B4, key topic 2 - The triumph of Mao and the CCP, 1934–49

Long March Survival And Leadership

The Long March began as a retreat, not a victory parade. In the early 1930s, Chiang Kai-shek's Guomindang tried to destroy the Communist base in Jiangxi through a series of encirclement campaigns. Earlier campaigns had been resisted with mobile guerrilla tactics, but the fifth campaign was more dangerous. The Guomindang used blockhouses, larger forces and steady pressure to tighten control around the Communist area.

In October 1934, the Communist forces broke out of Jiangxi and began the Long March. They moved through some of China's most difficult terrain, crossed rivers and mountains, and fought or avoided Guomindang forces as they travelled. The exact figures vary, but the pattern is clear: a very large force left Jiangxi, and only a much smaller force eventually survived to rebuild in the north-west.

The events of the Long March mattered in three connected ways.

First, it preserved the CCP. The party lost huge numbers of people, but it avoided complete destruction. Survival was the first condition for later victory. If the CCP had been crushed in 1934-35, there would have been no Communist army strong enough to expand during the war with Japan or fight the Civil War after 1945.

Second, the Long March helped Mao rise to command authority. At the Zunyi Conference in January 1935, Mao gained influence because the existing military line had failed. He did not become all-powerful in one moment, but Zunyi became a turning point in his rise. Mao's supporters could argue that his flexible, mobile style was better suited to Communist survival than the more conventional tactics that had helped cause disaster in Jiangxi.

Third, the Long March created a powerful political story. The march could be presented as proof of discipline, sacrifice and revolutionary faith. That story mattered because parties do not win civil wars by weapons alone. They also need belief, loyalty and legitimacy. The Long March gave the CCP a founding myth: the idea that its leaders and soldiers had been tested by suffering and had survived.

The end point was also important. The Communists eventually established themselves around Shaanxi and Yan'an in north-west China. This was not a rich or easy base, but it gave the CCP breathing space. It was also closer to areas affected by Japanese expansion, which later allowed the CCP to present itself as a patriotic force resisting Japan.

Misconception check: the Long March did not make the CCP militarily stronger in the short term. It weakened the Red Army badly. Its importance was that it saved the party, strengthened Mao's claim to leadership and created the political legend that later helped bind the movement together.

War With Japan And CCP Growth

The war with Japan transformed the struggle between the CCP and the Guomindang. Before 1937, Chiang Kai-shek had focused heavily on defeating the Communists. After Japan's full-scale invasion in 1937, the Guomindang and CCP formed the Second United Front against Japan. This did not mean they trusted each other. It meant that Japanese aggression forced them into temporary cooperation.

The Red Army was reorganised under the wartime alliance. Communist forces became associated especially with the Eighth Route Army in north China and the New Fourth Army in central China. In theory these forces were under Nationalist direction. In practice, they remained strongly tied to the CCP and developed their own bases, methods and political influence.

The CCP's wartime role was especially important behind Japanese lines. Japan often controlled cities, major railways and strongpoints more easily than the countryside around them. Communist organisers moved into rural areas, built local governments, created self-defence units, spread propaganda, recruited soldiers and used guerrilla warfare. This suited the CCP because it had experience in rural mobilisation and did not need to win large set-piece battles to expand its influence.

The war also allowed Mao to strengthen the party at Yan'an. Yan'an became more than a military base. It was a political and ideological centre where cadres were trained, Mao's ideas were promoted and the CCP presented itself as disciplined, patriotic and close to ordinary peasants. This mattered because the CCP wanted to look different from a remote or corrupt government.

The Guomindang's limitations became more visible during the same years. A balanced answer should not say simply that the Guomindang "did nothing" against Japan. The Nationalist government bore much of the conventional fighting, lost many of its best troops, moved its capital inland to Chongqing, and suffered from Japanese occupation of major cities, ports, railways and industrial areas. Those losses help explain why the Guomindang was weaker after 1945.

However, the Guomindang had serious weaknesses:

The war with Japan therefore changed the balance. The Guomindang remained internationally recognised and controlled the central government, but it emerged damaged and unpopular. The CCP emerged from the war with stronger rural bases, a larger army, a patriotic reputation and more experience of governing local communities.

Civil War Key Features

When Japan surrendered in 1945, the old conflict between the Guomindang and the CCP returned. There were attempts to avoid full civil war, including negotiations between Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong and mediation by the United States. These efforts failed because both sides wanted to dominate China's future and neither trusted the other enough to share military and political power.

At first glance, the Guomindang seemed to have major advantages. It controlled the recognised government of China, held many cities, had foreign support from the United States, and could move troops into areas formerly occupied by Japan. The CCP had fewer major cities and less international recognition.

Yet the CCP had advantages that were less obvious but increasingly important. It had strong rural bases in north and north-east China, disciplined troops, committed political workers, experience in guerrilla warfare, and a reputation for being closer to ordinary peasants. It could also benefit from Japanese weapons left in Manchuria and from the strategic opportunities created when Soviet forces withdrew from the region.

The Civil War from 1946 to 1949 had several key features.

The capture of Yan'an shows why the war cannot be understood only by looking at maps. In 1947 the Guomindang took the CCP's famous base, but Mao and the main Communist forces survived. The Guomindang gained a place; the CCP preserved its army. In a civil war, that difference mattered.

By 1948 the initiative had shifted. The PLA was no longer only a guerrilla force hiding in the countryside. It could concentrate forces, surround cities, defeat large Nationalist armies and turn captured soldiers or equipment to its own advantage. This shift led to three huge campaigns in 1948-49: Liao-Shen in Manchuria, Huai-Hai in central China, and Ping-Jin around Beijing and Tianjin. Huai-Hai was especially important for the official key topic.

Model mini-paragraph:

One key feature of the Civil War was that early Nationalist territorial gains did not produce final victory. The Guomindang captured important places such as Yan'an, but the CCP avoided losing its main army and continued to build support in the countryside. This meant that by 1948 the PLA could move from survival to large-scale offensives, while Nationalist forces became increasingly isolated and demoralised.

Huai-Hai And The Turning Point

The Battle of Huai-Hai, fought from November 1948 to January 1949, was one of the decisive campaigns of the Civil War. It took place in central eastern China, around the strategically important Xuzhou-Suzhou area and the rail links near the Huai River and the Lunghai Railway. This mattered because control of central China affected whether the Nationalists could defend the Yangtze River line and hold southern China.