’s spy ring in China. As Richard Sorge and most of the European members of his spy ring spoke German but no Chinese, German speaking Chinese were particularly useful as researchers,

25 Thomas Kampen: Chinese Communists in Austria and Germany interpreters and translators. 5 As some of them had studied with government scholarships they found it easy to get jobs in the central and provincial governments, universities and in related institutions. Chen Hansheng and his wife Gu Shuxing had already studied in the United States before they arrived in Germany in the early 1920s. At Berlin University Chen Hansheng did his PhD and later also visited the Soviet Union. When he met Richard Sorge in Shanghai he was doing economic surveys in Eastern China (Chen 1988: 158f). Chen and his wife were also good friends of the German communist Ruth Werner (1907 −2000) and the American journalist Agnes Smedley (1892 −1950). All of them also had close contacts with Sun Yat-sen’s widow Song Qingling (1893 −1981) (Werner 1991: 54ff). Wu Zhaogao already played an important role in communist politics in Germany and participated in the second meeting of the Anti-Imperialist League in Frankfurt; in the late 1920s, he and his German wife Irene were transferred to Moscow and he worked for the Communist International. After some training both were sent to Shanghai where Wu Zhaogao worked for Richard Sorge and his wife operated the leftist Zeitgeist book store (ibid.: 60f). After Sorge left China, Wu Zhaogao moved to Beijing where he became a university professor. He was involved in the December Ninth Movement in 1935 and was active in united front work during the Anti- Japanese War. 6 Du Renzhi and Liu Simu who had studied with Max Horkheimer and Karl Mannheim in Germany (Du 1983: 135ff), left the country when the Nazis took over in 1933 7 and soon returned to China. After their arrival in Shanghai, both were asked to work for Sorge’s spy ring. Liu Simu went to Nanjing to work in the KMT government, Du, a native of Shanxi, worked under warlord Yan Xishan in Taiyuan. After the arrest of Sorge’s successor Joseph Walden in 1935, Liu Simu managed to escape and first fled to Shanxi and then to the Taishan area where he was protected by the “Christian general” Feng Yuxiang. He later went to Japan and Hong Kong. Du stayed in Shanxi throughout the war and continued his underground work.

In the People’s Republic

After 1949, Zhou Enlai and Zhu De belonged to the Top Five of the communist leadership; Zhou was also prime minister and foreign minister. Liu Ding became

5 To avoid suspicions, Richard Sorge was instructed not to employ Russian speaking Chinese communists. For security reasons, he also preferred communists, who had not joined the CCP in China. 6 Wu Zhaogao’s wife seems to have returned to the Soviet Union in the mid-1930s, but details are not known. 7 Du fled to England, Liu to Vienna. 26 Asian and African studies XI, 1-2(2007), pp. 21 −30 government minister; Xu Bing headed the Central Committee’s United Front Department. At the Eighth CCP congress in 1956, Xu Bing, Zhou Enlai and Zhu De were elected to the Central Committee. Cheng Fangwu headed People’s University in Beijing for many years. Du Renzhi and Liu Simu both became leading academics and government officials. Liu Simu headed a school for international relations. Jiang Longji was party secretary and director of Lanzhou University. Wu Zhaogao headed a publishing house and was a high official in the education system. Chen Hansheng continued his economic studies but also worked for international propaganda, particularly for the journal China Reconstructs . Former communists Zhang Shenfu and Liu Qingyang cooperated with the new government but were criticized in the Cultural Revolution.

Statistics

Between the two World Wars, there were nearly fifty Chinese communists in Germany and Austria; we currently have names and some biographical details of about forty. The forty communists include only two women (Liu Qingyang and Hu Lanqi); this is a much smaller rate than for France and the Soviet Union. The reason is mainly that Chinese communists who went to Germany went as individuals and not in organised groups (which usually had a higher rate of women). In France and the Soviet Union, there were also more families (brothers and sisters like Cai Hesen and Cai Chang and, couples like Shen Zemin and Zhang Qinqiu). When we look at provincial origins we find a large number for Sichuan, including Dong Wenqiao, Hu Lanqi, Liu Ding, Sun Bingwen, Xie Weijin, Yang Yizhi and Zhu De, which corresponds to the statistics for France. This shows that young people from the centre of the middle kingdom had a strong motivation for studying abroad. 8 Most of these students arrived in the mid and late 1920s and most of them stayed in the CCP. There is a surprisingly high rate of students from Shaanxi, who often worked for the warlord Feng Yuxiang (1920s) and general Yang Hucheng (1930s). Among the early students there were many from Chen Duxiu’s home province Anhui and most of them knew him personally; most of these left the CCP, partly because they disagreed with Comintern policies and the United Front with the KMT; some later joined the smaller parties.

8 Before 1911, there was also a high rate of students from Sichuan in Japan and they played an important role in the Xinhai Revolution. 27 Thomas Kampen: Chinese Communists in Austria and Germany

Percentages of communists from Guangdong and Zhejiang are quite low, but most of the KMT students came form these provinces. Four of the 40 people were born in the 1880s, 12 in the 1890s, 13 in the 1900s and about ten after 1911; these numbers seem to be similar in the cases of France and the Soviet Union.

Conclusion

Between 1921 and 1938 nearly fifty Chinese communists studied in Germany and Austria. As the numbers were not very high, as they lived in different cities and as many died early or left the party, they did not have much contact with each other and there was no strong group of returnees from Germany in the CCP. But there were a few prominent politicians (Zhou Enlai), army leaders (Zhu De), diplomats (Liao Chengzhi and Wang Bingnan), intellectuals and spies (Chen Hansheng, Liu Simu and Wu Zhaogao). If we look at the returned students in 1949 we see three different groups:

− those who died early, were expelled from the CCP, or left the CCP: Gao Yuhan, Li Ji, Sun Bingwen, Xiong Rui, Xiong Xiong and Zhang Shenfu; − senior Party and government officials: Cheng Fangwu, Liu DIng, Xu Bing, Zhou Enlai and Zhu De; − academics, including Party and government advisors: Chen Hansheng, Du Renzhi, Liu Simu and Wu Zhaogao.

It should be added that several persons from all groups were criticized or purged during the Anti-Rightist Campaign and the Cultural Revolution, but in contrast to those who had studied in the Soviet Union, they were not criticized for going to Germany or Austria. Most of the communists in Germany and Austria were born between 1890 and 1910 as were most of the students in France and the Soviet Union. They mainly came from Sichuan, Shaanxi and Eastern China.

Appendix: Some Chinese Communists in Germany and Austria 1920 −−−1939

Name (Years of Birth and Death) Home Province CCP entry Chen Hansheng (1897 −2004) Jiangsu 192? Cheng Fangwu (1897 −1984) Hunan 1928 Dong Wenqiao (1910 −?) Sichuan 192? Du Renzhi (1905 −1988) Shanxi 1927 Fang Shiliang (1903 −1984) Anhui 192? Gao Yuhan (1888 −1948) Anhui 1921 Guo Zechen (1906 −1973) Shaanxi 192?

28 Asian and African studies XI, 1-2(2007), pp. 21 −30

Hu Lanqi (f) (1901 −1994) Sichuan 1930 Jiang Longji (1905 −1966) Shaanxi 1927 Jiang Qing’en (1910? −1949) Shandong 1924? Li Fujing (1900 −1988) Shaanxi 192? Li Ji (1894 −?) Hunan Liao Chengzhi (1908 −1983) Tokyo 1928 Liao Huanxing (1895 −1964) Hunan 1922 Liu Ding (1903 −1986) Sichuan 1924 Liu Qingyang (f) (1894 −1977) Tianjin 1922 Liu Simu (1904 −1985) Guangdong 1957 Min Qiwei Ning Kuanglie (1911−1937) Liaoning 1933 Qiao Guanhua (1913 −1983) Jiangsu 1939 Sun Bingwen (1885 −1927) Sichuan 1922 Wang Bingnan (1908 −1988) Shaanxi 1926 Wang Gui (1894 −1962) Hunan 1922 Xia Xiufeng (1895 −1976) Hunan 1923 Xie Weijin (1904 −1978) Sichuan 1926 Xin Anshi Xiong Rui (1894 −1927) Guangdong 1922 Xiong Xiong (1892 −1927) Jiangxi 1922 Xu Bing (1903 −1972) Hebei 1924 Yang Yizhi (1912 −199?) Sichuan 192? Zhang Bojian (1898 −1926) Yunnan 1922 Zhang Bojun (1895 −1969) Anhui 1923 Zhang E (1886 −1969) Jiangsu 192? Zhang Shenfu (1893 −1986) Hebei 1921 Zhang Tiesheng (1904 −1979) Jiangsu 1927 Zhang Wenjin (1914 −1991) Zhejiang 1938 Zheng Taipu (1901 −1949) Jiangsu 192? Zhou Enlai (1898 −1976) Jiangsu 1921 Zhu De (1886 −1976) Sichuan 1922 Zi Daokun (? −1931?) 192?

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29 Thomas Kampen: Chinese Communists in Austria and Germany

----- (2001b) ‘Xie Weijin und die Gebrüder Kisch − Der zwanzigjährige Europaaufenthalt eines chinesischen Kommunisten’. Das neue China, Juni 2001: 27 −28. ----- (2001c), ‘Liao Huanxing oder Tang Xingqi: Für KP und Kuomintang in Berlin’. Das neue China , Juni 2001, 29–31. ----- (forthcoming) Chinese Communists and the West: A Concise Biographical Handbook of Chinese Communists and Western Supporters . Copenhagen. Levine, Marilyn A. (1993). The Found Generation – Chinese Communists in Europe during the Twenties . Seattle: Washington University Press. Liu Shijun and Liu Shizhang (1987) ‘Liu Simu zhuanlüe’. Guangdong wenshi ziliao 52: 117 −175. Price, Jane L. (1976) Cadres, Commanders and Commissars: The Training of the Chinese Communist Leadership, 1920 −45 . Boulder: Westview Press. Sheng Yueh (1971) Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow and the Chinese Revolution . Kansas: University of Kansas. Radtke, Kurt W. (1990) China’s Relations with Japan: the Role of Liao Chengzhi . Manchester: Manchester University Press. Schwarcz, Vera (1992) Time for telling Truth is running out – Conversations with Zhang Shenfu . New Haven: Yale University Press. Wang, Anna (1964) Ich kämpfte für Mao – eine deutsche Frau erlebt die chinesische Revolution . Hamburg: Holsten Verlag. Wang Delin (1992) Zhonghua liuxue mingren cidian. Changchun: Dongbei shifan daxue chubanshe. Werner, Ruth (1991) Sonya’s Report. London: Chatto & Windus. Wittfogel, Karl August (1927). Sun Yatsen – Aufzeichungen eines chinesischen Revolutionärs. Wien: Agis Verlag. Zheng Chaolin (1997) An oppositionist for life: Memoirs of the Chinese revolutionary Zheng Chaolin. Atlantic Highlands: Humanities Press.

30 The rise of communist China in 1949 not only heralded a radical transformation there, it also introduced Cold War fears and concerns into the Asian sphere.Â The exploitation of China by foreigners fuelled an emerging nationalism. Many Chinese came to believe their people should fight for independence and liberation from foreign control. In 1899, a group calling itself the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists began attacking Europeans, Christians and foreign property in China. Western newspapers referred to these rebels as â€œBoxersâ€, a reference to their use of martial arts. Their anti-Western violence became known as the Boxer Rebellion; it lasted for two years before being suppressed by a coalition of eight Western nations. Chinese Communist Party (CCP), political party of China. Since the establishment of the Peopleâ€™s Republic of China in 1949, the CCP has been in sole control of that countryâ€™s government. The CCP was founded as both a political party and a revolutionary movement in 1921 by revolutionaries such as Li.Â Many of the CCP cadres, such as Mao, then abandoned their revolutionary activities among Chinaâ€™s urban proletariat and went to the countryside, where they were so successful in winning peasant support that in 1931 the Chinese Soviet Republic , with a population of some 10 million, was set up in southern China. Chinese Communists benefited greatly from the fact that Sun Yat-sen obtained no support from the Western powers who were, after all, attached to their special privileges in China. (In fact, to begin with, he was seen as too close to the West and had to take a harder line anyway). It is not surprising, therefore, that he turned to Moscow. In January 1918, he congratulated Lenin on the successful Bolshevik revolution (November 1917). There was little reliable information about the Bolshevik revolution in China before 1920. We know that study groups were organized to study Marxist thought but it