He was the son of the Dong family, the richest man in Qingpu; he was admitted to the “Shanghai St. John’s University” founded by the Episcopal Church of Christ in the United States in Shanghai, specializing in theology, and later became a priest; he joined the Shanghai youth gang, from Chiang Kai-shek to Du Yuesheng, the head of the gang, and even from the Shanghai police station to the rented police station, he had friends; he. He chose to join the Chinese Communist Party and surrendered all of his family’s property as party dues, and then surrendered all of his aunt’s large inheritance, too; he had the grace of saving his son in Mao Zedong, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party …… However, he eventually died a tragic death in the Cultural Revolution launched by the Chinese Communist Party. His name was Dong Jianwu.
Secretly joining the Chinese Communist Party
Born in 1890, Dong Jianwu was a native of Qingpu County, Shanghai. During the Qing Dynasty, foreign priests came to Qingpu to preach and lived in Dong’s house. His great-grandmother joined Christianity at an early age, and his family was influenced by her to join the church, so it can be said that the Dong family is a Christian family. Jianwu Dong also joined the church in high school.
As a student at St. John’s University, he was a classmate of Song Ziwen, who later became Minister of Finance of the National Government and Executive Committee member of the Kuomintang Central Committee, and Gu Weijun, a diplomat, who was also influenced by Marxism during the May Fourth Movement in 1919. “During the May 30th Tragedy, Dong Jianwu was expelled from St. John’s University for his leadership in lowering the American flag and raising the Chinese flag, and later became pastor of St. Peter’s Church in Shanghai.
According to the book “Red Guard” published on the mainland, Dong Jianwu and Song Ziwen were not only classmates and friends, but also had a close relationship, and after the “purge” of the Kuomintang in 1927, Song Ziwen wanted Dong Jianwu, who was a pastor, to serve in the Kuomintang, but did not understand why Chiang Kai-shek wanted to “purge” the party. However, Dong Jianwu, who did not understand why Chiang Kai-shek wanted to “purge the Party” and did not understand the despicable behavior of the Chinese Communist Party in “developing through the shell”, believed the propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party and refused to join the Kuomintang.
Soon after, Dong Jianwu accepted an old classmate’s invitation and moved to Xi’an to become the pastor of an Anglican church. This old classmate, named Pu Huaren, was an underground member of the Chinese Communist Party and was publicly known as the principal of the Second Group Army Officer School of the National Revolutionary Army.
After Dong Jianwu arrived in Xi’an, Pu Huaren introduced him to Feng Yuxiang, who was then the commander-in-chief of the Second Army Group of the National Revolutionary Army. Feng Yuxiang and his wife had been practicing Christianity for many years, and many of his men were also religious. Dong Jianwu became the chaplain of the group’s army and served as the chief of the secretariat of the group’s political department, and also joined the Kuomintang.
In 1928, Dong Jianwu secretly joined the Chinese Communist Party in Kaifeng, Henan Province, through the introduction of Liu Bojian, the head of the political department of Feng Yuxiang’s ministry, and Pu Huaren. Obviously, such a double identity and what he did ran counter to his faith in God.
From then on, with his legal status and close relationship with Feng Yuxiang, he actively cooperated with Liu Bojian, Pu Huaren and others to engage in military, agricultural and labor movements in Feng’s National Revolutionary Army. In his special capacity as an army chaplain, Dong Jianwu spread “red doctrine” in Feng Yuxiang’s army, which led the soldiers to call him “the red chaplain of the Northwest Army”.
Becoming a Chinese Communist agent
Dong Jianwu’s activities in the Northwest Army drew the attention of the Kuomintang intelligence system. At that time, a traitor within the Chinese Communist Party confessed Dong Jianwu’s true identity. In this way, Dong Jianwu was wanted internally by the KMT central secret service, and some people were ready to take action against him. At that time, although Feng Yuxiang followed Chiang Kai-shek in the anti-communist purge, he did not lay hands on the CCP members in the army. When he learned that Dong Jianwu was in danger, he immediately sent his cronies to “escort him out of the country”.
In early 1929, Dong Jianwu secretly returned to Shanghai. By this time, he had already joined the Special Branch of the CPC Central Committee and became a special agent of the Intelligence Section of Section 2, under the direct leadership of Chen Gung. During this period in 1931, he was ordered to escort Zhang Guotao to the Soviet area of EYUAN with Gu Shunzhang, the head of the Central Special Branch. On the way back, Gu Shunzhang was caught by the Kuomintang for performing magic tricks, while Dong Jianwu escaped.
Taking care of Mao’s brothers and being a benefactor to Mao
After 1930, Dong Jianwu was appointed by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and with the financial support of the CPC organization in Shanghai and Song Qingling, a secret member of the Communist International, he opened a kindergarten in Shanghai, the Cosmos Kindergarten, in his capacity as the pastor of St. Peter’s Church, with the mission of secretly adopting the children and orphans of lost and stranded CPC members in Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Shanghai. The mission of the kindergarten was to secretly adopt the children and orphans of Chinese Communist Party members who were separated and displaced in Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Shanghai. Dong Jianwu was the director of the kindergarten, and his wife Huang Xueguang and the wives of Li Lisan and Yun Daying worked as caretakers at the kindergarten.
In November of that year, Mao’s wife Yang Kaihui was killed, leaving behind three brothers, Mao Shanying (then 8 years old), Mao Nanqing (then 6 years old) and Mao Shilong (then 4 years old). One important reason why Mao, who was in Jinggang Mountain, not only did not go to rescue his wife, but also did not rescue his three children to Jinggang Mountain, should be that he had long abandoned Yang Kaihui and lived with and married He Zizhen. The one who cared about the Mao brothers was Mao’s brother, Mao Zemin.
One day, Dong Jianwu was notified to meet Mao Zemin in secret, who entrusted the three Mao brothers to Dong Jianwu. By Dong Jianwu’s arrangement, the three brothers entered the Datong Kindergarten in early 1931. Shortly after entering the kindergarten, Mao An-Long fell ill and died (or, according to one account, disappeared). Subsequently, the children were evacuated due to the destruction of the Communist Party’s underground organization in Shanghai. Mao Xianying and Mao Xianying were brought back home to be raised by Dong Jianwu.
After the CCP’s escape to the north, Mao could no longer provide financial support to Dong Jianwu. According to Mao Shanying, life was difficult at that time, and Dong Jianwu’s wife turned bad to the brothers, and the two had left home and lived a wandering life for a time. Later, Dong Jianwu got them back and sent them to the International Children’s Institute in Moscow via Paris by the Chinese Communist Party underground. But in any case, during that difficult period, Dong Jianwu’s family took care of the Mao brothers and did a great favor to Mao.
Delivering a letter for Song Qingling
In February 1936, Dong Jianwu and others were sent by Song Qingling to fly to the city of Bothi (now Yan’an). Bothi was not far from the Chinese Communist Party’s station in Wajao Fort, less than 200 miles away, and was then garrisoned by Zhang Xueliang’s Northeast Army. Zhang Xueliang sent someone to escort Dong Jianwu and others to Wajao Fort.
The next day, Dong Jianwu met with Qin Bangxian (Bogu), the head of the CPC Central Committee, while Mao and Zhou were fighting. As for the content of Song Qingling’s letter, Dong Jianwu seems to have been unaware of it, and in April, he returned to Shanghai with a letter of reply from CCP leaders Zhang Wentian, Mao Zedong and Peng Dehuai to Song Qingling.
On December 12 of that year, the CCP pushed Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng to launch the Xi’an military revolt that shocked China and abroad.
Accompanying Snow to the Red Capital of the Communist Party of China
The American journalist Snow, who became famous in China for writing “A Journey to the West” to promote the Chinese Communist Party and Mao, was accompanied by Dong Jianwu to the Communist Party’s “red capital” of Wajao Fort in June 1936, also on the commission of Song Qingling.
In Xi’an, Dong Jianwu, under the name of “Pastor Wang”, made contact with Snow by spelling out the code word for his business card, and again, through Zhang Xueliang, reached the Red Capital of the Communist Party. Because of this company, Snow remembered Dong Jianwu for the rest of his life, and mentioned meeting him when he visited China in the 1960s and 1970s.
After the outbreak of the war, Dong Jianwu used his former social connections in Shanghai to obtain information about the Japanese and the fake government for the Chinese Communist Party; he also “turned” Li Baichuan, the Kuomintang police commander in Suzhou, during the civil war between the Chinese and the Communist Party.
Tragic death during the Cultural Revolution
As a matter of fact, Dong Jianwu had some credit for taking care of Mao’s son and obtaining intelligence for the CCP. However, after the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party, Dong Jianwu was arrested and imprisoned for more than a year in 1955 as a result of the Pan Yang Incident, and was later released on “bail pending trial”, but his condition was worrying.
The article “The Last Days of Dong Jianwu” mentioned that in 1960, when Snow visited China, he met Mao and asked to see “Pastor Wang”, and only then did the Chinese Communist Party know through investigation that “Pastor Wang” was Dong Jianwu and agreed to meet him. But Snow couldn’t wait and missed the opportunity to meet with him. However, Dong Jianwu’s fate changed, and the Communist Party arranged for him to serve as a counsellor in the counsellor’s office of the Shanghai government. But he did not escape the Cultural Revolution launched by Mao.
During the Cultural Revolution, Dong Jianwu was accused of being a “counter-revolutionary”, a “fugitive landlord”, a “traitor” and a “traitor”. During the Cultural Revolution, Dong Jianwu was accused of being a “counter-revolutionary”, a “fugitive landlord”, a “traitor” and a “traitor”.
In 1970, when Snow visited China again, he mentioned Dong Jianwu again when he met with Mao and said he wanted to meet him. At that time, Dong Jianwu’s health was already very bad under the persecution. He had an operation in Shanghai Ruijin Hospital for stomach bleeding. Later, he was admitted to the First People’s Hospital for stomach bleeding and was diagnosed with stomach cancer. According to the report of the authorities, his condition “did not improve after nearly 20 days of treatment, and he was sometimes confused”, but at that time he was only “treated without surgery”, and he was considered to be “dying. But at that time, he was only “treated without surgery”, and it was considered that he was “dying, and it was lenient to treat him that way”.
Snow to Mao’s request, so that Dong Jianwu’s situation has slightly improved. The then Shanghai Municipal Committee was informed of this information and transferred Dong Jianwu from the First People’s Hospital to the senior ward of Ruijin Hospital for medical treatment. However, by this time he was already in a critical condition. Just as Snow was rushing to Shanghai to meet with him, Dong Jianwu passed away in December of that year. Before he died, Dong Jianwu said, “If you know my guilt, you will be judged.”
Conclusion
The history of the Chinese Communist Party is full of people like Dong Jianwu who worked for the Chinese Communist Party but were killed by the Chinese Communist Party. Since he is a Christian, he should not be associated with the Chinese Communist Party, which propagates atheism. As Lin Qiaozhi, another famous Christian in China and an obstetrician and gynecologist, said when Mao and Zhou were willing to introduce him to the Party: “I am a Christian who believes in the Bible and fears God, and the Communist Party is a party of atheists, which I absolutely cannot join. …… I made up my mind before God in my youth that I would never join any political group or organization except medical-related groups.”
I wonder what was Dong Jianwu’s reason for joining the CCP in the first place? And did he, who did not see through the Chinese Communist Party’s tricks, ever realize that the title of “Red Priest” had precisely harmed him after he had gone through countless sufferings?
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