Deng Fa

Deng Yuanzhao or Deng Fa (March 7, 1906 – April 8, 1946) was an early leader of the Chinese Communist Party. He was born in Yuncheng District, Yunfu, Guangdong, and participated in the Canton–Hong Kong strike and the Guangzhou Uprising in his youth. He later engaged in underground work in Guangzhou and Hong Kong for the CCP, and become Party Committee Secretary of Guangzhou and Hong Kong and head of the Organisation Department in Guangdong.

After 1931, he was active in the Jiangxi Soviet and worked as the Party Committee Secretary of Fujian, and head of the State Political Security Bureau. He later assisted in the war, becoming the Political Director of the Shaan-Gan Army's 3rd Column, in charge of the secret police. His handling of the position earned him the nickname of China's Dzerzhinsky; he was present in the Long March. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, he was an alternate Politburo member, but by the Zunyi Conference he had already lost influence and made many enemies due to his campaigns.