The "Red Star Over China" is a publication of Edgar Snow in 1968, with Victor Gollancz Limited in London as the publisher. "Red Star Over China" recorded how the proletariat ideal of Communist Party was prospered as the mainstreamed ruling ideology in 20th-century China - from Menshevism of Chen Duxiu to Bolshevism of Mao Zedong. Vincent Lee Kwun-leung (李冠良), the speaker of this academic talk, received the education of Prof. Cindy Chu Yik-yi (朱益宜教授) during her "Sino-American Relations" course at HKBU History Department in early 2009. Prof. Cindy Chu requested Vincent Lee and other students to do a "History Book Review" on "Red Star Over China" to analyze how an American journalist observed Communism in China. Prof. Cindy Chu Yik-yi obtained a Ph-D qualification in University of Hawaii at Manoa. Her BA and M-Phil qualifications were from the University of Hong Kong. Prof. Chu is an alumnus of Maryknoll Convent School, and her Catholic growing background enables her to devote to the research on Maryknoll Sisters' missionary and charitable services in Hong Kong. Now, Prof. Chu is the Associate Director of HKBU David C. Lam Institute for East-West Studies.

1. Edgar Snow
London
Victor Gollancz Limited, 1968
Vincent LEE Kwun-leung (06009913)
BA Visual Arts, Year 3

2.  The only American journalist
who was able to get behind
the Communists into some
contact with the similar minds
and feelings of Chinese
patriotic youths:
 From the formation of Red
troops and Soviet Districts, to
Chiang Kai-shek’s anti-Red
suppression, the Long March,
the GMD-CCP Cooperation
against Japanese invasion and
the establishment of PRC
Government
 Being a guest of the soviet
state in China

3.  Befriended with Yang Hucheng and
Governor Shao Li-tzu:
 Jointly supported Zhang Xueliang’s avocation on
a suspension of Communist extermination
 Directly recorded an in-depth history of Mao
Zedong through a conservational interview
with him:
 Touched by Mao’s prospective ideal of restoring
proletariats’ dominance in Chinese politics
 Sympathetic report on the impoverishment
and starvation of backward Chinese villages

4.  The only Westerner who dared to reveal the
conspiracy and corruptive politics of
Guomindang government, which was not
according to the general anti-Communist
opinion of mass media and scholars in
America and the Capitalist West.
 Edgar’s arrival resulted in a phenomenal
increase of the foreign population in Bao An
 But, Edgar also cited the imperfections of
Communist developments in China:
1. Limited to agrarian struggles
2. Industrialism: “infant garments”

5.  For the failure of Guomindang:
 “Even in the foreign concessions, Nanjing kept a well-
paid espionage (spying) system at work.” [P.38]
 Financial, territorial and diplomatic misappropriation for the
Powers’ favor regardless of people’s resentment to the
possible national humiliation of China
 For the success of Communist Party:
 Red Bandits: manipulated the illiterate mind of the
peasants to kill or torture the right-wings and expanded
Communist influence
 Stood firmed against the exploitation of landlords and
foreign imperialism
 Commanding force with disciplined intellectuals

7.  Yuan Shikai’s re-enthronement & the 21-
Demands:
 Chinese intellectuals’ resentment to Japanese
concession of Shandong based on such an
illegitimate secret treaty
 May-Fourth Movement  New Cultural Movement
reached the climax
 Lost confidence to Capitalist Democracy with
regards to the betrayal of Woodrow Wilson
 Some believed in Socialist ideas as an alternative
of nationalist reformation.

8.  Chen Duxiu
 Published “La Jeunesse” journals
and introduced Marxism to China,
together with Li Dazhao
 Established the First Communist
Group in Shanghai in 1920
 Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
was founded at Shanghai in 1921
 Avocated “bourgeosis-democratic
revolution”

9.  Soviet Russia under Lenin: Ambitions of
expanding Communism in Asia as a mean of
breaking the isolation of Capitalist West
 Voitinsky: offered advices to Chen Duxiu
 “Comintern” (1921) by Henricus Sneevliet and
Adolf Joffe, agreed by Sun Yat-sen
 “Sun-Joffe Agreement” was reached regardless of
Western opposition, as the U.S.S.R promised to
offer material and political help to China.
 Under the Sino-Russian Entente in 1923, Sun
promised for a GMD-CCP cooperation in order to
prepare for a Northern Expedition against Yuan
Shikai’s re-enthronement with the support of
provisional warlords in South China. [P.97]

10.  Since then, China’s political development raised
American concerns with regards to her anti-Soviet
fear, while, after the humiliation in Paris Peace
Conference, the Chinese politicians and intellectuals
no longer blindly, but critically, perceived the Euro-
American ideology as a way towards modernization.
The Sino-American relations was then not as easier
as that in Late-Qing period (after 1900), in Sun’s
revolutionary period and before the May-Fourth
Movement due to the hindrance of Soviet Russia,
coincidently with the passive diplomatic stances of
the United States towards the growing Japanese
ambitions in China.

11.  Chen Duxiu’s broke-up with the Communist
Party in 1927:
 Chen Duxiu & Li Dazhao  Mensheviks (under
the influence of Lenin and Comintern, where the
members were mostly Menshelviks)
 Mao Zedong (became Editor of “Political Weekly”
and Director of Peasant Department under
Guomindang in 1917)  Bolsheviks (declared
radical struggle with the bourgeoisie)

12.  Mao regarded Chen Duxiu’s moderation with
Guomindang as an “opportunist line” that
appeased the bourgeosie
 Mao: “Roy had been a fool, Borodin a blunderer,
Chen Duxiu as an unconscious traitor.” [P.163]
 [P.177] “Li Dazhao, a man of counter-revolution
(anti-Bolshelvik)”
 Urged for proletariat uprisings in Hubei,
Jiangxi, Fujian and Hunan as a resentment to
Guomindang’s incapability in dealing with rural
poverty and landlord exploitations (led by Li Li-
san) [P.176]

15.  Though Guomindang
re-conciliated with the
protestors, the rulers
were still dominated by
the new militarism and
supported by certain
foreign powers, the
treaty port bankers
and the landlords.
[P.99]

16.  Sir Frederick Leith-Ross’ criticisms to the
economy in Republican China [P.101]:
 No middle class in China, but only the incredibly
poor and the very rich
 Enormous taxes, share-corp method, rural
bankruptcy
 Incapability of dealing with natural disasters
 Dr. Karl August Wittfogel’s criticism:
 “Asiatic mode of production”

17.  Communists’ allegations that expressed Chinese
resentment to Guomindang’s incapable economic
policy and humiliating diplomacy [P.101]:
 Rural bankruptcy: attributed to GMD’s policy of “non-
resistance to imperialism” – in particular to Nanjing’s
“no-war policy” against Japan.
 GMD allowed Japanese conquest in Manchuria, where
was the region of Chinese continent best suited for
industrial development!
 Lost territory, unsettled lands, coal, railway mileage, iron-
deposits, forest lands and national export trades
 Gave Japanese the continental base to inexorably continue
her aggression in China

19.  Zhou Enlai was appointed Director of the political
department at the Whampoa Military Academy in 1924
 “comrade”: recalled those who believed in Communism,
distilling somebody potential from the “white” force
 “personal dignity” – found in the young Chinese
Communists

20.  Zhou Enlai: worked for the radiogram as a
provision of “foreign office” in Chinese Soviet
District (Zhu De as the Commander-in-Chief)
 Discipline, integrity, connection
 Re-establishment of “Awakening Society”
 Studied in Nankai Middle School  Being
sophisticated with “Communist Manifesto” before
studying in France
 “New People’s Study Society” (1920)
 “Chinese Communist Youth League” (1922)
 Sent delegates to Shangai and organized a general
strike with 600,000 workers (but became a fiasco)
 Supported Chiang Kai-shek’s Second Northern
Expedition against warlords

21.  Zhou Enlai escaped from the Guomindang
assasins in Shanghai Massacre, and was
obliged to work underground.
 Consolidated military influence in the Soviet
Districts of Jiangxi and Fujian
 Became the Vice-chairman of CCP Revolutionary
Military Council
 Edgar Snow’s impression on Zhou:
 “cool, logical and empirical mind” [P.76]

22.  Joined the revolutionary army of Li
Yuanhong with regards to his
dissatisfaction upon the theories
taught by Manchus in the Law School
 Canton-Hankow Railway Dispute: on
the side of landlords and activists from
Hunnan Province
 Learned Socialism in “Hsiang River
Daily News” and resigned from the
army once Sun Yat-sen came to an
agreement with Yuan Shikai for a
dissolution of GMD government in
Nanjing
 “Ke Lao Hui” (Elder Brother Society):
established in regards to their
resentment upon the insincerity of
Manchu Court in appointing Han
Chinese in the foreseeable
constitutional parliament

23.  Led the “New People’s Society” to join the frontier
of Ting Yen-kai against Yuan’s re-enthronement
(but was brutually suppressed)
 Attended the Third Congress of Communist Party in
Guangdong in 1923
 Being the Editor of “Political Weekly” and Director
of Peasant Department under GMD in 1925
 Member of CCP Revolutionary Military Council
 Member of the Political Bureau of the CCP Central
Committee
 Member of CCP Finance Commission
 Member of CCP Organization Committee
 Member of CCP Public Health Commission
 9th
CCP Conference of the Fourth Red Army in 1929
(after Chen Duxiu’s resignation): Ideas for
improvements and elimination of misunderstanding
between Bolshelviks and Menshelviks

24.  “an intellectual face of great shrewdness”
 Hatless: talking with two young peasants and
gesticulating earnestly
 “a man of considerable depth of feeling”
 Eyes: moistened for the dead comrades;
recalled incidents in his youth during the rice
riots and famines of Hunan; lots of starving
peasants begged Yamen for food frustratedly
(hardship during the Late Qing and Republican
Era
 Gave his coat away to a wounded man at the
front
 Refused to wear shoes when his Red comrades
had none
 Broad knowledge in classical Chinese,
philosophy and history: a man with unusual
memory, an able writer, a good speaker

25.  A humanist who believed in problem-solving with man’s
wisdom [P.92]: “urged the Reds to toughen themselves
with regards to a further demand on their warrior capacity
for withstanding great hardship and suffering”
 Questioned why no government established by workers:
 Admired Ramsay McDonald of Labour Party who was
regarded as an arch traitor of the British people [P.92]
 Considered Mussolini much able: a real Machiavellian
 Welcomed the alliance with Siam, Philippines, Canada
etc. to resist colonialism [P.134]
 Welcomed an anti-Fascist pact with capitalist
democracies
 “A war of maneuver” – mobile (guerilla) warfare against
Japanese troops with the blockade of mountainous
landscapes [P.111]
 Urged for a leadership from determined revolutionaries
[P.107]
 Supported the National United Front and World Anti-
Japanese United Front against Japanese imperialism

26.  Ms. WEI Kung-chih [P.123]
 Formerly a member of propaganda corps at the GMD Political Training
School, directed by Deng Xiaoping
 Conducted the Red Theatre during the Long March
 Liu Ting-chiao – “Hero of the Reds” [P.194]
 Fixed the iron-chain suspension bridge in River Tatu, which enabled a
convenient mobilization of military and agrarian resources to Sichuan
 Lin Biao [P.111]
 Promoted as President of Red Army University when 28 years old
 Li Chiang-lin [P.78]
 Commander during the Nanchang Uprising
 Ho Lung [P.80]
 Successfully arrested a Swiss espionage called Bosshard
 Zhang Xueliang – “The Young Marshal” (formerly the son of Zhang Zuolin, the
“Feng” Warlord) [P.47]
 Sian Incident: kidnapped Chiang Kai-shek and forced him to abandon the
Communist extermination for the sake of defending Japanese invasion
 Liu Chih-tan – anti-landlord movement
 Abolition of surtaxes and establishment of cooperatives in Shensi Province

28.  Chiang Kai-shek’s political selfishness at the expense of national
security: suppressed internal opponents instead of foreign invaders:
 Zhang Xueliang urged the anti-Japanese students in Dongbei
University to reach Sian. But, the anti-Japanese agitators were
arrested by agents of the Nanjing Government. [P.50]
 Nanjing signed an “anti-Red pact” with Toyko and Nazi
Germany. [P.37]
 Chiang got the support from German advisers, General von
Seeckt and General von Falkenhausen, to force the Communists
for a Long March miserably. [P.37]
 Chiang allowed Japanese conquest in Manchuria, a cored
province for China’s industrial development. It gave Japan a
continental base to further practice her aggressive policy. [P.101]
 Total failure of parliamentary system in such a Republican rule
throughout the two decades: military dictatorship still fragmented
in many provinces; no say among common people; being
reluctant to promote a collective rule with Communist Party in the
Republican Government (not according to the will of Dr. Sun)

29.  “no ritual of hero worship built up around him (Mao Zedong)
…” [P.92]  really true?
 “I never met a Chinese Red who drooled ‘our-great-leader’
phrase…” [P.92]  Were the Reds absolutely submissive
with Mao’s authority?
 “I did not hear Mao’s name as a synonym of the Chinese
people…” [P.92]  ???
 “But still I never met one who did not like the Chairman – as
everyone called him – and admire him…” [P.92]  really
true?
 “Leninism and Historical Foundations of Democracy” in the
Chinese Soviet Political Lectures [P.117]  Were the Reds
alerted themselves being ideologically maneuvered by the
ambitious Russians?

30.  [P.124] Pity: Those enthusiastic youths died earlier than the
establishment of PRC.
 “…(CCP) was to awaken them (the youths) a belief of human
rights, to combat the timidity, passiveness, and static faiths of
Taoism and Confucianism, to educate, to persuade, to coerce
them to fight for the “reign of people”, for the “life of justice”, for
equality, for freedom, and for human dignity…” (too idealistic!)
 Never realized after the establishment of PRC: the growing
authority of Left-wing rulers enforced an ever-increasing
deterioration of the so-called “people’s republic”.
 Proletariat dictatorship: Mao encouraged an extermination
of capitalists, former pro-Qing and Guomindang officials,
religious pursuers, Confucianists and Right-minded CCP
cadres during the Cultural Revolution; Commemorators of
Zhou Enlai in Tiananmen Square were suppressed by Jiang
Qing in 1976; personnel struggles within the Communist Party
and brutal suppression upon the democrat-activists in the
political turmoil on 4 June 1989.

31.  “The Communists rationalized and apparently believed that,
they were advancing towards an anti-Japanese front, and
this was a psychological factor of great importance. It
helped them turn what might have a demoralized retreat into
a spiritual march of victory.” [Strategic retreat of Reds from
Northwest during the Long March, P.205]
 Intelligently resolved their inner struggles based on their
macro-viewed and nation-wide consideration, as they
reaffirmed CCP’s insistence of defending against
Japanese invasion even they were not politically
recognized as divined patriots
 Gained manpower support from peasants in Northwest as
Communists helped them confiscated the luxuries of
merchants and landlords
 Conscription with racial minorities: Miao, Shan and Lolo

32.  The United States
 Mutual support to Guomindang against Communists, but offered not
so much concrete help, as she was preoccupied by the emergent
task of economic recovery after the Great Depression
 Passive diplomacy: Avoided having direct conflicts with Soviet
Russia (under Stalin)
 Britain
 More concerns to the threat of the U.S.S.R than that of the Chinese
Communists: The sovereign issue of Poland
 Appeasement Policy towards the Nazi threat and political instability
in Eastern Europe: No more intervention to the Chinese politics
 France
 Preoccupied with the task of urban reconstruction due to the
disastrous bombardment from German troops
 Germany
 Signed an “Anti-Red Pact” with Chiang Kai-shek and offered him
advisers to tackle with Communist expansion