NOTES


Wang Ming's ``Left'' line is a reference to the ``Left'' adventurism represented by the dogmatist Wang Ming during the period of the Second Revolutionary Civil War (1927-37). With the support of the Communist International and its representative Pavel Mif, Wang Ming and his followers gained the leading position in the CPC Central Committee at the Fourth Plenary Session of the Party's Sixth Central Committee held in January 1931. Politically, they blurred the demarcation line between the democratic revolution and the socialist revolution and put the struggle against the bourgeoisie on a par with the struggle against imperialism and feudalism; they ignored the marked change in China's class relations after the September 18th Incident of 1931 (Japan's invasion of northeast China) and regarded the intermediate forces as ``the most dangerous enemy''; they continued to push the ``theory of making the cities the centre of the Chinese revolution'' and held that the Red Army should seize the key cities in order to achieve victory first in one or more provinces which would then add up to a nationwide victory. Militarily, they first practised adventurism and, later, lapsed into flightism and the doctrine of holding onto what territory they had. Organizationally, they practised sectarianism and followed a policy of ``ruthless struggle and merciless blows'' towards those who disagreed with their erroneous views. The ``Left'' adventurism of Wang Ming dominated the Party for four years and brought heavy losses to it and the whole revolutionary cause. In January 1935, the Political Bureau held a meeting in Zunyi, Guizhou Province, which established the correct leadership of the new Central Committee represented by Mao Zedong, thus putting an end to the domination of Wang Ming's ``Left'' adventurist line in the Party's central leading organs.