The competition between Wang and Mao was a reflection of the power struggle between the Soviet Union, through the vehicle of the Comintern, and the CCP to control both the direction and future of the Chinese Communist Revolution.

On May 23, 1904, Wang Ming was born in Jinzhai, Anhui, as Chen Shaoyu (陈绍禹) to a poor peasant family.

Wang then entered the Third Agricultural School of the Anhui Province, which was founded by the revolutionary Zhu Yunshan.

Zhu had a strong influence on the school's students, introducing many progressive journals and books such as New Youth and Communism ABC.

After the purge of Karl Radek by Joseph Stalin, Mif was appointed as president of Moscow Sun Yat-sen University, and then Vice Minister of the Eastern Department of Comintern.

[citation needed] However, they met strong resistance within the CCP from members such as Zhang Guotao and Zhou Enlai.

During a half year from 1929 to 1930, Wang published many articles in the party newspaper Red Flag and magazine Bolshevik, which supported the leftism embraced by Li.

As a price for his being impulsive and immature, Wang was discharged from his position and demoted to the Jiangsu division of CCP.

With Mif staying in China for almost a year, the CCP was under his control,[citation needed] and Wang played an important role as his consultant.

He and Luo were still creating an indendent group to divorce from this center when[citation needed] 36 communists, including He and five leaders of the League of Left-Wing Writers, were arrested in Shanghai on January 17, 1931.

"Not until many years later did it emerge that [the Shanghai Police's] Special Branch had probably been tipped off by Wang," writes author Ben Macintyre.

[citation needed] The destruction of the CCP's urban networks was aided by the defection of Gu Shunzhang (顾顺章).

During this period, the CCP suffered major defeats in both urban and rural areas against the KMT and made a strategic retreat in the Long March.

[citation needed] At the Zunyi Conference, Wang and the 28 Bolsheviks lost the support of key party and Red Army leaders; Bo Gu, Zhou Enlai and Otto Braun were criticized for their poor strategy.

[11] Mao emerged from Zunyi as the politburo's dominant member with the support of the army and his opponents discredited.

In the same month, a CCP delegation to the Comintern held meetings to discuss the united front against imperialism.

For the further direction of United Front, Wang was sent back to Yan'an with Kang Sheng and Chen Yun after being absent from China for 6 years.

Some senior CCP leaders, including Zhou Enlai and Peng Dehuai, showed their respect for Wang, which reportedly made Mao jealous and irritated.

[12] After the KMT lost the battles of Xuzhou and Wuhan, in 1938, Wang suffered a heavy blow as the Yangtze Division was abolished and he himself was dismissed back to Yan'an.

Although Wang experienced great humiliation, he was still fortunate to escape from tortures similar to those inflicted by Kang Sheng's secret police on other CCP members.

Nonetheless, in his later book 50 Years of the CPC, and in Yan'an Diary, written by a reporter from the Soviet Union, Wang accused Mao of plotting to murder him by poison.

As a show of leniency and a sign of appeasement to Dimitrov (and the Soviet Union standing behind him), Mao placed Wang on the CCP's Central Committee in the 7th National Congress (It is noteworthy that back in 1931, Dimitrov and his wife Roza Yulievna Fleishmann had adopted Fani, Wang's daughter.

[13][14]) Eventually, as Wang's credibility and influence waned, Moscow's leaders began to acknowledge Mao's leadership.

During the period of the Chinese Civil War, Wang was appointed as director of policy research of the CCP and responsible for some insignificant legislative work.