The Kiangsi Soviet Republic: Mao and the National Congresses of 1931 and 1934 A publicationofthe CenterforChineseStudies UniversityofCalifornia Berkeley,California 94720 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE FredericE. Wakeman, Jr., Chairman ProfessorofHistory JoyceK. Kallgren, Vice-Chairman AssociateProfessorofPoliticalScience (Davis) CyrilBirch ProfessorofOrientalLanguages Wen-shunChi SeniorTutor Wolfram Eberhard ProfessorofSociology GregoryGrossman ProfessorofEconomics JohnC. Jamieson AssociateProfessorofOrientalLanguages ChalmersJohnson ProfessorofPoliticalScience Jack M. Potter AssociateProfessorofAnthropology RobertA. Scalapino ProfessorofPoliticalScience H. FranzSchurmann ProfessorofSociologyandHistory JohnS. Service CuratoroftheLibrary JohnB. Stan- AssistantProfessorofPoliticalScience Wei-mingTu AssistantProfessorofHistory CoverColophonbyShih-hsiangChen Center for Chinese Studies • China Research Monographs UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY /NUMBER TEN The Kiangsi Soviet Republic: Mao and the National Congresses of 1931 and 1934 DEREK J. WALLER ft a. Althoughthe Center forChinese Studies is responsible for the selection and acceptance of monographs in this series, respon sibility forthe opinionsexpressedinthem and for the accuracy of statements contained in them rests with their authors. DerekJ.Walleris currently anassistant professor of political scienceat Vanderbilt University. Born in England, he receivedan undergraduate degree from theLondonSchool ofEconomics anddidgraduate workin theUnitedStates attheuniversitiesofIndiana andStanford. He returned to Londonto work at the School ofOriental and AfricanStudies, receiv inghisPh.D. from theUniversity ofLondonin 1968 after field research in Hong Kong. His major field of interest is comparative politics, es pecially Chinese communism and comparative communist studies. Heis the authorofThe Governmentand Politics of Communist China (1970), andaco-authorof Comparative Communist Political Leadership (1973). HeisnowpermanentlyresidingintheUnited States, andisatthepresent timeconductingasurveyof the majortrendsin elitestudies. ©1973bytheRegentsoftheUniversityof California ISBN 0-912966-11-4 PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica $5.00 Contents Acknowledgments 7 Abbreviations 8 I Introduction 9 Chingkangshan 9 II The LiLi-sanPeriod 11 III The First National Soviet Congress 22 Laws andResolutionsof the Congress 30 Creationof a Soviet Government 41 Summary 50 IV The Second National Soviet Congress 53 Preparations forthe Second Congress 60 The Election Campaign 66 The Proceedings of the Congress 84 Analysis ofthe New Government 103 Summary 108 V Conclusion Ill Tables 1. CECMembers ElectedattheFirst NationalSoviet Congress 42 2. Whereabouts ofCECMembers attheFirstNational Soviet Congress 48 3. Delegations to the Second National Soviet Congress ... 85 4. CECMembersElectedattheSecondNational Soviet Congress 99 TO MY WIFE Acknowledgments I should like to thank the Research and Publications Committee of the Hoover Institution onWar, Revolution andPeacefor a grantduringthe summer of 1965, which first enabled me to gain acquaintance with the Ch'en Ch'eng collection of documents. The library staff of the Hoover Institution, in particular Mr. DavidTseng, were alwaysunfailinglyhelp ful. The following year, the Universities' China Committee in London were kind enough to finance a research visit to United States libraries andinstitutions.Forcourtesies extendedduringthisvisit, I must express mythanks to DonaldW. Klein andAnneB. Clark,who were most gen erous in allowingme to use the materialthey had assembled towards their biographic dictionary of Chinese communist leaders. I am also grateful for similar assistance received from Howard L. Boorman. To William F. Dorrill,who has worked extensively on the Kiangsi soviet period, I am indebted for the time he spent with me in discussing his research, and for permitting me to view a section of his unpublished manuscript. I shouldalsoliketo thank many otherswhohelped me with the study, including William Brugger, Dennis Doolin, Tang Hsiang, John Lewis, StuartSchram, P. J.Vatikiotis, and MichaelYahuda. abbreviations PublicationsandOrganizations CC CentralCommittee CCP ChineseCommunistParty CEC CentralExecutiveCommittee CPC CouncilofPeople'sCommissars CPSU CommunistPartyofthe SovietUnion CRBRD CollectionofRedBanditReactionaryDocuments ECCI ExecutiveCommitteeoftheCommunistInternational HCCP Hung-ch'ichou-pao (RedFlagWeekly) HCJP Hung-ch'i jih-pao (RedFlag Daily) HCYT Hsuan-chuyun-tungchou-pao (ElectionCampaignWeekly) HH Hunghsing (RedStar) HSCH Hungsechung-hua (RedChina) KMT Kuomintang RCQHP Resolutionon Certain Questions inthe Historyofour Party RMC RevolutionaryMilitaryCouncil SSC ShihSou (Ch'enCh'eng) Collection TC Tou-cheng (Struggle) WPI Workers' andPeasants'Inspectorate Provinces Che Chekiang Hsiang Hunan Kan Kiangsi Min Fukien O Hupeh Wan Anhwei Yii Honan Yueh Kwangtung PersonalNames LoFu ChangWen-t'ien LoMai LiWei-han PoKu Ch'inPang-hsien Wang Ming Ch'enShao-yii I Introduction The early1930's,orKiangsi sovietperiod, isoneof themost obscurein the history of the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]. This monograph takes as its focal point thetwoNational Soviet Congresses convened at Juichin, Kiangsi (thecapitaloftheChinese Soviet Republic) inNovem ber 1931 andJanuary-February 1934. The major significance for this study of these two National Congresses is that focussing attention on them provides newinformation ontheinter-related themes of political processes and powerrelations, aswellasfacilitating examination of the roleofMaoTse-tungduringtheseyears. It was after Chiang Kai-shek's anti-communist coup of April 1927 that Stalin first mooted the possibility of Soviets in China.1 The term "soviet" wasborrowed directly from Russian experience andreferred to the representative councils ofworkers, peasants, and soldiers first setup atthetimeof the 1905 revolution andlater repeated in 1917. In China it later cameto refer more generally to any territorial area controlled bytheCCP. Chingkangshan Afterthefailure of theAutumn Harvest Uprisings, Mao Tse-tung took refugeinthe mountain fastness ofChingkangshan ontheHunan-Kiangsi border, where he began to establish"soviet areas."There were at least three hundred of these soviet areasin existence at one time or another during thetortuous andcomplexhistory of theCCPfromits foundation in 1921 totheproclamation ofthePeople's Republic of China in 1949? The Soviets sprangtolifeindifferent provinces ofChina, lasted for vary ing periods of time, and ranged in nature from a hideout for purely bandit guerrilla operations to functioning, viable political entities— iPravda,July 28, 1927;quotedin RobertC.North, MoscowandChineseCom munists,(SecondEdn.,Stanford: StanfordUniversityPress, 1963),p.109. 2Hung-ch'i jih-pao [hereafter HCJP] (RedFlag Daily),52 (October 8, 1930), p.1; also, Chung-kuo kung-nung-ping hui-i (su-wei-ai) ti-i-tz'u ch'iian-kuo tai-piao ta-hui chung-yang chun-pei wei-yuan-hui ch'iian-t'i hui-ipu-kao (Proclamation of thePlenumoftheCentral Preparatory Committee fortheFirst National Congress of theChinese Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Meetings [Soviets]), printed in HsiaoTso-liang, PowerRelationswithin theChinese CommunistMovement, 1930- 1934 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1967), Volume n, the Chinese Documents, p. 82.I am particularly indebted throughout this monograph to the pioneering work of Professor Hsiao, and also to his earlier volume of the same title, consisting of commentaries onthedocuments (Seattle: University of Wash ingtonPress, 1961). autonomous enclaves in theheartofChina. Theso-called "Kiangsi soviet period"inthehistoryoftheCCPistheearlyhistoryoftheChineseSoviet Republic which existed in south-central Chinafromthe springof 1929s to the autumn of 1934, and was, prior to the Long March, the most importantofthelattertypeofsovietmentionedabove. Quiteclearly,the experience ofChingkangshanwasessentially one of failure, and in early 1929iteffectively ceasedto existas a revolutionary base area when Mao Tse-tung, Chu Teh, and their followers withdrew underKuomintang[KMT]pressuretosearchforamoresuitablelocation. Nevertheless,Mao concludedthathispoliciesofcreating an army, operat ingout ofaruralbase area,werefundamentally correct.Departure from Chingkangshanmeant,not areturnto thecities,but the establishmentof a new sovietbase, whichproved to be a far more enduring and viable politicalentitythan anyof itsforerunners. Chalmers Johnsonhas aptly described the idea of the territorial bases as "a 'rebel infrastructure,' or 'autonomousgovernment,'... [providing] food,refuge,an areainwhich military equipment maybe manufactured, and trainingbases;and they weakenthe status quo powerby removing territory from the system's productivesubstructure."4It isgreatlytobedoubtedwhethertheChing kangshanbasemetsuchrequirements, but it wasthere that the founda tionwaslaidfor thefutureChineseSovietRepublic. BreakingthroughtheKMTblockadeinJanuary 1929,Chu andMao, withP'eng Teh-huai'sFifth Armyguarding their rear, began campaign ingin Kiangsi. During 1929 they consolidated their base in the south Kiangsi andwestFukienarea,withJuichin asits center. Bythe endof 1930nearlythewholeofsouthKiangsihadfallen totheRedArmy, and the base of the central sovietregionshad been established, an area of about seventeenhsienon the Kiangsi-Fukienborderwith a populationof threemillion.5 Inline with the demands of the Ninth Plenum of the Executive Com mittee of the Comintern [ECCI], held in Moscow in February 1928, the CCPleadershipattemptedto createa singlecentralizedRed Armyfrom bands of rovingguerrillaunitsin orderto carryout the agrarianrevolu tion.By 1930therefore, the stagewassetfor the protractedstruggle of the Party leadershipto callthe First NationalSovietCongress, establish aformalsovietregime,and therebyextendtheir authority over the Red Army and the soviet bases. The strugglewas to last almost two years. sTheChineseSovietRepublicwas notactuallyestablisheduntilNovember 1931, and was only formally abandonedin 1937on the conclusionof an anti-Japanese unitedfrontwiththeKMT. 4Chalmers Johnson, Revolution and the Social System (Hoover Institution Studies No. 3;HooverInstitution: StanfordUniversity, 1964),p.62. 5Harold R. Isaacs, The Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution (Second Revised Edition,Stanford: StanfordUniversity Press, 1961),p. 337. 10