Numerous advisors had been telling Chiang that the only serious threat to his long-term power in the Guomindang (GMD) was Deng Yanda. In his explanation of the failure of the GMD, Zhang Junmai included a critique of Sun Yat-sen's final efforts to synthesize his ideas on revolution. Zhang argued that Sun's inability to resolve the contradiction between his courtship of Marxist materialism and the fundamental metaphysical orientation of his ideas created an atmosphere of confusion and ambiguity within the revolutionary movement. The scientific orientation that attracted Deng to Marxism and materialism caused him to reject both traditional Chinese culture and the dogmatic posturing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Deng had always argued that communism was untimely in semicolonial, semifeudal China, a nation with a miniscule proletariat and underdeveloped industrial base. He felt that whatever power the CCP did acquire derived from its ability to exploit the grinding poverty and misery of the people.