Deng Zhongxia (or Teng Chung-hsia; October 5, 1894 – September 21, 1933) was an early member of 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 ...

and an important Marxist intellectual and labor movement leader. Having led many strikes and uprisings against

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 ...

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 ...

government, he became one of the most wanted CCP members by the Kuomintang. He was captured and executed in 1933.

Biography

Born in October 1894 in

Yizhang Yizhang County () is a counties of China, county in Hunan, Hunan Province, China, it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Chenzhou. Yizhang County covers . As of 2015, it had a registered population of 644,300 and a residen ...

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...

, Deng was a philosophy graduate of

Peking University Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charter ...

. He joined the

May 4th 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 ...

in 1919 and initiated the Marxist Research Group in the university. In 1920, that group set up a communist organization in which

Li Dazhao Li Dazhao or Li Ta-chao (October 29, 1889 – April 28, 1927) was a Chinese intellectual and revolutionary who participated in the New Cultural Movement in the early years of the Republic of China, established in 1912. He co-founded the Chinese C ...

was elected as the party secretary and of which Deng became a member. Inspired by the communism, Deng became involved in the labor movement in Beijing during the same year. He set up the workers’ unions and provided education to the workers. In 1922, he was elected as the director of a nationwide labor organization at the First Chinese Labor Meeting held in

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

. In July of the same year, he was elected as the member of the

Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, officially the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is a political body that comprises the top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It is currently composed of 205 fu ...

at the Second Party Congress. In 1923, under Li's recommendation, he received an administrative job from

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 ...

, which was co-founded by the CCP and the Kuomintang during their short-term cooperation. During Deng's tenure, he invited a number of communists, including

Cai Hesen Cai Hesen (March 30, 1895 – August 4, 1931) was an early leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and a friend and comrade of Mao Zedong. Cai was born in Shanghai but grew up in Shuangfeng County in Hunan Province of China. He helped ...

Qu Qiubai Qu Qiubai (; 29 January 1899 – 18 June 1935) was a leader of the Chinese Communist Party in the late 1920s. He was born in Changzhou, Jiangsu, China. Early life Qu was born in Changzhou, Jiangsu. His family lived in Tianxiang Lou () locat ...

and Li Da, to teach at the school. In 1925, after the establishment of the All-China Federation of Labor, Deng was designated as the publicity minister in Guangzhou and organized the Canton-Hong Kong strike, which lasted from June 1925 to October 1926. When the Kuomintang and the CCP split, Deng proposed an uprising in

Nanchang Nanchang (, ; ) is the capital of Jiangxi Province, People's Republic of China. Located in the north-central part of the province and in the hinterland of Poyang Lake Plain, it is bounded on the west by the Jiuling Mountains, and on the east ...

Jiangxi Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...

, to fight against Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek's

massacre A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...

of CCP members. In the CCP's critical August 7 Meeting in 1927, Deng was a supporter of land revolution and armed struggle. He was also elected as an alternate member of the provisional Political Bureau of the Central Committee of CCP. After the meeting, he was sent to Shanghai to organize the surviving party members. In 1928, he was appointed to Guangzhou and Hong Kong to rebuild destroyed CCP organizations. In 1930, he joined the armed struggle in Hunan and the Western Hubei Communist Base as the political commissar of the No. 2 Red Army with

He Long He Long (; March 22, 1896 – June 9, 1969) was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and one of the ten marshals of the People's Liberation Army. He was from a poor rural family in Hunan, and his family was not able to provide him with any formal e ...

and Zhou Yiqun. In 1932, he secretly returned to Shanghai to continue the underground struggle in the Kuomintang controlled economic hub. However, his identity was discovered, and he was arrested in Shanghai in May 1933. As Deng was an important CCP leader, his capture drew

's attention. Chiang ordered Deng sent to Nanjing's prison camp and offered him a high position within the Kuomintang with good pay. But Deng refused the offer, and thus was severely tortured before being executed on September 21, 1933.

References

External links

Deng Zhongxia
{{Authority control 1894 births 1933 deaths Alternate members of the 3rd Central Executive Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Chinese revolutionaries Delegates to the 5th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party Executed people from Hunan Peking University alumni People executed by the Republic of China by firearm