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The Civic World of International Communism: Taiwanese communists and the Comintern (1921–1931)*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2012

ANNA BELOGUROVA
ANNA BELOGUROVA*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of British Columbia Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The short history of the Taiwanese Communist Party (Taiwan gongchandang 台 灣 共 產 黨) (1928–1931) offers a window into the negotiative polity of international communism during the Third Period (1928–1934). The Party was established during the time when the Comintern intensified its operations in colonies and promoted the organization of communist parties there. Its demise was the result of government suppression that occurred as a reaction to their increased public activity in 1931, allegedly at the direction of the Comintern. This paper examines the Comintern's role in the Taiwanese communist movement and shows that the Taiwanese communists were active agents (rather than passive tools) in their relationship with the Comintern.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 46 , Issue 6 , November 2012 , pp. 1602 - 1632
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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Footnotes

*

This paper is based on the findings of collaborative research undertaken with Professor Konstantin Tertitskiy, Moscow State University, and published in Tertitskiy, K. and Belogurova, A. (2005). Tayvan'skoye kommunisticheskoye dvizheniye i Komintern. Issledovaniye. Dokumenty (1924–1932) (Taiwanese Communist Movement and the Comintern. A Study. Documents. 1924–1932), Vostok-Zapad, Moscow (hereafter TK). I would like to thank my adviser, Professor Timothy Cheek; Professors Tertitskiy and Timothy Brook for their generous comments; the anonymous reviewer for the suggestion to add a comparative perspective; Professors Hyung Gu Lynn, Steven H. Lee, and Jessica Main for help in navigating in the Korean and Japanese contexts; Jamie Sedgwick and Tom Woodsworth for editorial comments; and Helen Kim for help with translation.

References

1 Hereafter, ‘the Party’ is used exclusively to refer to the Taiwanese Communist Party.

2 Shiqiao, Huang (1999). Taiwan gongchandang mishi (Secret History of the Taiwanese Communist Party), Haixia xueshu chubanshe, Taibei, p. 59Google Scholar. For a discussion of the Party's ambiguous criteria for membership and the problems with the membership data, see TK, p. 220, n. 88.

3 Boltanski, L. and Thévenot, L. (1999). ‘The Sociology of Critical Capacity’, European Journal of Social Theory, 2 (3), pp. 359–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially pp. 371–72. Boltanski and Thévenot analyse different modes of justification that individuals employ in their search for a legitimate agreement in conflict situations. In order to handle criticism and avoid violence, individuals base their justification on mutually accepted rules and frames of reference external to the parties of conflict, and ground their arguments in ‘legitimate worth’. Six different justification modes are derived from both empirical research and political philosophy's ‘grammar of political bonds’ which, much like individuals in conflict, claim a common good. These six ‘orders of worth’, or ‘worlds’, operate according to different rules of order and have different inhabitants. They are the ‘World of Justice’ (based on St Augustine's City of God); the ‘Domestic World’ (Politique tirée des propres paroles de l’ Èriture sainte by Jacques Bénigne Bossuet); the ‘World of Renown’ (Hobbes’ Leviathan); the ‘Market World’ (Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations); and the ‘Industrial World’ (Saint Simon's work). In this paper I invoke the sixth justification mode and Boltanski and Thévenot's interpretation of its inhabitants and order—the ‘Civic World’ —based on Rousseau's Contrat Social. I conceptualize the Comintern as the disembodied sovereign of this world, comprising a convergence of human wills (communist parties and their individual members) and providing common good (revolution) to its people who, in turn, give up their personal interests for the common good.

4 See ‘Letter to the Formosa Communists’, Rossiyskiy gosudarstvennyy arkhiv sotsial'no-politicheskoy istorii – the Russian Archive of Social and Political History (RGASPI), fond (fond) 495/ opis (inventory) 128/ delo (file) 1/ list (page) 6–13. This copy is dated 7 July 1931, but the letter was compiled in the winter of 1930–1931. Reprinted in TK, pp. 514–23. For the Chinese translation, see Naixin, Wanget al. (eds) (1989). Taiwan shehui yundong shi, 1913–1936 (History of Taiwan's Social Movement, 1913–1936), five volumes, Chuangzao chubanshe, TaibeiGoogle Scholar; Volume 3: Gongchan yundong (Communist Movement), pp. 140–48. The failure of the Party was also blamed on the fractionalizing influences of the Chinese Communist Party and Japanese Communist Party, which did not allow the Party to adapt to Taiwanese conditions, as well as on political suppression. See also Hsiao, Frank S. T. and Sullivan, Lawrence R. (1983). ‘A Political History of the Taiwanese Communist Party, 1928–1931’, Journal of Asian Studies, 42 (February), pp. 269–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jiongren, Jian (1997). Taiwan gongchanzhuyi yundong (Taiwanese Communist Movement), Qianwei chubanshe, TaibeiGoogle Scholar; Huang Shiqiao Secret History of the Taiwanese Communist Party; Xiuyi, Lu (1992). Riju shidai Taiwan gongchangdangshi (1928–1932) (The History of the Taiwanese Communist Party during the Japanese Colonial Period (1928–1932)), Qianwei chubanshe, TaibeiGoogle Scholar; Bichuan, Yang (1996). Riju shidai Taiwanren fankangshi (The History of Resistance of Taiwan's People during the Japanese Colonial Period), Dao xiang chu ban she, TaibeiGoogle Scholar; Shi, Xian Banqiao and Qiquan, Lin (1992). ‘Guanyu Taiwan gongchandang baiwang de yuanying’ (‘To the Reasons of the Collapse of the TCP’), Zhongguo luntan, 18 (32–6) (1 April), pp. 112–20Google Scholar. Only Chen Fangming has questioned whether the source of the Party's radicalization directive was the Comintern or the Chinese Communist Party, and suggested that Party infighting had internal underpinnings. See Fangming, Chen (1991). ‘Taiwan Kangri yungong de zuoyi luxian. Yi taigong “shangdapai” zhunao Weng Zesheng wei zhongxin’ (‘The Left Wing of the Taiwanese Anti-Japanese Movement. The Central Figure of the “Shanghai University Faction” ’), Zhongguo luntan, 3 (31–4) (1 January), pp. 29–38Google Scholar, and Fangming, Chen (2000). Xie Xuehong pingzhuan (Biography of Xie Xuehong), Qianwei chubanshe, TaibeiGoogle Scholar. People's Republic of China publications do not discuss reasons other than the ‘White Terror’ for the debacle, nor do they discuss the Party's relationship with the Comintern. Rather, they highlight the Party's relationship with the Chinese Communist Party, and even attribute authorship of the Comintern's letter to Weng Zesheng and Qu Qiubai. Biao, Xiao, Jinhe, Yang, Bingnan, Wang and Weiping, Xu (eds) (1986). ‘Weng Zesheng’, in Zhonggongdang shi renwu yanjiuhui, Zhonggongdang shi renwu zhuan (Biographies of the Chinese Communist Party Historical Figures); Shanxi renmin chubanshe, Xian, Vol. 27, pp. 141–60Google Scholar; Chi, He (2005). Weng Zesheng zhuan (Biography of Weng Zesheng), Haixia xueshu, TaibeiGoogle Scholar.

5 See North, Robert C. (1963). Moscow and Chinese Communists, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CaliforniaGoogle Scholar; Thornton, Richard C. (1969). Comintern and the Chinese Communists, 1928–1931, University of Washington Press, SeattleGoogle Scholar; Hsiao and Sullivan, ‘A Political History’; Scalapino, Robert A. and Lee, Chong-sik (1972). Communism in Korea, University of California Press, Berkeley, Vol. I, pp. 155, 136, 138Google Scholar; Beckman, George M. and Genji, Okubo (1969). The Japanese Communist Party, 1922–1945, Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, pp. 273–74Google Scholar; Carr, Edward H. (1982). The Twilight of the Comintern, 1930–1935, Pantheon Books, New York, pp. 326, 377CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Scalapino, Robert A. (1967). The Japanese Communist Movement, 1922–1966, University of California Press, Berkeley, pp. 38–40Google Scholar; Suh, Dae-Sook (1967). The Korean Communist Movement, 1918–1948, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, p. 334Google Scholar.

6 See Worley, Matthew (2004). ‘Courting Disaster? The Communist International in the Third Period’; Stranahan, Patricia (2004). ‘The Chinese Communist Party During the First Period’; Macintyre, Stuart (2004). ‘The New Line in the Antipodes: Australian Communists and Class Against Class’; and Santana, Marco (2004). ‘Moscow in the Tropics: The Third Period, Brazilian Style’, in Worley, Matthew (ed.), In Search of Revolution. International Communist Parties in the Third Period, I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd., London, pp. 1–15, 301–319, 247–270, 360–373Google Scholar; Saich, Tony ‘The Chinese Communist Party During the Era of the Comintern (1919–1943)’, Unpublished manuscript; Van de Ven, Hans (1991). From Friend to Comrade: the Founding of the Chinese Communist Party, 1920–1927, University of California Press, Berkeley, p. 243Google Scholar; McDermott, Kevin and Agnew, Jeremy (1996). The Comintern: a History of International Communism, Macmillan, HoundmillsCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 See Smith, Steven A. (1998). ‘The Comintern, the Chinese Communist Party and the Three Armed Uprisings in Shanghai, 1926–27’, in Rees, Tim and Thorpe, Andrew (eds), International Communism and the Communist International, 1919–1943, Manchester University Press, Manchester, pp. 254–71, 285–309Google Scholar; Grigoriev, Alexandre (2002). ‘The Far Eastern Bureau of the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) in China, 1929–1931’, in Leutner, Mechthild (ed.), The Chinese Revolution in the 1920s: Between Triumph and Disaster, Routledge Curzon, New YorkGoogle Scholar.

8 See Kampen, Thomas (2000). Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and the Evolution of the Chinese Communist Leadership, NIAS Pub., Copenhagen, DenmarkGoogle Scholar; Sullivan, Lawrence R. (1985). ‘Reconstruction and Rectification of the Communist Party in the Shanghai Underground, 1931–34’, China Quarterly, 101 (March), pp. 78–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wilson, Sandra (1998). ‘The Comintern and the Japanese Communist Party,’ in Rees and Thorpe, International Communism.

9 See Robinson, Michael E. (1988). Cultural Nationalism in Colonial Korea, 1920–1925, University of Washington Press, SeattleGoogle Scholar; Hoston, Germaine A. (1986). Marxism and the Crisis of Development in Prewar Japan, Princeton University Press, PrincetonGoogle Scholar; Wilson, ‘The Comintern and the Japanese Communist Party’.

10 The correspondence is deposited in RGASPI and is published in TK. Michael Share used these materials in Share, Michael (2007). Where Empires Collided: Russian and Soviet Relations with Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, The Chinese University Press, Hong KongGoogle Scholar. According to Share, ‘Comintern agent’ Ong criticized the Party in order to impose the Soviet model onto it; see pp. 174–75.

11 Xuehong, Xie (1997). Wo de banshengji (Half of My Life), Yang Cuihua, TaibeiGoogle Scholar; Yanxian, Zhang and Shuyuan, Gao (1993). ‘Yiwei Taigong de xin lucheng. Zhuang Chunhuo fangwen jilu’ (‘A Story of a Taiwanese Communist Party Member. Interview with Zhuang Chunhuo’), Taiwan shiliao yanjiu, 2 (August), pp. 81–92Google Scholar. Naixin, Wanget al. (eds), History of Taiwan's Social Movement, National Archives, Washington, D.C. (hereafter NA) RG263: D 2510, 2527Google Scholar. My thanks to the late John E. Taylor of the National Archives, Washington D.C., and Susan Strange for their help in locating and obtaining these documents.

12 Boltanski and Thévenot, ‘The Sociology of Critical Capacity’, pp. 360, 364; see also note 3.

13 Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, pp. 104–05, 215–16; Lin Rigao's report to the Comintern: ‘The Recent Political and Economic Situation in Formosa’, May 1930, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.6/68–84ob., especially 82, 78 ob.; TK, pp. 276–300, especially pp. 290 and 296.

14 Wang Naixin et al. (eds), History of Taiwan's Social Movement, Volume 5: Laodong, Zuoyi yundong (Labour and Leftist Movement), pp. 108–10.

15 He Chi, Weng Zesheng zhuan, pp. 204–05, 239; Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, p. 108.

16 Wang Naixin et al. (eds), History of Taiwan's Social Movement, Volume 4: Nongmin yundong (Peasant Movement), p. 153.

17 Wang Naixan et al., Peasant Movement, p. 12; Communist Movement, pp. 117–18.

18 Zhang Yanxian and Gao Shuyuan, ‘A Story’, p. 88.

19 Wang Naixin et al., Peasant Movement, p. 175.

20 Zarrow, Peter (1990). Anarchism and Chinese Political Culture, Columbia University Press, New York, p. 210Google Scholar; Van de Ven, From Friend to Comrade, pp. 63, 99; Xu Naichang's report to the Comintern: ‘Taiwan Jyōkyō Hōkoku’ (‘The Situation in Taiwan’), 27 October 1924, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.9/ l.1–45, especially 31–40.

21 Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, p. 2.

22 ‘Formosa, ili Tayvan. Obshchiye svedeniya’ (Formosa, or Taiwan. General information), 1 August 1923, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.14/ l.1–8; TK, pp. 258–65.

23 Xu Naichang's personal file, RGASPI, f.495/ op.225/ d.639; Shilang, Wang (1988). Taiwan shehui yundongshi. Wenhua yundong (The History of Taiwan's Social Movement. Cultural Movement), Daoxiang Chubanshe, Taibei Xian, p. 324Google Scholar.

24 Wang Shilang, The History of Taiwan's Social Movement, p. 323.

25 Yŏ Un-hyŏng was also a member of the Chinese Guomindang and the founder of the Korean-Chinese Mutual Aid Society (韩 中 互 助 社). Un-hyŏng, Yŏ (1967). Mongyang Yŏ Un-hyŏng, Chònghagak, Seoul, pp. 376–77Google Scholar.

26 Wang Naixin et al. (eds), History of Taiwan's Social Movement, Volume 1: Wenhua yundong (Cultural Movement), pp. 96, 97; ‘The Situation in Taiwan’, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.9/ l.31; Zhao Qingyun's autobiography, 9 July 1932, RGASPI, f.495/ op.280/ d.231/ l.16–18, especially 18; TK, pp. 581–84, especially p. 583; Adibekov, G. and Vada, H. (eds) (2001). VKP(b), Komintern i Yaponiya, 1917–1941 (All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the Comintern, and Japan), ROSSPEN, Moscow, p. 743Google Scholar.

27 ‘The Situation in Taiwan’, RGASPI f.495/ op.128/ d.9/ l.31–40.

28 Wang Shilang, The History of Taiwan's Social Movement, p. 148.

29 Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, p. 3.

30 Wu Junru (1982). ‘Di yi ci guo gong hezuo qijian gongchandang chuangli de geming xuexiao’ (‘Shanghai University, the Revolutionary University established by the Chinese Communist Party during the Guomindang-Chinese Communist Party First United Front’), in Guangzhou wenshi ziliao xuanji (Guangzhou City Literary and Historical Materials), Vol. 27, Guangdong renmin chubanshe, Guangdong shi, pp. 60–66.

31 Zhao Qingyun's autobiography, RGASPI, f.495/ op.280/ d.231/ l.17; TK, p. 582.

32 He Chi, Weng Zesheng zhuan, pp. 32; Shenqie, Zhang (1998). Lichengbei: Heise de taiyang (shang) (Milestone: Black Sun) in Zhang Shenqie quanji. Juan 1 (Complete Collection of the Works of Zhang Shenqie. Part One), Wenjingshe, Taibei, p. 248Google Scholar.

33 Xuehong, Xie (1997). Wode banshengji. Xie Xuehong koushu. (The Record of Half of My Life. Oral History of Xie Xuehong). Recorded by Kehuang, Yang, (ed.) Yang Cuihua, Yang, Cuihua, Taibei, p. 169Google Scholar.

34 ‘Spisok studentov inogruppy’ (‘The list of the students of the foreign students’ group’) of the Moscow Communist University of the Toilers of the East, 1927, RGASPI, f.532/ op.1/ d.462/ l.20. According to Xie, she joined the Chinese Communist Party in August 1925. Xie, Wode banshengji, pp. 174, 183.

35 ‘Delovyye otzyvy o studentakh spetsgruppy’ (‘Work references for the students of the special group’), 1927, RGASPI, f.532/ op. 1/ d.46/ l.11.

36 Sen Katayama's letter to B. Z. Shumyatskiy, 20 September 1927, RGASPI, f.532/ op.1/ d.36/ l.105. No evidence of the Comintern decision to establish the Party has been found in the Comintern materials. According to Lin, while in Moscow he and Xie asked the Comintern to establish the Party. Lin Mushun's report to the Comintern: ‘Taiwan gongchandang zuzhi de jingguo he xianzhuang’ (‘The Establishment of the Organisation and the Present Condition of the Taiwanese Communist Party’), RGASPI, f.514/ op.1/ d.461/ l.l–14, especially 2. This report is erroneously dated 26 February 1928, but it was actually compiled after the establishment of the Party. According to Xie, they followed a Comintern directive. See Xie, Wode banshengji, pp. 183, 223. ‘The Theses on Japan of the ECCI’, which were drafted during the Japanese Communist Party delegation's visit to Moscow in 1927, only recommended that the Japanese Communist Party should establish contact with and support liberation movements in the Japanese colonies. Adibekov and Vada, The Comintern and Japan, p. 460.

37 Van de Ven, From Friend to Comrade, p. 81.

38 Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, p. 9.

39 ‘Beseda Lili s formozskimi tovarishchami 26 noyabrya 1930g’ (‘Lili's conversation with the Formosan comrades on 26 November 1930’), RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.10/ l.1–1ob.; TK, pp. 379–83.

40 Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, p. 8.

41 Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, p. 9; ‘The Establishment of the Organisation’, RGASPI, f.514/ op.1/ d.461/ l.3.

42 Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, pp. 9–10.

43 VI congress Kominterna. Stenograficheskiy otchet. No. 4. Revolutsionnoye dvizheniye v kolonial'nyh i polukolonial'nyh stranah. (VI Congress of the Comintern. Verbatim Transcript. Revolutionary Movement in Colonial and Semicolonial Countries), Moscow-Leningrad, 1929, p. 30.

44 Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, p. 10. Xie, Wode banshengji, p. 250. Xie received money to establish the Party from the International Red Aid organization (Russian acronym: MOPR) and the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. He Chi, Weng Zesheng zhuan, p. 158. The Comintern itself never provided funds to the Party, except for those allocated through the Japanese Communist Party. Weng Zesheng's letter to the Far Eastern Bureau, 15 April 1931, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.1/ l. 214–24, especially 220–21; TK, pp. 545–51, especially p. 549. NA, RG263: D2527/45.

45 Between 1928 and 1931, he was the International Red Aid's representative in China. Titarenko, M. L. and Leutner, M. (eds) (1999). VKP(b), Komintern i Kitai. Dokumenty. VKP(b), Komintern i Sovetskoye dvizheniye v Kitaye. 1927–1931 (All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the Comintern, and China. Documents. The Comintern and Soviet Movement in China), AO ‘Buklet’, Moscow, p. 1530Google Scholar.

46 Xie, Wode banshengji, p. 170, 229.

47 ‘The Establishment of the Organisation’, RGASPI, f.514/ op.1/ d.461/ l.3.

48 Xie, Wode banshengji, p. 230.

49 Xie's guess that the Chinese Communist Party representative who went under the pseudonym Peng Rong (彭 榮) was Peng Pai (彭 湃) is wrong: see Xie, Wode banshengji, p. 249. According to Lin Mushun, it was Ren. See ‘The Establishment of the Organisation’, RGASPI, f.514/ op.1/ d.461/ l.3. Ren's involvement in the Party is corroborated in Cai Xiaoqian's reminiscences. See Xiaoqian, Cai (1970). Jiangxi suqu. Hongjunxi huiyi. (My Recollections of the Kiangsi Soviet Area and the Westward Flight of the Chinese Red Army), Zhonggong yanjiu zazhishe, Taibei, p. 22Google Scholar.

50 Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, pp. 97–98.

51 Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, pp. 13, 18.

52 Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, pp. 126–27; He Chi, Weng Zesheng zhuan, p. 173–74. According to Su Xin, Xie erroneously associated Weng with those she accused of being anarchists and who had belonged to the anarchist Taiwan Black Youth Union (Taiwan heise qingnian lianmeng). It should be noted that the anarchists’ reputation was compromised because of their alliance with the Guomindang in the aftermath of April 1927. See Dirlik, A. (1991). Anarchism in the Chinese Revolution, University of California Press, Berkeley, p. 248Google Scholar. This made ‘anarchists’ a convenient label for a political opponent.

53 Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, pp. 99, 106; He Chi, Weng Zesheng zhuan, p. 203–04.

54 Jian Jiongren, Taiwan Communist Movement, p. 95.

55 Xie, Wode banshengji, p. 269.

56 The Party was not mentioned at the Sixth Congress of the Comintern (17 July to 1 September 1928) nor in the Japanese Communist Party Comintern documents until the Executive Committee of the Comintern's ‘Resolution on current tasks of the Japanese Communist Party’ was compiled in October. Adibekov and Vada, The Comintern and Japan, pp. 473, 479. Identified by Katayama as ‘Theses on Formosa’, ‘Formosa under the yoke of Japanese imperialism’, compiled on 31 June 1928, still advocated the establishment of the Party as if it had not yet been established. RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.14/ l.100–101, 103–04; TK, pp. 266–68. Katayama's letter to Martynov, 20 April 1929, RGASPI, f.521/ op.1/ d.65/ l.131; TK, pp. 104–05.

57 Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, p. 102.

58 ‘The Establishment of the Organisation’, RGASPI, f.514/ op.1/ d.461/ l.12–13.

59 Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, p. 102, 106, 107.

60 Xie, Wode banshengji, p. 293.

61 ‘The Recent Political’, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.6/ l. 80,80ob; TK, p. 293.

62 Wang Naixin et al., Labour and Leftist Movement, pp. 124–33.

63 See a report and Lin Mushun and Chen Laiwang's letter to the Second Congress of the Peasant Union on behalf of the ‘Central Committee Taiwanese Communist Party’, Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, pp. 103–05 and Peasant Movement, pp. 130–42.

64 Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, pp. 103–05 and Peasant Movement, pp. 130–42.

65 Wang Naixin et al., Labour and Leftist Movement, pp. 123–24.

66 Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, pp. 107–08.

67 Boltanski and Thévenot, ‘The Sociology of Critical Capacity’, p. 360.

68 Weng's letter to the Far Eastern Bureau, 5 January 1931, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.10/ l.2–10, especially 5; TK, pp. 392–97, especially p. 394; Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, pp. 102, 105–06.

69 Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, pp. 354–78.

70 Titarenko and Leutner (1999). The Comintern and China, pp. 635, 803.

71 He Chi, Weng Zesheng zhuan, p. 239.

72 Weng labelled the Party ‘opportunist’ for not making public the existence of the ‘Vanguard party’, i.e. the Party. Weng's report, undated, compiled some time in January–February 1931, RGASPI, f.495/ op. 128/ d.10/ l.178–86, especially 183; TK, pp. 475–80, especially p. 478. Weng criticized the Party for what Van de Ven terms ‘a traditional instrumentalist view’ in the early Chinese Communist Party (From friend to comrade, p. 110). Weng quoted a letter from a Taiwanese communist that argued: ‘Why should [we] anxiously ask them to enter the Party? Is there any difference for carrying on our work if there are our resolutions? ’ See ‘Supplementary notes by Ong Ding Chuan’, 12 May 1930, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.6/ l.85–88, especially 87–87 ob.; TK, pp. 301–06, especially p. 304.

73 ‘The Recent Political’, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.6/ l.68–84 ob.; TK, pp. 276–300.

74 ‘Supplementary notes’, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.6/ l.88, 85 ob, 86 ob, 87; TK, pp. 301–06.

75 Kuusinen, O. (1930) ‘Novyi period i povorot v politike Kominterna (Pod rukovodstvom tov. Stalina)’ (‘New Period and Turn in the Comintern Policy [Under the Leadership of Comrade Stalin] ’), in Kommunisticheskyi Internatsional (Communist International), No. 2.

76 Titarenko and Leutner (1999). The Comintern and China, pp. 271, 584–88, 820, 937, 1079, 1170–171, 1174, 1465.

77 He Chi, Weng Zesheng zhuan, p. 239; ‘The Present Situation in Formosa (by Ah-Tao)’, undated and likely to have been compiled in the Summer/Autumn of 1930, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.11/ l.1–3; TK, pp. 338–42.

78 Chen Fangming, ‘Taiwan Kangri yungong de zuoyi luxian’, p. 36.

79 Prepared by Weng, record of Qu Qiubai's conversation with Weng, Pan, and Chen, undated, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.10/ l.57–66; especially 58–59; TK, pp. 431–36, especially p. 431.

80 Weng's letter to the Far Eastern Bureau, 1 February 1931, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.10/ l.67–72, especially 69; TK, pp. 426–29, especially p. 427.

81 Conversation with Qu, and Weng's letter, 1 February 1931, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.10/ l.57; 72; TK, pp. 431, 428.

82 Weng's letter, 1 February 1931, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.10/ l.71; TK, p. 428.

83 Titarenko and Leutner (1999). The Comintern and China, pp. 1318–319, 1308–309, 1182.

84 Pan's letter to Weng, 28 April 1931, in Weng's letter to the Far Eastern Bureau, 21 May 1931, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.10/ l.162–166, especially 164; TK, pp. 574–77, especially p. 575; ‘Lili's conversation’, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.10/ l.1; TK, p. 379.

85 ‘Lili's conversation’, RGASPI f.495/ op.128/ d.10/ l.1–1ob.; TK, pp. 379–83.

86 Pavel Mif's letter to the Executive Committee of the Comintern, 2 December 1930, RGASPI, f.514/ op.1/ d.566/ l.181.

87 Titarenko and Leutner (1999) The Comintern and China, p. 1318; Weng's letter to the Far Eastern Bureau, 15 April 1931, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/d. 10/ l.222–23; TK, p. 550. Weng wrote to the Far Eastern Bureau on average twice a week. He was paid 50 Mexican dollars a month. Titarenko, M. L. and Leutner, M. (eds) (2003). VKP(b), Komintern i Kitai. Dokumenty. VKP(b), Komintern i Sovetskoye dvizheniye v Kitaye. 1931–1937 (All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the Comintern and China. Documents. The Comintern and Soviet Movement in China), ‘ROSSPEN’, Moscow, p. 109Google Scholar.

88 ‘Lili's conversation’, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.10/ l.1, TK, p. 381; Weng's letter, 5 January 1931, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.10/ l.3; TK, p. 392; ‘Letter to the Formosa Communists’, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.1/ l.6; TK, p. 514.

89 ‘The Recent Political’, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.6/ l.84–84ob.; TK, pp. 299–300; ‘Letter to the Formosa Communists’, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.1/ l.3ob.; TK, p. 520.

90 Prepared by Weng for the Far Eastern Bureau, ‘Material regarding the Youth Movement’, undated, compiled some time in January–February 1931, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/d.10/ l.206–13, especially 209, 210, 212; TK, pp. 485–90, especially pp. 487–88, 490; ‘Letter to the Formosa Communists’, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.1/ l.12–13, TK, pp. 522–23.

91 Weng's report to the Far Eastern Bureau, 20 January 1931, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.10/ l.25–135, especially 30–31; TK, pp. 410–16, especially p. 414; Weng's letter to the Far Eastern Bureau, 28 January 1931, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.10/ l.45–48, especially 47; TK, pp. 417–19, especially p. 418; ‘Letter to the Formosa Communists’, RGASPI, f. 495/ op.128/ d.1/ l.12; TK, p. 522.

92 ‘The Open Letter’, 29 January 1931, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.10/ l.50–56; TK, pp. 421–25; Weng's letter to the Far Eastern Bureau, 29 January 1931, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.10/ l.49; TK, p. 420.

93 ‘Letter to the Formosa Communists’, RGASPI, f. 495/ op.128/ d.1/ l.11; TK, p. 521.

94 Prepared by Weng for the Far Eastern Bureau, ‘Materials and Opinions on Trade Movement in Formosa’, 8 March 1931, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.10/ l.122–28, especially 128; TK, pp. 527–32, especially pp. 531–32; ‘Letter to the Formosa Communists’, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.1/ l.11; TK, pp. 520–21.

95 XI Plenum ispolnitel'nogo Komiteta Kommunsticheskogo Internatsionala (XI Plenum of the ECCI) (1932), Moscow, pp. 42–43.

96 Weng's letter, 1 February 1931, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.10/ l.1, 67; TK, p. 426.

97 Li delivered the Comintern letter to Taiwan. Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, pp. 306, 139–40.

98 Weng's letter to the Far Eastern Bureau, 11 February 1931, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.10/ l.74–77, especially 74; TK, pp. 444–46, especially p. 444; Weng's letter to the Far Eastern Bureau, 20 February 1931, RGASPI, f.495/ op. 128/ d.10/ l.92–96; TK, pp. 456–58. Liu attended the Fifth Profintern Congress (15–30 August 1930) and was dispatched by the Comintern to Taiwan to solve factional conflict. Letter of the Shanghai representative of the Pan-Pacific Trade Union Secretariate to Moscow, 9 June 1931, RGASPI, f.534/ op.4/ d.370/ l.45–53, especially 52. Liu took Xie's side and denounced the Reform Alliance as counter to the Comintern's line, as did both the Japanese Communist Party and the Chinese Communist Party. Pan Qinxin was the ‘Comintern representative’ at the Party's Second Conference. Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, pp. 162–67, 132, 198–200.

99 Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, p. 111–13.

100 Zhang Yanxian and Gao Shuyuan, ‘A Story,’ pp. 87–88; He Chi, Weng Zesheng zhuan, p. 243

101 Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, pp. 124; Prepared by Weng, ‘Supplementary material on the Inner-Party Struggle’, undated, compiled some time in February 1931, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.10/ l.227–28, especially 227; TK, pp. 493–94, especially p. 493.

102 ‘Brief der Parteiorganozation von Formosa an das EKKZ’ (‘The Letter of the Formosan Party Organisation to ECCI’), unsigned, likely prepared by Xie Xuehong, 25 April 1931, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.10/ l.143–44; TK, pp. 552–53.

103 Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, pp. 116–18.

104 Weng's letter to the Far Eastern Bureau, 17 February 1931, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.10/ l.85–91, especially 87; TK, pp. 452–55, especially p. 453. According to Xie, Weng Zesheng also sent his emissaries to Taiwan earlier: Chen Xintang (陳 新 堂) in October 1928, Wang Wande (王 萬 得) in 1929, and Jiang Chongding or Wei (蔣 重 鼎, 魏) in 1930. Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, pp. 127–28; Xie, Wode banshengji, p. 272; He Chi, Weng Zesheng zhuan, p. 215.

105 Chen Dexing's letter to Weng (December 1931) in Weng's letter to the Far Eastern Bureau, 7 February 1931, RGASPI f.495/ op.128/ d.10/ l.36–43, especially 38; TK, pp. 438–42, especially p. 439. Another six Party members did not join the Reform Alliance. Pan's letter to Weng, 28 April 1931, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.10/ l.162; TK, p. 574.

106 Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, pp. 117–24.

107 Wang Naixin et al., Labour and Leftist Movement, pp. 169–80; Weng's letter to the Far Eastern Bureau, 7 April 1931, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.10/ l.138–42; TK, pp. 542–44; Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, pp. 192–93.

108 Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, p. 167.

109 Weng's letter to the Far Eastern Bureau, 26 May 1931, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.10/ l.166; TK, p. 580.

110 Pan's letter to Weng (21 May 1931) in Weng's letter to the Far Eastern Bureau, 4 June 1931, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.10/ l.161–61 ob.; TK, pp. 578–79.

111 NA, RG263: D2510/49.

112 A British report ‘Communist Activities in China, Federated Malay States etc. (The „Noulens Case“)’, 7 March 1932, NA, RG263: 2527/45, p. 26.

113 Titarenko and Leutner (2003) The Comintern and China, p. 109.

114 Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, pp. 350–53; 378. Of the 400 arrested individuals, 94 were sentenced to between two and 13 years in 1934. Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, pp. 195–97, 273–76.

115 He Chi, Weng Zesheng zhuan, p. 261.

116 Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, p. 197.

117 See Chen Fangming, Xie Xuehong Pingzhuang.

118 In 1934, the Party was still referred to as an ‘expanding party’. The Comintern apparently learned about the Party's collapse, arrests, and the trial from the press. Sklyarov, D. ‘Introduction’, in Yautihara (Yanaibara) Tadao (1934). Formosa pod vlast'yu yaponskogo imperializma (Formosa under the Rule of the Japanese Imperialism), Moscow, p. xixGoogle Scholar; ‘Dannyye o MOPR'e v Yaponii i yaponskikh koloniyakh (informatsiya po yaponskoy presse)’ (‘Information on Red Aid organization in Japan and in the Japanese colonies’ [from the Japanese press]), 1935, RGASPI, f.495/ op.127/ d.427/ l.130–31. In 1932, the Comintern prepared a second letter to the Formosan communists which also echoed Weng's suggestions and encouraged the Party to work on creating a Bolshevik party and overcoming factional struggle. ‘A Letter to Formosan Communists (draft)’, September 1932, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.1/ l.128–44; TK, pp. 589–600.

119 Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, p. 193.

120 Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, p. 125–32.

121 Boltanski and Thévenot, ‘The Sociology of Critical Capacity’, pp. 363–64.

122 RGASPI, f.495/ op.66/ d.6/ l.5, 6.

123 RGASPI, f.495/ op.66/ d.6/ l.5, 6.

124 ‘Resolution on the Philippines’, RGASPI, f.495/ op.66/ d.6/ l.15–17.

125 Wilson, ‘The Comintern and the Japanese Communist Party’, p. 299.

126 Adibekov and Vada, The Comintern and Japan, pp. 355–71.

127 Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, pp. 128–29; Weng's letter to the Far Eastern Bureau, 17 February 1931, RGASPI, f.495/ op. 28/ d.10/ l.90; TK, p. 454.

128 Pan's letter in Weng's letter to the Far Eastern Bureau, 21 May 1931, RGASPI, f.495/ op.128/ d.10/ l.164; TK, p. 575.

129 Van de Ven, From Friend to Comrade, pp. 237–39, 242.

130 See footnote 5.

131 Van de Ven, From Friend to Comrade, pp. 100–01.

132 Wilson, ‘The Comintern and the Japanese Communist Party,’ p. 287; Wang Naixin et al., Communist Movement, p. 2; Scalapino and Lee, Communism in Korea, Vol. I., p. 150.

133 See Vada, H. and Shiriniya, K. K. (eds) (2007). VKP(b), Komintern I Koreya (All-Russia Communist Party (Bolshevik), the Comintern, and Korea) 1918–1941, ROSSPEN, MoscowGoogle Scholar; Beckmann and Okubo, The Japanese Communist Party, p. 275.

134 Robinson, Cultural Nationalism, p. 151; Vada and Shiriniya, The Comintern and Korea, pp. 17, 24, 21, 15.

135 Wilson, ‘The Comintern and the Japanese Communist Party’, p. 293. Vada and Shiriniya, The Comintern and Korea, p. 30.

136 See Wilson, ‘The Comintern and the Japanese Communist Party’, p. 292.

137 Wilson, ‘The Comintern and the Japanese Communist Party’, p. 290–91.

138 Vada and Shiriniya, The Comintern and Korea, pp. 31–32.

139 Wilson, ‘The Comintern and the Japanese Communist Party’, p. 296.

140 Vada and Shiriniya, The Comintern and Korea, pp. 31, Wilson, ‘The Comintern and the Japanese Communist Party’.

141 See Thornber, Karen L. (2009). ‘Early Twentieth-Century Intra–East Asian Literary Contact Nebulae: Censored Japanese Literature In Chinese And Korean’, The Journal Of Asian Studies, 68 (3) (August), pp. 749–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

142 Mukōyama, Hiroo (1999). Riben tongzhi xia de Taiwan minzu yundong shi (A History of the National Movement in Taiwan under the Japanese Rule), Fulushou xing ye you xian gong si, Taibei, pp. 1081–082Google Scholar.

143 For the recantations in the Japanese Communist Party, see Hoston, Germaine (1983). ‘Tenkō: Marxism and the National Question in Prewar Japan’, Polity 16 (1) (Fall), pp. 96–118CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

144 Scalapino and Lee, Communism in Korea, p. 136.

145 Boltanski and Thévenot, ‘The Sociology of Critical Capacity’, pp. 371–72.

146 Yurchak, Alexei (2006). Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More, Princeton University Press, New JerseyGoogle Scholar.

147 Kotkin, Stephen (1995). Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as Civilization, University of California Press, BerkeleyGoogle Scholar.

148 Cheek, Timothy (1998). ‘From Market to Democracy in China: Gaps in the Civil Society Model’, in Lindau, Juan David and Cheek, Timothy (eds), Market Economics and Political Change: Comparing China and Mexico, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Lanham, Maryland, pp. 219–54Google Scholar, especially pp. 231–37.