[Peng Shuzi and Chen Pilan]
Peng Shuzi joined the Socialist Youth League in 1920 and then attended the University of the Toilers of the East in Moscow. At the time, Karl Radek was the chief Administrator of that institution. Joining the Chinese Communist Party in 1923 while still in Moscow, he ended up being elected to the Political Bureau of the CCP by 1925. Opposing the disastrous Comintern policies imposed on the CCP by Moscow, he joined with Chen Duxiue, the founder of the CCP, in becoming supporters of the Left Opposition because of his agreement with the LO line and its critique of the Chinese Revolution.
Peng spent 5 years in a Guomintang (Chinese Nationalist) prison and was freed in 1937. Maintaining an underground presence against both Guomintang and the CCP on the one side and organizing against the Japanese occupation on the other, Peng contributed to the building of the underground communist opposition in occupied China. After the war and these Trotskyists started recruiting, Peng fled to Hong Kong ahead of the CCP repression. He was then able to be the key correspondent for the Fourth International by reporting on the repression of the Chinese Trotskyists during the 1951-1953 period when Mao’s forces destroyed all independent workers organizations under the cover of the US assault on the Korean peninsula.
Writings:
The Causes of the Victory of the Chinese Communist Party over Chiang Kai-Shek, and the CCP’s Perspectives: Report on the Chinese Situation to the Third Congress of the Fourth International, 1951
The Chinese Experience With Pabloite Revisionism And Bureaucratism, An Open Letter to James P. Cannon, 1953
Pabloism Reviewed: From Pablo to Cochran, Clarke, and Mestre, 1955
Therefore they Demand Immediate Reunification, 1955
A Common Discussion for Reunification with all the Trotskyists Remaining with the IS, 1955
Resolution On The Parity Commission, 1955
Your Section formally proposed to withdraw from the Parity Commission, letter to Gerry Healy, 1955
A Criticism Of The Various Views Supporting The Chinese Rural People’s Communes, 1960
Two Interviews on the “Cultural Revolution, 1967
Open Letter to the Members of the Chinese Communist Party, 1967
The Relationship and Differences Between Mao Tse-tung and Liu Shao-Ch’i, 1968
What Our Position Should Be on the Factional Struggle Inside the CCP, 1968
Letter of Comrade Peng Shu-Chi to the International Executive Committee, 1968
The Struggle Within the CCP and China’s Situation, 1968