16 Facts About Cai Hesen

Cai Hesen was an early leader of the Chinese Communist Party, and a friend and comrade of Mao Zedong.

Cai Hesen helped Mao organize the Changsha New People's Study Society.

Cai Hesen's family included both merchants and scholar-officials, but his father had not done well in the family business and instead obtained a job in the Jiangnan Arsenal in Shanghai, where Cai Hesen was born, March 30,1895, the fifth of six children.

The family had little money but Cai Hesen found his apprenticeship in his father's business to be unbearable.

Cai Hesen's mother sold her personal possessions to enable Cai Hesen to attend a village school at the age of sixteen.

Cai Hesen then studied at Hunan First Normal School and at the Hunan First Normal University in Changsha.

Cai Hesen studied under Yang Changji, and joined student movements with his fellow student Mao Zedong.

In Paris, Cai Hesen organized the Work and Study Cooperative Society and advocated Marxist communism.

Cai Hesen founded the first newspaper, The Guide, of the CCP's central authority.

Cai Hesen was a member of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th Central Committees of the Chinese Communist Party, as well as a member of the 5th and 6th Central Political Bureaus and other important positions.

In 1931 Cai Hesen returned to Shanghai to support the Guangdong provincial People's Committee.

Cai Hesen then went to Hong Kong to direct party work there.

Cai Hesen was betrayed by Gu Shunzhang when attending a meeting in Hong Kong.

Cai Hesen was arrested in British Hong Kong and extradited to the Chinese authorities in Guangzhou, which was controlled by the warlord Chen Jitang.

Cai Hesen was tortured and executed in August 1931, aged 36.

Cai Hesen's father was Cai Rongfeng, and his mother was Ge Jianhao.