Zheng Chaolin helped found the Chinese Communist Party's European
branch in Paris in 1922 and its Trotskyist Opposition in Shanghai in
1931. He held the world record in political imprisonment - seven
years under Chiang Kai-shek (as a revolutionary) and 27 under Mao (as
a 'counterrevolutionary'), thus beating by a year Auguste Blanqui's
previous record. After joining the revolution in his teens, his
commitment never wavered. His life - which spanned from 1901 to 1998
- was coterminous with the century and a dramatic embodiment of its
vicissitudes. The writing collected in this book reflects that, and
provides an indispensable record of his contribution to revolutionary
thought in China.
