Former Site of the State Political Security Bureau of the Chinese Soviet Republic

Former Site of the State Political Security Bureau of the Chinese Soviet Republic

The Former Site of the State Political Security Bureau of the Chinese Soviet Republic is a cultural tourism attraction and a classic red tourism destination.

Former Site of the State Political Security Bureau of the Chinese Soviet Republic. Established in November 1931, the State Political Security Bureau was the highest authority overseeing counter-revolutionary security work for the national Soviet government.

The main functions of the State Political Security Bureau were to carry out investigations and suppress political and economic counter-revolutionary activities. Its internal departments included: the head of the Investigation Department was Deng Fa, who also served as the Director of the State Political Security Bureau, later succeeded by Zhang Ranhe, Qian Zhaofeng, and Wang Jinxiang; the head of the Enforcement Department was Li Kenong, later succeeded by Li Yimang; the Political Security Brigade, commanded by Wu Lie with Political Commissar Hai Jingzhou; the Secretariat (later renamed the General Affairs Office), headed by Ouyang Yi. In 1932, the Red Army Work Department was added, headed by Li Kenong; and the White Area Work Department, headed by Zhang Guojian. With the establishment of the State Political Security Bureau, branches were successively set up in some provinces and counties in the Soviet areas, and political security special agents were assigned at the district level. Corresponding political security organs were also established within the Red Army. All levels of state political security organs operated under vertical leadership, and local governments had no authority to alter the decisions or orders of the Political Security Bureau.

Deng Fa, Director of the State Political Security Bureau, was a rather legendary figure, once referred to by American journalist Edgar Snow as “the leader of the Chinese Red Army’s secret service.” He was born on March 7, 1906, in Tanzhitang, Yunfu County, Guangdong Province. Early in his career, he was involved in the Chinese labor movement and joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1925. During the First Revolutionary Civil War, he served as the head of the Northern Expedition Youth Work Team of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee of the CCP. During the Second Revolutionary Civil War, he was the Secretary of the Hong Kong Municipal Party Committee, the Organization Minister of the Guangdong Provincial Committee, and the Secretary of the Fujian-Guangdong-Jiangxi Border Provincial Committee as well as Chairman of its Military Commission. In July 1931, he entered the Central Soviet Area. In November, he was appointed Director of the State Political Security Bureau and Secretary of the Central Labor Committee. In September 1945, he represented the working class of China’s liberated areas at the World Trade Union Congress in Paris. He returned to China in 1946 and died in a plane crash over Heichashan Mountain on April 8 of the same year while flying from Chongqing to Yan’an. He was 40 years old. During the Second Revolutionary Civil War, the State Political Security Bureau made indelible contributions to defending the Soviet regime, protecting the interests of the people, consolidating the worker-peasant democratic dictatorship, and suppressing counter-revolutionaries.

In April 1933, the State Political Security Bureau moved from Yeping to Shazhouba along with the temporary central government offices, residing in Tongluotang. In July 1934, it relocated to Aiyuanling under Yanshi Mountain in Yunshishan, and in October 1934, it moved again with the central authorities and the main forces of the First Front Red Army on the Long March.

This former site was restored with government funding in the autumn of 1999 and opened to the public. It is now a national education base for revolutionary traditions among police officers.