Wang Fanxi

Wang Fanxi ( Chinese  王凡 西 ; born March 16, 1907 in Xiashi , China , † December 30, 2002 in Leeds , United Kingdom ) was a leading Chinese Trotskyist revolutionary.

Life

Wang Fanxi was born in Xiashi near Hangzhou in the Chinese province of Zhejiang . Politically, he was shaped in his youth by the May Fourth Movement . After the May 30th Movement , he joined the then illegal Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He spent the years 1925 to 1927 studying in Moscow, first at the KUTW , a political university specializing in the training of revolutionary cadres in the countries of the East, and later at the Sun Yat-sen University . During this time he came into contact with the ideas of the Russian left opposition and became a member of a secret Trotskyist association of Chinese students. After returning to China, he initially worked for the CCP, from which he was expelled after publicly professing Trotskyism. He was then a leading member of the October opposition group and played a key role in the 1931 unification conference of Chinese Trotskyist groups. During this time he worked closely with Chen Duxiu , but spent most of 1931-1937 in political prisons of the ruling Kuomintang . In 1941 he was a founding member of the Internationalist Labor Party of China from which he was sent to Hong Kong in 1949. By fleeing to Macau , he escaped the CCP's nationwide raid in December 1952. With the help of friends, he went into exile in Leeds in 1975. After being unable to leave his home for the last few years of his life due to physical suffering, he died on December 30, 2002.

Wang Fanxi published a large number of opposition newspapers during his time in politics. For a long time he earned his living by translating the writings of Trotsky and other authors from Russian into Chinese.

Works

• Memories of a Chinese Revolutionary 1919–1949 , isp-Verlag, 1983.

Web links

• Obituary Wang Fanxi (English)