Father of Chinese Communism: Chairman Mao Zedong {Part 3: Power and Fear}

Mao in Yun'an

Taking off from where we stopped in the previous post, we continue to explore the events that took place in Chairman Mao Zedong’s life as the ruler of Great China.

After Mao became the Leader of the Chinese Communist Party, in 1937 the party was attacked on two fronts by both the Nationalist party and the invading Japanese looking to crush an unstable China. He decided to have his base at Yan’an which was already wrecked by the civil war. The city is popularly believed to be a communist utopia where young idealists could think freely. Most of the people there were youths who were made to believe that communism meant equality. Over the years, several youths flocked to Yan’an all in the cause of liberating China because they felt The Nationalists were not doing well enough in the fight against the Japanese invaders.

However, you can trust Mao to have other plans for these young Chinese loyalists to the communist party in his ever scheming brain. He intended to turn these faithfuls into a force that is totally obedient to him and eventually take him to his aspired position of power. He saw the Japanese invasion as an opportunity for him to seize power after the war was over. He eventually uses the experience gathered during his days when climbing up the chain of power in the communist party to become a terror instilling fear in people.

Mao's obedient youths being trained for war at Yun'an

Mao abolished the egalitarian society the Chinese people actually sort and created a hierarchy with him at the apex. Basic human needs such as housing, food, and clothing were graded. This left some members as poor as church rats while Mao himself, got access to the best of everything. All hopes of equality as expected in communism were dashed. Mao then used his power to set a trap which lured opponents into the open. He came up with a strategy that worked perfectly where he pretended to be open and informed his followers that they could challenge him on moves he made. A sect of followers came up with posters of their grievances hoping they could settle amicably with the leader.

Mao was however quick to react and subjected their leader to excruciating torture which made him give a false confession that he was a Nationalist spy and also forced the leader to implicate some of his comrades who were totally innocent, after which he was eventually killed. These appalling acts of Mao were meant to pass a clear message to others. Everyone had to fall in line with whatever he said was right, else they’d lose their lives, striking fear into the very core of his followers’ hearts on a big scale while he ensured that he remained in the shadows and not soil his hands directly with such acts.

At the same time, Mao was always insecure claiming he saw spies everywhere. Killing and torture were firmly established at the very heart of his political philosophy known as “Maoism”. This eventually gave Mao a brainwashed army of about 500,000 Chinese peasants loyal to him only through fear.

Mao's loyal peasants