Zhang Guotao (張國燾, traditional Chinese 张国焘, pinyin: Zhāng Guótāo 1897 - December 3rd 1979) was a founding member and a leader of the Chinese Communist party (PCC) at the end of the years 1920 and the years 1930.

Born in the county from Pingxiang, province of the Jiangxi, Zhang were implied in revolutionary activities during its adolescence. Zhang studied the Marxism near Li Dazhao with the university of Beijing in 1916. After having played an active role in the Movement of May four, Zhang became one of the student leaders and joined the embryonic organization of the PCC in 1920. At the same time, Mao Zedong was librarian with the university of Beijing and completely unknown to the public. It is not sure that Mao and Zhang knew themselves at this time there. Zhang took part in the first national congress of the Chinese Communist party in 1921 and was elected member of the Central committee of the PCC, person in charge of the organization of work of the executives.

After the congress, Zhang was named director of the secretariat of the trade union of the workers of China and editor as a chief of the Hebdomadaire of Work . From this moment he became trade-union expert. He led several major strikes among the workers of the railroads and of the textile what was worth a great notoriety to him and placed it on a plan of equality with other trade-union leaders like Liu Shaoqi and Li Lisan.

In 1924, Zhang took part in the first national congress of the Guomindang which then practiced a policy of alliance with the Communists, and he was elected replacing police chief of the central committee, in spite of his opposition to alliance with Guomindang during the third national congress of the PCC. In 1925, during the fourth national congress of the PCC, Zhang was elected police chief of the Central committee of the PCC and director of the department of the work of the workmen and the peasants. In 1926 Zhang was named general secretary of the division of the Hubei of the PCC, and in 1927 police chief of the central committee by interim of the PCC after the failure of the rising organized by the PCC. Zhang with Li Lisan and qu Qiubai were the leaders in load of the PCC. At that time, Mao led a small troop in the Jiangxi and the Hunan. In 1928, Zhang was elected member of the Political office of the PCC during the sixth national congress of the PCC which was held in Soviet Union and then delegated near the Kominterm. But because of its dissension with the policies of the Soviet Union and the Kominterm on the Chinese revolution during the years 1920, Zhang was placed in detention and was forced to study at the university. It is thanks to its fame and its popularity in the communist world that it was not carried out or was not exiled like was many communist dissidents.

In 1931, Zhang made its self-criticism and was returned to China by the Kominterm to clean the disorder born of the power struggle between the 28 Bolsheviks, Li Lisan and the other former members of the PCC. Zhang the USA of its notoriety and its popularity to correct the extremism and to alleviate old PCC. But the evil was made and the fight for the capacity was so intense that it became difficult for the PCC to survive in the cities controlled by the Guomindang. Zhang thus decided with the other leaders of the PCC to fold up their groups in bases in the countryside.

Zhang was charged to lead the daily operations of the revolutionary base of Eryuwan as a general secretary and a president of the military committee of this base, then vice-president of the temporary government of the central government of the Chinese Soviet republic when Mao was the president. Under the influence of the Soviet Union of Stalin can be, Zhang made a cruel purging of the dissidents which led to its defeat and elimination in 1932.

In 1932, Zhang led the fourth Red Army to the Sichuan and establishes a new base. Slowly it establishes a prosperous autonomous region through land reforms and accepted the support of the inhabitants. In 1935, Zhang and its troops joined Mao and his troops with the Sichuan during the Long walk. Because of its troops equipped well, Zhang acted like a Master to receive Mao and his badly nourished troops and worry on the face. Mao and Zhang were opposed on problems of strategy and tactic. This involved a division in the Red Army.

The troops of elite of Zhang were destroyed by the Seigneur of the war My Zhongying and the cavalry of his/her brother whereas the troops of Zhang tried to cross the yellow river and to adapt the territory of My. Zhang lost its capacity and the possibility of defying Mao, and it had to accept its failure.

When Zhang reached the new base of the PCC with Yan' year, it had lost its capacity and became an easy target for Mao. Zhang kept the position of chief of the frontier zone of Yan' year and was often the object of humiliation on behalf of Mao. Zhang was too proud to be combined with Wang Ming, which had recently returned from Moscow like representative of the Kominterm to China. The popularity of Zhang to Kominterm could have given him a new chance to find the capacity if it had been combined with Wang. But one of the reasons for which Zhang did not make alliance with Wang was which Wang had praised that it was under its orders that five leaders of the PCC (Yu Xiusong, Huang Chao, Li You and two others - all opposites with Wang) had been stopped and worked for the lord of the war Sheng Shicai to the Xinjiang under the direction of the PCC. All the five had been tortured and carried out in a prison under control of the lord of the war of the Xinjiang, Sheng Shicai, under the pretext of be trotskists. However, Shen Shicai acted only under the orders of the PCC directed by Wang Ming. Zhang was largely irritated by it because he knew the five men. After this incident, Zhang scorned Wang and never considered again to be its ally.

Without any support, Zhang was eliminated from the PCC in 1937 with the meeting of the Political office of the PCC, following what he deserted in 1938 with the profit from Guomindang. But without being able, nor resource, Zhang never had important position and made only research on the PCC with the profit of Dai Li. After the defeat of the Guomindang, in 1949 it left in exile to HongKong, then in Toronto in Canada and died during the particularly cold winter of 1979 after a conversion with Christianity.

Zhang wrote several documents on the PCC.