Telegrams Regarding Ye Ting’s
Admission to the Party1
(March 7, 1946)
Agreed that Ye [Ting]2 should join the Party. Ye’s incoming telegram and the
Central Committee’s reply should be broadcast this evening. When you have
received them, please publish them in Xinhua ribao after first informing Ye, but
do not put up posters.
TEXTS OF THE TWO TELEGRAMS
Yan’an, March 8. After being released from prison, commander of the New
Fourth Army, Ye Ting, on March 5 sent a telegram to the Chinese Communist
Party Central Committee in Yan’an, applying to join the Chinese Communist
Party. Yesterday (March 7), the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee
sent a telegram in response, admitting him to the Party. The texts of the two telegrams are as follows:
According to Nianpu, Vol. 3, p. 59, on behalf of the Central Committee Mao drafted the
telegram authorizing Ye Ting’s acceptance as a Party member. We have taken the telegram
from that source. The Central Committee’s telegram to Ye Ting welcoming him to the Party
and Ye’s own application to join the Party are taken from Mao Zedong ji. Bujuan, Vol. 8, p.
89, where they are reproduced from Huiyi Ye Ting, a memorial volume honoring Ye Ting,
published in 1981 by Renmin chubanshe. According to that source, Mao revised both Ye’s
letter and the Central Committee’s reply.
The telegram of Army Commander Ye: “To Comrade Mao Zedong, and for
transmission to the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party: I was
released from prison last night and I am determined to realize my long-cherished
wish to join the great Chinese Communist Party and to devote myself wholeheartedly to the liberation of the Chinese people under your leadership. I ask that the
Central Committee investigate and examine my history to see if I am qualified
and to let me know your decision. Signed by Ye Ting on the morning of the 5th.”
The telegram of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee in response:
“Dear Comrade Ye Ting: We received your telegram of March 5, and upon hearing the news of your release from prison, millions of people rejoiced. You have
been fighting vigorously for more than twenty years for the cause of the national
liberation of the Chinese nation and the Chinese people, and you have endured
all kinds of rigorous trials. All of China is well aware of your boundless loyalty
to the nation and the people. We have now decided to accept your application
and to grant you membership in the Chinese Communist Party. In addition, we
would like to extend to you our warm greetings and sincere welcome. The Central
Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, March 7.”
--- Notes

1.  According to Nianpu, this telegram was addressed to Dong Biwu and Wang Ruofei,
who were then in Chongqing as members of the Chinese Communist Party’s delegation to
the Political Consultative Conference.

2.  Ye Ting joined the Guomindang in 1919 and served as a battalion commander in the
National Revolutionary Army in 1921. After studying in the Soviet Union, he joined the
Chinese Communist Party in 1924 and took part in the Nanchang Uprising in 1927. He
then led the Canton Uprising in December; after it failed, he fled first to Europe and then
went into hiding in Macau and broke ties with the Party. In 1937 he served as commander
of the New Fourth Army, but he was jailed for five years because of the 1940 Wannan
Incident. Shortly after his release from prison, in March 1946 he reapplied to become a
Party member, On April 8, 1946, he died in a plane crash while en route from Chongqing
to Yan’an, as did Wang Ruofei, Bo Gu, Deng Fa (1906–1946, native of Guangdong), and
other senior leaders of the Chinese Communist Party.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719511-96