Agnes Smedley in China

In China, Smedley served as a correspondent for the Frankfurter Zeitung and the Manchester Guardian. She covered many topics, including the Chinese Civil War. She was also in Xi'an during the Xi'an Incident, which took her by surprise but led to her making broadcasts in English for the rebels. She then reported on the Anti-Japanese war during the Second United Front. She first travelled with the 8th Route Army and then with the New Fourth Army, as well as visiting some units of the non-Communist Chinese army.

During the 1930s she applied for membership in the Chinese Communist Party but was rejected due to Party reservations about her lack of discipline and what it viewed as her excessive independence of mind. Smedley was devastated by this rejection but remained passionately devoted to the Chinese communist cause.

Smedley left the field in 1937; she organized medical supplies and continued writing. From 1938 to 1941, she visited both Communist and Guomindang forces in the war zone. It was during her stay with Communist forces in Yan'an, after the Long March, that she conducted extensive interviews with General Zhu De, the basis of her book on him. She was helped with her book by the actress and writer Wang Ying who was living in the USA during the 1940s.

But then Smedley’s luck turned.  The Roosevelt administration wanted to push a reluctant USA into war with both Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany.  Smedley fitted the anti-Japanese agenda.  She was able to write Battle Hymn of China, which appeared in 1943.  It gave a vivid picture of an abused and heroic China – very useful for the war effort.

“Probably no more than twenty non-Communists in America had much familiarity with the Chinese Communists…  One of the very few persons now in the United States who had real up-to-date contact was Agnes Smedley.  Therefore her initial appearances in southern California were opportune and welcome to a variety of political circles.  In her talks, she effectively projected an image of a working alliance between the Chinese Communists and Nationalists as they waged war against a common Japanese enemy.”