Chen Tu-hsiu

Chen Duxiu (陈独秀, pinyin: chen2 du2 xiu4, Wade-Giles: Ch'en Tu-hsiu; 1879 - 1942) was the main founder of the Communist Party of China and its first leader.

He studied in Japan in his early life. In 1915 Chen started the influential magazine, New Youths. He lectured Chinese literature and became the president of the school of Arts in Peking University since 1917. In 1918 he started another magazine, the Weekly Review with Li Dazhao, promoting democracy, science and new literature (baihua).

He was also one of the main leader of the May Fourth Movement in 1919. After the movement Chen was heavily influenced by the 1917 October Revolution and started to advocate and promote Marxism after a serious study of it. He founded the Communist Party in 1921 and was elected as the General Secretary of the Central Bureau. He was the representative of the right-wing members in the party at the time.

Under the leadership of Li Dazhao and Chen, the CPC developed a close relationship with the Comintern. At the direction of the Comintern, Li and Chen were inducted into the Kuomintang in 1922. Chen followed Comintern policy in the 1925-27 revolution but concluded the Comintern's policy of allying with the Kuomintang was the cause of the defeat of the revolution.

He joined the International Left Opposition and was either expelled or withdrew (accounts of his departure vary) from the CPC in 1927. Two years later he was dismissed by the party. In 1932 he was arrested by Kuomintang for being the founder of an illegal party. He was released five years later and kept silent ever after. Chen passed away in 1942 in Sichuan.