The conditions at the time were more important than the methods used in the rise to power of one authoritarian leader

The political importance of the Chinese peasantry is vital in understanding Mao’s consolidation of power in 1949. It was their oppression that incited the hatred towards the Kuomintang and constituted the large scale support for communism. By 1935, 90% of China’s population were peasants and subjected to the KMT’s crippling policies of high tax and rent. KMT troops would visit the countryside, ransack houses, steal food and often beat whoever they found there, creating widespread disillusionment with the regime and desire for political revolution. This relentless ill-treatment demonstrated the failure of the KMT to recognise the strength the peasants in their masses could potentially behold, a mistake that lead to their downfall and Mao’s rise. However, Mao employed campaign techniques such as strategically promoting and emphasising the importance of peasants with various propaganda schemes and expanding his ideology that focused on reforming the rigid social classes whilst exploring his ideas on a self-reliant China. It was these methods that resonated with the Chinese public and gained him much support but it could be argued he was just a man making the most of the prior maltreatment of the Chinese, an opportunist exploiting the long and short term conditions that had created the need for radical change.Political instability and corruption were major long term problems for pre-communist China. Ruled by the Qing dynasty until 1912, the Xinhai Revolution resulted in the formation of the Republic of China, led by Sun Yat-sen. However, the downfall of the ancient imperial system had weakened central power and warlords took ownership of rural provinces, whilst foreigners remained in control of industry and dominated trade. Sun Yat-sen was unable to gain the support he required for national unification so handed over presidency to Yuna Shikai, the corrupt military general who controlled the army. The inability of any man or party to centralise power meant constant political unrest and any reform for the peasantry dismissed as focus was placed on winning the power struggle, not the implementation of domestic policies. The peasants continued to barely survive; the landlord would take 70% of the harvest, leaving the workers barely enough to live on and any questioning was responded to with violence. Chiang Kai-Shek, a successor of Sun Yat-sen, aimed to modernise China between 1928 and 1931, whilst strengthening the political position of the KMT. However, his desire for accessible healthcare and small industrial cooperatives was counteracted with the corruption of many civil servants, who purposely behaved inefficiently to stop reforms that would potentially affect officials. The communists also added weight to the instability, becoming a threat to the KMT and thereby enemies of Chiang. All communist insurgents were killed if found but rural areas continued to be controlled by warlords and communists. Despite his dream for their eradication, communism gained support during this time, especially after the peasant farmers were again subjected to “short-term” problems of floods and famine in 1931 without any solutions being offered.The invasion of the Japanese also had a huge impact and created certain conditions within China that allowed the infiltration and subsequent overtaking of communism. On the 7th July 1937, Japan launched an attack on Manchuria, which resulted in the control of all coastal urban centres by 1939 and by 1944 further advances led to the occupation of Guangxi and Guizhou. The Chinese people living in these areas suffered terribly, Rana Mitter writes in her book The Struggle for Survivial, China’s War with Japan, that “The belief of the Japanese that the Chinese were so racially inferior fuelled their hatred”. Any POW’s captured were transported to remote locations, tortured and killed. Japanese soldiers were encouraged to inflict maximum pain in order to strengthen their resolve for future battles, evidence of which recorded by photos and filmed footage, taken at the time. Smiling soldiers can be seen holding decapitated heads, standing beside dismembered corpses and soaking prisoners with gasoline before setting them on fire. The brutality did not end there, more than 20,000 Nanking women were gang raped by Japanese soldiers, then stabbed to death or shot. From mid December 1937, the people of Nanking saw their city relentlessly attacked for more than 6 weeks. Burning buildings, random shootings, looted shops, thefts and property destruction were all the result of the Japanese army, the incredible carnage created faced little resistance or retaliation, igniting Chinese hatred for the supposedly ruling KMT, who focused more on annihilating communism than fighting the Japanese. The horrific treatment of the Nanking people and the minimal intervention of the KMT spread across China, providing the Communists with a powerful propaganda campaign against them and for many defining the moment in which Communism became the way forward. Despite the upheaval and unrest that dominated Chinese society, Mao’s campaigning methods were effective and many would argue success cannot be entirely attributed to the conditions at the time. Mao realised the potential of the peasants and consolidated his power by empowering them. An example of this is the Communist’s strategy to gradually defeat the warlords who used the peasants as slaves; Mao introduced land reforms, giving the conquered land back to those who worked on it, drastically improving living standards and gaining the support of many. The Long March was also a powerful recruiting method for Mao and its occurrence subsequently established him as the leader of the party. On the 16th October 1934, The Red Army, which consisted mainly of peasants, began their march from Jiangxi, in order to escape defeat, from the KMT. Under the eventual command of Mao, the soldiers moved north and west, over some of China’s most difficult terrain, an estimated 6,000 miles over a period of 370 days. While passing through areas, the army would confiscate property of the warlords, recruit peasants and disseminate communist ideology, providing Mao with evidence for him to later describe the march as a “manifesto” and a reminder to all Chinese citizens of the strength of the communist army. The historian Sun Shuyun wrote of the communist mentality “If you find it hard, think of the long march; if you feel tired, think of our revolutionary forbears. The message has been drilled into us so that we can accomplish any goal set before us by the party, because nothing compares in difficulty with what they did“. Not only did the long march become an extremely powerful tool which Mao used to elevate his profile within the party, it also projected a positive and futuristic image for communism. In conclusion, the combination of short and long term conditions as well as Mao’s strategical political campaigns resulted in his rise to power. The Quing dynasty had revolved around elitism and a rigid class structure but when overthrown, domestic issues such as poverty and starvation still remained unresolved as the KMT could not centralise power. The growing threat of communism and the invasion of the Japanese made it virtually impossible for China to focus on national policy. From 1937-1945, the KMT used their resources to fight the Japanese in order to eject them from the territory they occupied, when this battle ended in 1945, focus was then placed on eradicating communism, no reforms for the peasants were introduced. This contributed enormously to the general sense of unhappiness with the KMT and provided Mao with not only an opportunity to otherthrow a failing regime but to also gain the support of those the KMT had largely ignored; the peasants. It was also the campaigning methods Mao used that facilitated his establishment of the People’s Republic of China. He never underestimated the peasants and by realising their potential as a mass, he could make the smallest good deed in one area, a massive propaganda campaign in another. Many believe The Long March sealed Mao’s rise to power. Despite the high number of deaths, Mao projected it as a win for communism, demonstrative of the strength and resilience he believed the Chinese people would support. It later became part of the core of Mao’s manifesto, influencing his ideology and becoming, an event that would give credence to his policy of national self-reliance and change the course of China’s politics forever.