Establishment

Although not always accurate (see http://vwswong.blogspot.com/2011/06/harrison.html), this is a paragraph I copied from the Wikipedia:

********************************

Establishment of the Party

Marxist ideas started to spread widely in China after the 1919 May Fourth Movement. In June 1920, Comintern (共產國際) agent Grigori Voitinsky was sent to China, and met Li Dazhao (李大釗) and other reformers. He financed the founding of the Socialist Youth Corps. The Communist Party of China was initially founded by Chen Duxiu (陳獨秀) and Li Dazhao in the French concession of Shanghai in 1921 as a study society and an informal network. There were informal groups in China in 1920, and also overseas, but the official beginning was the 1st Congress held in Shanghai and attended by 53 men in July 1921 and later transferred from Shanghai to Jiaxing. The birth of the party was declared here in a boat on South Lake... The key players were Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu, Chen Gongbo (陳公博)... Mao Zedong (毛澤東) was present at the first congress as one of two delegates from a Hunan communist group.

PS. As a co-founder of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921 and its first General Secretary, Chen Duxiu was removed him from all positions of leadership six years later, and was expelled from the Party altogether in 1929.

Li Dazhao was executed for being suspected a Soviet spy.