Zhu De (Chu Teh),
the son of a wealthy landlord, was born in Sichuan, China,
in 1886. He joined the Sun
Yat-sen rebellion
that overthrew the Qing dynasty in 1911. When
the Kuomintang (National
People's Party) was suppressed in 1913 by General Yuan Shikai,
Zhu De was forced into exile. He returned in 1916 and established
himself as an important warlord.
In 1922 Zhu De travelled
to Europe where he met Zhou
Enlai.
He now joined the Chinese
Communist Party and
after living in the Soviet Union returned
to China
in 1926.
Chiang
Kai-Shek eventually
emerged as the leader of the Kuomintang.
He now carried out a purge that eliminated the communists from the
organization. Those communists who survived, including Zhu De, managed
to establish the Jiangxi Soviet.
The nationalists now imposed
a blockade and Mao
Zedong decided
to evacuate the area and establish a new stronghold in the north-west
of China. In October 1934 Mao, Zhu De, Lin
Biao, and some
100,000 men and their dependents headed west through mountainous areas.
The marchers experienced
terrible hardships. The most notable passages included the crossing
of the suspension bridge over a deep gorge at Luting (May, 1935),
travelling over the Tahsueh Shan mountains (August, 1935) and the
swampland of Sikang (September, 1935).
The marchers covered about
fifty miles a day and reached Shensi on 20th October 1935. It is estimated
that only around 30,000 survived the 8,000-mile Long
March.
Zhu De played an important
role in developing the military tactic of guerrilla
warfare. During the Second World War Zhu
De successfully led his soldiers to victory. As
soon as the Japanese surrendered, Communist forces began a war against
the Nationalists led by Chiang
Kai-Shek. Zhu
De now became Supreme Commander of the People's Liberation Army and
they gradually gained control of the country and on 1st October, 1949,
Mao
Zedong announced
the establishment of People's Republic of China.
Zhu De remained in charge
of the People's Liberation Army until 1954 when he became deputy chairman
of the People's Republic of China. He was also chairman of the National
People's Congress (1959-67) until being denounced by the Red
Guards during
the Cultural Revolution.
He was restored to power
in 1971 and served as head of state and chairman of the Standing Committee
of the National People's Congress. Zhu De died in 1976.
(1)
Mao
Zedong, interviewed by Edgar
Snow in Red Star Over China (1936)
In May of 1928, Zhu De
arrived at Jinggangshan, and our forces were combined. Together we
drew up a plan to establish a six-xian Soviet area, to stabilize and
consolidate gradually the Communist power in the Hunan-Jiangxi-Guangdong
border districts, and, with that as a base, to expand over greater
areas. This strategy was in opposition to
recommendations of the Party, which had grandiose ideas of rapid expansion.
In the army itself Zhu De and I had to fight against two tendencies:
first, a desire to advance on Changsha at once, which we considered
adventurism; secondly, a desire to withdraw to the south of the Guangdong
border, which we regarded as 'retreatism.' Our main tasks, as we saw
them then, were two: to' divide the land, and to establish
Soviets. We wanted to arm
the masses to hasten those processes. Ou policy called for free trade,
generous treatment of captured enemy troops, and, in general, democratic
moderation.
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