1 Examine traditional society in china at the turn of 20th century

Before Europeans first arrived in Asia, China was one of the most advanced and powerful nations in the
world. It was the most populous, was politically unified, and most importantly, it had mastered the art
of agriculture. However, when Europeans first landed on Chinese shores, they found a nation that had
revered to traditional culture and warfare. Industrialization was almost nonexistent.
At the beginning of the 20th century, China was divided into sphere of influence with each powerful
Western nation trying to exert as much control over it as possible. The Chinese resented foreigners
control and expressed this at the beginning of the 20th century with the Boxer Rebellion. At the same
time, the traditional government of China began to fail in the early years. The Chinese people, being
resentful of foreigners and dissatisfied with inability of the present government to throw them out,
initiated the Revolution of 1911, replacing the Chinese 2000 year old imperial system with the
Republic of China headed by Sun Yat-sen.
In March of 1912, Sun Yat-sen resigned and Yuan Shih-kai became the next ruler of China. Yuan
attempted to reinstate an imperial system with himself as emperor causing Sun to start one of China’s
first political parties, Kuomintang or KMT. Sun fought hard to establish a democracy but was largely
unsuccessful until the 1920’s.

In 1917, China entered World War I on the side of the allies. Although China did not see any military
action, it provided resources in the form of laborers that worked in allied mines and factories. The
Treaty of Versailles ignored China’s plea to end concessions and foreign control of China.
On May 4, 1919, the May Fourth Movement took place in which students demonstrated in protest of
the Treaty of Versailles. The Movement helped the Chinese by promoting science and making Chinese
adopt a new easier form of writing. Moreover, the movement was the foundation for the forming of the
Communist Party of China (CCP).
During the 1920’s, China was divided in a power struggle began between the CCP and KMT. The KMT
controlled a majority of China with a strong base in urban areas while the CCP displaying
smallholdings in rural communities. By 1928, the CCP was expelled and China was nationalized under
the KMT. However, the Communist Party of China resurfaced on November 1, 1931 when it
proclaimed the Jiangxi providence as the Chinese Soviet Republic. The army of the Republic of China,
under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek tried to destroy the Communist army in 1934, however,
Chiang failed but did cause the CCP to flee northward in the Long March.
Also in 1931, Japan began to occupy Manchuria and established a puppet government called
Manchukuo. The Japanese aggression in China became full blown on July 7, 1937, the beginning
World War II. By 1939, Japan controlled most of the east coast of China, while Chiang blockaded the
Communists in the northwest region. By 1944, the United States began to help nationalist China, but
the nationalist remained weak due to high inflation and economic strife.
In January of 1946, the two factions of China began to have another power struggle. The KMT,
supplied by the United States, controlled the cities, while the CCP had a strong hold in the countryside.
To make matters worse, high inflation demoralized the citizens and military. By 1948, the CCP began
to wage war against the KMT, taking control of Manchuria and working its way south. On October 1,
1949, with the retreat of the KMT to Taiwan, Mao Zedong established the People’s Republic of China.
The People’s Republic of China completely changed the culture and geography of the Chinese people.
It implemented five-year plans that consisted of land reform, social reform, cultural reform, and
economic planning. The changes lead to the Great Leap Forward and Great Proletarian Cultural
Reform. In 1949, China also implemented a 30-year alliance with Russia against Japanese and Japanese
allies, although tensions strained after the death of Joseph Stalin in 1955. Relations between the two
countries remained strained until 1985.
It was not until 1970’s that most Western nations established diplomatic ties to Communist China. With
the help of President Richard Nixon and his philosophy of Détente, China was incorporated into the
world community. The high point of the People’s Republic of China came in 1971 when it was given
Taiwan’s position on the United Nation’s Security Council.
As China was increasing its world reconciliation, the founders of the People’s Republic of China were
slowly dying, including Mao Zedong. The lack of Zhou Enlai and Mao in leadership roles in 1976
caused a power struggle developed between Deng Ziaoping and Mao’s supports, headed by Jiang Qing.
In the same year, students demonstrated in Tiananmen Square in honor of Zhou, causing a flaw in
Jiang’s power. Seeing his opportunity, Deng seized power and brought younger men with his views to
power. He developed state constitutions and brought new policies to the party in 1982. Deng’s plan was
based on the four modernizations of agriculture, industry, national defense, and science/technology. In
1987, Deng retired and Zhao Ziyang became general secretary, and Li Peng became premier.
China remained quit for some years after the power struggle after the death of Mao. However, in 1989,
China came into the world’s eyes again with the Tiananmen Square incident. Students demonstrating in
the streets of Beijing were attacked and killed by Chinese soldiers. The event caused nations around the
world to question China’s view of human rights and freedoms.

Boxer Rebellion
Westerners established contacts with China starting with Marco Polo, but who would know that these
contacts would have a great impact on the future. As time progressed, the West began to see China as
another potential colony as the Age of Imperialism began during the 19th century. China was colonized
late, due to its large geographical area and large population. At first, the Chinese, saw the Westerners
and other Asian nations as inferior and ignored their presence. However, when China lost influence of
Korea, Vietnam, and Taiwan during the Sino-Japanese War of 1885-95, China finally realized that
foreigners were carving up their lands. The United States, Great Britain, Japan, Russia, and many other
nations fought to gain spheres of influence over the China, exploiting it as a colony. At the turn of the
century, many Chinese were tired with the foreigners and in the summer of 1900 and a secret society
roamed the country of China called the "Righteous and Harmonious Fists." The believed that the
current Chinese government was unable to throw out the foreigners and they took it as their goal and
mission to overthrow the western control over their lands. These thugs, mostly from the north, roamed
the countryside attacking missionaries and Chinese converts of Christianity until, in June they surfaced
in Beijing. The western powers joined together to put down the rebellion in Beijing and protect Western
nationalists, however the dowager Empress Tz’u-hsi blocked Western advances with her army. In
response, the allied westerners sent 19,000 soldiers and captured Beijing on August 14, 1900. The
failure of the rebellion and Empress’s army to throw out foreigners caused the Chinese people to lose
confidence in the Imperial System that had been established. The Boxer Rebellion was the spark that
ignited the political strife and conflict that would happen for the remainder of the 20th Century.
Sun Yat-sen.

Dr. Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925)

Sun Yat-sen had an extensive education in the United States and Hong Kong to become a medical
doctor, however soon after graduation he turned to politics. His first major role in China was in 1895
where he helped stage the unsuccessful Canton uprising against the Emperor. He left China for 16 years
to return in 1911 when the successful rebellion in Wuhan prompted other providences to rebel. He
believed that the time was right to overthrow the emperor. To help with his effort, he strengthened the
Kuomintang (KMT) or nationalist party that same year and proclaiming himself provisional president
of a newly formed republic. However, he was forced to resign in 1913. During the next year he staged
an unsuccessful revolution that caused him to leave China and to stage two more revolutions in 1917
and 1921. By 1923, he was able to lead a small band of a new regime and reorganized the KMT in the
Soviet Union Communist model. In 1924, he appointed Chiang Kai-shek as president. Sun Yat-sen’s
fight was to overthrow the Manchu Dynasty, unify China, and establish a democracy. He summarized
his principles in the Three Principals of the People: nationalism, socialism, and democracy. In 1925,
Sun Yat-sen died, however he is remembered today as the father of modern China. Dr. Sun Yat-sen,
although a visionary, had a hard time accomplishing his goal due to his inability to raise a large enough
army and appeal to the public.
Eng, Robert Y. "East & Southeast Asia: An Annotated Directory of Internet Resources." 5 February
2000.; available from http://newton.uor.edu/Departments&Programs/AsianStudiesDept/china.html;
accessed 20 February 2000.
Eng puts together an informative site that contains many different types of information on
China – political, economical, historical and more. The site is broken down into different
social studies of China with links to other sites that help broaden the subject. In the History
section, Eng discusses the political leaders of China. The site also contains links to other
helpful sites in each category that he breaks down China into.

"Dr. Sun Yat-sen – His Hawaiian Roots." Available http://sunyatsen.hawaii.org/. Accessed 30 March
2000.
Although the site is dedicated to Dr. Sun Yat-sen efforts and thought in Hawaii, the site
does contain a good resource. It contains real player speech by Dr. Sun and also contains a
page that gives the name of articles and books that were written on and about him. In all,
this site doesn’t contain much usefulness except to hear a speech he gave and the name of
books some biographies.

Chiang Kai-shek
Dr. Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925)
Sun Yat-sen had an extensive education in the United States and Hong Kong to become a medical
doctor, however soon after graduation he turned to politics. His first major role in China was in 1895
where he helped stage the unsuccessful Canton uprising against the Emperor. He left China for 16 years
to return in 1911 when the successful rebellion in Wuhan prompted other providences to rebel. He
believed that the time was right to overthrow the emperor. To help with his effort, he strengthened the
Kuomintang (KMT) or nationalist party that same year and proclaiming himself provisional president
of a newly formed republic. However, he was forced to resign in 1913. During the next year he staged
an unsuccessful revolution that caused him to leave China and to stage two more revolutions in 1917
and 1921. By 1923, he was able to lead a small band of a new regime and reorganized the KMT in the
Soviet Union Communist model. In 1924, he appointed Chiang Kai-shek as president. Sun Yat-sen’s
fight was to overthrow the Manchu Dynasty, unify China, and establish a democracy. He summarized
his principles in the Three Principals of the People: nationalism, socialism, and democracy. In 1925,
Sun Yat-sen died, however he is remembered today as the father of modern China. Dr. Sun Yat-sen,
although a visionary, had a hard time accomplishing his goal due to his inability to raise a large enough
army and appeal to the public.
Eng, Robert Y. "East & Southeast Asia: An Annotated Directory of Internet Resources." 5 February
2000.; available from http://newton.uor.edu/Departments&Programs/AsianStudiesDept/china.html;
accessed 20 February 2000.
Eng puts together an informative site that contains many different types of information on
China – political, economical, historical and more. The site is broken down into different
social studies of China with links to other sites that help broaden the subject. In the History
section, Eng discusses the political leaders of China. The site also contains links to other
helpful sites in each category that he breaks down China into.

"Dr. Sun Yat-sen – His Hawaiian Roots." Available http://sunyatsen.hawaii.org/. Accessed 30 March
2000.
Although the site is dedicated to Dr. Sun Yat-sen efforts and thought in Hawaii, the site
does contain a good resource. It contains real player speech by Dr. Sun and also contains a
page that gives the name of articles and books that were written on and about him. In all,
this site doesn’t contain much usefulness except to hear a speech he gave and the name of
books some biographies.

Manchuria
Manchuria and Japan in China
Manchuria, the northeastern section of Mainland China, has been site of much conflict and problems
within the past one hundred years. Its first major 20th century happening was in 1905 during the Russo-
Japanese War between Japan and Russia over the control of northern China and the Korea peninsula.
After the war, Manchuria laid ideal to foreign interest until September 18, 1931, when the Japanese
were fearful of losing control of Manchuria because the rising strength of the KMT. The Japanese
staged an explosion on Mukden Railroad that gave Japan the reason to take over the city of Mukden
with the Kwantung Army. Within a few months, the Japanese army controlled all of Manchuria because
the KMT offered little resistance. In 1932, Japanese forces attacked Shanghai. This allowed the
Japanese established the puppet state of Manchukuo with the last emperor of China as its leader. The
Japanese began to exploit the lands of Manchuria and invested in heavy industry, causing it to be the
most technological advanced region of China. The region remained peaceful for five year until in 1937,
the Japanese used Manchukuo to invade China to start World War II. Although the nationalist offered
little real resistance again, the KMT and CCP banded together to protect China. The region remained in
Japanese hands until August 8, 1945, when Russian army invaded. Within days, the war was over and
Manchuria was handed back over to the Chinese, but the Russian army gave the Japanese arms to the
Chinese Communist Party, which in turn, helped them expel the KMT in 1949. During the Japanese
invasion of China, one of the greatest horrors of the twentieth century occurred. The Japanese soldiers
raped and killed millions of women and children in the city of Nanking, called the Rape of Nanking. In
conclusion, Manchuria has been a land that was vital to Japan due to its ability to be developed into an
industrial land. Without Manchuria, Japan could not have waged its war against China and the rest of
the world.

Taiwan
Taiwan
China lost control of Taiwan in the first Sino-Japanese War of 1885-95. In 1895, Japan began to
colonize the island and controlled it until the end of World War II when the Allies gave it back to
China. That same year, the United Nation was formed with China on the UN Security Council. At the
time, the KMT or nationalist party under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek ruled China. In 1945, a
civil war broke out between the KMT and the CCP, which caused the KMT to flee to Taiwan
completely in 1949. Even though nationalist China was based in Taiwan, the UN allowed it to stay on
the Security Council and many nations did not recognize the communist government on Mainland
China. The United States withheld military assistance to Taiwan until the 1954 when the United States
was scared that Taiwan would turn communist. To help protect Taiwan, the United States signed the
mutual security treaty of 1954. This treaty was important to the United States because it would prevent
Russia from having an ally on the UN Security Council during the Korea War. US assistance to Taiwan
continued until the election of President Richard Nixon. In 1970, Communist China showed increasing
interest to discuss issues on a higher level and opens itself to the United States with the Ping Pong
Diplomacy. Finally in July of 1971, Henry Kissinger met with Zhou Enlai establishing the first
relationship between Communist China and the United States. Through Nixon’s efforts, he opened up
foreign relations with Communist China and helped Communist China gain entrance into the UN and
the Security Council in October in Taiwan’s place. In 1972, the Shanghai Communiqué formally stated
that the United States believed that Taiwan was part of China and there was only one China however it
did not state whether the CCP or KMT was the rightful government. On January 1, 1979, the United
States ended diplomatic relations with Taiwan and recognized the People’s Republic of China, but also
in 1979, the US passed the Taiwan Relations Act. The act committed the US to resist force used against
Taiwan. Taiwan remained silent until in 1987 when Taiwan ended its policy of martial law and
elections were held in 1990. In 1996, Communist China tried to influence Taiwanese elections by using
missiles. The incident brought US military vessels to the area. Finally, in the year 2000, the presidential
election of Taiwan brought world attention. With three candidates running, independence from China
became a major issue. On March 20, 2000, the Chinese in Taiwan elected a president that was pro-
independence. Due to this, President Chen Shui-bian of the People’s Republic of China threatened to
use force to keep Taiwan part of China. Currently, Taiwan threatens to break away from China, but the
Mainland Chinese are willing to fight to keep it part of the People’s Republic. The problem is that other
nations are choosing sides, creating a state of military readiness and maybe World War III.

Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong or Mao Tse-tung (1893 – 1976)
Mao Zedong, although noted in history as one of the greatest revolutionaries, was one of the worst
politicians. Mao’s first part in Chinese history comes from his enrollment in Peking University. Here,
he participated in the May Fourth Movement and realized that the Chinese revolutionaries were striving
for a Marxist government. In 1921, Mao helped form the Chinese Communist Party or CCP. Two years
later, he was enlightened and began to work his strategy to seize control of China. His plan was to
appeal to the rural peasant class to gain control of the countryside and use them to surround the large
urban centers. He would then take control of the entire government, but his hopes were shattered when
Chiang Kai-shek was determined to rule China in 1925. However, this did not deter him from trying to
set up the Chinese Soviet Republic in the Jiangxi Providence in November of 1931. In 1934, Mao was
driven out of Jiangxi by the KMT army and thus began the Long March northward. Mao and the CCP
may have been destroyed had it not been for the Japanese invasion of China in 1937. The KMT and
CCP, believing that China should be ruled by Chinese, united to fight the Japanese and expel all
foreigners from Chinese soil. After the war, the rivalry persisted and Mao formed the People’s
Liberation Army in 1946. A civil war persisted until in 1949, Mao took control of Mainland China.
Mao became ruler of China with the formal title of Chairman of the People’s Republic. He tried to
implement such programs such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Mao remained
leader of China for the rest of his life, although, near the end, he started to lose power to Zhou Enlai
and Deng Ziaoping in the 1970’s. With his death on September 9, 1976, he left a power vacuum for
leadership of the country. Mao Zedong was great leader when it came to revolution and fighting for
dominance, however once he came into power, he was a poor leader and politician due mostly to his
inability to subdue his passion for revolution
five-year plans
The Five-Year Plans of China
After the Chinese Communist Party had gained control of China in 1949, Mao Zedong began to reform
the economy and social characteristics of China. The first goal of Mao was to introduce land reform
similar that of the USSR. In 1950, he began to hand land over to the peasants from the landlords. His
land reform was completed three years later. The second goal of Mao was to promote equality and the
communist party. In 1950, he gave women equal rights including the right to own property and equal
rights in marriage and divorce. His social reform even went as far as to allow children to denounce
their parents if they did not follow the communist line. The third goal of Mao was aimed at the
economy and the practices of institutions. He denounced bribery, tax fraud, and cheating while at the
same time, introduced the first five-year plan in 1953. The first five-year plan was to increase
industrialization through the Soviet model. Mao used the help of advisors and loans from the Soviet
Union. The first five-year plan’s goal was to maximize agricultural production to pay for increased
industrialization and Soviet aid. The way they did this was through collective farming and government
ownership of all transportation and most industries, causing all private industries to be socialized by
1955 and having 98% of the farming populations participating in communes by 1957. The five-year
plan included education too. It down played liberal arts and put emphasis on technical skills and
education. The first five-year plan was a success and caused the implementation of the second five-year
plan in 1958. The second plan’s goal was to increase industrial and agriculture production by 75%.
However the plan failed after the Soviet Union began to withdraw advisors and support, while famine
caused massive hunger in 1959. The early years of the communist government were trying to curtail
the patterned lives of the people and to implement a Marxist state that was first based on agriculture but
in time, would be based on industrialization. Although the first five-year plan was largely successful,
the second five-year plan failed due to a change in Russian policy toward China and natural disaster.

Great Leap Forward and Great Proletarian Cultural Reform

Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution
In attempts to bring China out of its technological backwardness, the Great Leap Forward was a
program implemented by Mao in 1958. It was an extension of his second five-year plan that set up
small backyard furnaces to increase steel production and to create communes out of the collective
farms already established. The program ended in failure due to the population’s reluctance to enter
communes and that the steel produced was of low quality and quantity. To add to the underperformance
of the program, three straight years of poor harvest left many of the people that had joined communes
hungry or starving. The failure of the Great Leap Forward lead many high ranking communist party
members to doubt the ability of Mao causing him to resign as chairman of China in 1959. In the mid
1960’s factions of the communist party began to surface against Mao and many started to believe that a
Marxist state was not working. Mao did not want to lose power as the Chairman of the Communist
Party and felt the only way to keep power was to call for the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. It
was the revitalization of the revolutionary feelings of the youth while, at the same time, it was used to
oust opponents of Mao. The movement slowed production, closed schools, hurt the economy and most
of all, made foreign nations sever their ties to China. Disorder was rampant throughout the country and
especially in Wuhan in July 1967. The end result of the revolution was a generation without education
and many farms lay unused for years. Also, a new group of people, including Deng Xiaoping, began to
gain power in the communist party. The failure of the Great Leap Forward was the beginning of the
downfall of Mao as a politician. His inability to deal with his failure caused him to do the only thing he
knew well, revolution. This revolution led to nations around the world looking down on China and
created a lost generation.

Deng Ziaoping
Deng Ziaoping (1904 – 1997)
Deng Ziaoping, in the last couple of years, has been the most visual and powerful person in the Chinese
Communist Party. His belief in communism came at a young age when he moved to France and joined
the communist party in 1922. He later moved to the Soviet Union to study Soviet communism before
he returned to China as an underground organizer of the Chinese Communist Party in 1927. He became
a personal adviser to Mao Zedong, but held no major positions in the party until 1952 when he was
named vice-premier. He slowly gained power in the party until in 1962 when he began to play down
Maoist policies. Mao was aggravated by Deng’s lack of support and defaced Deng by parading him
around Beijing as "freak." For the next couple of years, Deng held very little power until in 1973 Zhou
Enlai took Deng under his wing. In 1976, Deng became leader of China for a short time when Zhou fell
ill. Supporters of Mao, including Mao’s wife Jiang Qing, put Deng under criticism from the start; they
believed that his economic reforms were through capitalist forms of production. Mao’s supporters took
power away from Deng when Zhou died later that year. However, that same year Mao died and his
supporters soon lost their control over the government when they were arrested on October 6, 1976.
Deng, seizing the opportunity, took control of the Chinese government and promoted his followers to
high positions in the government. He slowly left political life, until 1990 when he resigned from his last
political office. Deng Ziaoping, although communist in nature, was one of the few rulers of China that
believed that some capitalistic programs could help China. Most importantly, Deng was a strong leader
that was able to take the reins during the 1970’s. With the death of many of the old leaders of China,
such as Mao and Zhou, he was able to fill the power vacuum and bring the country through it without
much incident.

Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square
Mao Zedong forced the nationalist Chinese to flee to Taiwan in 1949, but during his rule, students and
more liberal Chinese thought of establishing a democracy. Even after Mao’s death, students still
believed that a democracy was the best way to go with the Chinese political system. Hu Yaobang
became a hero to many Chinese liberals in 1987 when he did not halt student unrest. On April 15, 1989,
Hu, the current secretary general of the Communist Party, died causing 1000 students to hold a pro-
democracy demonstration in the central plaza of Beijing in his honor. At first, the protest was small and
no action was taken against the liberal students. Over a quarter million students joined the
demonstration within the next month and near the end of April, the Chinese government warned
students to end demonstrating otherwise action would be taken. On March 17, the protest swelled to
over one million, causing the Chinese government to implement martial law three days later. Military
personnel were sent into the city to break up the protest, but protesters were able to block them from
entering Tiananmen Square, the center of the unrest. On June 4th, the Chinese army made their move.
Thousands of troops stormed the square, using tanks, clubs, tear gas, and machine guns on the unarmed
protesters. Estimated death totaled at 1000 soldiers and 3000 civilians, but the Chinese government
reported only 300 fatalities. By the end of June, almost 2 thousand people were arrested and 27
executed for counterrevolutionary activities. This event strained the world’s relationship with China
because of the government’s abuse of human rights especially since early action on part of the
government could have stopped the bloodshed.

Mao Zedong pronunciation (help·info) (December 26, 1893– September 9, 1976) was a Chinese
revolutionary, political theorist and communist leader. He led the People's Republic of China (PRC)
from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976. His theoretical contribution to Marxism-
Leninism, military strategies, and his brand of Communist policies are now collectively known as
Maoism.
Mao remains a controversial figure to this day, with a contentious and ever-evolving legacy. He is
officially held in high regard in China as a great revolutionary, political strategist, military mastermind,
and savior of the nation. Many Chinese[quantify] also believe that through his policies, he laid the
economic, technological and cultural foundations of modern China, transforming the country from an
agrarian society into a major world power. Additionally, Mao is viewed by many[who?] as a poet,
philosopher, and visionary, owing the latter primarily to the cult of personality fostered during his time
in power.[1] As a consequence,[clarification needed] his portrait continues to be featured prominently
on Tiananmen and on all Renminbi bills.
Conversely, Mao's social-political programs, such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural
Revolution, are blamed for costing millions of lives, causing severe famine and damage to the culture,
society and economy of China. This is generally accepted in China as well as by the Chinese
Communist Party[citation needed]. Mao's policies and political purges from 1949 to 1976 are widely
believed to have caused the deaths of between 50 to 70 million people.[2][3][4] Since Deng Xiaoping
assumed power in 1978, many Maoist policies have been abandoned in favour of economic reforms.
Mao is regarded as one of the most influential figures in modern world history,[5] and named by Time
Magazine as one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century.[6]

Early life
Mao was born on December 26, 1893, in Shaoshan, Hunan province China. His father was a poor
peasant who had become a wealthy farmer and grain dealer. At age 8 he began studying at the village
primary school, but left school at 13 to work on the family farm. He later left the farm to continue his
studies at a secondary school in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province. When the Xinhai Revolution
against the Qing Dynasty broke out in 1911 he joined the Revolutionary Army in Hunan. In the spring
of 1912 the war ended, the Republic of China was founded and Mao left the army. He eventually
returned to school,[7] and in 1918 graduated from the First Provincial Normal School of Hunan.
Following his graduation, it is believed that Mao traveled with Professor Yang Changji, his college
teacher and future father-in-law, to Beijing in 1919. Professor Yang died in 1920 but prior to his death
had held a faculty position at Peking University, and at his recommendation, Mao worked as an
assistant librarian at the University Library under the curatorship of Li Dazhao, who would come to
greatly influence Mao's future thought. Mao registered as a part-time student at Beijing University and
attended a few lectures and seminars by intellectuals, such as Chen Duxiu, Hu Shi, and Qian Xuantong.
During his stay in Shanghai, he engaged himself as much as possible in reading which introduced him
to Communist theories.
He married Yang Kaihui, Professor Yang's daughter and a fellow student, despite an existing marriage
with Luo Yixiu arranged by his father at home, which Mao never acknowledged. In October 1930, the
Kuomintang (KMT) captured Yang Kaihui as well as her son, Anying[citation needed]. The KMT
imprisoned them both, and Anying was later sent to his relatives after the KMT killed his
mother[citation needed]. At this time, Mao was living with He Zizhen, a co-worker and 17 year old girl
from Yongxing, Jiangxi.[8] Likely due to poor language skills (Mao never learned to speak Mandarin),
he turned down an opportunity to study in France.[9]
On July 23, 1921, Mao, age 27, attended the first session of the National Congress of the Communist
Party of China in Shanghai. Two years later, he was elected as one of the five commissars of the
Central Committee of the Party during the third Congress session. Later that year, Mao returned to
Hunan at the instruction of the CPC Central Committee and the Kuomintang Central Committee to
organize the Hunan branch of the Kuomintang.[10] In 1924, he was a delegate to the first National
Conference of the Kuomintang, where he was elected an Alternate Executive of the Central Committee.
In 1924, he became an Executive of the Shanghai branch of the Kuomintang and Secretary of the
Organization Department.
For a while, Mao remained in Shanghai, an important city that the CPC emphasized for the Revolution.
However, the Party encountered major difficulties organizing labor union movements and building a
relationship with its nationalist ally, the KMT. The Party had become poor, and Mao became
disillusioned with the revolution and moved back to Shaoshan. During his stay at home, Mao's interest
in the revolution was rekindled after hearing of the 1925 uprisings in Shanghai and Guangzhou. His
political ambitions returned, and he then went to Guangdong, the base of the Kuomintang, to take part
in the preparations for the second session of the National Congress of Kuomintang. In October 1925,
Mao became acting Propaganda Director of the Kuomintang.
In early 1927, Mao returned to Hunan where, in an urgent meeting held by the Communist Party, he
made a report based on his investigations of the peasant uprisings in the wake of the Northern
Expedition. This is considered the initial and decisive step towards the successful application of Mao's
revolutionary theories.[11]
Mao had a strong interest in the political system, encouraged by his father. His two most famous
essays, both from 1937, 'On Contradiction' and 'On Practice', are concerned with the practical strategies
of a revolutionary movement and stress the importance of practical, grass-roots knowledge, obtained
through experience.
Both essays reflect the guerilla roots of Maoism in the need to build up support in the countryside
against a Japanese occupying force and emphasise the need to win over hearts and minds through
'education'. The essays, reproduced later as part of the 'Red Book', warn against the behaviour of the
blindfolded man trying to catch sparrows, and the 'Imperial envoy' descending from his carriage to
'spout opinions' .
After graduating from Hunan Normal School, the highest level of schooling available in his province,
Mao spent six months studying independently. Mao was first introduced to communism while working
at Peking University, and in 1921 he attended the organizational meeting of the Communist Party of
China (or CPC). He first encountered Marxism while he worked as a library assistant at Peking
University.
Other important influences on Mao were the Russian revolution and, according to some scholars, the
Chinese literary works: Outlaws of the Marsh and Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Mao sought to
subvert the alliance of imperialism and feudalism in China. He thought the KMT to be both
economically and politically vulnerable and thus that the revolution could not be steered by
Nationalists.
Throughout the 1920s, Mao led several labour struggles based upon his studies of the propagation and
organization of the contemporary labour movements.[12] However, these struggles were successfully
subdued by the government, and Mao fled from Changsha, Hunan after he was labeled a radical
activist. He pondered these failures and finally realized that industrial workers were unable to lead the
revolution because they made up only a small portion of China's population, and unarmed labour
struggles could not resolve the problems of imperial and feudal suppression.
Mao began to depend on Chinese peasants who later became staunch supporters of his theory of violent
revolution. This dependence on the rural rather than the urban proletariat to instigate violent revolution
distinguished Mao from his predecessors and contemporaries. Mao himself was from a peasant family,
and thus he cultivated his reputation among the farmers and peasants and introduced them to Marxism.
[11][13]

War
In 1927, Mao conducted the famous Autumn Harvest Uprising in Changsha, as commander-in-chief.
Mao led an army, called the "Revolutionary Army of Workers and Peasants", which was defeated and
scattered after fierce battles. Afterwards, the exhausted troops were forced to leave Hunan for Sanwan,
Jiangxi, where Mao re-organized the scattered soldiers, rearranging the military division into smaller
regiments.
Mao also ordered that each company must have a party branch office with a commissar as its leader
who would give political instructions based upon superior mandates. This military rearrangement in
Sanwan, Jiangxi initiated the CPC's absolute control over its military force and has been considered to
have the most fundamental and profound impact upon the Chinese revolution. Later, they moved to the
Jinggang Mountains, Jiangxi.
In the Jinggang Mountains, Mao persuaded two local insurgent leaders to pledge their allegiance to
him. There, Mao joined his army with that of Zhu De, creating the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army of
China, Red Army in short. Mao's tactics were strongly based on that of the Spanish Guerillas during the
Napoleonic Wars.
From 1931 to 1934, Mao helped establish the Soviet Republic of China and was elected Chairman of
this small republic in the mountainous areas in Jiangxi. Here, Mao was married to He Zizhen. His
previous wife, Yang Kaihui, had been arrested and executed in 1930, just three years after their
departure.
It was alleged[citation needed] that Mao orchestrated the Anti-Bolshevik League incident and the
Futian incident.
In Jiangxi, Mao's authoritative domination, especially that of the military force, was challenged by the
Jiangxi branch of the CPC and military officers. Mao's opponents, among whom the most prominent
was Li Wenlin, the founder of the CPC's branch and Red Army in Jiangxi, were against Mao's land
policies and proposals to reform the local party branch and army leadership. Mao reacted first by
accusing the opponents of opportunism and kulakism and then set off a series of systematic
suppressions of them.[14]
Under the direction of Mao, it is reported that horrible methods of torture took place[15] and given
names such as 'sitting in a sedan chair', 'airplane ride', 'toad-drinking water', and 'monkey pulling
reins.'[15] The wives of several suspects had their breasts cut open and their genitals burned.[15] Short
(2001) estimates that tens of thousands of suspected enemies,[16] perhaps as many as 186,000,[17]
were killed during this purge. Critics accuse Mao's authority in Jiangxi of being secured and reassured
through the revolutionary terrorism, or red terrorism.[18]
Mao, with the help of Zhu De, built a modest but effective army, undertook experiments in rural reform
and government, and provided refuge for Communists fleeing the rightist purges in the cities. Mao's
methods are normally referred to as Guerrilla warfare; but he himself made a distinction between
guerrilla warfare (youji zhan) and Mobile Warfare (yundong zhan).
Mao's Guerrilla Warfare and Mobile Warfare was based upon the fact of the poor armament and
military training of the Red Army which consisted mainly of impoverished peasants, who, however,
were all encouraged by revolutionary passions and aspiring after a communist utopia.
Around 1930, there had been more than ten regions, usually entitled "soviet areas", under control of the
CPC.[19] The relative prosperity of "soviet areas" startled and worried Chiang Kai-shek, chairman of
the Kuomintang government, who waged five waves of besieging campaigns against the "central soviet
area." More than one million Kuomintang soldiers were involved in these five campaigns, four of
which were defeated by the Red Army led by Mao. By June 1932 (the height of its power), the Red
Army had no less than 45,000 soldiers, with a further 200,000 local militia acting as a subsidiary force.
[20]
Under increasing pressure from the KMT encirclement campaigns, there was a struggle for power
within the Communist leadership. Mao was removed from his important positions and replaced by
individuals (including Zhou Enlai) who appeared loyal to the orthodox line advocated by Moscow and
represented within the CPC by a group known as the 28 Bolsheviks.

Chiang, who had earlier assumed nominal control of China due in part to the Northern Expedition, was
determined to eliminate the Communists. By October 1934, he had them surrounded, prompting them
to engage in the "Long March," a retreat from Jiangxi in the southeast to Shaanxi in the northwest of
China. It was during this 9,600 kilometer (5,965 mile), year-long journey that Mao emerged as the top
Communist leader, aided by the Zunyi Conference and the defection of Zhou Enlai to Mao's side. At
this Conference, Mao entered the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Communist Party of
China.
According to the standard Chinese Communist Party line, from his base in Yan'an, Mao led the
Communist resistance against the Japanese in the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945).[citation
needed] However, Mao further consolidated power over the Communist Party in 1942 by launching the
Shu Fan movement, or "Rectification" campaign against rival CPC members such as Wang Ming,
Wang Shiwei, and Ding Ling. Also while in Yan'an, Mao divorced He Zizhen and married the actress
Lan Ping, who would become known as Jiang Qing.
During the Sino-Japanese War, Mao Zedong's military strategies, laid out in On Guerrilla Warfare were
opposed by both Chiang Kai-shek and the United States. The US regarded Chiang as an important ally,
able to help shorten the war by engaging the Japanese occupiers in China. Chiang, in contrast, sought to
build the ROC army for the certain conflict with Mao's communist forces after the end of World War II.
This fact was not understood well in the US, and precious lend-lease armaments continued to be
allocated to the Kuomintang.
In turn, Mao spent part of the war (as to whether it was most or only a little is disputed) fighting the
Kuomintang for control of certain parts of China. Both the Communists and Nationalists have been
criticised for fighting amongst themselves rather than allying against the Japanese Imperial Army.
Some argue, however, that the Nationalists were better equipped and fought more against Japan.[22]
In 1944, the Americans sent a special diplomatic envoy, called the Dixie Mission, to the Communist
Party of China. According to Edwin Moise, in Modern China: A History 2nd Edition:
Most of the Americans were favorably impressed. The CPC seemed less corrupt, more unified,
and more vigorous in its resistance to Japan than the KMT. United States fliers shot down over
North China...confirmed to their superiors that the CPC was both strong and popular over a
broad area. In the end, the contacts with the USA developed with the CPC led to very little.

After the end of World War II, the U.S. continued to support Chiang Kai-shek, now openly against the
People's Liberation Army led by Mao Zedong in the civil war for control of China. The U.S. support
was part of its view to contain and defeat world communism. Likewise, the Soviet Union gave quasi-
covert support to Mao (acting as a concerned neighbor more than a military ally, to avoid open conflict
with the U.S.) and gave large supplies of arms to the Communist Party of China, although newer
Chinese records indicate the Soviet "supplies" were not as large as previously believed, and
consistently fell short of the promised amount of aid.[citation needed]
In 1948, the People’s Liberation Army starved out the Kuomintang forces occupying the city of
Changchun. At least 160,000 civilians are believed to have perished during the siege, which lasted from
June until October. PLA lieutenant colonel Zhang Zhenglu, who documented the siege in his book
White Snow, Red Blood, compared it to Hiroshima: “The casualties were about the same. Hiroshima
took nine seconds; Changchun took five months.”[23]
On January 21, 1949, Kuomintang forces suffered massive losses against Mao's forces. In the early
morning of December 10, 1949, PLA troops laid siege to Chengdu, the last KMT-occupied city in
mainland China, and Chiang Kai-shek evacuated from the mainland to Taiwan (Formosa) that same
day.

Leadership of China
The People's Republic of China was established on October 1, 1949. It was the culmination of over two
decades of civil and international war. From 1954 to 1959, Mao was the Chairman of the PRC. During
this period, Mao was called Chairman Mao or the Great Leader Chairman Mao
The Communist Party assumed control of all media in the country and used it to promote the image of
Mao and the Party. The Nationalists under General Chiang Kai-Shek were vilified as were countries
such as the United States of America and Japan. The Chinese people were exhorted to devote
themselves to build and strengthen their country through Communist ideology. In his speech declaring
the foundation of the PRC, Mao is famously said to have announced: "The Chinese people have stood
up" (though whether he actually said it is disputed[24]).
Mao took up residence in Zhongnanhai, a compound next to the Forbidden City in Beijing, and there he
ordered the construction of an indoor swimming pool and other buildings. Mao often did his work
either in bed or by the side of the pool, preferring not to wear formal clothes unless absolutely
necessary, according to Dr. Li Zhisui, his personal physician. (Li's book, The Private Life of Chairman
Mao, is regarded as controversial, especially by those sympathetic to Mao.)
In October 1950, Mao made the decision to send the People's Volunteer Army into Korea and fought
against the United Nations forces led by the U.S. Historical records showed that Mao directed the PVA
campaigns in the Korean War to the minute details.[25]
Along with Land reform, during which significant numbers of landlords were beaten to death at mass
meetings organized by the Communist Party as land was taken from them and given to poorer peasants,
[26] there was also the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries,[27] which involved public
executions targeting mainly former Kuomintang officials, businessmen accused of "disturbing" the
market, former employees of Western companies and intellectuals whose loyalty was suspect.[28] The
U.S. State department in 1976 estimated that there may have been a million killed in the land reform,
800,000 killed in the counterrevolutionary campaign.[29]
Mao himself claimed that a total of 700,000 people were executed during the years 1949–53.[30]
However, because there was a policy to select "at least one landlord, and usually several, in virtually
every village for public execution",[31] the number of deaths range between 2 million[31][32] and 5
million.[33][34] In addition, at least 1.5 million people,[35] perhaps as many as 4 to 6 million,[36]
were sent to "reform through labour" camps where many perished.[36] Mao played a personal role in
organizing the mass repressions and established a system of execution quotas,[37] which were often
exceeded.[27] Nevertheless he defended these killings as necessary for the securing of power.[38]
Starting in 1951, Mao initiated two successive movements in an effort to rid urban areas of corruption
by targeting wealthy capitalists and political opponents, known as the three-anti/five-anti campaigns. A
climate of raw terror developed as workers denounced their bosses, wives turned on their husbands,
and children informed on their parents; the victims often being humiliated at struggle sessions, a
method designed to intimidate and terrify people to the maximum. Mao insisted that minor offenders be
criticized and reformed or sent to labor camps, "while the worst among them should be shot." These
campaigns took several hundred thousand additional lives, the vast majority via suicide.[39]
In Shanghai, people jumping to their deaths became so commonplace that residents avoided walking on
the pavement near skyscrapers for fear that suicides might land on them.[40] Some biographers have
pointed out that driving those perceived as enemies to suicide was a common tactic during the Mao-era.
For example, in his biography of Mao, Philip Short notes that in the Yan'an Rectification Movement,
Mao gave explicit instructions that "no cadre is to be killed," but in practice allowed security chief
Kang Sheng to drive opponents to suicide and that "this pattern was repeated throughout his leadership
of the People's Republic."[41]
Following the consolidation of power, Mao launched the First Five-Year Plan (1953–8). The plan
aimed to end Chinese dependence upon agriculture in order to become a world power. With the Soviet
Union's assistance, new industrial plants were built and agricultural production eventually fell to a
point where industry was beginning to produce enough capital that China no longer needed the USSR's
support. The success of the First Five Year Plan was to encourage Mao to instigate the Second Five
Year Plan, the Great Leap Forward, in 1958. Mao also launched a phase of rapid collectivization. The
CPC introduced price controls as well as a Chinese character simplification aimed at increasing
literacy. Large scale industrialization projects were also undertaken.
Programs pursued during this time include the Hundred Flowers Campaign, in which Mao indicated his
supposed willingness to consider different opinions about how China should be governed. Given the
freedom to express themselves, liberal and intellectual Chinese began opposing the Communist Party
and questioning its leadership. This was initially tolerated and encouraged. After a few months, Mao's
government reversed its policy and persecuted those, totalling perhaps 500,000, who criticized, as well
as those who were merely alleged to have criticized, the Party in what is called the Anti-Rightist
Movement. Authors such as Jung Chang have alleged that the Hundred Flowers Campaign was merely
a ruse to root out "dangerous" thinking.[42]
Others such as Dr Li Zhisui have suggested that Mao had initially seen the policy as a way of
weakening those within his party who opposed him, but was surprised by the extent of criticism and the
fact that it began to be directed at his own leadership.[citation needed] It was only then that he used it
as a method of identifying and subsequently persecuting those critical of his government. The Hundred
Flowers movement led to the condemnation, silencing, and death of many citizens, also linked to Mao's
Anti-Rightist Movement, with death tolls possibly in the millions.

Great Leap Forward

Main article: Great Leap Forward
In January 1958, Mao Zedong launched the second Five-Year Plan known as the Great Leap Forward,
a plan intended as an alternative model for economic growth to the Soviet model focusing on heavy
industry that was advocated by others in the party. Under this economic program, the relatively small
agricultural collectives which had been formed to date were rapidly merged into far larger people's
communes, and many of the peasants ordered to work on massive infrastructure projects and the small-
scale production of iron and steel. Some private food production was banned; livestock and farm
implements were brought under collective ownership.
Under the Great Leap Forward, Mao and other party leaders ordered the implementation of a variety of
unproven and unscientific new agricultural techniques by the new communes. Combined with the
diversion of labor to steel production and infrastructure projects and the reduced personal incentives
under a commune system this led to an approximately 15% drop in grain production in 1959 followed
by further 10% reduction in 1960 and no recovery in 1961 (Spence, 553).
In an effort to win favor with their superiors and avoid being purged, each layer in the party hierarchy
exaggerated the amount of grain produced under them and based on the fabricated success, party cadres
were ordered to requisition a disproportionately high amount of the true harvest for state use primarily
in the cities and urban areas but also for export. The net result, which was compounded in some areas
by drought and in others by floods, was that the rural peasants were not left enough to eat and many
millions starved to death in the largest famine in human history. This famine was a direct cause of the
death of tens of millions of Chinese peasants between 1959 and 1962. Further, many children who
became emaciated and malnourished during years of hardship and struggle for survival, died shortly
after the Great Leap Forward came to an end in 1962 (Spence, 553).
The extent of Mao's knowledge as to the severity of the situation has been disputed. According to some,
most notably Dr. Li Zhisui, Mao was not aware of anything more than a mild food and general supply
shortage until late 1959.
"But I do not think that when he spoke on July 2, 1959, he knew how bad the disaster had
become, and he believed the party was doing everything it could to manage the situation"

Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, in Mao: the Unknown Story, alleged that Mao knew of the vast suffering
and that he was dismissive of it, blaming bad weather or other officials for the famine.
"Although slaughter was not his purpose with the Leap, he was more than ready for myriad
deaths to result, and hinted to his top echelon that they should not be too shocked if they
happened (438–439)."

In Hungry Ghosts, Jasper Becker notes that Mao was dismissive of reports he received of food
shortages in the countryside and refused to change course, believing that peasants were lying and that
rightists and kulaks were hoarding grain. He refused to open state granaries,[43] and instead launched a
series of "anti-grain concealment" drives that resulted in numerous purges and suicides.[44] Other
violent campaigns followed in which party leaders went from village to village in search of hidden food
reserves, and not only grain, as Mao issued quotas for pigs, chickens, ducks and eggs. Many peasants
accused of hiding food were tortured and beaten to death.[45]
Whatever the case, the Great Leap Forward led to millions of deaths in China. Mao lost esteem among
many of the top party cadres and was eventually forced to abandon the policy in 1962, also losing some
political power to moderate leaders, notably Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping. However, Mao and
national propaganda claimed that he was only partly to blame. As a result, he was able to remain
Chairman of the Communist Party, with the Presidency transferred to Liu Shaoqi.
The Great Leap Forward was a disaster for China. Although the steel quotas were officially reached,
almost all of it made in the countryside was useless lumps of iron, as it had been made from assorted
scrap metal in home made furnaces with no reliable source of fuel such as coal. According to Zhang
Rongmei, a geometry teacher in rural Shanghai during the Great Leap Forward:
"We took all the furniture, pots, and pans we had in our house, and all our neighbors did
likewise. We put all everything in a big fire and melted down all the metal."

Moreover, most of the dams, canals and other infrastructure projects, which millions of peasants and
prisoners had been forced to toil on and in many cases die for, proved useless as they had been built
without the input of trained engineers, whom Mao had rejected on ideological grounds.
The worst of the famine was steered towards enemies of the state, much like during the 1932–33
famine in the USSR.[46] As Jasper Becker explains:
"The most vulnerable section of China's population, around five per cent, were those whom
Mao called 'enemies of the people'. Anyone who had in previous campaigns of repression
been labeled a 'black element' was given the lowest priority in the allocation of food.
Landlords, rich peasants, former members of the nationalist regime, religious leaders,
rightists, counter-revolutionaries and the families of such individuals died in the greatest
numbers."[47]

At the Lushan Conference in July/August 1959, several leaders expressed concern that the Great Leap
Forward was not as successful as planned. The most direct of these was Minister of Defence and
Korean War General Peng Dehuai. Mao, fearing loss of his position, orchestrated a purge of Peng and
his supporters, stifling criticism of the Great Leap policies. Senior officials who reported the truth of
the famine to Mao were branded as "right opportunists."[48] A campaign against right opportunism was
launched and resulted in party members and ordinary peasants being sent to camps where many would
subsequently die in the famine. Years later the CPC would conclude that 6 million people were wrongly
punished in the campaign.[49]
There is a great deal of controversy over the number of deaths by starvation during the Great Leap
Forward. Until the mid 1980s, when official census figures were finally published by the Chinese
Government, little was known about the scale of the disaster in the Chinese countryside, as the handful
of Western observers allowed access during this time had been restricted to model villages where they
were deceived into believing that Great Leap Forward had been a great success. There was also an
assumption that the flow of individual reports of starvation that had been reaching the West, primarily
through Hong Kong and Taiwan, must be localized or exaggerated as China was continuing to claim
record harvests and was a net exporter of grain through the period. Because Mao wanted to pay back
early to the Soviets debts totaling 1.973 billion yuan from 1960 to 1962,[50] exports increased by 50%,
and fellow Communist regimes in North Korea, North Vietnam and Albania were provided grain free
of charge.[43]
Censuses were carried out in China in 1953, 1964 and 1982. The first attempt to analyse this data in
order to estimate the number of famine deaths was carried out by American demographer Dr Judith
Banister and published in 1984. Given the lengthy gaps between the censuses and doubts over the
reliability of the data, an accurate figure is difficult to ascertain. Nevertheless, Banister concluded that
the official data implied that around 15 million excess deaths incurred in China during 1958–61 and
that based on her modelling of Chinese demographics during the period and taking account of assumed
underreporting during the famine years, the figure was around 30 million. The official statistic is 20
million deaths, as given by Hu Yaobang.[51] Yang Jisheng, a former Xinhua News Agency reporter
who had privileged access and connections available to no other scholars, estimates a death toll of 36
million.[50] Various other sources have put the figure between 20 and 46 million.[52]
On the international front, the period was dominated by the further isolation of China, due to start of
the Sino-Soviet split which resulted in Khrushchev withdrawing all Soviet technical experts and aid
from the country. The split was triggered by border disputes, and arguments over the control and
direction of world communism, and other disputes pertaining to foreign policy. Most of the problems
regarding communist unity resulted from the death of Stalin and his replacement by Khrushchev.
Stalin had established himself as the successor of "correct" Marxist thought well before Mao controlled
the Communist Party of China, and therefore Mao never challenged the suitability of any Stalinist
doctrine (at least while Stalin was alive). Upon the death of Stalin, Mao believed (perhaps because of
seniority) that the leadership of the "correct" Marxist doctrine would fall to him. The resulting tension
between Khrushchev (at the head of a politically/militarily superior government), and Mao (believing
he had a superior understanding of Marxist ideology) eroded the previous patron-client relationship
between the CPSU and CPC. In China, the formerly favourable Soviets were now denounced as
"revisionists" and listed alongside "American imperialism" as movements to oppose.

Partly-surrounded by hostile American military bases (reaching from South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan),
China was now confronted with a new Soviet threat from the north and west. Both the internal crisis
and the external threat called for extraordinary statesmanship from Mao, but as China entered the new
decade the statesmen of the People's Republic were in hostile confrontation with each other.
At a large Communist Party conference in Beijing in January 1962, called the "Conference of the
Seven Thousand," State President Liu Shaoqi denounced the Great Leap Forward as responsible for
widespread famine.[53] The overwhelming majority of delegates expressed agreement, but Defense
Minister Lin Biao staunchly defended Mao.[53] A brief period of liberalization followed while Mao
and Lin plotted a comeback.[53] Liu and Deng Xiaoping rescued the economy by disbanding the
people's communes, introducing elements of private control of peasant smallholdings and importing
grain from Canada and Australia to mitigate the worst effects of famine.

5. Cultural Revolution undertaken by Mao Zedong

A Cultural Revolution Poster promoting relations between Enver Hoxha and Chairman Mao. The
Caption at the bottom reads, "Long Live the great Union between the Parties of Albania and China!" A
meeting between the two leaders, however, never really occurred
Mao was concerned with the nature of post 1949 China. He saw that the revolution had replaced an old
elite, with a new one. He was concerned that those in power were becoming estranged from the people
they were supposed to serve. Corruption was also a concern. Mao thought that a greater threat to China
was not from forces outside of the Communist Party, but from people from within who would subvert it
and create a new elite who would control the masses of the population, and not serve them (capitalism
from within). He thought that a renewal was required, a revolution of culture that would unseat and
unsettle the "ruling class" and keep China in a state of 'perpetual revolution' that served the interests of
the majority, not a tiny elite.[54]
There are political aspects to this period as well. Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping's prominence
gradually became more powerful. Liu and Deng, then the State President and General Secretary,
respectively, had favored the idea that Mao should be removed from actual power but maintain his
ceremonial and symbolic role, with the party upholding all of his positive contributions to the
revolution. They attempted to marginalize Mao by taking control of economic policy and asserting
themselves politically as well. Many claim that Mao responded to Liu and Deng's movements by
launching the Cultural Revolution in 1966, although the case for this is perhaps overstated.[55]
Believing that certain liberal bourgeois elements of society continued to threaten the socialist
framework, groups of young people known as the Red Guards struggled against authorities at all levels
of society and even set up their own tribunals. Chaos reigned in many parts of the country, and millions
were persecuted, including a famous philosopher, Chen Yuen. Mao is said to have ordered that no
physical harm come to anyone, but that was not always the case. During the Cultural Revolution, the
schools in China were closed and the young intellectuals living in cities were ordered to the countryside
to be "re-educated" by the peasants, where they performed hard manual labor and other work.
The Revolution led to the destruction of much of China's traditional cultural heritage and the
imprisonment of a huge number of Chinese citizens, as well as creating general economic and social
chaos in the country. Millions of lives were ruined during this period, as the Cultural Revolution
pierced into every part of Chinese life, depicted by such Chinese films as To Live, The Blue Kite and
Farewell My Concubine. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, perished in the
violence of the Cultural Revolution.[52]
When Mao was informed of such losses, particularly that people had been driven to suicide, he is
alleged to have commented: "People who try to commit suicide — don't attempt to save them! . . .
China is such a populous nation, it is not as if we cannot do without a few people."[56] The authorities
allowed the Red Guards to abuse and kill opponents of the regime. Said Xie Fuzhi, national police
chief: "Don't say it is wrong of them to beat up bad persons: if in anger they beat someone to death,
then so be it."[57] As a result, in August and September 1966, there were 1,772 people murdered in
Beijing alone.[58]

It was during this period that Mao chose Lin Biao, who seemed to echo all of Mao's ideas, to become
his successor. Lin was later officially named as Mao's successor. By 1971, however, a divide between
the two men became apparent. Official history in China states that Lin was planning a military coup or
an assassination attempt on Mao. Lin Biao died in a plane crash over the air space of Mongolia,
presumably in his way to flee China, probably anticipating his arrest. The CPC declared that Lin was
planning to depose Mao, and posthumously expelled Lin from the party. At this time, Mao lost trust in
many of the top CPC figures. The highest-ranking Soviet Bloc intelligence defector, Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai
Pacepa described his conversation with Nicolae Ceauşescu who told him about a plot to kill Mao
Zedong with the help of Lin Biao organized by KGB.[59]
In 1969, Mao declared the Cultural Revolution to be over, although the official history of the People's
Republic of China marks the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976 with Mao's death. In the last years
of his life, Mao was faced with declining health due to either Parkinson's disease or, according to Li
Zhisui, motor neurone disease, as well as lung ailments due to smoking and heart trouble. Some also
attributed Mao's decline in health to the betrayal of Lin Biao. Mao remained passive as various factions
within the Communist Party mobilized for the power struggle anticipated after his death.
This period is often looked at in official circles in China and in the west as a great stagnation or even of
reversal for China. While many — an estimated 100 million — did suffer,[60] some scholars, such as
Lee Feigon and Mobo Gao, claim there were many great advances, and in some sectors the Chinese
economy continued to outperform the west.[61] They actually go so far as to conclude that the Cultural
Revolution period actually laid the foundation for the spectacular growth that continues in China.
During the Cultural Revolution, China exploded its first H-Bomb (1967), launched the Dong Fang
Hong satellite (January 30, 1970), commissioned its first nuclear submarines and made various
advances in science and technology. Health care was free, and living standards in the country side
continued to improve.[61]

Death: Mao's final week and days

At five o'clock in the afternoon of September 2, 1976, Mao suffered a heart attack, far more severe than
his previous two and affecting a much larger area of his heart. X rays indicated that his lung infection
had worsened, and his urine output dropped to less than 300 cc a day. Mao was awake and alert
throughout the crisis and asked several times whether he was in danger. His condition continued to
fluctuate and his life hung in the balance.
Three days later, on September 5, Mao's condition was still critical, and Hua Guofeng called Jiang Qing
back from her trip. She spent only a few moments in Building 202 (where Mao was staying) before
returning to her own residence in the Spring Lotus Chamber.
On the afternoon of September 7, Mao took a turn for the worse. Jiang Qing went to Building 202
where she learned the news. Mao had just fallen asleep and needed the rest, but she insisted on rubbing
his back and moving his limbs, and she sprinkled powder on his body. The medical team protested that
the dust from the powder was not good for his lungs, but she instructed the nurses on duty to follow her
example later. The next morning, September 8, she went again. She demanded the medical staff to
change Mao's sleeping position, claiming that he had been lying too long on his left side. The doctor on
duty objected, knowing that he could breathe only on his left side, but she had him moved nonetheless.
Mao's breathing stopped and his face turned blue. Jiang Qing left the room while the medical staff put
him on a respirator and performed emergency cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Mao barely revived and
Hua Guofeng urged Jiang Qing not to interfere further with the doctors' work, as her actions were
detrimental to Mao's health and helped cause his death faster. Mao's organs were failing and he was
taken off the life support a few minutes after midnight. September 9 was chosen because it was an easy
day to remember. Mao had been in poor health for several years and had declined visibly for at least 6
months prior to his death.
His body lay in state at the Great Hall of the People. A memorial service was held in Tiananmen Square
on September 18, 1976. There was a three minute silence observed during this service. His body was
later placed into the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, even though he had wished to be cremated and had
been one of the first high-ranking officials to sign the "Proposal that all Central Leaders be Cremated
after Death" in November 1956.[62]

Cult of Mao
Mao's figure is largely symbolic both in China and in the global communist movement as a whole.
During the Cultural Revolution, Mao's already glorified image manifested into a personality cult that
influenced every aspect of Chinese life. Mao was regarded as the undisputed leader of China's working
class in their 100-year struggle against imperialism, feudalism and capitalism, which were the three-
evils in pre-1949 China since the Opium War. Even today, many Chinese people regard Mao as a God-
like figure, who led the ailing China onto the path of an independent and powerful nation, whose
pictures can expel the evil spirit and bad luck.
At the 1958 Party congress in Chengdu, Mao expressed support for the idea of personality cults if they
venerated figures who were genuinely worthy of adulation:
“ There are two kinds of personality cults. One is a healthy personality cult, that is, to worship ”
men like Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin. Because they hold the truth in their hands. The other is
 a false personality cult, i.e. not analyzed and blind worship.[63]
In 1962, Mao proposed the Socialist Education Movement (SEM) in an attempt to educate the peasants
to resist the temptations of feudalism and the sprouts of capitalism that he saw re-emerging in the
countryside from Liu's economic reforms. Large quantities of politicized art were produced and
circulated — with Mao at the center. Numerous posters, badges and musical compositions referenced
Mao in the phrase "Chairman Mao is the red sun in our hearts" and a "Savior of the people"
The Cult of Mao proved vital in starting the Cultural Revolution. China's youth had generally been
raised during the Communist era, which had taught them to idolize Mao. The youth also did not
remember the immense starvation and suffering caused by Mao's Great Leap Forward, and their
thoughts of Mao were generally positive. Thus, they were his greatest supporters. Their feelings for
him were of such strength that many followed his urge to challenge all established authority.
In October 1966, Mao's Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-Tung, which was known as the Little Red
Book was published. Party members were encouraged to carry a copy with them and possession was
almost mandatory as a criterion for membership. Over the years, Mao's image became displayed almost
everywhere, present in homes, offices and shops. His quotations were typographically emphasized by
putting them in boldface or red type in even the most obscure writings. Music from the period
emphasized Mao's stature, as did children's rhymes. The phrase Long Live Chairman Mao for ten
thousand years was commonly heard during the era, which was traditionally a phrase reserved for the
reigning Emperor.
Today, Mao is still regarded by some as the "never setting Red Sun". He has been compared to the Sage
Kings of the classical China[66]. Since 1950, over 40 million people have visited Mao's birthplace in
Shaoshan. Hunan[66]

Popular culture

A 1950 Chinese propaganda poster showing a happy family of five enjoying life under the image of
Mao Zedong. The caption above the picture says "Chairman Mao gives us happy lives".
Mao also has a presence in China and around the world in popular culture, where his face adorns
everything from t-shirts to coffee cups. Mao's granddaughter Kong Dongmei, defended the
phenomenon, stating that "it shows his influence, that he exists in people's consciousness and has
influenced several generations of Chinese people's way of life. Just like Che Guevara's image, his has
become a symbol of revolutionary culture."[67] He has been immortalized in the song "Revolution"
sung by The Beatles with the lyric, "And if you go carryin' pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain't gonna
make it with anyone anyhow."

Legacy
Mao's official portrait at the Tiananmen gate.
As anticipated after Mao’s death, there was a power struggle for control of China. On one side was the
left wing led by the Gang of Four, who wanted to continue the policy of revolutionary mass
mobilization. On the other side was the right wing opposing these policies. Among the latter group, the
restorationists, led by Chairman Hua Guofeng, advocated a return to central planning along the Soviet
model, whereas the reformers, led by Deng Xiaoping, wanted to overhaul the Chinese economy based
on market-oriented policies and to de-emphasize the role of Maoist ideology in determining economic
and political policy. Eventually, the reformers won control of the government. Deng Xiaoping, with
clear seniority over Hua Guofeng, defeated Hua in a bloodless power struggle a few years later.
Mao is regarded as a national hero of China. In 2008, China opened the Mao Zedong Square to visitors
in his hometown of central Hunan Province to mark the 115th anniversary of his birth.[68][69]
There continue to be disagreements on Mao's legacy. Some historians claim that Mao Zedong was a
dictator comparable to Hitler and Stalin,[70][71] with a death toll surpassing both.[3][4] Mao was also
frequently compared to China's First Emperor Qin Shi Huang, notorious for burying alive hundreds of
scholars, and liked the comparison.[72] During a speech to party cadre in 1958, Mao said he had far
outdone Qin Shi Huang in his policy against intellectuals: "He buried 460 scholars alive; we have
buried forty-six thousand scholars alive... You [intellectuals] revile us for being Qin Shi Huangs. You
are wrong. We have surpassed Qin Shi Huang a hundredfold."[73]
Mao's English interpreter Sidney Rittenberg wrote in his memoir The Man Who Stayed Behind that he
believes Mao never intended to cause the deaths and suffering endured by people under his
chairmanship. In his remarks on the matter Rittenberg has declared that Mao "was a great leader in
history, and also a great criminal because, not that he wanted to, not that he intended to, but in fact, his
wild fantasies led to the deaths of tens of millions of people."[67] Li Rui, Mao's personal secretary,
goes further and claims he was dismissive of the suffering and death caused by his policies: "Mao's
way of thinking and governing was terrifying. He put no value on human life. The deaths of others
meant nothing to him."[74] Historians such as Jung Chang argue that Mao was well aware that his
policies would be responsible for the death of millions saying for instance that "half of China may well
have to die."[75][76]
The United States placed a trade embargo on China as a result of its involvement in the Korean War,
lasting until Richard Nixon decided that developing relations with China would be useful in also
dealing with the Soviet Union.
Mao's military writings continue to have a large amount of influence both among those who seek to
create an insurgency and those who seek to crush one, especially in manners of guerrilla warfare, at
which Mao is popularly regarded as a genius. As an example, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)
followed Mao's examples of guerrilla warfare to considerable political and military success even in the
21st century.[citation needed] Mao's major contribution to the military science is his theory of People's
War, with not only guerilla warfare but more importantly, Mobile Warfare methodologies. Mao had
successfully applied Mobile Warfare in the Korean War, and was able to encircle, push back and then
halt the UN forces in Korea, despite the overwhelming strength of UN firepower.[citation needed]
Mao's poems and writings are frequently cited by both Chinese and non-Chinese. The official Chinese
translation of President Barack Obama's inauguration speech used a famous line from one of Mao's
poems.[77] John McCain misattributed a campaign quote to Mao several times during his 2008
presidential election bid, saying "Remember the words of Chairman Mao: 'It's always darkest before it's
totally black.'"
The ideology of Maoism has influenced many communists, mainly in the Third World, including
revolutionary movements such as Cambodia's Khmer Rouge,[78] Peru's Shining Path, and the Nepalese
revolutionary movement. The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA also claims Marxism-Leninism-
Maoism as its ideology, as do other Communist Parties around the world which are part of the
Revolutionary Internationalist Movement. China itself has moved sharply away from Maoism since
Mao's death, and most people outside of China who describe themselves as Maoist regard the Deng
Xiaoping reforms to be a betrayal of Maoism, in line with Mao's view of "Capitalist roaders" within the
Communist Party.[citation needed]
As the Chinese government instituted free market economic reforms starting in the late 1970s and as
later Chinese leaders took power, less recognition was given to the status of Mao. This accompanied a
decline in state recognition of Mao in later years in contrast to previous years when the state organized
numerous events and seminars commemorating Mao's 100th birthday. Nevertheless, the Chinese
government has never officially repudiated the tactics of Mao. Deng Xiaoping, who was opposed to the
Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, has to a certain extent rejected Mao's legacy,
famously saying that Mao was "70% right and 30% wrong".[citation needed]
In the mid-1990s, Mao Zedong's picture began to appear on all new renminbi currency from the
People’s Republic of China. This was officially instituted as an anti-counterfeiting measure as Mao's
face is widely recognized in contrast to the generic figures that appear in older currency. On March 13,
2006, a story in the People's Daily reported that a proposal had been made to print the portraits of Sun
Yat-sen and Deng Xiaoping.[79]
In 2006, the government in Shanghai issued a new set of high school history textbooks which omit
Mao, with the exception of a single mention in a section on etiquette. Students in Shanghai now only
learn about Mao in junior high school.[80]

4. Cosequences of Long march

Firstly, the internal power struggle within the Chinese Communist Party was resolved in favour of
Mao, who emerged as the undisputed leader, with his close friend Zhou En Lai as his second in
command.
Secondly, the Long March put the Communists well out of the reach of their enemies, the Nationalists
of the Kuo Min Tang and the Japanese invaders. Mao and the Communists could now reorganize,
regroup, and regain their strength in safety.
Finally, the Long March was long, arduous, and dangerous; only the toughest and strongest survived
the journey. The weak, the uncommitted and the hangers on died or deserted en route.
So, overall, the Chinese Communist Party emerged from the Long March a lean,mean, fighting
machine that would eventually takeover the whole of mainland China. .

Course of Long March

Long March lasted from 16 October 1934 to 19 October 1935.

Causes of Long March

The Long March was a massive military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Chinese
Communist Party, the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the
Kuomintang (KMT or Chinese Nationalist Party) army. There was not one Long March, but several, as
various Communist armies in the south escaped to the north and west. The most well known is the
march from Jiangxi province which began in October 1934. The First Front Army of the Chinese
Soviet Republic, led by an inexperienced military commission, was on the brink of complete
annihilation by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's troops in their stronghold in Jiangxi province. The
Communists, under the eventual command of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, escaped in a circling retreat
to the west and north, which reportedly traversed some 12,500 kilometers (8,000 miles) over 370 days.
[1] The route passed through some of the most difficult terrain of western China by traveling west, then
north, to Shaanxi.
The Long March began the ascent to power of Mao Zedong, whose leadership during the retreat gained
him the support of the members of the party. The bitter struggles of the Long March, which was
completed by only one-tenth of the force that left Jiangxi, would come to represent a significant
episode in the history of the Communist Party of China, and would seal the personal prestige of Mao
and his supporters as the new leaders of the party in the following decades.

Background to the Long March

The Red Army in 1934
Although the literal translation of the Chinese Cháng Zhēng is “Long March”, official publications of
the People's Republic of China refer to "The Long March of the Red Army". The Long March most
commonly refers to the transfer of the main group of the First (or Central) Red Army, which included
the leaders of the Communist Party of China, from Yudu in the province of Jiangxi, to Yan'an in
Shaanxi. In this sense, the Long March lasted from 16 October 1934 to 19 October 1935. In a
broader view, the Long March included two other forces retreating under pressure from the
Kuomintang: the Second Red Army and the Fourth Red Army. The retreat of all the Red Armies was
not complete until 22 October 1936, when the three forces linked up in Shaanxi.
The divisions of the "Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army" were named according to historical
circumstances, sometimes in a nonconsecutive way. Early Communist units often formed by defection
from existing Kuomintang forces, keeping their original designations. By the time of the Long March,
numerous small units had been organized into three unified groups, the First Red Army), the Second
Red Army and the Fourth Red Army Some translations refer to these same units as the “First Front
Red Army", “Second Front Red Army” and “Fourth Front Red Army" to distinguish them from the
earlier organizational divisions. The First Red Army formed from the First, Third and Fifth Army
Groups in southern Jiangxi under command of Bo Gu and Li De (Otto Braun). When the Fourth Red
Army under Zhang Guotao was formed in the Sichuan-Shaanxi border area from several smaller units,
no standard nomenclature of the armies of the Communist Party existed; moreover, during the Chinese
Civil War central control of separate Communist-controlled enclaves within China was limited. After
the organization of these first two main forces, the Second Red Army formed in eastern Guizhou by
unifying the Second and Sixth Army Groups under He Long and Xiao Ke. A “Third Red Army" was led
by He Long who established his base area in the Hunan-Hubei border; by 1932 his forces were soundly
defeated and in October 1934 merged with the 6th Army Corps led by Xiao Ke to form the Second Red
Army. The three armies would maintain their historical designation as the First, Second and Fourth Red
Armies until Communist military forces were nominally integrated into the National Revolutionary
Army, forming the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army, during the Second Sino-Japanese
War from 1937 to 1945.

Civil war
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), founded in 1921 by Chen Duxiu with Soviet support, initially
collaborated with the Chinese Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT), founded by the revolutionary
republican Sun Yat-sen. After the unexpected death of Sun in March 1925, a power struggle within the
KMT favored Chiang Kai-shek, whose Northern Expedition forces succeeded in wresting control of
large areas of China from local warlords, establishing a unified government in Nanjing in April 1927.
Unlike other nationalist leaders, like Wang Jingwei, Chiang was hostile to continued collaboration with
the Communists. This initial period of cooperation to unify China against the feudal warlords and the
Japanese Empire ended abruptly in April 1927 when Chiang Kai-shek struck out against the
Communists. Unsuccessful urban insurrections (in Nanchang, Wuhan and Guangzhou) and the
suppression of the Communist Party in Shanghai and other cities finally drove many party supporters to
rural strongholds such as the Jiangxi Soviet organized by Mao Zedong. By 1928, deserters and
defecting Kuomintang army units, supplemented by peasants from the Communist rural soviets, formed
the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. The ideological confrontation between the CCP and the
KMT soon evolved into the first phase of the Chinese Civil War.

By 1930, the Communist Red Army had established the Chinese Soviet Republic in the provinces of
Jiangxi and Fujian around the city of Ruijin, including industrial facilities.[3] Between 1930 and 1933,
four attempts by Chiang to defeat the Communists were repelled by forces led by Mao. In spite of these
successes, the Soviet Union and Comintern-influenced leaders of the party distrusted the ideas of Mao,
who held that the rural Chinese peasants, not the urban proletariat, were the Communist party's base. In
September 1933, the National Revolutionary Army under Chiang Kai-shek eventually completely
encircled Jiangxi, with the advice and tactical assistance of his German adviser, Hans von Seeckt.[4] A
fortified perimeter was established by Chiang's forces, and Jiangxi was besieged in an attempt to
destroy the Communist forces trapped within. In July 1934, the leaders of the party, dominated by the
"Twenty-Eight Bolsheviks", a militant group formed in Moscow by Wang Ming and Bo Gu, forced
Mao from the Politburo of the Communist Party in Ruijin and placed him briefly under house arrest.
Mao was replaced by Zhou Enlai as leader of the military commission,[5] and the Chinese Red Army
was commanded by a three man military committee, including a German military advisor Otto Braun
the Comintern military advisor Bo Gu, and Zhou. The committee abandoned Mao's tactics of mobile
warfare against the Kuomintang forces. Direct engagements with the Nationalist army soon caused
heavy casualties and loss of material and territory. Mao would later write of this period:
"By May 1928, basic principles of guerilla warfare, simple in nature and suited to the conditions
of the time, had already been evolved...But beginning from January 1932...the old principles were
no longer to be considered as regular, but were to be rejected as 'guerilla-ism'. The opposition to
'guerilla-ism' reigned for three whole years."[6]

In August 1934, with the Red Army depleted by the prolonged conflict, a spy placed by Zhou Enlai in
the KMT army headquarters in Nanchang brought news that Chiang Kai-shek was preparing a major
offensive against the Communist capital, Ruijin. The Communist leadership decided on a strategic
retreat to regroup with other Communist units, and to avoid annihilation. The original plan was to link
up with the Second Red Army commanded by He Long, thought to be in Hubei to the west and north.
Communications between divided groups of the Red Army had been disrupted by the Kuomintang
campaign, and during the planning to evacuate Jiangxi, the First Red Army was unaware that these
other Communist forces were also retreating westward.

Retreat and battles

The First Red Army
The first movements of the retreat were undertaken by forces led by Fang Zhimin, breaking through
Kuomintang lines in June 1934. Although Fang Zhimin's troops were soon destroyed, these movements
surprised the Kuomintang, who were numerically superior to the Communists at the time and did not
expect an attack on their fortified perimeter.
The early troop movements were actually a diversion to allow the retreat of more important leaders
from Jiangxi. On 16 October 1934, a force of 130,000 under Bo Gu and Li De attacked the line of
Kuomintang positions near Yudu. More than 86,000 troops, 11,000 administrative personnel and
thousands of civilian porters actually completed the breakout; the remainder, largely wounded or ill
soldiers, continued to fight a delaying action after the main force had left, and then dispersed into the
countryside.[7] Several prominent members of the Chinese Soviet who remained behind were captured
and executed by the Kuomintang after occupation of Ruijin in November 1934, including Qu Qiubai
and the youngest brother of Mao Zedong, Mao Zetan.
Initially, the First Red Army, with its baggage of top communist officials, records, currency reserves
and other trappings of the exiled Chinese Soviet Republic, fought through several lightly defended
Kuomintang checkpoints, crossing the Xinfeng river and through the province of Guangdong, south of
Hunan and into Guangxi. At the Xiang River, Chiang Kai-shek had reinforced the KMT defenses. In
two days of bloody fighting, 30 November to 1 December 1934, the Red Army lost more than 40,000
troops and all of the civilian porters, and there were strongly-defended Nationalist defensive lines
ahead. Personnel and material losses after the battle of the Xiang river affected the morale of the troops
and desertions began. By 12 December 1934, during a meeting of Party leaders in Tongdao, discontent
with Bo Gu and Otto Braun appeared and Mao Zedong began a more active role in the leadership.

Under these conditions, the Communists met in Zunyi in Guizhou province from January 15–17, 1935
to reshuffle the Party politburo. Although the failed leadership of Bo Gu and Li De was denounced,
after three days Mao was not able to win the support of a sufficient number of Party leaders to gain
outright power at the conference. Mao was passed over for the position of General Secretary by Zhang
Wentian, but gained enough influence to be elected one of three members of Military Affairs
Commission. The other two members, Zhou Enlai (appointed Director of the Commission) and Wang
Jiaxiang, whose support Mao had enlisted earlier,[8] were not as highly regarded in military affairs,
leaving Mao in effective control of the First Red Army after the Zunyi conference.
When the army resumed its march northward, the direct route to Sichuan was blocked by Chiang's
forces. Mao's forces spent the next several months maneuvering to avoid direct confrontation with
hostile forces, but still attempting to move north to join Zhang Guotao's Fourth Red Army.[9] During
this period, in February 1935, Mao's wife, He Zizhen, gave birth to a daughter. Given the harsh
conditions of the retreat, the infant was left with a local family.[10] Two British men retracing the Long
March route in 2003 met a woman in rural Yunnan province, said by local officials to be Mao and He
Zizhen's long-lost daughter.[11]

By moving south and west, the First Red Army finally broke out of Guizhou and crossed the Yangtze
on May 8, 1935. The Communist forces had now been on the move for seven months since leaving
Jiangxi and had only 25,000 men left. Penetrating northward into areas populated by ethnic minorities
hostile to Chinese encroachment, the Communist forces were harassed not only by the Kuomintang and
their local warlord allies, but also by tribes hostile to all ethnic Chinese. The terrain was another
formidable opponent: the Red Army had to cross mountains and rivers, often capturing river crossings
heavily defended by hostile warlords and Nationalist troops, such as the Luding Bridge.

The Fourth Red Army

In July 1935, the troops under Mao united with the Fourth Red Army, led by Zhang Guotao, which had
retreated west from Henan. The Communist leadership was determined to move into Shaanxi province,
although the decision was not unanimous. Zhang Guotao preferred to establish a refuge near the border
with the Soviet Union. In command of a much smaller force, Mao carefully avoided Zhang's discovery
of this fact, and overcame Zhang's influence over the subordinate commanders of the Communist
forces. After disagreement over the direction in which the troops should move, the two forces split up.
[12] Zhang Guotao's Fourth Red Army, which took a different route, south, then west and finally north
through China, was largely destroyed by the forces of Chiang Kai-shek and his Chinese Muslim allies,
the Ma clique. The remnants of Zhang's forces joined elements of the Second Red Army, eventually
linking up with Mao's forces in Shaanxi.[13]

The Second Red Army

The Second Red Army began its own withdrawal west from Hubei in November 1935, led by He Long,
who commanded the KMT Twentieth Army in 1923 before joining the Communist Party of China
(CPC). In retribution, Chiang Kai-Shek had He Long's relatives executed, including three sisters and a
brother. In 1932 he established a soviet in the Hunan-Kiangsi border area, and in August 1934 received
command of the Second Red Army, establishing a base in Hubei. An advance party of the First Red
Army called the Sixth Group, commanded by Xiao Ke, was sent towards the Second Red Army two
months before the beginning of the Long March. Xiao Ke's force would link up with He Long and his
army, but lost communication with the First Army that came behind.
On November 19, 1935, the Second Red Army set out on its own Long March. He Long's force was
driven further west than the First Red Army, all the way to Lijiang in Yunnan province, then across the
Jade Dragon Snow Mountain massif and through the Tibetan highlands of western Sichuan. He Long
and Xiao Ke were married to sisters who also accompanied the army. He Long's wife, Jian Xianren,
carried the baby daughter she had given birth to three weeks before the retreat began. Jian Xianfo gave
birth to a son in the desolate swamps of northern Sichuan.[14] Forces of the Second Army detained two
European missionaries, Rudolf Bosshardt and Arnolis Hayman, for 16 months.[15] Bosshardt later
related his account of the details of daily life on the Long March in a book.[16]

Union of the three armies

Mao's First Red Army traversed several swamps and suffered ambushes from the Tibetans and the
Hui[citation needed]. Finally, in October 1935, his army reached Shaanxi province. The remnants of
Zhang's Fourth Red Army eventually joined Mao in Shaanxi, but with his army destroyed, Zhang, even
as a founding member of the CCP, was never able to challenge Mao's authority.[13] After an expedition
of almost a year, the Second Red Army reached Bao'an (Shaanxi) on 22 October 1936, known in China
as the “union of the three armies”, and the end of the Long March.
All along the way, the Communist Army confiscated property and weapons from local warlords and
landlords, while recruiting peasants and the poor. Nevertheless, only some 8,000 troops under Mao's
command, the First Front Army, ultimately made it to the final destination of Yan'an in 1935. Of these,
less than 7,000 were among the original 100,000 soldiers who had started the march. A variety of
factors contributed to the losses including fatigue, hunger and cold, sickness, desertion, and military
casualties. During the retreat, membership in the party fell from 300,000 to around 40,000.[17]

Aftermath
While costly, the Long March gave the Communist Party of China (CPC) the isolation it needed,
allowing its army to recuperate and rebuild in the north of China. It also was vital in helping the CPC to
gain a positive reputation among the peasants due to the determination and dedication of the surviving
participants of the Long March. Mao wrote in 1935:
 "The Long March is a manifesto. It has proclaimed to the world that the Red Army is an army of
heroes, while the imperialists and their running dogs, Chiang Kai-shek and his like, are impotent.
It has proclaimed their utter failure to encircle, pursue, obstruct and intercept us. The Long March
is also a propaganda force. It has announced to some 200 million people in eleven provinces that
the road of the Red Army is their only road to liberation."[18]

In addition, policies ordered by Mao for all soldiers to follow, the Eight Points of Attention, instructed
the army to avoid harm to or disrespect for the peasants, in spite of the desperate need for food and
supplies. This policy won support for the Communists among the rural peasants.[12]
Hostilities ceased while the Nationalists and Chinese Communists formed a nominal alliance during the
Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 until 1945. During these years, the Chinese Communist Party
persevered and strengthened its influence. The Red Army fought a disciplined and organized guerilla
campaign[19] against superior Japanese forces, allowing it to gain experience. Following the end of
World War II, the resurgent Communist Eighth Route Army, later called the People's Liberation Army,
returned to drive the Kuomintang out of Mainland China to the island of Taiwan. Since the
establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the Long March has been glorified as an
example of the Communist Party's strength and resilience. The Long March solidified Mao's status as
the undisputed leader of the CCP. Other participants in the March also went on to become prominent
party leaders, including Zhu De, Lin Biao, Liu Shaoqi, Dong Biwu, Ye Jianying, Li Xiannian, Yang
Shangkun, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping.
In 2003, controversy arose about the distance covered by Mao's First Front Army in the Long March.
[20] The figure of 25,000 li (12,500 kilometres or about 8,000 miles[1]) was Mao's estimate, quoted by
his biographer Edgar Snow in Red Star Over China, published not long after the end of the Long March
in 1938. In 2003, two British researchers, Ed Jocelyn and Andrew McEwen,[12] retraced the route in
384 days,[12][14] and in their 2006 book "The Long March" estimated the March actually covered
about 6,000 km (3,700 miles). Jocelyn and McEwen conclude in their book that "Mao and his followers
twisted the tale of the Long March for their own ends. Mao's role was mythologized to the point
where ... it seemed he had single-handedly saved the Red Army and defeated Chiang Kai-shek". Mao
exaggerated, perhaps even doubled, the length of the march, they believe.[21] Their report has been
disputed by the Chinese media, citing "The 25,000 li of the Red Army's Long March are a historic fact
and not open to doubt."[22] However, even at the time that Edgar Snow's account was written, there
were estimates that the distance traveled was closer to 18,000 li (6,000 miles).[23]
The Chinese government produced a movie in 2006, My Long March,[24][25] relating personal
experiences of a fictional participant in the Long March.