Labour organiser whose 1930 urban-insurrection “Li Lisan line” led the party and cost him his position
Labour organiser in the CCP and director of its Central Committee, March to August 1930.
From Hunan, he joined the party while a work-study student in France and organised the Anyuan miners’ strike of 1922 and the May Thirtieth Movement of 1925. From 1928 he held effective control of the Central Committee and in 1930, declaring a revolutionary high tide, ordered attacks on Changsha, Wuhan and other cities that failed; condemned by the Comintern, he was removed and summoned to Moscow, where he stayed fifteen years and married a Soviet wife. He returned in 1946 and served as labour minister. Persecuted early in the Cultural Revolution, he killed himself in 1967 and was rehabilitated in 1980.
Also known as: Li Li-san
Activities and affiliations
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1921–1967
Political and party leadership
- Politburo Standing Committee member, Propaganda chief, Secretary-General1928–1930
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1922–1927
Social movements and organizing
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1932–1938
CominternMember of the CCP delegation to the Comintern
Diplomacy and international organization -
1949–1954
People’s Republic of China state institutionsMinister of Labour
Government and administration
Career Timeline
- 1920–1921Work-study in France; expelled for organising Chinese workers
- 1922Commander of the Anyuan coal-mine strike
- 1925Strike commander in the May Thirtieth Movement in Shanghai
- 1927.08Member of the Revolutionary Committee and head of security in the Nanchang Uprising
- 1928.10–1930CCP Politburo Standing Committee member and Propaganda chief; de facto leader
- 1930.06–09Secretary-General of the Central Committee; drove the urban-insurrection Li Lisan line
- 1930.12Recalled by the Comintern to Moscow for self-criticism
- 1932–1938Member of the CCP delegation to the Comintern; ACFL representative to the Profintern
- 1938.02–1939.11Arrested and imprisoned by the Soviet NKVD
- 1946Returned to China; chief CCP member of the Northeast truce team
- 1949–1954Minister of Labour; vice-chairman of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions
- 1967.06.22Died under Cultural Revolution persecution; rehabilitated in 1980
Related historical events
- 1915–1921May Fourth and the founding of the Chinese Communist PartyCommander of the Anyuan strikeBuilt the party branch and workers’ club at Anyuan and led the victorious strike of September 1922.
- 1924–1927The first united front, the Northern Expedition and the catastrophe of 1927Labour leader of May Thirtieth and proposer of the Nanchang risingLed the Shanghai General Labour Union and first proposed the Nanchang Uprising in 1927.
- 1927–1936From Jinggangshan to Yan’an: the soviet bases and the Long MarchAdvocate of the urban-insurrection lineIn 1930 he promoted urban uprisings and ordered the attack on Changsha, which was retaken within days.
- 1966–1976The Cultural RevolutionVictim of early Cultural Revolution persecutionHe was persecuted early in the Cultural Revolution.
Urban insurrection strategy and the capture of Changsha
After the Comintern’s Far Eastern Bureau criticized the Chinese Communist Party in 1929 for insufficient activity, General Secretary Xiang Zhongfa argued that the revolution had reached a high tide. Li Lisan developed this into a strategy of worker-led armed uprisings in cities and extending the revolution nationwide. In June 1930 the party centre established action committees in the provinces and prepared a general uprising for October. The Comintern instead urged concentration on an uprising in one or two provinces. In July, communist forces captured Changsha, the capital of Hunan, but Nationalist troops retook it within days, and uprisings in other cities were suppressed. After the defeat at Changsha, the centre of CCP activity shifted toward Mao Zedong’s guerrilla forces. The Comintern blamed Li for the failure and recalled him to Moscow; in 1931 a change in the party leadership removed him from power. In the campaign over the strategy, party members who opposed Li, including labour activists He Mengxiong and Luo Zhanglong, were also denounced as rightists.