Xie Xuehong (; 17 October 1901 – 5 November 1970), born Xie Shi Anu (), was a Chinese politician. A women's rights activist, she cofounded the

Taiwanese Communist Party The Taiwanese Communist Party ( zh, t=臺灣共產黨; ja, 台湾共產党) was a revolutionary organization active in Japanese-ruled Taiwan. Like the contemporary Taiwanese People's Party, its existence was short, only three years, but it ...

, active in

Japanese Taiwan The island of Taiwan, together with the Penghu Islands, became a dependency of Japan in 1895, when the Qing dynasty ceded Fujian-Taiwan Province in the Treaty of Shimonoseki after the Japanese victory in the First Sino-Japanese War. The sho ...

. Persecuted by the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

after its forces retreated to Taiwan, she escaped to mainland China, where she became a member of the

Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League The Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League (TDSL), also known by its Chinese abbreviation Taimeng ( zh , s = 台盟 , t = 臺盟 ), is one of the eight legally recognized minor political parties in the People's Republic of China that are m ...

and the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...

Biography

Xie was born in

Changhua County Changhua County (Mandarin Pinyin: ''Zhānghuà Xiàn''; Wade-Giles: ''Chang¹-hua⁴ Hsien⁴''; Hokkien POJ: ''Chiang-hòa-koān'' or ''Chiong-hòa-koān'') is the smallest county on the main island of Taiwan by area, and the fourth smallest ...

in 1901 to a working-class family, the fourth of seven children. She assumed at least five other names throughout her lifetime. At the age of twelve, she moved in with another family. Her adoptive family was abusive, and, instead of entering an arranged marriage with their son, Hong Xinhu, she left their home. Xie met and married Zhang Shumin in 1918. For a time, the couple lived in

Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...

, Japan, where the Taishō period of democracy heavily influenced Xie. Soon after Xie and Zhang moved to China, the couple split, as Xie had discovered that Zhang was still married to another woman. Xie then began to give sewing lessons, while also making and selling clothes. The

May Fourth Movement The May Fourth Movement was a Chinese anti-imperialist, cultural, and political movement which grew out of student protests in Beijing on May 4, 1919. Students gathered in front of Tiananmen (The Gate of Heavenly Peace) to protest the Chinese ...

was a political turning point for Xie, and she later joined

Chiang Wei-shui Chiang Wei-shui (; 6 August 1890 – 5 August 1931) was a Taiwanese physician and activist. He was a founding member of the Taiwanese Cultural Association and the Taiwanese People's Party. He is seen as one of the most important figures in Ta ...

's resistance against Japanese rule. Xie studied sociology at

Shanghai University Shanghai University, commonly referred to as SHU, or colloquially Shangda (), is a public research university located in Shanghai. The 555-acre main Baoshan campus is situated in the north of Shanghai, and there are two other campuses in Jiadi ...

and took part in the

May Thirtieth Movement The May Thirtieth Movement () was a major labor and anti-imperialist movement during the middle-period of the Republic of China era. It began when the Shanghai Municipal Police opened fire on Chinese protesters in Shanghai's International Settle ...

of 1925, the same year she was told to join the

. Xie then moved to Moscow for further education 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 ...

, which she attended for two years. In November 1927, she returned to China and began taking actions that led to the founding of the

(TCP) in 1928. At the direction of

Sen Katayama Sen may refer to: Surname * Sen (surname), a Bengali surname * Şen, a Turkish surname * A variant of the Serer patronym Sène Currency subunit * Etymologically related to the English word ''cent''; a hundredth of the following currencies: * ...

, cofounder of the

Japanese Communist Party The is a left-wing to far-left political party in Japan. With approximately 270,000 members belonging to 18,000 branches, it is one of the largest non-governing communist parties in the world. The party advocates the establishment of a democr ...

(JCP), Xie and began recruiting for what would become the TCP in Shanghai. Both traveled to Japan to seek help from the JCP on a draft of a party charter, which was smuggled by Xie past Japanese authorities in Shanghai upon her return to China in February 1928. The TCP's charter was approved by a

official using the pseudonym Peng Jung on 13 April 1928, and the Taiwanese Communist Party's founding ceremony was held two days later. Xie's ideology spread to Chiang's

Taiwanese People's Party The Taiwanese People's Party (; ), founded 1927, was nominally Taiwan's first political party, preceding the founding of the Taiwanese Communist Party by nine months. Initially a party with members holding moderate and conservative views, by ...

and

Taiwanese Cultural Association The Taiwanese Cultural Association (TCA; ) was an important organization during the Japanese rule of Taiwan. It was founded by Chiang Wei-shui on 17 October 1921, in Daitōtei, a district in modern-day Taipei. History After World War I, an epid ...

after she took on leadership positions in the two groups. She believed that a maintaining a distinct

Taiwanese identity Taiwanese people may be generally considered the people of Taiwan who share a common culture, ancestry and speak Taiwanese Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka or indigenous Taiwanese languages as a mother tongue. Taiwanese people may also refer to the i ...

and allowing bourgeoisie to participate would allow communism to flourish in Taiwan. Others disagreed and Xie was expelled from the Taiwanese Communist Party in 1931. Later that year, she was arrested and sentenced to 13 years imprisonment for advocating communism. In 1939, Xie was released after catching tuberculosis. Xie returned to political activism in 1945, when Kuomintang forces arrived in Taiwan, stating that "Taiwan must be ruled by Taiwanese." In September 1946, Xie established the Taiwan People’s Association, which was disestablished by the Kuomintang government in January 1947. In 1947, she convened the 27 Brigade and was involved in the February 28 incident from her home base in Taichung, telling the masses not to damage property or injure anyone. Three weeks later, she escaped to Hong Kong, where she founded the

, and later moved to Xiamen. Under Xie's leadership, the league opposed the aims of the Formosan League for Reemancipation, which backed formal independence or trusteeship. At its founding, Taimeng backed liberation of Taiwan from the control of

Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...

and the Kuomintang. In China, Xie was active in the

China Youth League The Communist Youth League of China (CYLC), also known as the Young Communist League of China or simply the Communist Youth League (CYL), is a youth movement of the People's Republic of China for youth between the ages of 14 and 28, run by the ...

and served on the

Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC, zh, 中国人民政治协商会议), also known as the People's PCC (, ) or simply the PCC (), is a political advisory body in the People's Republic of China and a central part of ...

. However, Xie continued to push for Taiwan's right to self-determination, views for which the Chinese Communist Party targeted her during the

Anti-Rightist Campaign The Anti-Rightist Campaign () in the People's Republic of China, which lasted from 1957 to roughly 1959, was a political campaign to purge alleged "Rightists" within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the country as a whole. The campaign was l ...

. Actions taken against Xie included her removal as leader of Taimeng, her expulsion from the CCP and removal from the

National People's Congress The National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (NPC; ), or simply the National People's Congress, is constitutionally the supreme state authority and the national legislature of the People's Republic of China. With 2, ...

, all in 1958. Xie died in Beijing in 1970, a victim of the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...

. She was posthumously rehabilitated by the Chinese Communist Party in 1986.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Xie, Xuehong Politicians of the Republic of China on Taiwan from Changhua County Members of the Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League 20th-century Taiwanese women politicians Chinese women's rights activists Taiwanese expatriates in Japan 1901 births 1970 deaths Deaths from lung cancer in the People's Republic of China People persecuted to death during the Cultural Revolution February 28 incident Leaders of political parties in China Shanghai University alumni Socialist feminists Prisoners and detainees of Japan Taiwanese political party founders Taiwanese feminists Taiwanese emigrants to China Taiwanese people of Hoklo descent Taiwanese revolutionaries Taiwanese prisoners and detainees Communist University of the Toilers of the East alumni 20th-century Chinese women politicians Taiwanese women founders Burials at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery