Wang Fanxi (; March 16, 1907 – December 30, 2002) was a leading Chinese
Trotskyist
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...
revolutionary.
Born near
Hangzhou
Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the province, sitting at the head of Hangzhou Bay, whi ...
in
Zhejiang
Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...
province, he joined the
Communist Party of China
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...
, then an illegal organisation, in 1925. In 1927, he went to
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
to study at the
Communist University of the Toilers of the East
The Communist University of the Toilers of the East (KUTV) (russian: link=no, Коммунистический университет трудящихся Востока; also known as the Far East University) was a revolutionary training scho ...
. There he became a supporter of
Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian M ...
and the
International Left Opposition
International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations".
International may also refer to:
Music Albums
* ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011
* ''International'' (New Order album), 2002
* ''International'' (The T ...
. On his return to China, Wang worked for the Communist Party and became a leading member of the Trotskyist
October Group, and then the Chinese Left Opposition. He was jailed for most of the period from 1931 and 1937, and was expelled from the Communist Party for his views.
In 1941, the Chinese Left Opposition split and Wang and others formed the Communist League (Internationalist), which became the Internationalist Workers Party of China in 1949. That year, he was sent to
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
to act as an international link for the group, but was soon exiled to
Macau
Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...
. He wrote extensively and remained an influential figure, aligned with the
United Secretariat of the Fourth International
The Fourth International (FI), founded in 1938, is a Trotskyist international. In 1963, following a ten-year schism, the majorities of the two public factions of the Fourth International, the International Secretariat and the International Comm ...
. In 1975, he was forced to move again, and he emigrated to
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, where he died on December 30, 2002.
Footnotes
Works
*
Mao Zedong Thought'
*'': Chinese Revolutionary, Memoirs 1919-1949''
*''Studies on the Thought of Mao Tse-Tung''
*
'
Further reading
* Gregor Benton, ''China's Urban Revolutionaries: Explorations in the History of Chinese Trotskyism, 1921-1952.'' Atlantic Heights, NJ: Humanities Press, 1996.
* Gregor Benton (ed.), ''Prophets Unarmed: Chinese Trotskyists in Revolution, War, Jail, and the Return from Limbo.'' Leiden: Brill, 2015; Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2017.
1907 births
2002 deaths
Chinese Trotskyists
Writers from Jiaxing
Chinese expatriates in the Soviet Union
Moscow Sun Yat-sen University alumni
Republic of China essayists
National University of Peking alumni
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