Chinese Leadership In The Chinese Revolution

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------------------------------------------------- Chinese Leadership in the Chinese Revolution On October 1st 1949 Mao Zedong proclaimed victory of the Chinese Civil war and established a communist nation called the People's Republic of China. Through this achievement he was able to drive the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) from mainland China and created a political and economic system similar to the USSR. Acknowledging the sheer size and outside support for the Nationalist Party, historians were amazed as to the success of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over the KMT considering the fact that they were originally at a disadvantage. Although they were regarded as an unlikely winner, there were two key reasons why they were still able to defeat the Nationalist Party. These reasons were because of the successful leadership of Mao Zedong and the failing leadership of Chiang Kai-shek. Mao Zedong’s Leadership Since Mao’s humble beginnings in the early 20th century he had a strong loyalty to the peasant communities. As the son of a peasant father, he believed that the peasant communities contained the greatest numbers of people that could mobilize a large revolutionary force. By providing land reforms and redistribution of food, he gained popularity that allowed him to establish the necessary support to fight the Nationalist Party. In 1927 he became commander-in-chief of the "Revolutionary Army of Workers and Peasants". Although unsuccessful in the “Autumn Harvest Uprising” he was able to re-structure his command in order to strengthen his power and influence. After the uprising, his forces had become spread far and wide. As a result, Mao was able to reorganize his forces into in small regiments. This was accomplished by establishing a decentralized command system where each regiment would have a commissar as leader who would take orders from a superior
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