Deng Yanda

{{Short description|Chinese military officer (1895–1931)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2025}} {{Infobox military person | name = Deng Yanda | native_name = {{nobold|邓演达}} | native_name_lang = zh | image = Teng-Jan-dah - (Deng Yanda ) 1927.jpg | caption = Teng Jan-Dah ( Deng Yanda) 1927 | birth_date = {{Birth date|1895|5|1|df=yes}} | birth_place = Guangdong, China | death_date = {{Death date and age|1931|11|29|1895|3|1|df=yes}} | death_cause = Execution | allegiance = Republic of China | branch = National Revolutionary Army | alma_mater = Whampoa Military Academy }}

'''Deng Yanda''' ({{lang-zh |s=邓演达 |t=鄧演達 |p=Dèng Yǎndá |j=dang⁶ jin²daat⁶}}, 1 March 1895 – 29 November 1931) was a military officer in the Chinese Nationalist Party. He broke with party leaders in 1927, denouncing them as traitors to the party's original principles and in 1930 attempted to form a new party, which he called the Provisional Action Committee of the Chinese Nationalist Party, which others have called the Third Party.<ref>{{Cite web |date=30 August 2024 |title=Deng Yanda may have been offered Communist Party leadership by Stalin, but instead Yanda tried to take over the KMT. It cost him his life. |url=https://chineserevolution.substack.com/p/deng-yanda-may-have-been-offered |access-date=12 December 2024 |website=The Chinese Revolution}}</ref> It was later renamed the Chinese Peasants' and Workers' Democratic Party. In 1931 he was convicted of treason by the Nationalist government and secretly executed. Today, Deng is recognized as a revolutionary martyr by the People's Republic of China.

==Life== Deng Yanda was born in Huizhou County, Guangdong province. He was educated in military schools in Guangdong and Wuhan, graduating from Baoding Military Academy in 1919.<ref>Boorman, "Teng Yen-ta" 260.</ref> Deng was recruited to the Guangdong Army in 1920 and fought under the Nationalist officer Deng Keng. When Sun Yat-sen announced his policy of alliance with the Soviet Union in 1923, Deng strongly supported it and was appointed to the preparatory committee for the Whampoa Military Academy which the Russians helped the Chinese Nationalists build.<ref>Boorman, "Teng Yen-ta" 261</ref>

In 1923, Sun Yat-sen attempted to appoint Deng as commander of the Kuomintang Guangdong Army, but he declined due to his inexperience and age. He was an important commander in the Northern Expedition (1926–1928) which the Nationalists launched to unify China. When Chiang Kai-shek broke with the Chinese Communist Party and Russia, Deng denounced Chiang and left China for Russia and Europe, where he lived from 1927 to 1930.<ref name="Boorman, Teng Yen-ta 263">Boorman, "Teng Yen-ta" 263.</ref> On his return to China, Deng formed a new party, which he called the Provisional Action Committee of the Chinese Nationalist Party or Third Party (renamed Chinese Peasants' and Workers' Democratic Party in 1947).{{fact|date=March 2026}}

By the mid-1920s, most of the Chinese political parties that were founded during the early years of the Republican era had disappeared from the political circles. There remained only two parties that became the decisive forces to the destiny of the country – the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Kuomintang (KMT) after its reshuffle. In 1927, the cooperation between the CCP and the KMT broke down. Chiang Kai-shek brought a policy of slaughter and armed-suppression to the CCP. To contend against the KMT, the Chinese Communists were forced to shift their bases to the countryside and mountain areas. Since then, the prolonged life-and-death struggle between the two political parties emerged in China. Against the background of this division of Chinese politics into two opposing parties, Deng's party, also known as the Third Party came into being.<ref>{{cite journal | title = Deng Yanda, the "Third Party," and the Third Road in China | journal=Chinese Studies in History| volume=23| issue=2| pages=3–15| doi=10.2753/CSH0009-463323023| year = 1989 | last1 = Hedu | first1 = Mi }}</ref>

Deng vigorously attacked Chiang Kai-shek as a dictator, angering the Nationalist government in Nanjing. He further angered them when he supported an anti-Chiang secessionist movement in Guangzhou in 1931. He was arrested in Shanghai's International Settlement on 17 August 1931, and extradited to Nanjing, where he was executed on 29 November 1931.<ref>Boorman, "Teng Yen-ta" 264.</ref> His tomb is located near Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum on Zhongshan Mountain near Nanjing.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.zschina.org/about/3-1.asp |title=Dr.Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum |access-date=26 February 2010 |archive-date=17 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517012059/http://www.zschina.org/about/3-1.asp |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Political beliefs== Deng's views were socialist but after he left the Nationalists, he did not align with other parties, insisting that China's revolution should not be reined in to fit the needs of Russia or the Comintern.<ref name="Boorman, Teng Yen-ta 263"/> After Deng's death, his party supported the short-lived Fujian People's Government which opposed Chiang Kai-shek and sought an alliance with the Chinese Communists. The party eventually became one of the eight legal non-Communist parties in the People's Republic of China, where Deng is now recognised as a "Revolutionary Martyr." Although Deng's views are sometimes identified with those of Soong Ching-ling, Sun Yat-sen's widow, Soong did not join Deng's party and refused an offer to become its leader after his death.<ref>Epstein 257-259</ref>

== Relationship with Soong Ching-ling == thumb|Soong Ching Ling with Deng Yanda in Moscow 1927 Deng Yanda and Soong Ching-ling met during their exiles in Moscow and Berlin in 1928. Soong admired Deng's broad vision, charisma, and charming personality, and held long discussions with him on his proposal to establish a third party as an alternative to the CCP and the KMT. In May 1928, in response to Deng's pleading, Soong left Moscow for Berlin and resided in a small apartment where she met with Deng everyday. Their conversation topics ranged from history to economics and philosophy, but they inevitably circled back to the future of China. It was also during this time that Deng intimated a friend that he was no longer in love with his wife and contemplated a divorce. When rumors about the love affair spread to the press, Soong was forced to leave Berlin and return to Moscow. Although Soong was sympathetic to Deng's plan for the third party, her status as Sun's widow forbade her from openly endorsing or joining the party.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Chang |first=Jung |title=Big sister, little sister, red sister: three women at the heart of twentieth-century China |date=2019 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |isbn=978-0-451-49350-7 |edition=First United States |location=New York |pages=165}}</ref>

Chiang Kai-shek arrested Deng and executed him on 29 December 1931. Upon hearing the news of Deng's arrest, Soong immediately went to Chiang and plead for Deng's release, but learned that Deng had already been executed. The shock of the news drove her into calling Chiang a "butcher" and openly calling for the downfall of the Nationalist Party. In the aftermath of Deng's death, Soong penned editorials in the ''New York Times'' and ''Shenbao'' denouncing Chiang Kai-shek. She also requested to join the Communist Party and began clandestine work for the Comintern to bring down Chiang's government.<ref name=":0" />

==Footnotes== {{Reflist}}

==References== * Boorman, Howard L. ed. ''Biographical Dictionary of Republican China''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1967–71. * Epstein, Israel. ''Woman in History: Life and Times of Soong Ching Ling (Mme. Sun Yatsen)''. 2nd ed. Beijing: New World Press, 1995. * [http://rulers.org/indexd2.html Rulers, De-Dh] * [http://www.bookrags.com/tandf/deng-yanda-tf/ Modern China: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Nationalism]

{{Chinese Kuomintang Provisional Action Committee}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Deng, Yanda}} Category:1895 births Category:1931 deaths Category:Chinese revolutionaries Category:People executed for treason against China Category:People of the Northern Expedition Category:Executed people from the Republic of China (1912–1949) Category:People executed by the Republic of China (1912–1949) by firearm Category:Politicians from Huizhou Category:Chinese politicians of Hakka descent Category:Republic of China politicians from Guangdong Category:Members of the Kuomintang Category:Executed Chinese people Category:Executed people from Guangdong Category:Executed revolutionaries Category:Chinese Peasants' and Workers' Democratic Party politicians