ABSTRACT
The upsurge of the CCP and the GMD By the end of 1926 the CCP’s membership had passed 20,000, and within the next four months it almost trebled. By the time of the Fifth CCP Congress, which opened on 27 April 1927, membership stood at 57,967.1 Growth of membership in Shanghai, despite the peculiar difficulties faced in that city, largely replicated the national pattern. On 10 January there were said to be only 3,075 members in Shanghai city (4,500 if one includes adjacent areas under the jurisdiction of the regional committee). By 4 March there were 3,856 and, six days later, 4,400.2 On 17 March the regional committee called on comrades to loosen restrictions on recruitment, with a view to increasing the party’s forces to 10,000 within a month.3 Following the NRA’s occupation of the city, membership surged to 8,374 by 4 April.4 At the Fifth Congress Chen Duxiu claimed that the entire Shanghai region had a membership of 13,000.5 Yet most party branches continued to be small. Of 143 on 10 January, fifty-nine had less than ten members; thirty-six had ten to twenty members; seventeen had twenty to thirty members; twenty-two had thirty to fifty members; four had fifty to 100 members; and five had over 100 members.6
