Wang Ming’s Right Deviationist Errors in the Early Days of the Anti-Japanese War

During the Anti-Japanese War, how to correctly handle the relationship between unity and independence, as well as the unity and struggle in the United Front became a key issue of decisive significance for the success or failure of the War of Resistance.

At the end of November 1937, Wang Ming returned to Yan'an from the Soviet Union. At the meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held in December, Wang Ming made a presentation speech entitled “How to Continue the National War of Resistance and Strive for Victory of Resistance?” Wang Ming said that we should have upheld the Anti-Japanese War, consolidated and expanded the anti-Japanese national united front centered on the cooperation between the KMT and the CPC, but the key point was to convey the "new policy" of the Communist International on "all-out obedience to the United Front policy" and "everything through the United Front", and criticized many correct views and policies of the CPC Central Committee on the issue of the United Front which were established since the Luochuan Conference. He denied the leadership role of the CPC in the Anti-Japanese War and the principle of independence and initiative in the Anti-Japanese National United Front, advocated limiting the scope of CPC action within boundaries permitted by Chiang Kai-shek and KMT, and despised the guerrilla war led by the CPC and the role of the CPC controlled base areas behind the enemy lines. After this meeting, Wang Ming, Zhou Enlai and Bo Gu led a CPC delegation to Wuhan, where they soon later merged with the CPC’s Yangtze River Bureau.

Wang Ming had done some useful work in promoting the cooperation between the KMT and the CPC and advancing the anti-Japanese publicity work; however, his rightist mistakes harmed Party's actual work, and made it impossible for the Party to carry out more extensive anti-Japanese guerrilla war and establish anti-Japanese base areas in Central China from the winter of 1937 to the spring of 1938.

The CPC Central Committee resolutely resisted and struggled against Wang Ming's right deviation, but thanks to the CPC Central Committee's insistent adherence to its policy of carrying out guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines with its own independent initiative, the guerrilla wars behind enemy lines in North China achieved major victories. Despite Wang Ming's interference, the Yangtze River Bureau of the CPC generally implemented the principle of independence and initiative in its work in the KMT-ruled areas, conducted a lot of good work to expand the United Front and to win local parties, led the anti-Japanese national salvation movement, and paid attention to the development of armed forces in Central China. Thus, the negative influence of Wang Ming's right deviation was limited to a local scope and was overcame quickly.

From September 29 to November 6, 1938, the Sixth Plenary Session of the Enlarged Sixth Central Committee of the CPC was held in Yan'an, wherein Mao Zedong made the political report entitled “On the New Stage” on behalf of the CPC Central Committee. In his concluding speech of the meeting, Mao Zedong focused on issues of United Front, and on the issue of war strategy. He criticized the view of "Everything through the United Front" by emphasizing that "It's totally wrong to tie up our own hands and feet".

The Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth CPC Central Committee basically corrected Wang Ming's right deviation, unified the Party's thinking and work procedures, thus promoted the rapid development of various tasks.