Building Alliances: The Chinese Communist Party’s Underground Activities at the National Southwest Associated University (Lianda) During the 1940s

Abstract

During the 1940s, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) underground branch at the National Southwest Associated University (NSAU or xinan lianda), under the leadership of the party's Southern Bureau and the Yunnan Provincial Work Committee (YPWC), implemented the CCP's alliance-building policies and strategies and successfully gained the sympathy and support of many students and faculty. With the guidance of the “sixteen-character” principle and “three-diligence” stratagem, members of this branch deftly adapted to particular circumstances and set a model for other CCP covert organizations in cultivating a consensus with the “middle force” against the Japanese aggression and subsequently the Chinese Nationalists. With primary sources such as oral interviews, memoirs, and other personal accounts of several major participants in the lianda alliance-building efforts, this article is intended to examine the various tactics and activities of this important underground branch and highlight their significance during a critical decade in modern Chinese history.