Touching on many of the issues central to liberation theology and Christian socialism, W. T. Chu's (Zhu Weizhi 朱維之, 1905-99). The Proletarian Jesus is full of political implications, for which reason it has received little notice in Communist China. However, this little-known book has major implications for our understanding and evaluation of Chu himself. It also has implications for our understanding of Christian socialism in pre-Communist China, especially the social and cultural milieu in which it developed and its influence on how Christians of the time understood the Bible. This paper discusses how Chu applies the Marxist perspective to his portrayal of Jesus, as well as his ideas on how Christianity was misappropriated into a tool of capitalist and imperialist aggression. Also covered in this paper are the reasons why this portrayal of Jesus as a liberator of the oppressed was published in 1950' China, only to fall into obscurity soon thereafter.