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ON 15 JANUARY 1935, a consequential meeting of the Communist Party of China politburo began in the city of Zunyi. Its deliberations would help Mao Zedong (above) take control of the CPC. Zunyi had been captured from nationalist forces the week before as part of the “Long March,” the Red Army’s response to the Kuomintang’s Fifth Encirclement Campaign against the Jiangxi Soviet.
By the time of the Zunyi conference, the Red Army had been on the retreat from pursuing Kuomintang forces for three months. On 16 January, Mao who had been chairman of the Jiangxi Soviet but lost much of his political and military power once the central party leadership relocated to the province in the early 1930s launched a blistering criticism of the CPC’s military line, as he had done in two recent politburo conferences, at Tongdao and Liping in December 1934. At Zunyi, a majority of the delegates agreed with his proposal to renew a guerrilla campaign against the Kuomintang and attempt to force decisive battles rather than continue the “pure defence” line of simply resisting the inexorable advance of nationalist forces. The Three-Man Group that had been coordinating the military effort, led by the German communist Otto Braun, was abolished. Mao was elected to the politburo’s standing committee and appointed to assist Zhou Enlai in commanding the Red Army.