Zhang Wentian

Zhang Wentian
张闻天
Zhang in 1951
General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party
In office 17 January 1935 – 20 March 1943
Preceded by	Bo Gu
Succeeded by	Mao Zedong (as Chairman)
Head of the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party
In office April 1931 – December 1934
Preceded by	Shen Zemin
Succeeded by	Wu Liangping
In office July 1937 – December 1942
Preceded by	Wu Liangping
Succeeded by	Lu Dingyi
Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office December 1954 – November 1960
Minister	Zhou Enlai
Ambassador of China to the Soviet Union[broken anchor]
In office April 1951 – January 1955
Preceded by	Wang Jiaxiang
Succeeded by	Liu Xiao
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Chinese Soviet Republic
In office 10 October 1934 – 6 September 1937
Preceded by	Mao Zedong
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Personal details
Born	(1900-08-30)30 August 1900 Nanhui, Shanghai, Qing dynasty
Died	1 July 1976(1976-07-01) (aged 75) Beijing, People's Republic of China
Political party	Chinese Communist Party
Alma mater	University of California, Berkeley, Moscow Sun Yat-sen University

Zhang Wentian^[a] (30 August 1900 – 1 July 1976) was a Chinese politician who was a high-ranking leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Born in Nanhui, he attended the Hohai Civil Engineering School in Nanjing and spent a year at the University of California. He later joined the CCP in 1925 and was sent to study at Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow, from 1926 to 1930. He was a member of the group known as the 28 Bolsheviks, but switched to supporting Mao Zedong during the Long March. He was General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party from 1935 to 1943, when the post was abolished.^[1] He remained a member of the Politburo, but ranked 12th of 13 in the 7th Politburo and reduced to Alternate Member in the 8th Politburo.

He was First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China from December 1954 to November 1960.^[2] He was a participant of the Long March, and later served as an ambassador to the Soviet Union from April 1951 to January 1955. At the Lushan Conference in 1959 he supported Peng Dehuai and lost power along with Peng.^[3] During the Cultural Revolution he was attacked as an ally of Peng and Liu Shaoqi; he was rehabilitated by Deng Xiaoping after Mao's death.

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