Wang Ming (1904-1974) was the leader of the "Internationalist" group within the Chinese Communist Party that opposed Mao Tse-Tung's (Zedong's) nationalist "deviation" and favored, instead, disciplined compliance with each shift in the Comintern line. As such, Wang emerged as a major rival of Mao in the 1930s.

Wang Ming, the pseudonym by which Chen Shaoyu was commonly known, was born in Anwei province in Central China in 1904. Influenced by socialist ideas during his middle school years in Wuhan, in 1925 Wang entered Shanghai University where he became involved in the anti-imperialist agitation then shaking Shanghai. In November 1925 Wang was sent to Moscow by the newly founded Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for a two year course of study at Sun Yat-sen University, a school designed to train future Chinese cadre. In Moscow Wang rapidly mastered the Russian language and Marxist-Leninist theory, joined the CCP, and emerged as the leader of...