This section reveals that as early as 1928, the Chinese Communist Party had established a special branch inside Japan, conducting covert operations across universities, media, labor unions, the military, and key economic institutions. It overturns the widespread belief that such activities began only after World War II.

2017-04-20
What this means is that they were carrying out subversive operations not only against universities, the world of journalism, and the labor movement, but also against the military and those connected with the South Manchuria Railway.
What follows is a continuation of the previous chapter.
Amid these circumstances, in Shōwa 3 (1928), acting on directives from the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese Communist Party Japan Special Branch was newly established.
In other words, as early as Shōwa 3, a branch of the Chinese Communist Party had already been formed inside Japan.
Many people believe that China’s covert operations against Japan began after the war, but that is a completely mistaken assumption.
Under the Special Branch, six branches were set up within the Tokyo branch, including the Meiji University Branch, the Toa Preparatory School Branch, the Seijo School Branch, the Tokyo Federation Branch, the Ookayama Branch, and the Ushigome Branch, while in regional areas five branches were established, including the Yokohama Branch, the Kobe Branch, the Nagasaki Branch, and the Sendai Branch—each of these locations being places where overseas Chinese resided—making a total of eleven branches.
Most of the party members were Chinese students studying at various universities.
According to a top-secret Ministry of Home Affairs document titled “The Arrest Case of the Chinese Communist Party Japan Special Branch,” the slogans upheld by this Special Branch directly followed the policies of the Chinese Communist Party and were as follows.
(“Collection of Materials Related to the Special Higher Police, Volume 15,” Fuji Shuppan.)
“One, overthrow Japanese imperialism.
One, overthrow the Chinese Nationalist Party.
One, non-intervention in China.
One, liberation of all colonies of the world.
One, confiscation of all landlords’ land.
One, establishment of a Soviet government.
One, preparation for a Soviet revolution.
One, opposition to imperialist war.
One, preparation for armed uprising by all toiling masses.
One, achievement of world revolution.”
In short, the idea was that overthrowing the Japanese government centered on the Imperial Household and the Chinese Nationalist government led by Chiang Kai-shek, seizing all property from China’s landlords, and establishing a Chinese Communist regime on the Chinese mainland would lead to world peace.
Under this slogan, the students belonging to the Chinese Communist Party Special Branch not only drew fellow Chinese students residing in Japan into Chinese Communist activities, but also strengthened ties with the Japanese Communist Party and Japanese labor unions.
Moreover, these subversive activities also targeted Japan’s military and organizations such as the South Manchuria Railway.
According to top-secret Ministry of Home Affairs documents, the Chinese Communist Party set forth the following policy.
“To strengthen contact with the Japanese Communist Party, to act jointly and in unison to oppose Japan’s military intervention in China, to sabotage the operations of Japanese troops stationed in China, to incite Japanese soldiers and turn them toward assisting the Chinese revolution, and at the same time to determine concrete methods and cooperate in promoting labor movements within Japanese enterprises inside China (for example, those like the South Manchuria Railway).”
Based on this policy, Chinese Communist Party members belonging to the Japan Special Branch, while coordinating with the Japanese Communist Party, were carrying out subversive operations against universities, the world of journalism, the labor movement, and even the military and those connected with the South Manchuria Railway.
However, the Japanese government at the time was diligent in cracking down on the activities of the Japanese Communist Party, yet it did not place much surveillance on the movements of Chinese students.
This is exactly the same as present-day Japan, which fails to monitor the movements of Chinese students who are placed under the command of the Chinese Communist government pursuant to a law known as the National Defense Mobilization Law.
For the Chinese Communist Party, Japan has long been a spy heaven.
To be continued.