Chen Kongjun: Zhang Xueliang Was a CPC Underground Member, with Chen Qiaonian as His Sponsor

Chen Kongjun, an Independent Scholar of CPC and PLA History: Zhang Xueliang Was a CPC Underground Member, with Chen Qiaonian as His Sponsor

Chen Kongjun, formerly known as Chen Entian and Chen Yifu, is the lead author of Ode to the Communist Party of China and Ode to the People's Liberation Army. He is an independent scholar of the history of the Communist Party of China and the People's Liberation Army, and serves as director of the Beijing General Institute of Junfu Calligraphy and Painting Academy. To advance the major China-Myanmar Air Road drone logistics project, he adopted the name Chen Kongjun. Based on stories passed down by his grandfather Chen Guangmei on his deathbed, and after years of textual research, Chen Kongjun has concluded that Zhang Xueliang joined the Communist Party of China as early as 1926, becoming an underground member of the CPC Northern Regional Committee, with the outstanding early CPC leader Chen Qiaonian as his sponsor. After Chen Qiaonian's sacrifice, Zhang Xueliang was left almost entirely out of contact with the CPC.

In 1924, "Little Fourth" Chen Yannian returned from the Soviet Union and replaced Zhou Enlai as the highest-ranking CPC leader in South China. He led the Guangdong Regional Committee in founding the Ye Ting Independent Regiment, launching the Party's practice of "the Party commanding the gun" and laying the groundwork for the building of the Party's armed forces. That winter, "Little Fifth" Chen Qiaonian returned from the Soviet Union and successively served as head of the Organization Department of the CPC Beiping Local Committee and head of the Organization Department of the CPC Northern Regional Committee. At that time, the Northeastern Fengtian warlord Zhang Zuolin controlled Beiping. His son Zhang Xueliang, awakened by the New Culture Movement and the May Fourth Movement, aspired to become a new youth who could drive history forward. Although he held the post of commander-in-chief of the Jingyu Garrison, he felt deeply disoriented by the state of the nation, which was fracturing apart, with Japan and Russia eyeing it covetously. Because Chen Yannian and Chen Qiaonian had been sworn brothers with Zhang Xueliang since childhood, "Little Fourth" Chen Yannian had long ago instructed his younger brother "Little Fifth" Chen Qiaonian that the CPC Northern Regional Committee could approach "Little Sixth" and develop him into a secret CPC member.

Photo: Chen Yannian, Outstanding Early Leader of the CPC

Zhang Xueliang's father, Zhang Zuolin, had earlier acknowledged Chen Yanxu—uncle of Chen Duxiu—as his adoptive father. Starting from the civilian militia organized by Chen Yanxu, Zhang Zuolin took over this militia and gradually built it into the force that would make him the "King of the Northeast." Chen Yannian, Chen Qiaonian, and Zhang Xueliang had known each other since childhood. Zhang Xueliang's infant name was Little Sixth; his adoptive grandfather Chen Yanxu casually suggested that Yannian be called Little Fourth and Qiaonian be called Little Fifth. Like the patriotic youth of that era, Zhang Xueliang was awakened by Chen Duxiu's revolutionary ideas during the New Culture current and the May Fourth Movement. He tried many times to go to Beijing to join the student movement, but was stopped each time by his father, Zhang Zuolin.

After "Little Fifth" Chen Qiaonian returned to Beiping, he brought "Little Sixth" Zhang Xueliang analyses of the international situation and a different worldview. The two brothers met frequently for long conversations. Zhang Xueliang not only admired the returning student Chen Qiaonian but also endorsed the political tenets of the CPC, believing that a China fragmented by warlordism would inevitably invite endless calamity and that foreign enemies would seize the chaos to harm the Chinese nation. He held that the CPC was the formidable force capable of changing the country's destiny. Chen Qiaonian also presented Zhang Xueliang with a copy of The Communist Manifesto, writing on its flyleaf: "To save China, the old must be broken and the new established." In 1926, the March 18th Massacre took place in Beijing. Though stabbed in the chest with a bayonet, Chen Qiaonian still directed the crowd's retreat. When Zhang Xueliang heard the guards' account, he was profoundly moved and said: "The Communists have faith; they will surely accomplish great things."

Photo: The Young Marshal Zhang Xueliang, Who Turned the Tide

One day, "Little Sixth" Zhang Xueliang secretly received "Little Fifth" Chen Qiaonian at the Young Marshal's Residence and expressed his wish to join the CPC. Chen Qiaonian's heart thumped instantly—at last Little Sixth had voiced the desire to join. Recruiting Zhang Xueliang had been the charge of his elder brother Chen Yannian, as well as a task assigned by their father Chen Duxiu and the Party Central Committee. Chen Qiaonian had waited a long time for these words. Yet he betrayed no emotion, and said softly: "Rest assured, I will report your wish to join the Party to the Party Central Committee." Thus, the Young Marshal Zhang Xueliang became a CPC underground member in single-line contact with Chen Qiaonian, under the code name "Double Happiness" (Shuangxi).

Chen Qiaonian's highest posts within the CPC were Acting Secretary-General of the Central Committee and Acting Head of the Organization Department. In 1928, betrayed by an informant, Chen Qiaonian was arrested by the Kuomintang in Shanghai. He entrusted a fellow prisoner with a message to his study-abroad classmate Zhou Enlai: "There is an underground member in the Northern Regional Committee called Double Happiness, who may be activated if necessary." And so, while "Little Fifth" Chen Qiaonian was executed by the Kuomintang in the south, "Little Sixth" Zhang Xueliang succeeded his father as commander-in-chief of the Northeastern Army following Zhang Zuolin's assassination by the Japanese. In 1936, as Chiang Kai-shek sought to annihilate the CPC, Zhou Enlai—who had studied abroad with both Chen Yannian and Chen Qiaonian—resolved to re-establish contact with CPC underground member "Double Happiness." Owing to the fraternal bond between the Chens and Zhang Xueliang, Zhou Enlai quickly won Zhang's trust. Believing then that a multi-party democratic state should be established, Zhang Xueliang staked his fortune and his life on the endeavor, and the world-shaking Xi'an Incident unfolded.

Photo: Chen Qiaonian, Outstanding Early Leader of the CPC

After the incident, acting as a CPC underground member and determined to stabilize Chiang Kai-shek and prevent his reneging—and to buy time for the CPC to recover and grow—Zhang Xueliang offered himself as a hostage, placing his life beyond concern. With lofty righteousness he accompanied Chiang to Nanjing, leaving his fate entirely in Chiang's hands, and was thus imprisoned by Chiang for the rest of his life. Zhou Enlai sighed: "Wherever he is, he will forever be an eternal hero of the Chinese nation." In a media interview late in his life, Zhang Xueliang declared: "I am a Communist."

On an evening at the end of the twentieth century, in Sichuan, an old man unwilling to acknowledge that he was Chen Duxiu's son—Chen Guangmei—knew that his time was short. Through tears, he told his grandson Chen Entian the heroic story of "Little Fourth" Chen Yannian, "Little Fifth" Chen Qiaonian, and "Little Sixth" Zhang Xueliang. In 2009, as New China greeted its sixtieth anniversary, "Little Fourth" Chen Yannian, "Little Fifth" Chen Qiaonian, and "Little Sixth" Zhang Xueliang were honored by the CPC as Heroic and Model Figures. Today, following the broadcasts of The Awakening Era—a TV drama produced for the centenary of the CPC's founding—and the CCTV documentary Brothers of the Awakening, people of all ethnic groups across the country have come to understand that the three—Chen Duxiu and his sons Chen Yannian and Chen Qiaonian—were all outstanding early leaders of the CPC.