Li Lisan
In the late 1920s, Kang worked closely with Li Lisan, a favorite of the Comintern, who had been made head of the Propaganda Department at the CPC's Sixth Congress, which for security reasons and proximity to the Comintern's congress was held outside Moscow in mid-1928. Several months after the Sixth Congress, Kang was named director of the Organization Department of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee, which controlled personnel matters.