The Legacy of the Chinese Revolution

I've always thought that like other communists elsewhere, the Chinese communists came to power not knowing how to handle the complexities of running a state.

Not so it seems.

According to Frederick C. Teiwes, the CCP came to power with extensive experience in running substantial quasi-states. Such experience, he noted, went back more than two decades to the Jinggangshan (景岗山) and other base areas during the southern phase of the revolution, and during the anti-Japanese war involving territories in north and east China populated by upward of 100 million people.

"While such areas were tenuously held and subject to significant fluctuations in the extent of control, they nevertheless did provide training in the tasks of government for a substantial corps of cadres who continued in their own areas or were dispatched to other regions with the nationwide takeover in 1949." (Frederick C. Teiwes, "The Maoist State" in "The Modern Chinese State" Ed David Shambaugh)

Thus, when the CCP entered cities and towns all over the country, it came with at least a core of seasoned officials rather than "impractical revolutionaries."