Po Ku

(pseudonym of Ch’in Pang-hsien). Born 1907; died April 8, 1946. A leading figure of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Joined the CPC in 1925. Studied in Moscow from 1926 to 1930.

On his return to China, Po Ku worked as a leader of the All-China Federation of Labor Unions, and later, of the Communist Youth League. He was an active participant in the struggle against the petit bourgeois-nationalist line of Li Li-Sang. In the post of general secretary of the Central Committee of the CPC (1932–35), he followed a proletarian, internationalist policy, but at the same time he committed a series of leftist mistakes. During the war against the Japanese aggressors (1937–45), he conducted a campaign to organize and strengthen a united anti-Japanese nationalist front. During 1941–45 he headed the news agency Hsinhua and edited the newspaper Chiehfang Jih Pao. Po Ku translated into Chinese a large number of works of the founders of Marxism-Leninism, as well as other Marxist literature. He died in an airplane crash.