Deng Zhongxia (1894-1933)

Member of the Communist Party of China in the early period; famous leader of the Chinese Workers' Movement; Marxist theorist. Original name Deng Longbo, courtesy name Deng Zhongxie, native of Yizhang, Hunan Province.

In the summer of 1917, he was admitted to the Department of Chinese Language of Peking University. Influenced by the New Culture Movement, he began to learn a wide range of knowledge. He participated in the organization of Students' Society for National Salvation, founded the magazine Nation, and initiated and organized the Peking University Civilian Education Lecture Group. In May 1919, he participated in the patriotic demonstration of the May Fourth Movement and began to study Marxism systematically. In March 1920, he initiated and organized the Association for Marxist Theory Research. In 1920, he joined the Beijing Communist Group and actively assisted Li Dazhao in his work. In December, he set up an evening school for workers to disseminate Marxism among workers and founded the Changxindian Workers' Club.

Since May 1922, he successively attended the First, Second and Fourth National Labor Congresses and held important posts respectively. In July 1922, he attended the Second National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and then attended the Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Congresses of the CPC and held important posts respectively. In April 1923, he participated in the founding of Shanghai University, changed his name to Deng Anshi, served as president and presided over the school administration work. Since the end of 1923, he began actively exploring the nature, tasks, motive forces and methods of the Chinese revolution. He successively wrote articles such as "The Three Social Classes as the Main Revolutionary Force", "On the Workers' Movement" and "On the Peasants' Movement". In February 1925, he organized and launched a large-scale workers' strike to safeguard workers' rights together with Li Lisan. In June, he went to Hong Kong to organize and plan the Canton-Hong Kong Strike and became editor-in-chief of Workers’ Path. On August 7, 1927, he participated in the August Seventh Conference of the CPC and severely criticized Chen Duxiu's right-wing opportunism. At the meeting, he was elected alternate member of the Political Bureau and secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee.

In February 1928, he went to Hong Kong as secretary of the CPC Committee of Guangdong Province to deal with the aftermath of the failure of the Guangzhou Uprising. In early 1929, he began to write A Brief History of the Chinese Labor Movement. In late August 1930, he went to the revolutionary base areas in Western Hunan and Hubei to guide the construction of the base areas. In the summer of 1931, he was dismissed from all his posts under the persecution of the “Left” deviation line, and his life was in a difficult situation. In the autumn of 1932, he served as director and secretary of the party group of the Red General Mutual Aid Society of China. On the evening of May 15, 1933, he was arrested in the French Concession of Shanghai. On September 21, he was killed by the KMT reactionaries in Yuhuatai, Nanjing. He was only 39 years old. His writings are included in the Collected Works of Deng Zhongxia.