From the Long March 1934 to Tiananmen 1989
From Workers’ Liberty 12-13 The Chinese Communist Party [after its defeats in 1926-7 thanks to Stalin’s policy, and then its conversion from a working-class socialist party, however misled, into a Stalinist political machine] more and more it withdrew from the towns, until by the mid-30s it had no influence or implantation in the towns worth speaking of. Because of the weakness of the central state, the poor communications and transport, and the vast distances, the Maoist “warlords” could resist the central state’s drives against them. Chiang [and the GMD], who saw the Maoists for the threat...