Liao Chengzhi - Fighting The Nationalists and Japan

Fighting The Nationalists and Japan

In August 1933, Liao bid farewell to his mother and, under the orders of the Party, proceeded to the Sichuan-Shaanxi area carrying Kuomintang codes which would allow the Communists to decrypt their telegraph messages. After his arrival there, he became Secretary of the Politburo of the Chinese Red Army's Fourth Front Army. However, he offended his superior Zhang Guotao by pointing out some of his ideological errors; Zhang Guotao criticised Liao as a "member of a Kuomintang family" and had him arrested. He spent two more years in a CPC prison, and thus ended the Long March as a criminal, but was restored to good standing in the Party in late 1936 while in northern Shaanxi by Mao Zedong and his old friend Zhou Enlai. He then began his work with the Red China News Agency, Xinhua's forerunner, where he put his international experience to good use, translating news into English, French, German, and Japanese.

In December 1937, as the Second Sino-Japanese War intensified, he was sent to Hong Kong, where he ran the Eighth Route Army's office. Among other matters, he was responsible for arms purchases for the CPC's Southern Bureau. His work there formed the foundation of what would become the CPC's united front strategy in the territory, aimed at using Hong Kong's economic resources and connections to overseas Chinese communities to fund CPC aims; indeed, while in Hong Kong, Liao cultivated relations and alliances with the territory's "big capitalists". His mother arranged for Jing Puchun to be sent there as well, as a surprise for her son; the two had a joyous reunion at the docks as Liao stepped off his ship, and married soon after, on 11 January 1938. Liao left Hong Kong in January 1941, but after the Imperial Japanese Army invaded and occupied the city, he was chosen for his fluency in Japanese along with Lian Guan to sneak back in and establish contact with fellow revolutionaries who had been trapped there; by May, he had helped over 500 people escape from Hong Kong, including his mother, Soong Ching-ling, Mao Dun, Xia Yan, Liang Shuming, Cai Chusheng, Liu Yazi (柳亚子), Hu Feng, Hu Sheng (胡绳), and Zou Taofen (邹韬奋).

However, Liao's work was interrupted on 30 May 1942, when he was arrested in Guangdong's Lechang, Shaoguan area. His captors transported him to southern Jiangxi and held in the Majiazhou Prison Camp in Taihe. His arrest was the result of a long investigation by the KMT, and would prove the undoing of the CPC's organisation in southern China; in the following months, the KMT arrested hundreds of other CPC members. His mother, Dong Biwu, and Zhou Enlai all wrote letters to KMT authorities pleading for Liao's life, in which they stressed the need for unity against the Japanese and the common revolutionary origin of the KMT and the CPC, reflected in Liao's father's relationship with Sun Yat-sen; in the end, Chiang Kai-shek was moved to spare Liao's life. Chiang's son Chiang Ching-kuo was assigned to supervise Liao's captivity. His personal connections notwithstanding, Liao was subject to poor conditions and various tortures during his imprisonment, and developed lung disease as a result. However, such was the respect of his fellow revolutionaries for him that even while in prison, he was elected as an alternate member of the CPC's Politburo by the representatives of the 7th National Congress in Yan'an in April 1945.

In January 1946, Chiang Kai-shek sent a telegram to the prison camp in Ganzhou where the young Liao was being held, directing that he be flown to the KMT's seat of government, then still located in Chongqing. Liao's treatment improved markedly upon his arrival; he was given a new suit of clothes and better food to eat. Chiang tried to pressure Liao into renouncing his affiliation with the CPC, but Liao refused. Soon after, on 22 January, in accordance with the terms of the Double Tenth Agreement between the KMT and the CPC, Liao was released and returned to Yan'an, where his wife was waiting for him. Upon his return, he was named head of the Xinhua News Agency. However, again his reunion with his wife was brief; the CPC soon dispatched Liao to the Taihang Mountains on Xinhua-related work.