[2] Chen became a close associate of Mao Zedong in Yan'an, during the late 1930s, drafting speeches and theoretical essays and directing propaganda.

After returning to Fujian, he was hired as the personal secretary of General Zhang Zhen, helping to prepare for the 1926–1927 Northern Expedition from the CCP side of the First United Front.

[4] After the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War and the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Mao entrusted Chen with many important tasks.

[5] In 1950 Chen accompanied Mao to Moscow to participate in the negotiations with Joseph Stalin that led to the signing of the 30-year treaty of alliance (February 1950) between China and the Soviet Union.

[2] Following Mao's complaint that "the economic sector is blocking me and Comrade Liu," Chen was appointed in 1962 to serve as a vice director of the State Planning Commission.

[8] Furthermore, Chen Boda was also placed as head of the Communist government's propaganda apparatus alongside Jiang Qing when the previous leader, Lu Dingyi (with whom he had often quarrelled),[3] was deposed in 1966.

As the leadership became more moderate in its outlook and the initial aims of the cultural revolution were sidelined, Chen's radicalism caused concern, and he was denounced at the 10th Party Congress in 1973 as a 'revisionist secret agent' for his associations with Lin Biao.