Communist Youth League of China
Zhang Xi was born 1 February 1912 in Dongtian Village, Pingxiang County, Hebei province. His original name was Wang Changzhen (). In 1931, while a student at the Provincial No. 4 Normal School in Xingtai, he joined the Communist Youth League of China, and later became its leader. After the 1931 Mukden Incident, which led to the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, he organized student protests in Xingtai against the Japanese aggression.