Zheng Chaolin helped found the Chinese Communist Party's European branch in Paris in 1922 and its Trotskyist Opposition in Shanghai in 1931. He held the world record in political imprisonment - seven years under Chiang Kai-shek (as a revolutionary) and 27 under Mao (as a 'counterrevolutionary'), thus beating by a year Auguste Blanqui's previous record. After joining the revolution in his teens, his commitment never wavered. His life - which spanned...