The Chinese Communist Party had conducted a ruthless persecution of dissidents in its several decades of rule. Under pressure, in 1978, some verdicts were rehabilitated. However partial and selective the official rehabilitation was, historians have since responded with a probe into historical cases of wronged doings.

In No. 2, 2005 of the journal Bainianchao (Tide of a Century), a scholar Zeng Xianxin wrote an article entitled “The Chinese Trotskyists were not traitors”. The article asserts that “after investigation and research by various sectors, many history researchers are negative about this issue [that the Chinese Trotskyists were traitors].”

        In No.7, 2006 of the journal Yanhuang Chunqiu (Annals of the Chinese People), Ma Changhong wrote an article entitled “Changes in the Chinese Communist Party’s evaluation of Trotsky”. He points out that “For almost 80 years, among several generations, the word Trotsky or ‘Trotskyists’ was synonym with the words reactionary or counter-revolutionary. As early as October 1929, in ‘The Party Central’s Resolution on fighting opportunism and the Trotskyist opposition inside the party’, the allegation was that the Trotskyist opposition ‘has actively attacked and sabotaged the Party politically, organizationally, and in various aspects.’ The phrase ‘traitor Trotskyists’ even appeared in Mao Zedong’s famous essay ‘On Protracted Warfare’.

       The changes in the CCP’s evaluation of Trotsky have subtly changed. In the 1952 edition of Selected Works of Mao Zedong, a footnote on Trotsky went like this: “The Trotsky clique was originally a faction against Lenin in the Russian workers movement. Later it degenerated into a totally counter-revolutionary bandit gang, The current Trotskyists are not a political faction within the proletariat, but a gang of assassins, saboteurs, spies, agents and murderers without principles or thoughts; they are a gang of deadly enemy to the proletariat, employed and used by foreign intelligence organs.”

        In the 1991 edition of the same book, the footnote on Trotsky changed to the following: “Trotsky (1879-1940) had served as Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Commission after the victory of the October Revolution. In November 1927, he was liquidated from the Party. In the international communist movement, Trotsky had conducted many splitting and sabotage activities.”

        In the above rendition, although the general evaluation of Trotsky is negative, the two major changes are that Trotsky’s role after the October Revolution was added, and large amounts of slanders were deleted.

        In the 1993 edition of Volume one of Writings of Mao Zedong, the footnote on Trotsky was further revised: “Trotsky (1879-1940) had served as Central Politburo member of the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party (the Bolsheviks), and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Commission, etc. After Lenin died, he opposed Lenin’s theories and lines on the building of socialism in the Soviet Union, and organized an opposition within the Soviet party (Bolsheviks), and conducted factional activities. In November 1927, he was expelled from the Party.”

        In this rendition are three changes: confirming Trotsky’s leadership role in the Bolshevik Party; replacing the more derogatory word “liquidated” with the more neutral word “expelled”; and removing the allegation that Trotsky conducted splitting and sabotage activities in the international communist movement.

        Furthermore, in 2002, in volume one of the new edition of History of the Chinese Communist Party published by the official Chinese Communist Party Press, it is written that: “Some of Trotsky’s understanding of the class nature of the two cliques of Chiang Kai Shek and Wang Ching Wei after the Great Revolution period, his judgement that they will be betraying the revolution, and his criticisms on the mistakes of Stalin in guiding the Chinese revolution were correct or basically correct;” “Trotsky thought that Stalin should be responsible for the defeat of the Great Chinese Revolution.” However, the footnote retained the comment that “After Lenin died, he opposed Lenin’s theories and lines on the building of socialism in the Soviet Union.”

        The most important change in evaluation can be found in the 1999 edition of volume 6 of Writings of Mao Zedong: ““Trotsky (1879-1940) had served as Central Politburo member of the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party (the Bolsheviks), and the President of the Petrograd Soviet during the October Revolution. After the October Revolution, he had served as People’s Commissar for Foreign Relations, People’s Commissar for the Army and Marines, Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Commission, and member of the Comintern Executive Committee, etc. In October 1926, at the plenary session of the Soviet Party (Bolsheviks) Central Committee, his role as member of the Central Politburo was removed. In January 1927, the Comintern Executive Committee resolved to remove his role as Executive Committee member. In November of the same year, he was expelled from the Party. In January 1929, he was exiled from the Soviet Union. In August 1940, he was assassinated in Mexico.”

        This rendition removed allegations that Trotsky “opposed Lenin’s theories and lines on the building of socialism in the Soviet Union,” and that he “organized an opposition within the Soviet party (Bolsheviks), and conducted factional activities,” allegations which were there in the original footnote. It listed all the important roles Trotsky had played during and after the October Revolution. It also used the word “assassinated” rather than words like “executed”.

        It must however be noted that such changes, while reflecting a more objective and just evaluation of Trotsky’s life and activities, have not taken place in official CCP documents, hence the official rehabilitation is yet to come.

        At the same time, there has been a wave of positive re-evaluation of Chen Duxiu, one of the founders of the Chinese Communist Party and the Trotskyist group in China, both in the academia, and in the general public. In the January 2008 issue of a CCP organ Shanghai Party History and Party Building, an article by Shi Zhongquan, former deputy director of the CCP Central’s Institute on Party History, which was an academic report made by Shi in an academic symposium in December 2007 in Wuhan on the CCP history, wrote that it is not correct to put all responsibility of the Party’s mistakes in the last stage of the Great Revolution on Chen Duxiu himself. The main sources of his mistakes were from the Comintern and from the Party itself. Chen Duxiu’s contributions in his whole life were more than his demerits. Shi went on to list Chen’s contributions, including his pioneer work in promoting the New Cultural Movement at the beginning of the 20^th century, his founding of the Chinese Communist Party, his leadership in the CCP for the first five Central Committees, enabling the CCP to grow from a 50-person membership to almost 60,000. Shi says that Chen had contributed much to the Marxist analysis of the Chinese revolution, and had been in the prison of the warlords and of the nationalist Party, and he had all his life waged a heroic struggle against the reactionary forces. Shi held that of the two main mistakes that Chen committed, the first one, that he took a rightist line in the last stage of the Great Revolution, it was a question of different lines within the Party and was not a question of being revolutionary or counter-revolutionary. As for the second mistake, that he was involved in the Trotskyist defeatist faction, that had to do with the intra-party struggle in the Soviet party; Chen had not jeopardized the Chinese people or the Chinese nation, and had not engaged in any espionage work. Shi concluded that Chen’s played 70% positive role and 30% negative role.

        Shi’s last remarks were that it was time for an overall evaluation of Chen Duxiu’s contributions. 2009 would be Chen Duxiu’s 130^th anniversary, and party historians should prepare for the rehabilitation of Chen Duxiu, restoring his party membership, and convening academic seminars.

        The CCP had for long slandered Trotskyists as traitors and jackals of imperialism. On 22 December 1952, the CCP arrested all Trotskyists throughout China. Some of them were deprived of their freedom for two or three decades on charges of “counter-revolutionary”. Such wronged cases are still to be rehabilitated.