ABSTRACT
The Long March, a frantic flight by the Chinese Communists from otherwise certain destruction by the Nationalists, brought about a reversal of power relationships within the Chinese Communist Party. While the Chinese Communists were being pursued and decimated in the Chinese hinterland, Moscow made a major foreign policy demarche. The new united front policy consisted primarily of several elements. On the 25 th of December the central leadership convened a Politburo conference at Wayaopao to discuss the new policy. The problem for Mao Tse-tung, therefore, was to preempt the policy field from Chang Kuo-t'ao and thereby prevent him from making a bid for the party leadership on the basis of the new policy line. Wang Ming, the Chinese Communist Party's representative on the Executive Committee of the Comintern, delivered the major speech outlining the policy to be adopted in the colonial and semi-colonial areas.
