The Li Li-san Line and the CCP in 1930 (Part I)

Abstract

It is the aim of this paper to examine the Chinese Communist movement in 1930 and in particular the policies which bore the name of Li Li-san. The Li Li-san “line” was essentially an attempt to use the rural based Red Army to gain an urban base for the Communist revolution in China. As such it marked a transitional period between the emphasis on urban uprisings of earlier years and complete withdrawal to the countryside after this period. Similarly it was a transitional period in the relations between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Communist International (CI), moving from the complete direction of the CCP from Moscow to the relative seclusion of the CCP in the 1930s.