Page:Earl Browder - Civil War in Nationalist China (1927).pdf/63

 This occurred towards the end of May. Early in June, the Nationalist Government sent a delegation to Feng Yu-hsiang, the leader of the strongest armed forces on the side of Wuhan. Feng pronounced against the solution of the land question; and further proceeded to a conference with Chiang Kai Shek, with whom he issued a joint public statement. General Tang Shen-shih, the Buddhist, a native of Hunan (Changsha), also pronounced against the peasants. Under the pressure of the military, the Central Committee majority, shrinking in fear from a struggle against the military forces nominally under their control, began to surrender to the reactionary tendency. The Wuhan Government, organizing center of the Chinese revolution, was in deepest crisis.

The trade unions, meeting in Congress at this period (June) pledged their 2,800,000 members to solid support of the Government if it would unhesitatingly support the solution of the land question. The peasant unions, with ten millions members and hundreds of thousands under arms, pledged its undivided support. The Communist Party threw its weight onto the side of solution of the land question. But the Central Committee majority crumbled under the military pressure.

For the left wing there could be no question of supporting further the Wuhan Government after it turned definitely against the peasant movement. By this act it had transformed itself from the organizing center, into the "hangman" of the revolution. The Communists withdrew from the Government. Such well-known figures as Mme. Sun Yat-sen, Eugene Chen, Teng Yen-ta, and others, resigned from the Government. Those who remained began negotiations for reconciliation with Chiang Kai Shek.

The Chinese revolution has received a serious check, a serious defeat, as a result of the betrayal of the generals and the collapse of Wuhan. Is this defeat a permanent one? Does it mean the elimination of the workers and peasants as the main forces in the Chinese revolution?