Chapter 12 Chapter 3 Liberation of Wuhan: Samples of Intellectuals Participating in Politics

At Wuhan University, in May 1949, senior intellectuals like Liu Xuyi faced a well-known common choice: leave the city that the Nationalist government was about to lose, or choose to stay.The choices of those around him will affect Liu Xuyi's judgment. His neighbor Wu Mi has already left for Chongqing in April, but the key is his own determination. Liu Xuyi still has some concerns of his own.He joined the Kuomintang in the early 1940s. He didn't know whether the new regime would let his "historical stain" go, and he was not sure about his class position.Liu Xuyi returned to China from the University of Chicago in June 1947 and enjoyed the generous treatment of senior intellectuals from the national government. The annual salary of 480 silver dollars was enough to cover all the living expenses of the professor’s family, including the expenses of hiring nannies and drivers.Although this last middle-class life was soon overwhelmed by the plummeting gold bills and the doubled price index in Wuhan.But Liu Xuyi is very clear that the foundation of the Communist regime is workers and peasants, and he obviously does not belong to the latter.

Liu Xuyi's tendency is obvious.His life path was originally along the career path of a traditional intellectual. He first worked in the Labor Welfare Section of the Social Welfare Department of the Ministry of Social Affairs of the Chongqing National Government, and then transferred to the Industrial and Mining Mediation Office of the Ministry of Economic Affairs through the relationship between his teachers Fei Xiaotong and Wu Jingchao. .The Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Kuomintang has two major agencies. The Resources Committee is in charge of state-owned enterprises, and the Industrial and Mining Mediation Office is in charge of private enterprises. The latter is a "fat vacancy".Liu Xuyi gave up this post in 1944 and went to the University of Chicago to study in the Department of Sociology, entirely out of disappointment with the corruption of the Kuomintang. This intellectual seemed out of tune with the system.

96-year-old Liu Xuyi is now sitting at his home in Wuhan University, recalling, “At that time, there were some rumors of corruption in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, so I wrote a complaint letter about these rumors and sent it anonymously to Ta Kung Pao. Ta Kung Pao forwarded the letter to I gave it to Weng Wenhao, and Weng forwarded the letter to the director of the Industrial and Mining Mediation Office. The director knew my handwriting, so he held a meeting to criticize me without naming me, saying that some people were too dishonest, and why not complain anonymously if something happened. Real name? After this incident, I don’t think it’s interesting to stay in the agency any longer.”

He joined the Kuomintang in 1942, not because of his enthusiasm for politics, but because of his reasons. "When I was in the Social Welfare Department of the Ministry of Social Affairs, two underground members of the Communist Party were exposed in my unit and were arrested by the Kuomintang. The Minister of Social Affairs is a member of the Central Committee of the Kuomintang. , a member of the CC faction, out of political considerations, he demanded that anyone who wanted to stay and work in the Ministry of Social Affairs must join the Kuomintang.” Liu Xuyi’s dissatisfaction with the Kuomintang regime did not mean that he understood the Communist Party.He recalled: "I just want to finish my doctorate and be my professor at ease when I return home."

Liu Xuyi didn't know at the time that these "intermediate characteristics" of his own were enough to make him a united front target that the new regime attached great importance to. The persuasion work began quietly from the day Liu Xuyi left Wuhan for the United States. At a moment of personal choice, the propaganda of the liberated areas has always been a window for more people to understand the new regime. "This work continued from before liberation to after liberation." Wu Zhongyan, who was once the secretary of the underground party branch of the Communist Party of China in Wuhan and served in the Propaganda Department of the Municipal Party Committee after liberation, said in an interview with reporters, "A group of intellectuals in Wuhan, such as Zhang Nanxian, a well-known gentry in Hubei, , Li Shucheng, and Gao Shangyin, a scientist who has been engaged in virology research in the United States for a long time, was invited by Premier Zhou Enlai to visit the Northeast Liberated Area before and after liberation. After returning to Wuhan, he reported his trip to the Northeast to people from all walks of life. peers in the world.” But how to approach and transform more targets that the Communist Party wants to win?

It was a Jewish student at the University of Chicago who contacted Liu Xuyi in the United States in 1947.Among overseas Chinese students, discussing state affairs is not surprising. Students are keen to "stand in line", and international students are automatically divided into three camps: left, center, and right.Liu Xuyi was not too surprised by this foreigner who offered to provide him with "Four Great Families" written by Chen Boda and magazines published by the Communist Party in Hong Kong. "This American student is studying Russian, so he has been to the liberated areas. He seems to know my curiosity about Yan'an, and he told a lot about his experience in Yan'an, which is completely different from what I have been hearing and seeing in the Kuomintang government agencies for a long time." Contact did change Liu Xuyi's attitude towards the Communist Party.After liberation, Liu Xuyi found out that this American student was appointed by the underground party organization of the CCP in Wuhan.