Did Trotsky serve as a hate-figure in PRC propaganda?

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Trotskyism, and by extension Trotsky himself (and vice versa) was definitely denounced in early Communist Chinese propaganda. Whether or not he was a "hate figure" depends on what criteria you use for that nebulous phrase. Since the question declined to define it, I'll focus on the government's general attitude instead - though personally, I would say it was protrayed as a minor hate figure.

Until the early 1980s, Communist China officially denounced Trotskyism as an "anti-Leninism and anti-revolutionary" movement. This party line is largely instigated by Stalin as an extension of his domestic factional politics in the 1930s. Thus, the Stalinist Communists have been denouncing Chinese Trotskyists over political reasons, with little attention given to Trotsky's actual ideology.

例如說：改革軍隊制度，改革政治制度，發展民眾運動，厲行國防教育，鎮壓漢奸托派，發展軍事工業，改良人民生活，是否應該認真去做呢？

For example: reform the military, reform the political system, develop popular movements, enact defence education, suppress the race traitor Trotskyists, develop military industries, improve living conditions - should we do these seriously?

- Mao Zhedong, On Protracted War, speeches at Yan'an, 26 May to 3 June 1938

Here we see the Trotskyists demonised as Japanese collaborators, designed to evoke hatred for the group at a time of the Sino-Japanese War. When the People's Republic was founded in 1949, the general hostility has not changed. An anthology of Chairman Mao's Greatest Hits published in 1951, shortly after founding, Trotsky's footnotes read:

托洛茨基集團，原是俄國工人運動中的一個反對列寧主義的派別，後來墮落成為完全反革命的匪幫。現時的托洛茨基主義，並不是工人階級中的政治派別，而是一夥無原則的和無思想的暗害者、破壞者、偵探間諜、殺人兇手的匪幫，是受外國偵探機關僱用而活動的工人階級死敵的匪幫。

Trotsky's group was originally an anti-Leninism faction in the labour movement of Russia. Later it corrupted into a group of completely anti-revolutionary bandits. Now, Trotskyism is not a political faction of the proletariat, but instead a renegade gang of unprincipled, unthinking assassins, saboteurs, spies, murderers. It is a gang which acts on behalf of foreign spy agencies, and the enemy of the working class.

Thus, the official propaganda clearly casts Trotsky and Trotskyism as public enemies. Trostky's actual beliefs were not important, and in fact glossed over as much as possible. It suffices for propaganda purposes to paint him and his followers as treasonous counter-revolutionary criminals. I would consider this to be depicting a hate figure, although since Trotsky was dead the obvious focus was on his supposed adherents in China.

At this point early major Chinese Trotskyists were either dead or exiled, with one defected to the Nationalists. Others (numbering in their hundreds) were rounded up to be "reformed". In reality, they were often no more than victims of internal Communist powerplays. Rehabilitation began in the late 1980s, and the 1991 version of the previous footnote was updated to briefly acknowledge Trotsky's contributions:

托洛茨基(1879-1940),俄國十月革命勝利後曾任革命軍事委員會主席等職。列寧逝世後,反對列寧關於在蘇聯建設社會主義的理論和路線,一九二七年十一月被清除出黨。在國際共產主義運動中,托洛茨基進行了許多分裂和破壞活動。

Trotstky (1879-1940), after the October Revolutions held positions such as People's Commissar of Military and Naval Affairs. After Lenin died, he opposed Lenin's theory and path of building socialism in the Soviet Union, and was expelled in November 1927. Trotsky engaged in many divisive and destructive sabotage in international Communist movements.

It appears that thee remaining attacks on Trostky were finally removed in the 1999 edition.

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Trotsky was denounced as a hate figure within the Chinese communist party as early as the Sino-Japanese War.

Rana Mitta in China's War With Japan, describes purges taking place within the CCP even while they're battling the Japanese (and their Nationalist "allies"):

Wang Shiwei was one of those who feel victim ... first posters appeared denouncing him. Then he was expelled from the party as a Trotskyist and finally detained incommunicado. He was eventually executed in 1947.

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