He Zhihua

He Zhihua, originally named He Zhiban, was born in Kaijiang County, Sichuan Province. She served as a teacher at Kaijiang County Girls' Middle School. In the winter of 1920, she married Zhu De, becoming his fourth wife, as well as the mother of Zhu De’s second biological mother, Zhu Min. In 1922, due to the changing political climate, Zhu De left Yunnan and went to Germany to study abroad, with He Zhihua accompanying him. The couple studied social sciences at August University in Göttingen, Germany, and married in 1923. At that time, a 19-year-old He Zhihua was introduced to the Chinese Communist Party’s European branch leaders Zhou Enlai and Zhang Shenfu, and joined the Communist Party of China.

In 1925, Zhu De was arrested and imprisoned for participating in revolutionary activities, and was later expelled from Germany, moving on to the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, He Zhihua was staying on a farm outside Moscow, giving birth to a daughter named Zhu Min, whom she also called Feifei. She showed dissatisfaction with her husband's personality, criticizing him for lacking romance, and was cold towards him during their time in Germany. In 1926, considering the situation in China, Zhu De was allowed to return to Sichuan to carry out a united front mission under the warlord Yang Sen of the Kuomintang. He Zhihua and their daughter remained in the Soviet Union.

During this period, He Zhihua gradually developed feelings for revolutionary youth He Jiaxing and married him. In 1928, the couple engaged in underground work in Shanghai and joined the Chinese Communist Party. However, she was soon exposed as a Kuomintang agent, betraying comrades such as Luo Yinong, leading to the arrest of several party cadres. She provided a list of Communist members and intelligence, and attempted to extort large sums of money. After the incident, she was captured by the Central Special Task Force, participated in a crackdown on spies, was injured by them, and was placed under house arrest. Her ultimate fate remains unknown.

There are rumors that she returned to her hometown, married a peasant, and died of illness before the founding of the People's Republic of China, but there is no definitive historical evidence to confirm this.

Her children include her daughter Zhu Min. Zhu Min was born in Moscow in 1926. She studied at the Lenin Pedagogical Institute in Moscow in 1949. After returning to China in 1953, she taught at Beijing Normal University and joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1954. She worked at the Military Museum and at the Soviet Union Embassy in China. She retired in 1986 and passed away in Beijing in 2009 at the age of 83. In her writings, Zhu Min mentioned her mother abandoning her and expressed resentment and complex feelings toward her mother’s departure.

He Zhihua’s story has been adapted into the Chinese mainland television drama “The Great Path of Humanity,” in which the character of the female traitor is inspired by her experiences.