Li Hanjun (1890-1927)

One of the founders of the Communist Party of China; one of the most influential politicians and thinkers in the founding period of the Communist Party of China. Original name Li Shushi, also called Li Renjie, courtesy name Li Hanjun. Native of Qianjiang, Hubei. In 1904, he travelled to Japan to pursue his studies. Influenced by the famous Japanese Marxist economist Kawakami, he began to believe in Marxism. After returning home from Japan in 1918 with a large number of Marxist books and periodicals in English, German and Japanese, he actively propagated Marxism by making use of the convenience of his work in Sunday Review and contacting magazines such as Awakening, Women's Review, The Construction, The World of Labor and The Short Story Magazine.

New Youth Sunday Review and Communist Party, which he co-edited, became the most important publications for disseminating Marxism in China at that time, and influenced a whole generation of revolutionary youth including Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, etc. In August 1920, together with Chen Duxiu and Li Da, he participated in organizing the Marxist Research Society and the Shanghai Communist Group. In July 1921, he attended the First National Congress of the CPC. Later, because of different opinions with Chen Duxiu and Zhang Guotao, he returned to Wuhan to engage in revolutionary work and served once as education director of Hubei Federation of Trade Unions. He was elected alternate member of the CPC Central Committee at the Second and Third National Congresses of the Party, soon he left the Party voluntarily.

In 1926, after the Northern Expedition Army captured Changsha, Li Hanjun and Dong Biwu, as representatives of the delegation of the Northern Expedition army from all walks of life in Hubei Province, arrived in Changsha, delivered military information of Wuchang enemy to the Northern Expedition Army, welcomed the Northern Expedition Army and joined the KMT, and was appointed as the Secretary-General of the National Revolutionary Army. Since then, he has served as executive member of the Hubei Provincial Party Department of the KMT, member of the Hubei Provincial Government and Director of Education, and Minister of Youth of the KMT Hubei Party Department. In January 1927, he was elected executive member of the Fourth Provincial Congress of the KMT in Hubei Province. On April 10, the Hubei provincial government was established and he served as member of the provincial government and director of education.

After the July 15 counter-revolutionary coup, he and Zhan Dabei continued to adhere to the revolutionary standpoint and Sun Yat-sen's three major policies of "alliance with Soviet Russia, alliance with the Communists, and support for the workers and peasants", and took advantage of the contradiction between Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Jingwei for the supreme ruling power of the KMT, and resolutely fought against the anti-Communist rightist forces in the provincial Party headquarters and the government, and covered some Communists. In November, after the Guangxi warlords occupied Wuhan, he again together with Zhan Dabei and others ordered the release of more than 300 suspected Communist Party members, arrested in the name of the provincial government, rescuing and protecting a large number of Communist Party cadres. On December 17, 1927, he was arrested and killed by the warlord Hu Zongduo on the charge of "red element". Then, he was 37 years old. His main works are included in Collected Works of Li Hanjun.