ABSTRACT
This chapter covers the rivalry and competition between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Guomindang (GMD) from 1927 through the CCP’s Long March of 1935–1936. It provides an overview of the limited accomplishments and major problems of the Guomindang regime, including a description of Chiang’s New Life Movement, and Chiang’s first military campaigns against the CCP. It then turns to the development of the CCP, focusing on the rise and transformative (for Marxism) ideas of Mao Zedong, in particular how Mao made the peasantry rather than the proletariat, as Marxism called for, the class on which to base a Communist revolution in China. It also covers disputes within the CCP and how Mao ruthlessly dealt with his rivals, foreshadowing what would occur after the CCP came to power. Finally, the chapter covers Mao’s successful fifth extermination campaign against the CCP and the resultant Long March of 1935–1936, during which Mao became the leader of the CCP.
