The Communist International, the Kuomintang and the CCP¶
Core Argument¶
Chapter Digest: The Communist International, the Kuomintang and the CCP¶
This chapter dissects the fraught relationship between the Communist International (CI), the Kuomintang (KMT), and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during the 1920s, arguing that the Comintern’s strategy of subordinating the CCP to the KMT was a catastrophic error rooted in a flawed analysis of class forces. The core argument is that Moscow’s insistence on a “bloc within” the KMT—whereby CCP members joined as individuals bound by KMT discipline—systematically sacrificed the political independence and revolutionary potential of the Chinese proletariat to a bourgeois nationalist party.
The narrative begins with the Comintern’s determination to steer Sun Yat-sen away from a purely military path. In late 1921, Maring proposed an alliance, but Sun demanded Soviet-style reorganisation and a military academy, not a united front of equals. The CCP leadership almost universally opposed the proposal. The successful Hong Kong seamen’s strike of 1922, led by KMT militants but supported by the CCP, convinced Maring and the ECCI that the KMT had genuine links with workers. Maring argued the CCP could enter the KMT, win over its left wing, and expand its own influence. When the CCP Central Committee insisted on a temporary, independent alliance, Maring threatened expulsion from the CI to force compliance. Sun’s condition—that CCP members join as individuals bound by KMT rules—was already accepted by the ECCI.
The 4th World Congress approved the United Front strategy but stressed the CCP’s complete political autonomy. Yet the ECCI’s January 1923 resolution designated the KMT as a ‘group’ to avoid defining it as bourgeois, and instructed the CCP to remain within the KMT. The February 7th Massacre, where warlord troops killed striking railway workers, was used by Maring to argue the CCP was too weak to go it alone. The 3rd National Congress saw strong opposition to the ‘bloc within’, with many members quitting, reducing party membership to around one hundred by November 1923. At this congress, the CCP adopted the ECCI line that the KMT should lead the national revolution. Mao Zedong, elected to the Central Bureau, endorsed this line and actively built KMT branches.
Mikhail Borodin replaced Maring as Moscow’s envoy, serving as KMT adviser and responsible to Stalin. He reorganised the KMT on Russian lines, stage-managed its First National Congress in January 1924, and paid 35,000 Chinese dollars monthly into KMT coffers. The Congress admitted Communists as individuals subject to KMT discipline; ten CCP members joined the Central Executive Committee, but were excluded from the Party Secretariat and military general staff. Borodin divided the KMT into left and right based solely on attitudes to CCP entry, ignoring class basis to disguise its bourgeois nature. Sun Yat-sen demanded CCP members obey KMT discipline, not criticise it, and insisted on vetting all ECCI communications. This pushed Chen Duxiu toward reassessing policy. The Whampoa Military Academy was established, modelled on Red Army academies, with Chiang Kai-shek as commander and Communist Zhou Enlai as nominal deputy; most cadets came from landed gentry families.
The ECCI gained power to issue binding directions and annul national congress resolutions. The 1924 Fifth World Congress internationalised the ban on factions. Peng Shuzhi and other returnees from Moscow proposed renewing Party organisation, returning Li Lisan to trade union work, and adopting a more critical attitude to the KMT. In December 1924, Peng and Chen published articles arguing the proletariat must lead the national revolution. The Fourth National Congress in January 1925 voted to maintain the bloc within but criticised subservience to the KMT. It relaxed membership conditions; within eighteen months membership doubled. Peng and Chen presented the proletarian hegemony line. Mao, ill, was not re-elected to the Central Committee.
At the October 1925 CCP Central Committee, Chen Duxiu argued the bourgeoisie was moving to counter-revolution and urged the CCP to prepare to withdraw from the KMT to lead workers and peasants independently. The Comintern representative Voitinsky rejected this, winning majority support by arguing the bloc within was about to yield benefits