Tianjin remembers its foreign friends

Supporters from overseas who helped the Communist Party of China are being honored by the city

International friends who made great contributions to the development of the Communist Party of China in the northern municipality of Tianjin will never be forgotten by their peers in the country.

Inside the many foreign-style villas, which gained the city renown as "a museum of world architecture in China", foreign friends and international communists left their footprints and a history that is an important part of the CPC's story.

Amid the various celebrations to mark the CPC's 100th anniversary, their moving stories are being presented in local museums and halls, including the Memorial of the Former Site of the Northern Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

Local media, including Tianjin Daily and Tianjin TV, have also highlighted the foreign communists' commitment to the CPC.

"Their shining example simply reflects the spirit of international communism, which also includes the current vision - a community of a shared future for mankind - proposed by President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee," said Wang Yongli, vice-president of the Party School of the Tianjin Municipal Committee of the CPC.

Wang recalled a number of renowned figures in history who contributed to the CPC's revolutionary work, joined hands to fight the Japanese invaders and aided the country's liberation efforts.

Edgar Snow, a renowned journalist from the United States and author of Red Star Over China, is a prime example. He gained first-hand experience during a 1936 visit to Yan'an, Shaanxi province, which was the CPC's revolutionary base at the time.

Following the Lugou Bridge Incident in Beijing on July 7, 1937, which is recognized as the start of Japan's full-scale invasion of China and the nationwide resistance to such aggression, Snow actively covered the people's efforts to fight the invaders in Beijing and Tianjin.

"His prominent contribution in the city included risking his life during the dangerous Japanese invasion to help Deng Yingchao, a leading female revolutionary and the wife of former Premier Zhou Enlai - a founding member of the CPC - to travel from Beijing via Tianjin to Xi'an in the northwestern province of Shaanxi," Wang said. 

Israel Epstein, a Polish-born Jewish journalist and author, shared those efforts and exhibited the deepest sympathy for the Chinese people, actively supporting them and the CPC during the fight against the Japanese.

Having lived in Tianjin from a very young age, he took Chinese nationality and joined the CPC after the founding of New China. Epstein was another prominent foreign friend, according to Wang.

"He was a good friend of Snow and teamed up with him to help transport Deng, under the assumed name of Madam Li Zhifan, and risked his life during the invasion and covered the facts during those times," he said.

In 1937, under the CPC's leadership, Deng was accompanied by Snow when she moved to live in Tianjin temporarily, with Epstein shielding her in a hotel.

Epstein's father helped Deng buy a treasured travel ticket at that time. The older man said the family believed in Marxism, which influenced his son's outlook on life.

The younger Epstein was the founder of China Today, a journal published internationally in several languages that showcased China's development.

His English-language book, Mrs Li Zhifan, published in Hong Kong in 1987, recorded that experience.

Song Anna, a 68-year-old author and retired local journalist who has long researched Jewish history in China, interviewed Epstein three times. "During my interviews, Epstein said he had enormous love for Tianjin. The city was the place where he heard the Chinese national anthem (previously a popular song that boosted people's morale during difficult periods) for the first time and cherished the melody for his entire life," she recalled.