Father of Chinese Communism: Chairman Mao Zedong {Part 2: Steady Rise to Power}
Hi guys, I trust we are all doing fine? So we continue with the biography on the famous Chairman Mao Zedong of China.You can check out Part 1 of the story by clicking here.
While The Nationalist Party held on to power, the Communist Party focused on growing and increasing in numbers as Mao slowly climbs up the ladder in the heirachy of the party. In 1927, his party superiors gave 34 years old Mao a grand title known as Commander in Chief of the Red Army. Funny enough, at this time it was only a small militia with the task of steering up revolution in the villages. He wasted no time to strategize on how to simply turn the peasants against their land owners to achieve the revolution he so much desired. He recalls from his philosophy books and is a staunch believer that "the end will always justify the means", turning him into a cold hearted fella who dI'd not care about who got hurt. Certain individuals were labeled tyrants, criticized and executed in these villages.
The bloody Chinese Civil War taught Mao a lot of lessons which moulded him in his unstoppable rise to ultimate power in China. He became convinced that politics had to be violent as nobody gives up power willingly, he said it had to be forcefully drag from people. He famously said “All power grows out of the barrel of a gun”. The brutality he enforced consequently had an effect on Mao himself, all the violence happening around him got him feeling some sort of ecstacy which he had never experienced before. He simply transforms into a saddist intoxicated by violence.
His efforts and talents were instantly recognized and his political career kicked off. He was then placed in charge of enforcing “right-thinking” in the party’s ranking file. The role allowed him to learn another important lesson that “controlling what people think can make a leader supremely powerful”. He had began developing a personality and was also spreading his ideas in The Communist Party. Mao further went ahead to appoint himself the Supreme Authority on Communist Thoughts and used it to leverage on his apparent rise to power. His rise to power was accelerated much further when outsiders Japan took advantage of the political chaos happening in China.
Japan Invades China
In 1931, China’s longterm enemy for ages invaded and seized the entire Northern Province of Manchuria, China. The Nationalist Party defence was no match for the offences launched by the Japanese. With a full scale Japanese invasion in sight, the communist party looked to seize the opportunity of the unrest and tried to topple their rivals but failed. Mao’s name was made in a retreat to evade the Nationalist Army, which lasted for about a year and was called the "Long March of 1935".
The long March of 1935
Over time, with the death toll on a rise, Mao was practically left as the last man standing. Soon enough, at the age of 42, through violence, thought control and some luck, he achieved his goal and was appointed “Leader of Chinese Communist Party”. From this postion, he could implement his master plan to become the sole and ultimate ruler of all China.
Don't forget to check out the next post for Part 3 of the Mao Zedong Biograpghy series. kindly drop your comments as I most look forward to reading through them. Thank you
Remember to continue to #staysafe&postive this pandemic era. I'd also love to acknowledge the brave soldiers on the frontline in this battle against COVID-19, you guys are my heroes.