Hankou Special Meeting

An important meeting to formulate the corresponding struggle strategies of the period. Faced with the new revolutionary situation of the victory of the Northern Expedition and the division of the KMT, the Central Committee of the CPC considered it necessary to rediscuss such issues as the relationship with the KMT in order to formulate a corresponding struggle strategy. For this purpose, the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee held a special meeting in Hankou on December 13, 1926. The Meeting was attended by Chen Duxiu, Zhang Guotao, Qu Qiubai, Xiang Ying, Li Weihan, Peng Shuzhi and others. Chen Duxiu gave a "Political Report" centering on the relationship between the Communist Party of China and the KMT.

In his "Political Report", Chen Duxiu analyzed the revolutionary situation after the Northern Expeditionary Army had conquered Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi and pointed out that there were dangerous tendencies in the revolutionary united front: first, the imperialist’s policy of creating divisions; second, the KMT right; third, the panic of merchants; and fourth, the disease of “Left”  naive in our Party. The report proposed that "When the above four dangerous tendencies link up at any time and in any place, they can cause the United Front to split." For this reason, the report proposed seven measures to save the united front from breaking up: (1) Prevent rightist tendencies outside of the Party and, at the same time, oppose “Left” tendencies within the Party in order to strengthen the red United Front. (2) Pressure the KMT and the nationalist government to adopt the slogan "Armed forces unite with the people." Internally, the Party should continue the joint democratic struggles; externally, the Party should continue the struggle for independence and equality. (3) Maintain a balance of power among the military leaders of the KMT. (4) Expand democratic publicity. (5) Improve the relations between the CCP and the KMT. (6) Help the left-wing KMT establish a civilian government headed by Wang Jingwei. (7) Define the Party’s policies toward the middle and small merchants.

The Meeting discussed and passed the "Resolution on the Political Report", the "Resolution on the Question of Left-Wing KMT", the "Resolution on the Agricultural Movement in Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Provinces", and the "Resolution on the Work of the KMT in the Three Provinces".

The Central Political Bureau held a joint meeting with the two representatives of the Communist International, Voitinsky and Borodin, and adopted the "Resolution on Political Questions", which basically endorsed the strategies adopted in Chen Duxiu's political report, stressing that among the various dangerous tendencies in the united front, "the most important and serious tendency is that, on the one hand, the growing tendency of the popular movement is becoming more and more 'left', on the other hand, the military regime is becoming more and more fearful of the rise of the popular movement and is moving to the right. If this 'left' and right tendency continues to develop and grows farther and farther, it will break the united front and endanger the entire national revolutionary movement." The resolution, on the one hand, reintroduced the slogan of "Armed forces unite with the people", and on the other hand, called for improving relations with the KMT, preventing and rectifying “Left” tendencies, and consolidating the united front of the national revolution.

This Meeting reflected the serious development of the right-leaning errors of Chen Duxiu and others and laid the groundwork for the failure of the revolution.