Zunyi Conference
쭌이 회의
The enlarged meeting of the CCP Politburo held at Zunyi, Guizhou, on 15–17 January 1935 during the Long March. Examining the loss of the Jiangxi base and the disaster at the Xiang River, it condemned the military leadership of Bo Gu and the Comintern adviser Otto Braun and raised Mao Zedong to the Politburo Standing Committee. CCP historiography treats it as the starting point of Mao's leadership, but the actual shift of power came in stages: the three-man military group (March 1935), the chairmanship of the Military Commission (November 1935) and the party chairmanship (1943).
In depth
Zhou Enlai convened the meeting after the capture of Zunyi in January. Bo Gu's opening report blamed "objective" causes such as the enemy's overwhelming superiority and poor coordination among Red forces; Zhou admitted the leadership's wrong decisions and named himself one of the three most responsible. Zhang Wentian, drawing on talks with Mao, attacked Bo and Braun head on, and Mao criticised the positional warfare that had worn down the army to hold every inch of the base and the abandonment of mobile war. Wang Jiaxiang backed Mao, and Peng Dehuai likened Braun to a prodigal son who had squandered his father's goods.
The participants, Politburo members and alternates, army commanders, Braun and his interpreter Wu Xiuquan, numbered about twenty, and the list is still disputed. Seventeen, all but Bo, Braun and He Kequan (Kai Feng), sided with Mao. Afterwards Zhang Wentian replaced Bo Gu as the party's overall head, and in March a three-man military group of Mao, Zhou and Wang Jiaxiang was formed, with the final military say resting with Zhou.
The Zunyi Conference was not publicly acknowledged until the 1950s, and detailed accounts appeared only for its fiftieth anniversary in 1985. Its dates, long given as 7–9 January, were corrected to 15–17 January by Fei Peiru of the Zunyi memorial. It was a turning point that reduced the influence of the Moscow-trained leaders and rehabilitated Mao's military line, but the statement that "Mao's leadership was established at Zunyi" is a later formulation.