Li Hanjun and the early Communist movement in China

Li, Danyang 2011. Li Hanjun and the early Communist movement in China. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

This thesis explores the role Li Hanjun played in the initial stage of the Communist movement in China. It describes Li’s early life, including his family background, his upbringing, his schooling and the environment he grew up in. It analyses some of Li’s early writings to demonstrate his philosophical predispositions and political orientation, as well as his character and temperament. It examines Li’s understanding of Marxism and his endeavours to disseminate it and to introduce various socialist theories into China. It describes his contacts with socialists of other countries and his cooperation with Korean socialists and Soviet agents in China, which helped open up the Communist movement in East Asia. The research focuses on Li Hanjun’s activities in establishing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the opinions he expressed at the Party’s founding congress. It also deals with his ideas and actions in directing labour movements in China. Li Hanjun was a dissident within the CCP and later left the Party. This study clarifies the divergence of views between him and other Party leaders, and shows that his rejection of the Bolshevik doctrines of centralism and dictatorship and of unconditional receipt of financial aid and orders from the Communist International (Comintern) were the main causes of the conflicts and his expulsion. The thesis discusses Li’s vision of socialism, and shows that his ideal socialist society was not one in which a centralist government and the dictatorship of a Communist élite should control and intervene in everything but a collectivity of associations of free and autonomous working people organised in cooperatives. The thesis ends with a critical assessment of Li as a historical figure. It recovers historical facts that have sunk into oblivion, and thus differs from comparable studies published both in China and abroad. It fills important gaps in the history of the early Communist movement in China.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	History, Archaeology and Religion
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > D History (General) D History General and Old World > DS Asia J Political Science > JC Political theory
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Last Modified:	19 Mar 2016 22:47
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/27335

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