Zhang Wentian

Zhang Wentian
5th General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
In office January 1935 – 20 March 1943
Leader	Mao Zedong
Preceded by	Bo Gu
Succeeded by	Mao Zedong (chairman)
Head of Propaganda Department
In office April 1931 – December 1934
Preceded by	Shen Zemin
Succeeded by	Wu Liangping
In office July 1937 – December 1942
Preceded by	Wu Liangping
Succeeded by	Lu Dingyi
Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the Soviet Union
In office April 1951 – January 1955
Preceded by	Wang Jiaxiang
Succeeded by	Liu Xiao
Personal details
Born	(1900-08-30)30 August 1900 Nanhui, Shanghai, Qing Empire
Died	1 July 1976(1976-07-01) (aged 75) Beijing, China
Political party	Communist Party of China

Zhang Wentian (simplified Chinese: 张闻天; traditional Chinese: 張聞天; pinyin: Zhāng Wéntiān; Wade–Giles: Chang Wen-t'ien; 30 August 1900 – 1 July 1976). He was also known as Luo Fu (Chinese: 洛甫; Wade–Giles: Lo Fu).

Born in Nanhui, Jiangsu Province (now in Shanghai), he attended engineering school in Nanjing and spent a year at the University of California. He later joined the Communist Party and was sent to study at Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow from 1926 to 1930. He was one of the group known as the 28 Bolsheviks, but switched to supporting Mao Zedong during the Long March. He was General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1935 to 1943, when the post was abolished. He remained a member of the Politburo, but ranked 12th of 13 in the 7th Politburo and reduced to Alternate Member in the 8th Politburo.

He was First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China from December 1954 to November 1960. He was a participant of the Long March, and later served as an ambassador to the Soviet Union from April 1951 to January 1955. At the Lushan Conference in 1959 he supported Peng Dehuai and lost power along with Peng. During the Cultural Revolution he was attacked as an ally of Peng and Liu Shaoqi; he was rehabilitated by Deng Xiaoping after Mao's death.