The Establishment and Development of Our Party's Early Telecommunication

After the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China moved from Wuhan to Shanghai, it formally established "Teke" in Shanghai in November 1927, with Zhou Enlai in charge. The "Special Branch" has four sections under its jurisdiction, which are responsible for general affairs, intelligence, security, and communications. The purpose of establishing the Communications Section is to strengthen the contact between the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Red Army of Workers and Peasants, to keep abreast of the struggles in various places, and to guide revolutionary practice. Relying solely on underground traffic officers to transmit information and instructions has been unable to keep up with the development of the struggle situation, and the work of preparing for the establishment of secret radio stations has been quickly put on the agenda.
　　Red airwaves appear in Shanghai
In October 1928, Zhou Enlai talked with Li Qiang and Zhang Shenchuan respectively, asking them to overcome all difficulties and learn radio communication technology.
After accepting the task, Li Qiang, as a radio enthusiast, made friends with businessmen from "Asian American Company" and "Dahua Company" who were operating foreign radio equipment in Shanghai at that time, and bought from them the necessary parts, engines, and books and periodicals on radio technology. He studied and explored while developing transceivers.
Zhang Shenchuan was admitted to the radio school run by the Kuomintang. Due to his diligence and hard work, he studied for six or seven months and worked on the computer. He also took advantage of the late-night shift to copy the secret codes of the enemy's two military radio stations and handed them to the party organization. When he was a substitute, he also used the radio to collect intelligence and obtained a lot of valuable information. when the enemy discovered that some people were "using military radio stations, fornighters and business newspapers," zhang shenchuan had already safely evacuated.
After meeting with Li Qiang, Zhang Shenchuan learned to assemble transceivers and received public telegrams to improve his reporting skills. In July 1929, Li Qiang and Zhang Shenchuan began to try to install the recorder. The road map of the machine was drawn by Li Qiang. After hard work, the telegraph machine was finally self-made. In October, after continued painstaking research, the transmitter was successfully made by Li Qiang and Zhang Shenchuan.
After mastering various skills, Zhang Shenchuan, Li Qiang and others opened a study class to train a group of radio communication technicians such as Huang Shangying for the party. After unremitting efforts, they trained the first batch of radio operators and established our party's first secret radio station in Shanghai. The first code for this station was compiled by Zhou Enlai.
The site of the secret radio station was in a three-story building in Shikumen at No. 9 Fukangli, Daxi Road, British Concession, Shanghai. Li Qiang is in charge of maintenance and Zhang Shenchuan is in charge of reporting. The radio's antenna was set up on the third floor and on the roof, using various camouflage to cover it. The radio station also collects political and economic news in Russian and English from radio stations such as Boli and San Francisco, so as to practice the skill of copying and sending newspapers. In order to practice the skill of copying newspapers, Zhang Shenchuan and others used the call sign of amateur radio station in the middle of the night and got the answer from other amateur radio stations. After a brief briefing with other amateur stations, they removed the antenna.
In order to crack the secret radio station, the Kuomintang secret agents colluded with the Shanghai concession patrol house, installed the directional test radio station on the car, and detected the location of the secret radio station in the streets. In order to enable the red secret radio station to continue to spread, Zhang Shenchuan and his comrades mastered the law of enemy patrols. The sending and receiving of newspapers were carried out late at night after the surrounding residents fell asleep. They strictly abided by the organization and discipline in their daily life, lived in secrecy, and basically cut off social contacts.
In February 1930, the number of people coming and going in Fukangli increased. The Party organization transferred the radio station to No. 32, Lane 1, Hedford Square, Jing 'an Temple Road. Subsequently, radio stations and assembly rooms were set up at No. 17 Xingqingli, Muerming Road, No. 61, East Lane 1, Youbangli, Changyang Road, and Ganxin Square, Changyang Road.
　　Red radio waves throughout the Soviet area
In March and April 1930, after the communication between the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Southern Bureau Radio was opened, in order to ensure safety, the Central Radio Station was transferred many times and at the same time began preparations for the establishment of the Communist Party of China International Radio.
After the Central Radio moved to Muerming Road, the superior decided that Mao Qihua and his wife would also be the cover. They arranged the room in a rather lavish way, filled with large fashionable furniture-the transceiver was hidden in the wardrobe and the battery was hidden under the floor.
In order to keep secrets absolutely, radio staff usually cut off contact with the outside world. When communication is needed, they use high-end hotels or hospitals as communication offices. At that time, the radio staff often used "East Asia Hotel" or "Baolong Hospital" as their correspondence address. Because such places are occupied by people with power and money, Kuomintang agents will not check letters in these places. After receiving large documents, the staff of Red Secret Radio will not bring them back by themselves but send them back through the post office in order to avoid the suspicion of landlords and neighbors.
With the continuous improvement of the revolutionary situation, the Soviet area continued to consolidate and expand. In order to strengthen the guidance and liaison with the Soviet areas, in September 1930, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China transferred 16 comrades from all over the country to Shanghai to hold a radio training class, and put up the sign of "Shanghai Welfare Electric Appliance Company Factory. Li Qiang is actually in charge of the training course, Zhang Shenchuan teaches the newspaper, Chen Bao teaches the etiquette, Wu Kejian manages the organization and finance, Fang Zhongru teaches the electricity and manages the political study and organizational life of the students, and Mao Qihua and others are all teachers. The external identity of the student is a worker, and the external identity of the teacher is a factory manager or engineering technician.
On December 17, the "Shanghai Welfare Electric Appliance Company Factory" was surrounded by secret agents, and more than 20 people including Zhang Shenchuan were unfortunately arrested. In the meantime, student Xie Xiaokang took advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness and pulled open the right corner of the curtain in the front room on the second floor, sending out the secret code of "there is a situation. Wu Yunfu walked to the entrance of the alley and turned to leave when he saw that the curtains on the second floor had been opened. Soon, Tu Zuochao, who was out on business, also found out the situation when he was about to walk to the door. He tactfully picked up a paint bucket on the roadside and walked calmly in front of the spy without being noticed by the enemy.
After Zhang Shenchuan and others were arrested, they did not waver in the face of the enemy's cruel torture and threat to lure, and kept the party's secrets. In the autumn of 1936, Zhang Shenchuan and others were rescued from prison by the party organization (four comrades, Chen Baoli, Mai Jianping, Zhang Qingfu and Xie Xiaokang, died in prison one after another).
In January 1931, the CPC Central Committee decided through research that Zeng San should prepare for the construction of a new radio station, and at the same time, Tu Zuochao and Wu Yunfu should be sent to Jiangxi. Soon, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China sent Wang Zigang, Cai Wei, Song Kanfu and others to the Hubei, Henan and Anhui base areas, and sent Yu Jiesheng to the western base areas of Hunan and Jiangxi to carry out the party's radio communication work.
On January 3 of the same year, the Red Army seized the enemy radio station intact in the first anti-"encirclement and suppression" battle. On this basis, the Red Army General Command established the first radio team of the Red Army, with Wang Zheng as its captain and Feng Wenbin as its political commissar. Then the Red Army started its first radio training class. Due to the low power of the seized transmitter, it was not possible to contact the CPC Central Committee as far away as Shanghai. In the second anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign in May, the Red Army seized another powerful radio station. After the radio station was modified, in September, the Central Soviet Area and the CPC Central Committee in Shanghai realized direct notification.
Almost at the same time, Mao Qihua and other international stations established in Shanghai also began to officially send and receive newspapers. The comrades who were sent to the base areas of Hubei, Henan and Anhui, using the enemy radio stations captured by the Fourth Red Army in December 1931, quickly notified the Shanghai Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the First Red Army and the Second Red Army. Radio stations in Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi and Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi bases were also opened in 1932.
　　Red radio waves from enemy "heart"
In late December 1929, the Central Special Branch sent Qian Zhuangfei to break into the Kuomintang's party affairs investigation department and became the confidential secretary of the spy chief Xu Enzeng. Xu En had attempted to expand his forces and set up branches of secret agents in various places, asking Qian Zhuangfei to be responsible for "replenishing personnel and establishing secret command organs and radio stations in Nanjing". Qian Zhuangfei played the trick and inserted a group of our party's intelligence personnel and secret traffic officers into the enemy's secret service. Soon, the secret radio stations of the Kuomintang intelligence system in Nanjing, Shanghai, and Tianjin were actually in the hands of the Communist Party.
Although Xu Enzeng asked Qian Zhuangfei to handle documents and telegrams, he carried the password book with him, and important telegrams had been translated by himself. Qian Zhuangfei found that Xu often went to and from the Shanghai dance hall to "enjoy life". After the secret arrangement, Qian Zhuangfei accompanied Xu into the dance hall. When he changed clothes, he took out the password book and asked the ambush comrades to take photos quickly and send it back. The password book was of great help to Qian Zhuangfei's underground work: after receiving the telegram from the radio operator, he opened and translated the valuable parts by himself, and then sealed and sent them as they were. At the same time, the code was also sent to the hands of the Red Army. As soon as the Kuomintang army's "encirclement and suppression" plan was formulated, its content was deciphered and sent to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Soviet area.
After Gu Shunzhang defected, the secret service sent five telegrams to Nanjing. At this time, Xu Enzeng went to Shanghai to "enjoy life". After Qian Zhuangfei received the telegram, he translated it all with a code book and immediately issued an alarm to the CPC Central Committee. After receiving the information, the organs of the CPC Central Committee, the Jiangsu Provincial Committee and the Far East Bureau of the Communist International were all transferred immediately.
In December, the 17th Route Army of the Kuomintang revolted in Ningdu. The newspaper personnel of the revolt brought more telecommunication equipment to the Red Army. The radio communication team of the Red Army expanded rapidly and set up a communication liaison bureau with Wang Zheng as its director and Wu Yunfu as its political commissar. The training courses for training radio technicians quickly developed from one to several, and later gradually developed into a communication school. A material factory for maintenance, repair and assembly of transceivers was also established. By 1933, the number of students in Ruijin Communication School had reached 1,000. Since then, the Central Soviet Area has continuously sent its own newspaper personnel to the new Soviet area and the Kuomintang-ruled area. (Xu Tao)

Source: Learning Times