China in Power Politics, 1928-1937: from Disunity to Coalition

1. The "August First Uprising" - In Nanchangof Kiangsi, for example, Chou En-lai (周恩來) and Chu Teh (朱德) succeeded in stimulating a military revolt in the KMT army on August 1, 1927. However, it was soon put down by other KMT forces. Since this was the first uprising of the CCP, "August First" is now celebrated every year by Communist China as the "Founding Day of the People's Liberation Army (PLA)”.
2. The Autumn Harvest Uprising - On the other hand, in Changsha of Hunan, Mao Tse-­tung led the so-called "Autumn Harvest Uprising"in September. Because the Communists were poorly armed and had no popular support, the uprising was equally unsuccessful.

1. Mao Tse-tung and Chu Teh on Chingkangshan - After the Changsha uprising, Mao Tse-tung retreated to Chingkangshan on the border of Kiangsi and Hunan in 1929. He was later joined by Chu Teh, who had experienced a similar failure in Nanchang.
2. Beginning of Communism in the countryside - From then on, no longer under the strict and close control of the CCP headquarters in Shanghai, young Communists like Mao Tse-tung and Chu Teh could turn away from bookish arguments and actually go into the countryside to organize the peasants.
3. Rise of Li Li-san at the CCP headquarters - Ch'u Ch'iu-pai was held responsible by Soviet Russia for the ill-prepared and ill-directed uprisings. He was called back to Moscow. Real power at the CCP headquarters fell into the hands of Li Li-san. But as CCP members like Mao and Chu had started organizing the peasants in villages far away from Shanghai the CCP headquarters soon found itself increasingly unable to control overall Communist activities in China. Worried about the growing power of Mao and Chu, Li Li-san ordered them to divide their forces into small guerrilla units. Mao and Chu, however, refused, on the ground that a concentration of forces was needed for the construction of a safe territorial base. In this way, the Chinese Communist movement was divided into two levels: one in the city, the other in the countryside.
4. Mao and Chu free from Russian control - Since Russian control of the Chinese Communist movement stopped short at the CCP headquarters, Mao and Chu were free to test their own revolutionary policy, disregarding orders from Soviet Russia.
5. Peasants or workers - As both coalition with the KMT and urban uprisings proved to be unworkable, only two policies were left for use: Mao's idea of organizing peasants in the countryside, and Li Li‑sans idea of organizing workers in the city.

The peasants on Chingkangshan were quite unfriendly to the Communists. Consequently, in 1929, Mao and Chu decided to move to a new base in the border region in Juichin between Kiangsi, Fukien and Kwangtung. There they established a Soviet Republic. In China, there had always been a traditional lack of cooperation between the provinces in suppressing rebellions if such rebellions broke out on the provincial borders.This was why Mao chose Chingkangshan and Juichin as bases, for both these regions were situated between a few provinces.

1. Steps - Generally, when Mao and his men arrived at a village, they would first organize the peasants by setting up peasant associations. Then, armed bands of peasants would be formed to stimulate and spread uprisings against the landlords and local KMT officials. The landlord's land and properties would be seized, confiscated, and distributed among the land­less peasants. Local self-governments would be set up under Communist supervision and direction. Labour teams and production cooperatives would be created. When more and more villages had in this way been brought under Communist control, a Soviet (i.e. an economically self-sufficient and elected government organized on Communist principles) would be created.
2. Land Revolution - According to Marxism, all land should be confiscated by the Communists and then re-distributed equally among the peasants. To the poor peasants, this was of great benefit. The middle and upper (richer) peasants, however, did not welcome any such revolution. This was because they had always held land greater than the average village land­holding, which meant that the land they would receive after re-distribution by the Communists must necessarily be smaller in size than the land they originally had had. For the sake of strengthening popular support for the Communist movement, Mao Tse-tung did not want to displease these middle and upper peasants. Thus, he allowed them to retain all or part of their land as private property, even though Communism did not permit private property in theory. In so doing, Mao was changing original Marxist-Leninist ideas to suit China's conditions. He was introducing a Chinese version of Communism.
3. Encouragement given to economic development - Meanwhile, because middle and upper peasants were permitted to hold their land, agricultural productivity was raised. Trade, on the other hand, was encouraged by the Communists. For example, the Red Army was sent to protect local fairs.

1. For the sake of keeping local law and order, local self-defence units (militias) were set up in the villages held by the Communists. Village people were taught to fight battles or to cut wood for making primitive weapons. A spying network was set up, by which the villages provided valuable military-strategic informa­tion for the Red Army. In effect, therefore, every village was turned into a fighting base.
2. The Red Army continuously expanded in size. Despite the low pay and strict discipline of the Army, many peasants volunteered to join it. This was because, unlike the traditional Chinese army which usually treated the people badly, the Red Army behaved well, helped the people in their daily village work, and succeeded in winning confidence among the peasants. Whereas the KMT had to spend about 3/4 of its yearly income on military spending alone, the Red Army was self-supporting and did not need CCP money to maintain it.
3. In terms of military strategy, Communist soldiers avoided meeting the far more numerous KNIT troops face to face in battles. Instead, surprise attacks, ambushes of the enemy's military supplies, and unexpected small-scale invasions were carried out. With a good spying system between the villages, this guerrilla strategy was successful. The KNIT forces were unable to destroy the Communists for three reasons:
   1. effective KMT control over the villages was lacking,
   2. cooperation from the masses was absent, and
   3. KMT soldiers were not used to guerrilla fighting.

The Communists lived, worked and ate with the people. They felt they were saving the lives of thousands of poor peasants. A strong sense of unity and mission developed among the Communists, for the following reasons:

1. The Communists had a common ideal to fight for Communism. They had complete confidence in their final victory. In contrast, the KMT consisted of many opportunists who cared for their self-interests only.
2. The CCP members as a group were looked down upon and threatened by other classes of Chinese society. The Communists realised that in order to work for the Communist movement in such an unfavourable environment, they must stand together.
3. Officers of the Red Army had to fight side by side with the common soldiers. Therefore, whereas the leaders had friendly relations with the soldiers, the soldiers had confidence in their leaders. The poverty in the countryside offered no oppor­tunities for corruption nor promotion prospects via favouritism. This contributed to the Communist spirit of honest government and unselfish public service. Because China's countryside was generally, free from foreign influence, anti-foreign and anti-imperialist feelings remained uncomplicated and strong. In such simple surroundings, the Communists therefore enjoyed stronger unity.

With the effective use of propaganda and public meetings, the Communists succeeded in arousing the political consciousness of the ignorant peasants and filling them with intense nationalism.

Mao Tse-tung told his fellow Communists and the Red Army not to spread control over a territory wider than that they could hold. They were to concentrate on working in a self-supporting territorial base, and to avoid carry­ing out ill-prepared uprisings against the KMT.

The Juichin Republic, which was established by Mao Tse-tung and Chu Teh in 1929, grew in power quickly. This was because:

1. Their revolutionary programs attracted new members and won social support.
2. Some non-Communist leftist groups in China joined Mao's revolutionary movement because they were persecuted by the KMT.
3. A number of KMT soldiers changed sides and joined the Communists, owing to harsh treatment by the KMT or the attractions of Communism as an ideology.
4. Those CCP members who tried to betray the party and surrender to the KMT were punished severely. On one occasion, the relatives of a Communist traitor's extended, family were all executed by the Juichin government.

1. Effective military strategy of the KMT - The new military strategy of economic blockade that Chiang Kai-shek adopted in the 5th extermination campaign was effective.
2. Ineffective military strategy and unpopular land policy of the CCP - Within the CCP, the "returned students" understood little about the conditions in China. Whereas Mao Tse-tung favoured guerrilla strategy and limited land reform, these Russia­supported members adopted positional warfare against KMT forces and introduced violent land confiscation. Consequently, the Red Army was defeated badly by Chiang Kai-shek, while the peasants stopped giving support to the Communist Movement.
3. Failure of the CCP to ally with rebellious soldiers of the KMT - In 1933, the CCP failed to give support to and cooperate with the rebellious KMT soldiers in the Fukien Revolt. If it had done so the CCP might have been strengthened against the KMT.

1. Re-adoption of Mao Tse-tung's policies - Mao Tse-tung's policies proved to be correct. Both the guerrilla strategy and the moderate land reform that he advocated were to be re-adopted and remained unchallenged in the Chinese Communist Movement till after 1945.
2. Counter-revolution in the Kiangsi base - The KMT re-established control over former Communist territories, cancelled all Communist measures like land reform, and put landlords back in the villages. Chiang Kai-shek's chance of winning peasant support was forever lost.
3. Beginning of the Long March - The CCP was forced to abandon its territorial base and started the so­called Long March (1934-35).