Deng Yanda, the "Third Party," and the Third Road in China

In the mid-1920s, most of the Chinese political parties founded during the early years of the Republic 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, the Third Party came into being.1