Xie Xuehong

Xie at the first Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League (Taimeng) conference in 1949Xie Xuehong (or Hsieh Hsueh-hung, sometimes Sha Shets-ho in Taiwanese Hokkien She assumed at least five other names throughout her lifetime. Xie then moved to Moscow for further education at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East, which she attended for two years. In November 1927, she returned to China and began taking actions that led to the founding of the Taiwanese Communist Party (TCP) in 1928. At the direction of Sen Katayama, cofounder of the Japanese Communist Party (JCP), Xie and began recruiting for what would become the TCP in Shanghai. Both traveled to Japan to seek help from the JCP on a draft of a party charter, which was smuggled by Xie past Japanese authorities in Shanghai upon her return to China in February 1928. The TCP's charter was approved by a Chinese Communist Party official using the pseudonym Peng Jung on 13 April 1928, and the Taiwanese Communist Party's founding ceremony was held two days later.

Xie's ideology spread to Chiang's Taiwanese People's Party and Taiwanese Cultural Association after she took on leadership positions in the two groups. She believed that maintaining a distinct Taiwanese identity and allowing bourgeoisie to participate would allow communism to flourish in Taiwan. Others disagreed and Xie was expelled from the Taiwanese Communist Party in 1931. Later that year, she was arrested and sentenced to 13 years imprisonment for advocating communism. In 1939, Xie was released after catching tuberculosis.

Xie returned to political activism in 1945, when Kuomintang forces arrived in Taiwan, stating that "Taiwan must be ruled by Taiwanese." and later moved to Xiamen. Under Xie's leadership, the league opposed the aims of the Formosan League for Reemancipation, which backed formal independence or trusteeship. In China, Xie was active in the China Youth League and served on the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Actions taken against Xie included her removal as leader of Taimeng, her expulsion from the CCP and removal from the National People's Congress, all in 1958. Xie died in Beijing in 1970, while facing criticism during the Cultural Revolution. Since 1986, the Chinese Communist Party has posthumously rehabilitated her and reclaimed her as an opponent of Taiwanese independence.