Chen Tanqiu, whose name is Cheng, whose courtesy name is Yunxian, and whose pseudonym is Tanqiu, was from Chencelou, Huanggang County, Hubei Province. In his youth, he actively participated in the May Fourth Movement. Since then, Chen Tanqiu has served as a member of the Anyuan P

Chen Tanqiu (Pictures from the Internet)

Chen Tanqiu (1896.1.4-1943.9.27), whose name is Cheng, his courtesy name is Yunxian, and his pseudonym is Tanqiu. He is from Chen Celou, Huanggang County, Hubei Province (now Huangzhou District, Huanggang City, Hubei Province). In his youth, he actively participated in the May Fourth Movement. In the autumn of 1920, he and Dong Biwu and others established a communist group in Wuhan. In July 1921, he attended the First Congress of the Communist Party of China. Since then, Chen Tanqiu has served as a member of the Anyuan Prefectural Committee of the Communist Party of China, Secretary of the Wuchang Prefectural Committee, Organization Minister of Hubei District Committee, Secretary of the Jiangxi Provincial Committee, Organization Minister of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee, Secretary of the Manchuria Provincial Committee, Secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee, and Secretary-General of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee, and other positions, running around for the cause of the Party. In early summer of 1933, Chen Tanqiu went to work in the Central Soviet Area and served as Secretary of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee. In January 1934, at the Second Congress of the Chinese Soviet Republic held by Ruijin , he was elected as a member of the Central Executive Committee and a member of the Food Committee of the Central Government (i.e., Minister of Food). After the Long March of the Red Army, Chen Tanqiu stayed in Central Soviet Area to insist on guerrilla war and served as the Organization Minister of the Jiangxi Branch of the Communist Party of China. In August 1935, he went to Moscow to attend the Seventh Congress of the Communist International . Later, he participated in the work of the Communist Party of China's delegation to the Communist International. In May 1939, Chen Tanqiu was ordered to return to China and passed through the capital of Xinjiang Province, Dihua . In June, he succeeded Deng Fa as the representative of the CPC Central Committee in Xinjiang and the head of the Eighth Route Army Office in Xinjiang, with the pseudonym Xu Jie.

Chen Tanqiu spent more than four years in Dihua, it was the period when the domestic and foreign political situation was reversed, and cracks began to appear in Xinjiang and the prosperous times of Xinjiang warlords openly embarked on the road of anti-Soviet and anti-communism. It is in this complex situation that Chen Tanqiu showed the high principle and flexibility of the Communists. He and Mao Zemin, Linjilu and other Communist Party members correctly implemented the party’s anti-Japanese national united front policy, united the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang, and fought a reasonable, beneficial and coordinated struggle with Xinjiang warlords Sheng Shicai, and made outstanding contributions to the development of Xinjiang’s economic and cultural construction and the anti-Japanese and national salvation movement.

First of all, Chen Tanqiu focused on the training and learning of the Western Route Army General Detachment. In the summer of 1939, Deng Fa, Chen Tanqiu and the leaders of the Western Route Army General Detachment made full preparations and rigorous arrangements for the camping training of the General Detachment. During the training, they ate, live and trained with the commanders and fighters, which greatly encouraged the commanders and fighters' fighting spirit and made this camping training that lasted more than two months a complete success. In September, after Deng sent back to Yan'an , Chen Tanqiu timely summarized the camping training and led the West Route Army General Detachment to carry out winter learning. He also personally taught political classes, party classes to commanders and fighters, and taught party history. After camping training and learning, the political awareness and military technology of the commanders and fighters have been greatly improved. In January 1940, under the careful organization and arrangement of Chen Tanqiu, more than 300 officers and soldiers from the Western Route Army General Detachment returned to Yan'an safely.

Chen Tanqiu organized and led the Communist Party members in Xinjiang to do a lot of work to the construction cause of Xinjiang, the social and economic development of Xinjiang, and to support the War of Resistance Against Japan, and made important contributions. In the critical situation, he still led the Communist Party members in the "Anti-Imperialist Association" to mobilize and organize people of all ethnic groups to raise 80,000 leather jackets and 10,000 saddles to Yan'an; in 1939, he raised funds and purchased 10 tons of newsprint needed for the "New China News" from the Soviet Union to transport it to Yan'an; in January 1940, when the Western Route Army General Detachment returned east, in addition to carrying his own self-defense weapons, he also brought back 44 machine guns and 40,000 bullets. In the summer and autumn of 1940, he led the Communist Party members working in southern Xinjiang to eliminate the spies lurking in the local area of ​​British imperialism and consolidate the border defense in southern Xinjiang.

In order to maintain the anti-Japanese national united front, Chen Tanqiu fought a reasonable and concise struggle with Shengshicai . He had talked to Sheng Shicai many times for the exclusion, crackdown, and framed Communist Party members, and even protested; he taught the party members to be cautious in encountering problems and not give any excuses to provoke reactionaries; he asked the party members to be loyal to their duties, gain time, and do more work in the case of dangerous situations.

Chen Tanqiu also used newspapers and magazines such as " Xinjiang Daily ", "Anti-Imperialist Front", "Xinjiang Youth", and "Xinzhi" to carry out various publicity activities on the anti-Japanese struggle.He used the Xinjiang Daily as a base for promoting Marxism and the Communist Party of China's anti-Japanese national united front policy, personally reviewed and revised important articles and editorials, and adopted a large number of telecommunications from Xinhua News Agency and TASS , pointing out that only by uniting against Japan can there be a way out. The Xinjiang Daily also often publishes articles by Chinese Communist Party leaders such as Mao Zedong and Zhu De that expose the Kuomintang reactionaries' climax of anti-communism. Chen Tanqiu himself also wrote important articles and editorials to resolutely expose and criticize the anti-communist and anti-Soviet conspiracy created by Sheng Shicai. After the "South Anhui Incident", after Chen Tanqiu's efforts and struggles, the Xinjiang Daily published the "Speaker of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Southern Anhui Incident" and other text messages, exposing the evil behavior of the Kuomintang reactionaries and educating and awakening the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang.

In February 1942, Chen Tanqiu married Wang Yunxue, confidential secretary and translator of the Xinjiang Eighth Route Army Office.

In the summer of the same year, Sheng Shicai publicly defected to Chiang Kai-shek and implemented white terror. Chen Tanqiu suggested to the Party Central Committee that cadres working in Xinjiang should be transferred back to Yan'an to preserve revolutionary forces. At the same time, the Communist Party members in Xinjiang should organize rectification and study, carry out revolutionary education, and require Communist Party members to be mentally prepared and be arrested at any time, and must firmly uphold the revolutionary will of wealth and honor, poverty and humbleness, and power and force. In the summer of 1942, the Party Central Committee agreed to evacuate all Communist Party members working in Xinjiang. Chen Tanqiu included himself in the last batch and said, "As long as there is still one comrade, I can't leave."

On September 17, 1942, Chen Tanqiu was arrested. The enemy tortured Chen Tanqiu and forced him to "get out of the party." Chen Tanqiu refused to surrender. Late at night on September 27, 1943, Chen Tanqiu was secretly killed in prison at the age of 47. Due to the isolation of news, he was still elected as a member of the Central Committee at the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in 1945. After the founding of New China, Chen Tanqiu's remains were buried in the Martyrs Cemetery of the Nanjiao City, Urumqi City, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

On September 10, 2009, in the selection activity of "100 heroes and models who have made outstanding contributions to the founding of New China and 100 people who have moved China since the founding of New China" jointly organized by the Central Propaganda Department, Central Organization Department, United Front Work Department, Central Documents Research Office, Central Party History Research Office, Ministry of Civil Affairs, Human Resources and Social Security Ministry, National Federation of Trade Unions, National Federation of Trade Unions, General Political Department, and 11 departments including the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, the All-China Women's Federation, and the General Political Department of the People's Liberation Army, Chen Tanqiu was named "100 heroes and models who have made outstanding contributions to the founding of New China".

Urumqi’s Eighth Route Army Office in Xinjiang (Pictures from the Internet)

Reference materials:

1, "The History of the Communist Party of China Xinjiang" (Volume 1), written by the Xinjiang Party History Research Office, Xinjiang People's Publishing House, June 1999, 1st edition;

2, "Common Knowledge of Xinjiang History" (Part 2), edited by Miao Pusheng, Xinjiang People's Publishing House, December 1993, 1st edition;

3, "A Brief History of Xinjiang" (Volume 3), Edited by Xinjiang Party History Committee and Urumqi Party History Committee, Xinjiang People's Publishing House, August 1980, 1st edition. 4. "The Left Detachment of the Western Route Army of the Chinese Workers and Peasants in Xinjiang", Xinjiang People's Publishing House, September 1991, 1st edition.