China: Chen Duxiu, leading figure in the May 4th Movement, co-founder of the Chinese Communist Party, educator, philosopher, politician (1879-1942)

Chen Duxiu (simplified Chinese: 陈独秀; traditional Chinese: 陳獨秀; pinyin: Chén Dúxiù; October 8, 1879 – May 27, 1942) played many different roles in Chinese history. He was a leading figure in the anti-imperial Xinhai Revolution and the May Fourth Movement for Science and Democracy. Along with Li Dazhao, Chen was a co-founder of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921. He was its first General Secretary. Chen was an educator, philosopher, and politician. His ancestral home was in Anqing (安慶), Anhui, where he established the influential vernacular Chinese periodical 'La Jeunesse'.

Chen came into conflict with Mao Zedong in 1925 over Mao's essay 'An Analysis of Classes in Chinese Society'. Although Mao had been one of Chen's students, he had begun to question Chen's analyses of China. While Chen believed that the focus of revolutionary struggle in China should primarily concern the workers, Mao had started to theorize about the primacy of the peasants.

After the collaboration between the Communists and Nationalists collapsed in 1927, the Comintern blamed Chen, and systematically removed him from all positions of leadership. In 1929, he was expelled. Afterwards, Chen became associated with the International Left Opposition of Leon Trotsky.

In 1932, Chen was arrested by the government of the Shanghai International Settlement, where he had been living since 1927, and extradited to Nanjing. Chen was then tried and sentenced to fifteen years in prison by the Nationalist government. Chen was released on parole in 1937, after the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War.

After his release, Chen travelled from place to place until the summer of 1938, when he arrived at the wartime capital of Chongqing and took a position teaching at a junior high school. In poor health and with few remaining friends, Chen Duxiu later retired to Jiangjing, a small town west of Chongqing, where he died in 1942 at the age of 62. He is buried at his birthplace of Anqing.

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REVOLUTIONARY CHINA