Chen’s tenure at the top of China’s Communist Party was short. He became uncomfortable with Stalin’s rigid leadership and was soon entertaining “revisionist” thoughts. He was blamed for the failure of the Party to spark revolution in China’s cities and was finally expelled from the party in 1929. As war raged across China, Chen lived in hiding, and saw two of his sons killed fighting against Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists. In 1932 he was arrested and charged with being a “Trotskyite” and sentenced to 13 years in prison.