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Home , Chen Duxiu, Chen Jiongming, Eugene Chen, Li Dazhao, Li Zhen (female general), Li Zongren

The Comintern in

Chair: Taylor Gosk Co-Chair: Vinayak Grover Crisis Director: Hannah Olmstead Co-Crisis Director: Payton Tysinger

University of North Carolina Model United Nations Conference November 2 - 4, 2018 University of North Carolina

2

Table of Contents

Letter from the Crisis Director 3

Introduction 5

Sun Yat-sen and the 7

The Mission of the Comintern 10

Relations between the Soviets and the Kuomintang 11

Positions 16

3

Letter from the Crisis Director

Dear Delegates,

Welcome to UNCMUNC X!

My name is Hannah Olmstead, and I am a sophomore at the University of North

Carolina at Chapel Hill. I am double majoring in Public Policy and Economics, with a minor in Arabic Studies. I was born in the but was raised in China, where I graduated from high school in . In addition to being a student, I am the Director-General of

UNC’s high school Model UN conference, MUNCH. I also work as a Resident Advisor at

UNC and am involved in Refugee Community Partnership here in Chapel Hill.

Since I’ll be in the Crisis room with my good friend and co-director Payton Tysinger, you’ll be interacting primarily with Chair Taylor Gosk and co-chair Vinayak Grover. Taylor is a sophomore as well, and she is majoring in Public Policy and Environmental Studies. I have her to thank for teaching me that Starbucks will, in fact, fill up my thermos with their delightfully bitter coffee. When she’s not saving the environment one plastic cup at a time, you can find her working as the Secretary General of MUNCH or refereeing a whole range of athletic events here at UNC.

This committee topic is interesting to me for a number of reasons. I find China inherently interesting. Living there for ten years, I naturally forged a deep emotional connection to life there. Academically, the transition from dynastic rule to warring cliques and political parties to one of the world’s most famous Communist governments is fascinating. I wonder what the China of 1925 can teach us about the China of 2018?

Hundreds of men and women sought to leave their mark on their homeland, sought to build

4 it in their image. From Sun Yat-sen to to the in rural , each likely envisioned a China in which their vision prevailed.

Needless to say, one vision prevailed. This, despite the fact that a Communist victory was in many ways the least likely outcome that one could have predicted. This instructs us to be suspicious about guarantees, of most likely outcomes. The world is a surprising place, particularly the world of international relations!

I hope your time at UNCMUNC is enjoyable and that you get to engage in all sorts of challenges. My staff and I look forward to seeing the collaborative solutions you propose, the alliances that are formed, and the effort each of you puts forth to shape your ideal China.

Best,

Hannah Olmstead, Crisis Director

[email protected]

5

Introduction

“I came to realize that every civil war in China proceeds simultaneously on two fronts, military and political, and of these the political is the most important. While two groups of

armies were fighting—not very hard—the two sets of leaders were constantly trying to

come to terms with some faction on the other side. If they succeeded, they’d join forces

and turn on the ones who’d been left out of the deal.”

Morris Cohen, Sun Yat-sen’s bodyguard

The story of governance in China took a drastic turn on February 12th, 1912. On that day two thousand years of imperial rule ended as the was finished off by the abdication of the . A puppet emperor during the Japanese occupation notwithstanding, China now had to grapple with what leadership would look like in the 20th century. These domestic changes were occurring contemporaneously with the emergence of new political philosophies abroad. Namely, the success of Leninism and the Bolshevik

Revolution were providing alternative models for what revolution could look like in China.

On October 1st, 1949, Communist Party Chair Mao Zedong welcomed in a new era of the People’s Republic of China. The road to establishing this new government in was long and arduous. Most notably, it involved complex relations and rivalries between multiple domestic and international parties. Sun Yat-sen’s Kuomintang Nationalist Party attempt to wrest control from the Qing Dynasty’s last hold-on, Shikai. The Chinese

Communist Party (CCP), eventually led by Mao Zedong, used espionage and strategic labor

6 organizing in order to gain a foothold in both rural and urban regions. The Soviets, via their

Comintern agents, supported both the Kuomintang and the CCP, encouraging the smaller

Communist organs to collaborate with the KMT. The backdrop to all of these interactions was the rise of the Japanese empire. Already present on the Korean peninsula, the rising power to the east of China was slowly making plans to expand into Manchuria. The picture was further complicated by the number of individual warlords across China who controlled large swaths of territory.

This committee will consist of a wide range of change-makers who shaped this era of Chinese politics. Be warned, things may not be as they seem. Moles abound on every side of the issue, and espionage and subterfuge can be just as effective as outright war.

Committee members will represent Kuomintang officials, Communist Party Labor

Organizers, Generals, Comintern agents, and allied Warlords. It will be the responsibility of members, all of whom are ostensibly allied at the beginning of committee, to navigate the country through this tenuous time.

7

Sun Yat-sen and the Kuomintang

“For 40 years I have devoted myself to the cause of the people's revolution with but one end in view: the elevation of China to a position of freedom and equality among the nations.

My experience during these 40 years has convinced me that to attain this goal we must bring about an awakening of our own people and ally ourselves in common struggle with those people of the world who treat us as equals.”

This was the vision for China’s future cast by Sun Yat-sen in a letter to the

Kuomintang (KMT) party in 1925. Sun Yat-sen was born in 1866 to a family of modest means in what is today known as , China. At a young age, he moved to Hawaii where he lived with his elder brother. In Hawaii, he attended an English school where he quickly demonstrated himself to be a bright young man. By 1883, though, he was sent back to China by his elder brother who did not want him to lose sight of his Chinese heritage.

Sun received his medical degree from what would later become the University of

Hong Kong. It was there that he became dissatisfied with the dynastic system of rule. In particular, he supported modernizing reforms that would help advance China’s position globally as well as the quality of life of its citizens. As such, he submitted a written petition

8 to the Qing government that was summarily ignored. This experience purportedly convinced Sun that the only path forwards for China was one of revolution.

Over the next sixteen years, Sun Yat-sen participated in numerous attempts to overthrow the Qing Dynasty. This resulted in him being exiled multiple times to and the Philippines as he awaited new opportunities to return to the Mainland. In 1904, Sun articulated his political goals as, “to expel the Tartar barbarians (the Manchurian Qing

Dynasty), to revive Zhonghua (中华), to establish a Republic, and to distribute land equally among the people.” These goals were exemplified in Sun’s three guiding principles:

Nationalism (民族), （民权）, and Welfare (民生).

Through the first decade of the twentieth century, Sun led numerous uprisings along with his colleagues across China that challenged the Qing authority. In 1905, he united three major revolutionary groups under the of the Tongmenhui. Many of the leaders of these individual groups remained relevant decades later, some preferring the CCP over the KMT. For the time being, though, Sun Yat-sen, in various states of exile, led the

Tongmenhui in many smaller, unsuccessful uprisings that are collectively known as the

Xinhai Revolution. The first successful uprising is known as the of 1911 after which the Tongmenhui established the “Military Government of of the Republic of China.”

This was not the last success of the Tongmenhui, though. By the end of 1911, Sun

Yat-sen was elected the provisional President of the Republic of China. He quickly ceded this position to , a Qing Dynasty official, on the condition that Yuan could guarantee the abdication of the last Qing emperor. While this condition was met, Yuan was an overly ambitious president who attempted to re-establish an empire with himself at the

9 helm. This led the old Tongmenhui alliance to realign and form the Nationalist Party, otherwise known as the Kuomintang. They won a large number of seats in the National

Assembly, but were unsuccessful in overthrowing Yuan in what is known as the Second

Revolution. This failure again necessitated Sun Yat-sen’s flight from China and subsequent exile in Japan.

The Second Revolution left the entire country in a state of turmoil. A stable future for the Republic of China was not guaranteed. It was in this state of chaos that Sun Yat-sen reached out the Soviets for support. This began a tenuous alliance between the Communists and the Nationalists of China, united behind a shared banner of anti-Imperialism.

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The Mission of the Comintern

When the held its inaugural congress in 1919, the delegates from China played a minimal role. At the time, the Soviet government understood the necessity of a friendly neighbor to the east, but the future of Communist China was not yet a foregone conclusion. The May 4th Movement of 1919, though, revealed that China might be a useful anti-imperialist battleground, as citizens protested the growing influence of the

Japanese Empire. Many Soviets disagreed whether or not China would be able to sustain a

Bolshevik revolution with many convinced that China was collectively too uneducated to support Leninist thought.

Grigori Voitinski was the first Comintern representative to visit China. During his

1920 trip, he visited Beijing and and met with Dazhao and Duxiu. Li and

Chen were some of the first Communist leaders in China, and they would go on to found to formal in 1921. They were drawn primarily to Leninist thought on the basis of its success in Russia, buying into the mindset of permanent revolution as the future of China. After these meetings with Voitinski, many Communist groups, or xiaozu, were formed across the country. These would serve as the foundation of the Chinese

Communist Party just a year later.

In July of 1921, the inaugural congress of the Chinese Communist Party was held in

Shanghai. Though at the time the party only had approximately fifty members, Comintern agent Hendricus Sneevliet, who went by the of Maring, was in attendance. At

11 that first congress, the members in attendance drafted these first principles of the Chinese

Communist Party:

1. With the revolutionary army of the proletariat to overthrow the capitalistic

classes, to reconstruct the nation from the labor class, until class distinctions are

eliminated.

2. To adopt the dictatorship of the proletariat in order to complete the end of class

struggle - abolishing the classes.

3. To overthrow the private ownership of capital, to confiscate all the productive

means, such as machines, land, buildings, semi-manufactured products, etc., and to

entrust them to social ownership.

4. To unite with the Third International.

These principles are notable in that they represent a direct application of Bolshevik

principles to the Chinese political situation. At this time, the and

were not convinced of a need to ally with the Kuomintang under the banner of anti-

imperialism. Very quickly, Soviet leadership pushed the smaller, Chinese Communist

Party to align itself with the

Nationalists for the sake of

the party’s survival.

Propaganda poster displaying the meeting hall where the Chinese Communist Party was established in 1921.

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In April of the following year, Maring recommended that every organ of the

Chinese Communist Party ought to align itself with the Kuomintang. On Maring’s analysis, The Chinese Communists were not savvy enough to lead their own revolution.

Rather, by Maring’s estimation, they needed to join forces with Sun Yat-sen, the leader of the only revolution with the potential to succeed in China. While the Chinese Communists themselves were concerned with a labor uprising, the Comintern believed it was most important to focus on the anti-imperialist, pro-democracy revolution led by the

Kuomintang.

“We heard that there is fear that we bringing the workers in KMT kill their

revolutionary spirit. When communists are going in KMT they go there because

they mean that the interests of the working class are best of all promoted by this

tactic. Our spiritual power is strong has been said by KOTao [Zhang Guo tao].

For this reason, I don't fear the contact of Chinese communists inside KMT with

other tendencies I believe in our spiritual power, I believe that we can only win by

this tactic. When we will create a strong left wing in KMT we must be consequent

and not so careful that we will prevent KMT to become national-wide

revolutionary party.”

- Maring, from “A Discussion on the Relation between the CPC and

Kuomintang,” 1923

Maring’s analysis was accepted both by the Communist International and by

Vladimir Lenin himself. The foundation was set for negotiations between the Communists and the Nationalists.

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Relations between the Soviets and the Kuomintang

Little more than a year after the CCP’s founding, in early 1923, Sun Yat-sen and

Adolph Joffe signed the Sun-Joffe Manifesto that officially linked the Kuomintang with the

Soviet Union. The manifesto asserted that a Communist government was not suitable at that time for the relatively underdeveloped China and that the was what the country needed to defeat the encroaching imperialists. The modern Chinese government frames this story in terms of a First United Front, between the CCP and KMT, but historical analysis reveals that the CCP was so small at the time that it had little influence in KMT-Soviet negotiations.

Sun believed that an alliance with the Soviets would give his party international recognition and would help establish them above other groups and movements in China.

The Soviets hoped that by establishing congenial relations with the KMT they could retain control of the Manchurian Chinese Eastern railway. As part of their alliance, the Soviets provided Sun with adequate resources to begin the Northern Expedition against Yuan

Shikai’s government. Additionally, the Soviets helped Sun establish the Whampoa

Military Academy in Guangdong, China. Many of those who would lead the KMT fight against the Japanese Empire were trained at the academy. Despite this array of cooperation between the Soviets and KMT, it became clear that the Kuomintang and ’s alliance was unsustainable.

Sun Yat-sen died of cancer in 1925. At that point, the Kuomintang was left to two main leaders and Chiang Kai-shek, Wang representing the left wing of the

14 party and Chiang representing the right. Ultimately, Chiang was successful in wresting control of the KMT. Chiang had been a long-time ally of Sun Yat-sen, notably leading the

Northern Expedition mentioned above. When the KMT-Soviet relationship was first established, Chiang was sent to Moscow where he was exposed to Soviet models of governance and leaders like . At the end of his trip, Chiang famously concluded that was not a suitable model for the future of China. This experience in

Moscow shaped Chiang’s proceedings with the Communists once he came to power, in the wake of Sun’s death.

In 1926, Wang Jingwei took the city of and declared it the new capital of the

Republic, with himself at the helm. Wang had the support of Comintern agent Mikhail

Borodin who also insisted that the CCP remain allied with the KMT. It was at this point that Chiang Kai-shek was on his campaign towards Beijing, via , and Yuan Shikai’s

Beiyang government. Wang and Chiang were at an impasse, each claiming rightful authority over the KMT.

Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist Party was growing in numbers. By 1926, there were an estimated 10,000 party members. While the party was still centered in urban

Shanghai, leaders like the ascendant Mao Zedong were having success with labor organizing in more rural provinces, coming into conflict with local warlords. As the Communists grew in size, they grew more and more uncomfortable with alliance with the Nationalists. They made plans in early 1926 to vote to extract themselves from the alliance. Despite their efforts, insisted upon the alliance remaining intact.

It is at this moment, in 1926, that our committee begins. The Soviets, the Chinese

Communists, and the multiple factions of the Kuomintang are all at odds. The First United

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Front appears to be unsalvageable. How will the committee members navigate this tenuous peace? The Japanese are on the rise to the east, eager to enter through the Korean peninsula and Manchuria. China is divided by local warlords who can be convinced, assuming adequate compensation, to support any party. The committee will take place less than two decades after the end of China’s historic imperial rule, so whichever party reigns will have the opportunity to define the future of a global power.

The question remains: what will become of China?

16

Positions

Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong would eventually rise to supremacy in both the Chinese Communist Party and in the People’s Republic of China at large. At the time of our committee, he was a young member of the CCP who had dutifully joined the KMT. In the early twenties, he was working in , training rural workers in the Peasant Movement Training Institute.

Even then, his ability to organize rural, uneducated laborers drew the attention of authorities.

General

After attending the Military Academy, Zhu De joined the Tongmenhui, participating in the insurrection that led to the end of dynastic rule. Due to friendships made in that era, Zhu De secured enough troops to make himself a in Western China.

After being rejected from the CCP due to his position as a warlord, he travelled to Germany and Russia where he was educated in revolutionary practices. He returned to China to support the Northern Expedition.

Chiang Kai-Shek

One of the most obvious successors of Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-Shek consolidated his power in Nanjing after Sun’s death and prepared to go on the Northern Expedition. He generally

17 disliked the Communist Party and thought the Soviet-KMT partnership was doomed from the beginning.

Zhou Enlai

Influenced by his education in Japan, returned to China in 1919 where he became involved in Communist organizing, befriending Li Dazhao and other influential

Chinese Communists. At the time of our committee, he was working at the Whampoa

Military Academy that was run by the KMT but was funded by the Soviets.

Chen Duxiu

Chen was the the co-founder of the Chinese Communist Party, and he served as the General

Secretary of the party for seven years. He played a prominent role in overthrowing the Qing

Dynasty and also established a relationship with the Cominetern that would prove to be essential in the Party’s long-term success. He was the one to carry out the Comintern’s order for the CCP to collaborate with the KMT, despite his reservations.

Li Dazhao

Li Dazhao was a co-founder of the Chinese Communist Party. Originally from province, he was educated in Japan. Returning to China afterwards, he became an intellectual force, exerting influence over the likes of Mao Zedong. In particular, he believed in the role of the peasantry in legitimizing a Marxist revolution in China. He, like all members of the CCP in the early 20s, collaborated with the KMT.

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General

A Hui Muslim from Guangxi Province, Bai collaborated with Sun Yat-sen to bring Guangxi under KMT control. After that, he was an important military figure for the Nationalist Army.

He served as the Chief of Staff of the military during the Northern Expedition.

General

Li was a Guangxi native who supported Sun Yat-Sen in the days of the Tongmenhui. He remained an effective military commander and warlord through the twenties. He was notable for allowing his troops to fight for KMT causes but not incorporating them into the larger KMT military. In the days of the First United Front, he received support from a Soviet military advisor.

Cai Yuanpei

Cai was a notable academic who supported Sun Yat-sen’s work to overthrow dynastic rule, joining the Tongmenhui in 1905. At the time of the First United Front, Cai was the president of Beijing University. Despite being anti-communist, he brought many future communist leaders to the university, like Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao.

Wang Jingwei

Wang was a close collaborator of Sun Yat-sen, but after Sun’s death he was caught in a power struggle with Chiang. Wang represented the left-wing of the party that identified more closely with the Communists. Wang established his locus of power in Wuhan, with some support from Mikhail Borodin and the Soviets.

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Mikhail Borodin

A Russian native, Borodin was the Comintern agent located in China in the mid-twenties.

He was also the key enactor of the Comintern’s pro-KMT collaboration strategy. Despite the reservations of many CCP members, Borodin insisted that they stay allied with the

Kuomintang. He represents the Soviet presence in China in the twenties.

Chen Youren ()

Born abroad, Chen was an effective diplomat for the post-Qing dynasty China. He supported the alliance between the KMT and the Soviets, and in the mid-twenties found himself allied with Wang Jingwei in Wuhan. He additionally had a close working relationship with

Mikhail Borodin.

Song Qingling (Madame Sun Yat-Sen)

The wife of the late Sun Yat-sen, Song Qingling found herself entangled between the KMT and the CCP in the mid-to-late twenties. She came from a politically powerful family and continued to exert political influence after her husband’s death. In 1925, she was elected to the KMT’s Central Executive Committee but continued to have Communist sympathies.

Song Meiling (Madame Chiang Kai-shek)

The wife of Chiang Kai-shek and sister of Song Qingling, Meiling also found herself entangled in the First United Front. She wed Chiang during the latter days of the First

United Front and eventually found herself politically opposed to her sister, Qingling.

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Hu Hanmin

A native of province, Hu was appointed as governor of Guangdong by Sun Yat-sen after the Xinhai Revolution in 1911. After the death of Sun in 1925, Hu allied himself with

Chiang Kai-shek and the conservative factions of the Kuomintang. Stridently anti- communist, he was the head of the Legislative Yuan in Nanjing, where Chiang Kai-shek consolidated power.

Yang Sen

Yang Sen was a warlord over the large province in Western China. He leveraged his provincial power to support the KMT, specifically Chiang Kai-shek’s campaigns. He had a significant amount of influence, both militarily and economic, within the Sichuan region.

Chen Jiongming

Originally an ally of Sun Yat-Sen, was the one who led Sun to ally the

Kuomintang with the Communists. However, Chen broke from the KMT after a disagreement with Sun over whether or not they should continue their expeditions northward. After the KMT retook Guangdong in 1923, Chen fled to where he continued to be a critic of Chiang Kai-Shek and the single party Republic of China.

Wu Peifu

Wu was trained at the Military Academy as part of the late Qing Dynasty’s modernizing reforms. After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Wu became a member of the

Clique. By the mid-twenties, he was the commander-in-chief of the ’s military

21 forces, centered around Beijing. By the late twenties, the Zhili Clique was under attack by the Chiang Kai-shek’s forces.

Deng Xiaoping

Born in rural Sichuan, Deng’s interest in Communism began during his studies in France as a young man. Upon returning to China in the late twenties, Deng joined a warlord in the

North, as a member of the Communist Party. He invested energy in the Fengtian clique, trying to maintain the Comintern-sanctioned relationship between the CCP and the KMT.

Deng’s efforts in the twenties only foreshadowed his coming influence over China.

Deng Yanda

A Guangdong native, Deng Yanda was trained at the Baoding military academy. He, notably, helped form the Whampoa Military Academy, and was a crucial general leading the way in the Northern Expedition. Deng was also a fervent supporter of the CCP-KMT alliance.

Li Zhen

A peasant woman from , Li Zhen was not a primary candidate for political leadership.

Nevertheless, Li began organizing other peasants, joining the Communist Party in 1927. She distinguished herself as a recruiter of soldiers and as a collector of resources.

22

He Long

From his youth, He was a revolutionary figure. Most notably, he murdered a Qing dynasty official, cementing his image as a man of the people. He raised his own army in Hunan that he then aligned with the KMT’s nationalist forces. He then went on to train KMT forces and was a leader in the Northern Expedition. His revolutionary fervor, though, would make it difficult for him to stay in the KMT.

Zhang Fakui

As a young man, Zhang was one of Sun Yat-sen’s personal bodyguards. Later, he became a battalion commander, removing warlords from power. Notably, he was a leader in the

Northern Expedition, leading his men to defeat many. Zhang became known as the “Hero of the Iron Army,” for all his successes. Eventually, though, he would have to choose between Wang Jingwei and Chiang Kai-Shek’s vision for China.

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Map

Map of China in 1927, prior to the outbreak of Civil War between the KMT and CCP

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