Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow and the Chinese Revolution - KU ...

capitulated to the KMT authorities, who sent him to Shanghai by
special plane in the hopes that he could direct the simultaneous destruction
of all secret CCP institutions there. But a secret CCP agency in
Wuhan had reported Ku's arrest to Shanghai headquarters before the
KMT could take any action. However, as a participant in the underworld
of Shanghai's secret societies, Ku nevertheless helped the KMT
to raid many CCP secret organizations. His greatest "contribution" to
the KMT was the capture on June 22, 1931, of Hsiang Chung-fa, secretary
general of the CC of the CCP, who was shot two days later in
prison. Furthermore, on June 15, the Pacific Secretariat of the Profintern
had been raided. Its director, who used the name Noulens, and
others were imprisoned. The case made international headlines. Indeed,
a succession of devastating raids on secret CCP institutions in
Shanghai caused panic to, and shattered the morale of, higher-echelon
CCP members.
Ch'en Shao-yu was hastily elected secretary general of the CC to
fill the vacancy left by Hsiang Chung-fa. Before Ch'en's promotion,
he was secretary of the CCFs Kiangsu Provincial Committee, which
directed Party work in the Shanghai area. The duties of this position
left Ch'en constantly open to the threat of arrest. He was not so much
threatened by KMT agents who might have infiltrated his Kiangsu
Provincial Committee, for it seems to me that the KMT rarely was
successful in infiltrating CCP organizations at the provincial level or
higher. But KMT agents were quite successful in Shanghai at infiltrating
CCP organizations below the level of the Provincial Committee;
and Ch'en Shao-yu, as secretary of the CCP's Kiangsu Committee,
had had to maintain constant contact with Party organizations at
lower levels, any one of which might have been infiltrated by KMT
agents. Ch'en had initially sought the leadership of the Kiangsu
Provincial Committee when it was not such a risky job to hold; but by
the time he actually got the position, it had become a most dangerous
one, and he lived, with good reason, in constant terror. But his sudden
promotion, although it diminished the danger to him, did not in any
means lessen his fear. He seldom appeared at meetings of the CC.
Like a bird frightened by the hunter's arrow, Ch'en dared not live
in a hotel or an apartment or even in a secluded private house. After
lengthy deliberation he decided to move into a sanitarium located in
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