In 1913, Li Dazhao traveled east to Japan and studied at Waseda University in Tokyo, where he began to come into contact with socialist ideas and Marxist doctrines. Li Dazhao (front row, third from left) poses with faculty and students at Waseda University. (Source: Modern Chinese Video Database)
The Communist Party of China is the largest Communist Party organization in the world and the largest ruling party in the world today, and the Communist Party of Japan is currently the largest Communist Party organization in the developed world and the representative of the left-wing political party in Japan, which were founded in July 1921 and July 1922 respectively, and have established close relations since their birth. With the changes in the pattern of international relations and the differences in the foreign policies of the two parties, the CCP and the Japanese Communist Party have experienced a complex process from the initial mutual support and "comrade-plus-brother" relationship, to the beginning of mutual "enemies" and the breakdown of relations in the mid-1960s, and then to the resumption of normal exchanges between the two parties since 1998. At present, academic circles often avoid the topic of the relationship between the CPC and the Japanese Communist Party, or focus on the study of related issues after the founding of New China, especially since the normalization of relations between the two parties; as for the relations between the CPC and the Japanese Communist Party before 1945, especially before the September 18 Incident in 1931, they are either limited to recognizing the limited ties between the two parties, or simply denying the existence of organizational exchanges between the two parties. So, was there any connection between the CCP and the Early Japanese Communist Party? How do I get in touch? How to cooperate? On the basis of the existing research results, the author uses some oral materials and memoirs, as well as the archives of the Diplomatic Historical Museum of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, to try to examine the history of relations between the CPC and the CPP in the decade from the founding of the CPC in 1921 to the outbreak of the September 18 Incident in 1931, outline the feats of the two parties in actively participating in the torrent of the international communist movement for the sake of human peace and liberation on the basis of common faith, and explore the important significance and modern enlightenment of bipartisan cooperation under the special environment of Sino-Japanese relations at that time.
I. Contacts and contacts before and after the founding of the Party
Before and after the founding of the Communist Party of China and the Japanese Communist Party, Japan, Together with Europe and Russia, were the three major channels for spreading Marxism to China, and were even once considered to be the "main channels" for the spread of Marxism to China. At that time, China's progressive intellectuals, especially students studying in Japan, had come into more or less contact with Japanese socialists and Marxist theories, and had translated the Marxist classics introduced into Japan into Chinese and disseminated them to China, or introduced the activities carried out by Japanese socialists and the workers' movement to The country, thus promoting the spread of Chinese Marxism and the development of the Chinese workers' movement, which was one of the ideological bases for the founding of the Communist Party of China in July 1921. For example, the main founders of the CCP, "Southern Chen And Northern Li", that is, Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, came into contact with socialists and Marxist theories during their stay in Japan, and then later transformed into communists. Li Da and Li Hanjun not only studied and studied Marxism during their stay in Japan, but also actively promoted the spread of Marxism after returning to China. After Chen Wangdao returned to China, he returned to his hometown of Fenshuitang Village in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, to translate the "Communist Manifesto" and influenced generations of Chinese Communists. It can be said that Marxism is the ideological link linking Chinese students studying in Japan and advanced intellectuals with Japanese socialists.
Shi Cuntong (1899-1970), Jinhua, Zhejiang. Secretary of the First Central Executive Committee of the Chinese Socialist Youth League. (Source: Modern Chinese Video Database)
Socialists and advanced intellectuals of China and Japan have come into contact, exchanged, and cooperated with each other in the process of studying, translating, and disseminating Marxism. For example, Sakai Toshihiko, Ōsugi, and other socialists formed the "Japan Socialist League" in Tokyo in December 1920, and Li Dazhao, who was in Beijing at the time, was introduced by Japanese journalist and editor Koichiro Maruyama. The Shanghai Communist Group's "New Youth", which was edited by the Shanghai Communist Group, had asked Sakai and Yamakawa to draft it, and although Sakai was too busy to finish the draft, Yamakawa later published "From Scientific Socialism to Socialism in Action" in The New Youth, Vol. 9, No. 1, in May 1921. Shi Cuntong, who went to Japan to study in June 1920, became acquainted with Sakai Toshihiko, Yamakawa Jun, Takatsu Masamichi, and others through the contacts and introductions of Li Da, Li Hanjun, and others; on the one hand, they translated and introduced their treatises and articles and magazines propagating socialism to China, and on the other hand, they discussed and exchanged Marxist theories with each other and introduced them to the situation of the Chinese revolutionary movement. In December 1920, the Communist International secretly organized the Far Eastern Socialist Federation with the participation of representatives of China, Japan, and Korea in Shanghai, and decided:
1． The three countries of China, Japan, and South Korea should expand communist propaganda and prepare for the establishment of Communist Party organizations separately;
2． Formation of the Central Bureau in China to contact the world proletariat;
3． The Comintern finances the activities mentioned above.
Appointed by the Comintern and Soviet Russia, the Korean communist Park Jin-soon went to China at the end of 1920 to contact communists in China, Japan, South Korea and other countries to support and fund communist propaganda and party building activities in various countries. At the end of the same year, after arriving in China, he met with Ōsugi Ei, who was in China at the time, and discussed the creation of the Japanese Communist Party. In April 1921, Japanese socialist activist Eizo Kondo, together with Toshihiko Sakai and Jun yamakawa, established a preparatory Provisional Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Japan and elected Toshihiko Sakai as its chairman. In May of the same year, the committee sent Kondo Eisaku to Shanghai to visit Park Jin-jun, and reported to the latter on the draft formation of the Japanese Communist Party and the application for a monthly grant of 20,000 yen to the Comintern, which was agreed in principle and first paid 6,500 yen for the event. During his time in China, in addition to contacting representatives of the Comintern, Kondo also had contact with individual Korean communists, as well as Hwang Jie-min, Yao Zuobin, and others from the Tatsumi Party under the banner of socialism. Although these contacts and exchanges maintained the ties between the Japanese Communists and the Comintern, they were difficult and did not continue smoothly. With the establishment of the Communist Group in Japan in April 1921, a channel of communication between the Chinese Communist Party, Japanese Communists and the Comintern was opened.
However, the development of the Communist Group in Japan was slow at the beginning of its establishment, and until the "First Congress" of the CPC was convened, there were still only Shi Cuntong and Zhou Fohai, so that when the deputies to the "First Congress" were elected, the two of them pushed each other as representatives. After the end of the "First Day", Zhou Fohai took Yang Shuhui back to Kagoshima to continue his studies, but his activities in Shanghai have attracted the attention of the Japanese police, which makes Zhou very panicked: "I am active in Shanghai and the Yangtze River, and the Chinese classmates in Kagoshima do not know, but the Japanese police know." When I arrived at Kagoshima, they secretly monitored me. My mentor, Mr. Motowaki, also warned me to pay attention, otherwise, I might be expelled from school. So I worked honestly, but fortunately there was no room for activity in Kagoshima. Since then, Zhou Fohai, who has concentrated on studying, not only successfully graduated from Kagoshima No. 7 High School, but also was admitted to Kyoto Imperial University. When he and Yang Shuhui had just arrived at Kyoto Station, plainclothes policemen came to ask "whether Zhou Mou was zhou", "Because when I left From Kagoshima, the police there had already sent a telegram to Kyoto." In such a closely monitored environment, Zhou Fohai organized only one lecture and gave some speeches from a Marxist standpoint. With the poor life of his eldest son, Zhou Youhai, after his birth, and his search for a future near graduation, Zhou Fohai was even less interested in developing party organizations and contacts with Japanese communists.
Ignoring the surveillance of the Japanese police, Shi Cuntong , according to Chen Duxiu 's suggestion , "contacted Japanese comrades" as the head of the group and the representative in Japan. He not only secretly developed more than a dozen students studying in Japan, including Peng Peng, Lin Kongzhao, and Yang Sizhen, and secretly held two or three group meetings, but also assisted Zhang Tailei, who went to Japan, in completing the important tasks assigned by the Comintern. At that time, in order to oppose the Washington Conference, the Comintern decided to convene the Congress of Communist Parties and National Revolutionary Groups of the Far East (hereinafter referred to as the "Far East Congress"), but due to the strict control of the Japanese government, The Comintern representative Marin could not go to Japan, so he entrusted the CCP to be responsible for promoting the formation of a delegation from Japan to participate. From October 5 to 13, 1921, Zhang Tailei, who participated in the preparation of the Far East Congress, went to Tokyo. On October 6, Shi Cun led Zhang Tailei to visit Sakai Toshihiko to discuss the formation of a Japanese delegation to participate in the Far East Congress. Sakai entrusted Eiko Kondo to consult with Zhang Tailei and Shi Cuntong on the number, funding, and specific plans of the Japanese delegation. After the negotiations were concluded, Zhang Tailei met with Sakai Toshihiko again to confirm it. Jang Tae-lei also gave Sakai a "propaganda fee" of 1,000 won, and Kondo Eizō commissioned Shi Cuntong to convert 500 of them into yen. The next day, Shi Cun-gun exchanged it and handed it over to Toshihiko Sakai and Ezo Kondo. However, due to Kondo's arrest, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department arrested Shi Cuntong on December 20 on the grounds that he was involved in granting funds for the "Akari Propaganda Campaign" to Japanese socialists, accusing him of disturbing Japanese law and order and prompting Japanese socialists to contact him, so he was deported on December 27. Although Shi Cuntong did not stay in Japan for a long time, he played an important role in the liaison between the Japanese Communists and the Comintern and the Chinese Communist Party.
From January 21 to February 2, 1922, the Far East Congress was held in Moscow and Leningrad, and 131 official delegates from China, Japan, South Korea and other countries attended the meeting and 17 delegates attended the meeting as observers. As a result of the efforts of Shi Cuntong and Zhang Tailei, the Japanese delegation sent 16 delegates, including Katayama Satoshi, Sakai Toshihiko, Tokuda Koichi, Kiyoshi Takase, and Sanzo Nosaka, including 13 official delegates and 3 non-voting delegates. At the meeting, the Japanese delegation reported on Japan's political and economic problems and introduced the organization and policies of the Japanese Communist Party. The Comintern wanted the Japanese Communists to unite and unite the broad masses "to build more popular Communist Party organizations and to establish direct links between the Comintern and the Japanese communist movement." During the meeting, CPC deputy Zhang Guotao had "certain contacts" with Japanese deputies Katayama Qian and Tokuda Qiuichi, reflecting the CPC's concern and concern for the Japanese communist movement. After the meeting, the Japanese delegation, in accordance with the instructions of the Communist International for the founding of the Party, received funds for its activities and began to create the Japanese Communist Party on the basis of the relevant groups of the proletariat and advanced elements. In July 1922, the "Great Congress" of the Japanese Communist Party was held in Tokyo, and Toshihiko Sakai was elected chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Japanese Communist Party, marking the official establishment of the Japanese Communist Party. Six months after Shi Cuntong's return to China, the Japanese Communist Party was founded, and in December of the same year, he became the Japanese branch of the Comintern, and Katayama was elected as a member of the presidium of the Executive Committee of the Comintern.
The CCP and Japan are jointly part of the state section of the Comintern, so the connection with the Comintern as the link should exist, but the details of how to link it is not clear due to the lack of historical data. In June 1923, the Japanese government made a major raid on the Japanese Communist Party and arrested torihiko Sakai, Tokuda Koichi, Shoichi Ichikawa, Sansaka Nosaka, and more than 100 members of the Japanese Communist Party. The "Kosomu Club", founded in 1920 by Chinese, Japanese, and Korean communists and advanced intellectuals such as Students Studying in Japan, Kwon Guoxi, and Sakai Ritsuhiko, also dissipated, especially in the ensuing White Terror, when the Japanese Communists were automatically "disbanded" in March 1924 and were not restored until December 1926. At this time, the CCP was in the first period of Kuomintang-Communist cooperation, and its party group organizations in Japan were small in number and small in scale, mainly to assist in the reorganization and activities of the Kuomintang General Branch in Japan, and failed to grasp the revolutionary leadership, so that none of the 7 executive members of the Kuomintang General Branch in Japan had a member of the COMMUNIST Party group organization, and this situation had never occurred even in China. According to the division of labor, the General Branch of the Kuomintang in Japan and its various branches are mainly responsible for contacting students studying in Japan and Chinese businessmen, while the Tokyo Caucus of the COMMUNIST Party is mainly responsible for contacting Chinese workers and lower-level overseas Chinese. The members of the CCP caucus in Japan united with the Left Wing of the Kuomintang to fight against the kuomintang rightists' acts of undermining unity, and also vigorously exposed the atrocities of Japanese imperialism's aggression against China and supported the anti-Japanese struggle of the people at home.
Due to the arrest of important leaders of the "Japanese Communist Party" and the consequent "dissolution," not only was it difficult for the Tokyo branch of the CPC to contact the "Japanese Communist Party," but the CCP itself lacked the contact object of the "Japanese Communist Party" and could only maintain contact with individual members of the Japanese Communist Party with the help of the Comintern in Moscow. In 1925, when the "Fourth Congress" of the Communist Party of China was held in Shanghai, the executive committee of the Communist International and the leader of the Japanese Communist Party, Katayama, went to Shanghai, Beijing and other places for a month-long inspection, and he spoke highly of China's revolutionary movement and supported the CCP's revolutionary activities and cooperated with the Kuomintang. From the "Second Congress" in 1920 to the "Four Congresses" in 1922, the Comintern extended the attention of the world revolution from European countries to the colonial and semi-colonial countries in the East, and formulated an anti-imperialist united front strategy in which the revolutionary movements of the East and the West and the national liberation movement supported each other. In July 1922, when the Japanese Communist Party was founded, it discussed and adopted the "Draft Program of the Japanese Communist Party" drafted by Bukharin, stipulating that the withdrawal of Japanese troops from Korea, Chinese mainland, Taiwan and Sakhalin Island was a task of struggle of the Japanese Communist Party. In December 1926, after the reconstruction of the Japanese Communist Party, it was an important task to promote the independence of the Japanese colonies. In July 1927, the Eighth Enlarged General Assembly of the Executive Committee of the Communist International adopted the Programme on the Question of Japan drafted by Bukharin, demanding that the Japanese Communist Party maintain close ties with the liberation movement in the Japanese colonies and give the latter "ideological and organizational" support. As a result, when the Japanese Communist Party helped Taiwan, which had become a Japanese colony, to establish the Communist Party, it began to cooperate more closely with the Chinese Communists.
Second, liaison and cooperation around the Taiwan Communist Party
Most of the early members of the Communist Party of Taiwan and advanced revolutionary elements received revolutionary enlightenment education and began revolutionary practice on the mainland of the motherland, but they were transferred to the Japanese Communist Party in accordance with the principle of "one country, one party" of the Communist International. In fact, as early as October 1922, when the Kuomintang and the Communist Party jointly established Shanghai University, the CPC actively recruited outstanding young people from Taiwan to study at Shanghai University and trained and developed them to join the Communist Party of China, and by May 1927, Shanghai University was shut down by the Nationalist Government, and Xu Naichang, Weng Zesheng, Ye Luyun, Xie Xuehong, Lin Mushun, Lin Zhongzi, Chen Qichang and others had been developed. In October 1924, the CCP sent Xu Naichang, a young member of the Taiwanese Party, to study at the Oriental University in Moscow. In October 1925, the CCP also sent Xie Xuehong and Lin Mushun to study at the Moscow Oriental University. The CCP had originally planned to build a party organization in Taiwan on the basis of them in the future. However, the Comintern was also paying attention to the revolutionary question in Taiwan at this time, and in accordance with the principle of "one country, one party" of the world communist movement resolved by the "Five Congresses" of the Comintern in 1924, it was prepared that the Central Committee of the CpUS of Japan would be responsible for preparing for and leading the Communist Party of Taiwan, and specially transferred the Taiwanese party members selected by the CCP from the Chinese class of the Moscow Oriental University to the Japanese class to study, and the CCP as the branch of the Comintern obeyed the arrangement. In May 1927, Lin Mushun and Xie Xuehong established direct contact with the leader of the Japanese Communist Party, Masanosuke Watanabe, under the introduction of the Comintern. In October, Katayama conveyed to them the instructions of the Comintern: to create the Communist Party of Taiwan under the guidance and help of the Japanese Communist Party, as the "Taiwan NationalIty Branch" of the Japanese Communist Party, to accept the leadership of the Comintern through the Central Committee of the Japanese Communist Party, but they could ask the Japanese Communist Party and the Chinese Communist Party to introduce their respective Taiwanese party members as the backbone of their founding of the party.
In November 1925, Xie Xuehong (front row, second from right), Lin Mushun (front row, first from right) and other young Taiwanese students took a photo before they went to Moscow to study (Source: National Museum)
With regard to the establishment of the Taiwan Communist Party, the cooperation between the Japanese Communist Party and the Chinese Communist Party mainly includes the following aspects. First, on the basis of the documents of the CPC and the Japanese Communist Party, the political and organizational program of the CPC was drawn up. In November and December 1927, Lin Mushun and Xie Xuehong were recalled by the Japanese Communist Party Central Committee to Tokyo to establish the Taiwan Communist Party. Under the guidance of Watanabe Masayuki and others, Lin and Xie drew up the political program, organizational program, and outline of the workers', peasants', women's, and youth movements, with reference to the documents of the CPC and the CPJ, and revised and approved them by the CPK Central Committee. It can be said that at the beginning of the establishment of the Taiwan Communist Party, there were already dual factors and influences of the CPC and the Japanese Communist Party. Second, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Japan requested the CPC Central Committee to assist Taiwan in building the party. In view of the fact that Taiwanese CCP members were the backbone of the Taiwan Communist Party and that they themselves were busy with the struggle for universal suffrage in The country, in January 1928, in accordance with the instructions of the Comintern, the CpANG Central Committee requested the CCP to assist and guide the Taiwan Communist Party in the matter of building the Party. In February, under the leadership of the COMMUNIST Party and the Japanese Communist Party, Taiwanese members of the Communist Party of China, members of the Communist Party of Japan and Members of Taiwan from Moscow set up the Preparatory Committee of the Communist Party of Taiwan in Shanghai to discuss and revise the documents established by the Communist Party of China, and then submitted them to the Representatives of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Communist International for examination. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Japan sent Naoyama to Shanghai for guidance, but was later transferred back to Nabeyama to prepare for the struggle for universal suffrage, and entrusted the work to the CPC Central Committee. On March 15, the Japanese government carried out a mass arrest of the Japanese Communist Party, arresting more than 1,600 Japanese communist leaders, party members, and supporters overnight, including Nosaka Sanzo and Shiga Yoshio, known in history as the "March 15 Incident," which led to the temporary suspension of communication between the Japanese Communist Party and the Taiwan Communist Party. Third, the Far East Bureau of the Comintern decided to use Peng Rong, a representative of the CPC, and Lu Yunheng, a representative of the DPRK and the CPC, to temporarily guide Taiwan and build the party on behalf of the CPK. On April 13, Peng Rong proposed to convene a preparatory meeting for the founding of the Taiwan Communist Party and adopted the political program, organizational program, and other work plans and guidelines of the Taiwan Communist Party.
From April 15 to 16, 1928, the founding meeting of the Communist Party of Taiwan was held at the Golden Priest Photo Gallery in the French Concession of Shanghai, and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was entrusted by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Japan to directly lead the first congress of the Communist Party of Taiwan. At that time, CPC deputy Peng Rong, CPC representative Lu Yunheng, and Taiwan COMMUNIST Party members Xie Xuehong, Lin Mushun, Pan Qinxin, Zhang Maoliang, Weng Zesheng, Chen Laiwang, Lin Rigao, and others attended the meeting. At the meeting, Peng Rong introduced the course and experience of the Chinese revolution and provided a reference for the revolutionary activities after the founding of the Taiwan Communist Party. In his report to the Communist International afterwards, Lin Mushun, secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Taiwan, pointed out that because the deputies of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Japan urgently returned to China and requested the representatives of the CPC Central Committee and the Comintern to be responsible for leading the inaugural congress of the CPC, the "First Congress" of the CPC was held under the indirect leadership of the deputies of the Communist International and the direct leadership of the CPC Central Committee. On April 18, the Taiwan Communist Party of China held its first meeting of the Central Committee to determine the organizational candidates and division of labor, and to establish the organizational structure of the Party Central Committee. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Taiwan decided that alternate member of the Central Committee, Weng Zesheng, would be stationed in Shanghai to serve as a liaison officer with the CPC; alternate central committee member Hsieh Xue-hong would be stationed in Tokyo as a liaison officer with the CPK; and alternate central committee member Chen Laiwang would serve as the head of the special branch of the CPC in Tokyo. This reflects the close relationship between the Taiwan Communist Party and the Communist Party of China and the Japanese Communist Party, that is, while accepting the leadership of the Japanese Communist Party, it also implores the Chinese Communist Party to provide guidance and assistance to it. In fact, along with the changes in the situation of revolutionary struggle in China and Japan, the guidance of the CPC and the CPK to the CW has also undergone considerable changes.
After the establishment of the CpK-Taiwan, the CpUSK gave it short-term guidance. On April 25, 1928, when the police of the Japanese Consulate in Shanghai and the police of the National Government joined forces to arrest the members of the "Shanghai Taiwan Students' Reading Club", they arrested Xie Xuehong, Zhang Maoliang, and others. The Japanese police have information on the founding of the Taiwan Communist Party, but the key figures of the Taiwan Communist Party, Lin Mushun and Weng Zesheng, have not been arrested, while the other arrestees have denied any connection to the Taiwan Communist Party. Therefore, due to insufficient evidence, Xie Xuehong was released, but she was unable to contact Japan after being escorted back to Taiwan. In August, Lin Mushun, who had infiltrated Tokyo to evade police arrest, contacted Chen Laiwang, who had returned to Japan to prepare for the establishment of the Tokyo Special Branch of the Communist Party of Taiwan, and then recruited Lin Dui and Lin Tim into the party, and on September 23, the Tokyo Special Branch of the Taiwan Communist Party of Taiwan was established to recruit party members among Taiwanese students studying in Japan and establish contacts with the Japanese Communist Party and the Taiwan Communist Party organizations. In November, after the CPC Central Committee learned of the "Shanghai Taiwan Students' Reading Club" incident, Taiwan party members Tsai Hsiao-qian, Pan Chin-shin, Hong Chao-chung, and Hsieh Yu-ye fled back to the mainland without permission because they were worried about being arrested, criticized the CPP for being scattered and powerless, and instructed the CPP to expel the Aforementioned four members from the party and readjust the personnel and division of labor of the CPR Central Committee. In February 1929, the Japanese Communist Party also instructed the Taiwan Communist Party to unite the scattered leftist forces on the island of Taiwan and establish the Taiwan Federation of Trade Unions to promote the development of the workers' movement. However, such effective guidance is short-lived. On April 16, the Japanese government also carried out a major arrest of the Japanese Communist Party, arresting more than 1,000 Japanese communist party leaders, party members and supporters, including Shoichi Ichikawa and Nabeyama Sadahito, known in history as the "April 16 Incident." When the Japanese police searched for members of the Communist Party of Japan, they discovered the identity of Chen Laiwang, Lin Dui, and Lin Timjin and arrested them, and the Special Branch of the Taiwan Communist Party in Tokyo was also destroyed. Since then, the TK-KP's ties with the CpK have been almost completely severed.
After the founding of the Taiwan Communist Party, the CPC cooperated with the guidance of the Japanese Communist Party to the Taiwan Communist Party, continued to send reserve cadres to the Taiwan Communist Party, guided its propaganda and revolutionary struggle, and once again undertook the heavy task of guiding the Taiwan Communist Party after the relations between the Japanese Communist Party and the Taiwan Communist Party were interrupted. In April 1930, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Taiwan sent Lin Rigao to Shanghai to contact the CPC Central Committee and the Comintern, and thereafter, members of the CPA Chen Dexing, Weng Zesheng, and Pan Qinxin successively reported the revolutionary situation in Taiwan to the CPC Central Committee and asked the CPC Central Committee to lead them. The CPC Central Committee also sent personnel to convey the CPC's views on the Taiwan revolution. In October 1930, with the consent of the Far Eastern Bureau of the Communist International, Qu Qiubai met with Weng Zesheng, Pan Qinxin, and Chen Dexing as representatives of the CPC Central Committee, and first, suggested that they convene the second congress of the Taiwan Nationalities Branch of the Communist Party of Japan to resolve various problems they were facing; second, the TAIWAN Communist Party established relations with the Comintern through the CPC; third, the report of the Taiwan Communist Party of China needed to be sent to the Comintern for examination and approval by the CPC; and fourth, the CPC reported to the CPC once a month on its work. According to the instructions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Communist International, Pan Qinxin returned to Taiwan in March 1931, and in early May established the Preparatory Committee of the Second Congress of the Communist Party of Taiwan, and held the "Second Congress" of the Communist Party of Taiwan from May 31 to June 2. At the meeting, the Reform League headed by Wang Wande won the leadership of the CPR and decided to change the CPC into a directly subordinate branch of the Comintern and nominally accept the leadership of the Far East Bureau of the Comintern.
In June 1931, Xie Xuehong sent Liu Yizhou to Japan to look for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Japan, who went to Japan on the 26th, and contacted the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Shanghai through Shirakawa and Nakamura to report on the actions of the Reform League, and put forward several requests, that is, to ask the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Japan to investigate whether the Far East Bureau of the Communist International was aware of the actions of the Reform League, and whether the Japanese Communist Party sent representatives to the Taiwan Communist Party to clearly indicate the relations between the Taiwan Communist Party and the Japanese Communist Party. In July, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Japan responded partially to these questions, expressing criticism of the reform league's unauthorized alliance without asking for instructions, and that the relations between the league's actions and the Comintern would not be answered until a note to the Far Eastern Bureau of the Comintern could be answered. Around this time, the Japanese police carried out mass arrests of members of the Taiwan Communist Party on the island of Taiwan, and almost all the Taiwan Communist Party organizations were destroyed. Upon learning of this, Liu Reported to Yamamoto, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Japan, who instructed him to temporarily shelve the issue of splittism in the Taiwan Communist Party organization and asked him to return to Taiwan to rebuild the Taiwan Communist Party. When Liu returned to Taiwan in August, Xie Xuehong and others had already been arrested, and he himself was arrested in November and died in prison. By the end of 1931, most of the leaders of the Taiwan Communist Party and more than 3,000 people related to the Taiwan Communist Party had been arrested, and the Taiwan Communist Party was basically destroyed. Individual members of the Taiwan Communist Party fled to Chinese mainland and Japan, respectively, and among them, "the main leaders of the Taiwan Communist Party who are active on the mainland are Lin Mushun, Weng Zesheng, and Cai Xiaoqian, who generally joined the CCP again."
Under the guidance of the Comintern, the CPC and the CPP cooperated relatively tacitly in leading and assisting the CTC in the preparations, establishment, and revolutionary struggle, but they also introduced the Comintern's "three periods" theory and the "Left" line and policy into the CW, and coupled with the strong suppression of the Japanese police and the immaturity of the CTR itself, the CPR was destroyed less than four years after its establishment. According to the principle of "one country, one party," the Taiwan Communist Party of Taiwan, as a branch of the Japanese Communist Party, although it received relatively brief and effective leadership from the Japanese Communist Party in the early days of its establishment, broke off contact with the Japanese Communist Party after the April 16 Incident in 1929 and could only seek help from the CPC Central Committee. Su Xin, who was a member of the Second Central Committee of the Communist Party of Taiwan and director of the Propaganda Department, when reviewing the relations between the CpK and the CPC, the CPJ, and the Comintern, vividly called the CPP "three different," that is, the CPP belongs to the CPK organizationally, but the CPK does not practice long-term and effective leadership, unlike its branches; if the CPK belongs to an independent branch of the Comintern after the "Second Congress," but accepts the leadership of the Far East Bureau of the Comintern through the CPC Central Committee, it is not like its branches; if the CPK accepts more help and guidance from the CPC, it is a part of the CPC. But there is no organizational relationship between the two, nor is it the same. Even such a complex relationship did not fundamentally affect the cooperation between the CCP and the Japanese Communist Party, as evidenced by the joint anti-imperialist struggle between the two at the same time.
III. The Joint Anti-Imperialist Struggle between the CCP and the Japanese Communist Party
With the rupture of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China in 1927 and the convening of the Eighty-Seventh Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Ccp summed up the mistakes and lessons of the "right-leaning", contacted the Japanese Communist Party that was restored and rebuilt, and launched a joint anti-imperialist struggle under the guidance of the Comintern. In March 1928, one of the leaders of the Japanese Communist Party, Sano Gaku, met with Li Mou of the Tokyo Branch of the Communist Party of China in Ginza, Tokyo, and although the content of the discussions was unknown, at the memorial service for the third anniversary of Sun Wen's death held at the Aoyama Kaikan in Tokyo that same month, a suspected CCP member distributed communist leaflets, and later someone posted similar leaflets on a telephone pole in Megurocho, outside Tokyo. In January 1929, the Communist Party of China and the Japanese Communist Party issued the "Joint Declaration of the Communist Party of China and the Japanese Communist Party to the Toiling Masses of China and Japan" in Shanghai, which made the joint anti-imperialist struggle between the two parties clear. In the name of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Japan, the Declaration condemned "Japanese imperialism is the main force of international imperialism in East Asia, the most powerful bandit of international imperialism against the Soviet Union, the most vicious enemy of invading China and suppressing the Chinese revolution, the most reactionary ruler who oppresses the Japanese toiling peasant masses, and the engine of all white terror in East Asia... He is the direct enemy of the toiling masses of China and Japan." Therefore, "resisting Japanese imperialism is one of the tasks of the Chinese revolution, and at the same time it is the task of the Japanese revolution", calling on "the toiling masses of China and Japan to rely on armed insurrection to establish a revolutionary regime, overthrow the reactionary rule of China and Japan, and realize the complete liberation of the toiling masses of the two countries", and call on "all the toiling masses to resist the imperialist conspiracy!" Support the Soviet Union, the motherland of the world proletariat!! This manifesto was clearly influenced by the Comintern and the Soviet Union, but it also reflected the fact that the CCP and the Japanese Communist Party were united against imperialism.
In fact, the CCP and the Japanese Communist Party not only jointly issued a declaration, but also had close personnel exchanges and anti-imperialist cooperation. For example, in the name of Emura, various newspapers and magazines of the CPC were mailed from China to Japan; two or three members of the Japanese Communist Party often attended meetings of the CPC in Shanghai; the former Tomoo Oyama's former Working Peasants' Party contacted the CCP in 1928 and sent Yamaguchi Kinjiro and Shichiro Atrium to Shanghai in April 1929, through liaison with Li Dafang, a member of the Tokyo Chinese Youth Association, who was received and helped by Li Maogen, secretary of the Comintern; and a certain member of the CPC, who received "huge" funds from the Comintern, and was sent to Osaka and Tokyo. Support and fund the activities of the Japanese Communist Party and the Communist Party of Japan in Japan. On the basis of various intelligence, the Japanese Government has determined that the Tokyo branch of the CPC under the guidance of the Jiangsu Provincial CPC Committee has the support of the Japanese Communist Party behind it, and believes that the Chinese Communist Party and the Japanese Communist Party frequently contact each other, echo each other from afar, promote each other, and carry out "redwashing activities in the Far East." After his arrest in Shanghai, Sano "confessed" to the Japanese Consulate General: Although he believed that the success of the Chinese revolution would not only help to accelerate the Japanese revolution, but also help to destroy the world imperialist system, which had a major bearing on the world revolution, and advocated that the Japanese Communist Party and the Chinese Communist Party should act jointly; however, he stressed that due to the weakness of the Japanese Communist Party, there was no organizational contact with the Chinese Communist Party, only two or three joint declarations were issued, and the Comintern did not have a document stipulating the relations between the Chinese Communist Party and the Japanese Communist Party. The Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai was also not fully convinced, believing that Sano Hado had only been interrogated for two hours, and although the latter replied that although he was happy, "after all, the time is relatively short, and it is impossible to reveal all the truth about various things."
In fact, the CCP's active rescue of Sano Gaku and the notification of Sano Gaku's arrest to the Japanese Communist Party are themselves a special struggle between the CCP and the CPP in close ties with the CPP and in joint opposition to the Nationalist Government and Japanese imperialism. In June 1929, after a secret investigation, the Nationalist police arrested Sano Gaku, who was traveling with the Korean Wang Mou. After the CHINESE Communists learned of Sano Gaku's arrest, on the one hand, they used various connections to pay attention to Sano Gaku's situation in prison, and at the same time instigated and even threatened the director of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau to prevent him from extraditing Sano Gaku to Japan, and even plotted to hijack the prison; on the other hand, it secretly sent Mei Dianlong to Japan to inform the Japanese Communist Party of the circumstances of Sano Gaku's arrest, and at the same time brought 2,000 yuan of funds to support the activities of the Cp.D.. The Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai, which was aware of the above information, hoped to extradite Sano Gaku from the Chinese side as soon as possible, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Nationalist Government and the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau both put forward extradition conditions to Aoi Shigemitsu, the Japanese consul general in Shanghai, that is, in the future, if any CCP member is hiding in Japan or the concession, or is arrested by the Japanese police, it should be handled in accordance with this case and extradited at any time at any time according to the requirements of the Chinese side. The matter was later reported to Foreign Minister Kishigero Motohara by Aoi Shigemitsu, and he obtained his consent in principle. In order to prevent the Chinese Communists from rescuing them at the time of extradition, according to the results of the Sino-Japanese agreement, on August 21, Sano Gaku was escorted from prison to the Japanese Consulate General, escorted by the Chinese side, huang Guangdou, chief of the second section of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau, as the escort commander, and a number of police officers along the way, and was escorted to the Japanese Consulate General that night, and then taken into custody of the Consulate General Prison. In the early morning of the 23rd, the Japanese Consulate General quietly sent 4 policemen to escort Sano Gaku to Japan on the Nagasaki Maru, but the Japanese newspaper "Shanghai Mainichi Shimbun" reported the news on the same day, triggering the "anger" of the Japanese Consulate General and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and then the editorial director of the newspaper and related reporters were "dismissed" or "fined" punishment, reflecting the Japanese government's "concern" that the CHINESE Communists and the Japanese Communist Party may jointly rescue Sano Gaku after learning about it.
Sano's book "The Philosophy of Materialism" (Source: Archives And Literature Reading Platform, Chinese Academy of History)
As a secret channel for the CCP to communicate with the Japanese Communist Party, the Tokyo branch of the CPC played an important role in the joint anti-imperialist struggle between the two parties. In July 1929, the Tokyo branch of the Communist Party of China, which consisted of students studying in Japan, held its Third Congress in Tokyo, at which it not only emphasized maintaining close contact with the CCP and reporting to the CCP on the situation of the congress, but also clearly stipulated that its contacts with the Japanese Communist Party should be first accompanied by the CCP's note to the CCP and then in accordance with the ccp's instructions; as for the liaison with Japanese left-wing groups, it was freely carried out by the party members. On the 25th of the same month, representatives of student organizations studying in Japan under the influence of the Tokyo Branch of the Communist Party of China, such as the Chinese Social Science Research Association, the Art Alliance, the Times Engineering Society, and the Human Resources Society, held a meeting at the home of Fang Bin, a member of the Tokyo Branch of the Communist Party of China, and unanimously agreed to establish the Chinese Anti-Imperialist Alliance in Japan. On the 27th, the league held a congress at the home of Liu Sibo, a student studying in Japan, and decided that Liao Tiren and Li Yanong, members of the branch, would be responsible for liaison with the Japanese anti-imperialist alliance. On August 10, Liao Tiren accompanied Mei Dianlong to Japan was arrested by stalking Japanese police when he tried to contact Japanese Communist Party member Kiyohon Tanaka. Li Yanong contacted and kept in touch with Inoue Etsuji, a cadre of the Japanese Anti-Imperialist Alliance. From August 20 to 23, at the behest of Gu Jie, secretary of the Tokyo branch of the Communist Party of China, he met several times with Shigemichi Miura, secretary of the Branch of the Japanese Anti-Imperialist League, Echiji Inoue, and Sayama, permanent officer of the Japan Labor Union, to discuss anti-imperialist actions after the outbreak of the Middle East Road Incident in July 1929, and agreed that the Chinese Anti-Imperialist Alliance and the Japanese Anti-Imperialist Alliance would jointly hold a demonstration in Tokyo on September 1.
On August 29, Miura Met with Li Yanong and demanded that the demonstration be postponed until September 4 due to insufficient preparations from the Japanese side, with the consent of the Tokyo branch of the Communist Party of China. On September 2, Li Yanong, Yu Bingwen, Miura Shigemichi, and others met again, and the Japanese side informed them of three points: First, the location of the demonstration was changed from the Legation of the Republic of China in Japan to ginza, a commercial street; second, the commander-in-chief of the parade was changed from a student studying in Japan to a cadre of the Japanese Labor Union; third, the time of the parade was still 8 p.m. on September 4, but the demonstration ended in 10 minutes. The Tokyo branch of the Communist Party of China agreed again, but zhang Zhang, who served as the leader of the parade death squad on the evening of September 3, was arrested and the plan was exposed. On September 4, when Li Yanong learned of this, he informed Miura Shigemichi, who failed to inform the others and had to demonstrate according to the original plan, resulting in some Japanese and Korean anti-imperialists and students studying in Japan arresting more than 90 japanese police and plainclothes agents after the parade entered the cordon, including 14 Chinese students studying in Japan, known in history as the "Ginza Incident." Japanese police discovered clues about the TOKYO branch of the CCP during the incident and on October 3 carried out targeted arrests of Chinese students studying in Japan, resulting in heavy losses for the CCP's Tokyo branch. After the incident, the representatives of the students studying in Japan asked the Chinese legation in Japan to negotiate with the Japanese police to demand the release of the arrested students in Japan, and some relatives of the students in Japan also used various connections to "rescue" these students in Japan. The CPC Central Committee, the CYL Central Committee, and the Jiangsu Provincial CPC Committee even issued a manifesto and organized rallies, including demonstrations to the Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai, to set off a new struggle against Kuomintang rule and against Japanese imperialism.
Faced with the severe situation in which the Tokyo branch of the CPC suffered a heavy setback and a large number of japanese communist party members were arrested, it was very difficult for the CCP to communicate with the Japanese communist party, but it still failed to prevent the two parties from contacting and cooperating. In November 1929, Oyama sent people to Shanghai to contact the CCP, and the two sides planned to establish four secret liaison stations in Tokyo, Shanghai, Osaka, and Kobe to carry out a joint anti-imperialist struggle. On December 4, in response to the Japanese government's arrest, expulsion, and extradition to the Nationalist government of members of the Tokyo branch of the Communist Party of China, the headquarters of the Japanese Labor and Peasants' Party issued an article accusing the Japanese government of extraditing Chinese revolutionary volunteers to Chiang Kai-shek and shooting them, calling on Japanese workers and peasants to unite to resolutely oppose the expulsion of CCP members, to overthrow the cabinet of Hamaguchi Yukio, to attack the Japanese Minister of Justice, the Minister of The Interior, and the Minister of State stationed in China, to continuously expand the opposition to the expulsion movement, to promote the residing people living in China to rise up and fight, and to save the Chinese revolutionary volunteers. Support and solidarity with the CPC and the Chinese revolution with practical actions. In the name of social science research and left-wing literary and artistic activities, the CCP and the Japanese Communist Party maintained correspondence with the Institute of Proletarian Science in Tokyo through the Jiangnan Bookstore in Shanghai from July 1930 onwards, conveying information and exchanging progressive books and periodicals. It was precisely these quiet and close ties that led the CCP and the Japanese Communist Party to quickly issue a joint declaration on September 20, 1931, two days after the outbreak of the September 18 Incident, condemning the atrocities of Japanese imperialism and calling on the Chinese and Japanese peoples to unite to overthrow the Kuomintang reactionaries and Japanese imperialism. Since then, the CPC and the Japanese Communist Party have supported and cooperated closely with each other, integrated themselves into the new round of anti-imperialist struggle and the War of Resistance Against Japan, and continued to unite and struggle for the liberation of the Chinese and Japanese peoples and the cause of international communism.
Conclusion
The early relationship between the CCP and the Japanese Communist Party was difficult to clarify due to the lack of historical materials, so that some studies focused on the ideological and organizational influence of Japanese Marxism and socialists on the CCP, and paid little attention to the CCP's role in the establishment of the CPK and its ties with the Comintern. In fact, a feature of the history of the early relations between the CCP and the CPJ is that the ideological nourishment of the CPK and the ACTIONS of the CCP "feed back." Many of the Marxist works of the Japanese Communist Party were translated into Chinese by CCP members and activists in Japan and spread to China with great influence; after the ccp was founded in Japan, it gave great support to Japanese socialists who organized groups to participate in the Far East Congress and established the Japanese Communist Party, and helped the Japanese Communist Party with actions. Second, the CCP and the CPJ were supported and funded by both the Comintern and the Soviet Union, as well as influenced by their "three periods" theory and the right- and left-leaning lines. From the founding of the Communist Party of China and the Japanese Communist Party to the revolutionary funds, the Comintern has given corresponding support, especially many of the funds for the japanese Communist Party have been transferred by the Communist Party of China. However, the left-leaning line of the Communist International also had some negative effects on the revolutionary struggle of the Taiwan Communist Party and the joint anti-imperialist struggle between the Communist Party of China and the Japanese Communist Party, and there are many historical lessons worth learning. Third, both the CCP and the Japanese Communist Party suffered from their own white terror in the early days, but based on their common beliefs, they braved hardships, supported each other, and fought jointly, which had a great impact on the kuomintang rule and Japanese imperialism, and made important contributions to the victory of the Chinese revolution and post-war Japanese democracy. The CPC and the Japanese Communist Party, which have long since ceased to be safe, have a broader space for cooperation and unlimited beautiful prospects for struggle in the new era in opposing hegemonism and unilateralism, safeguarding peace and stability in East Asia, and building a "community with a shared future for mankind."