CCP's Promise to Ethnic Minorities

Guerilla armies usually face many problems when they subsequently take over the reins of power, and the Chinese Communist Party is no exception, particularly when it comes to delivering on some of its promises.

During the famed Long March, the Red Army was almost wiped out amidst the mountains of Guizhou (贵州), Yunnan (云南) and Sichuan (四川) by the fierce and warlike Yi tribes, a Tibetan race whose land straddle the mountains.

By promising the Yi chieftains better treatment if the Communists won power, the Red Army was allowed to continue on its way to the loess plateau.

Communist general Liu Bocheng was even said to have cemented an alliance with the Yi chieftain by drinking chicken blood in a ceremony that made them blood brothers.

As Jasper Becker wrote in his book The Chinese, during this period where the Party was desperate for support, it even promised the minorities the right to self-determination.

Mao Zedong (毛泽东) was said to have declared that "the Mongol, Hui, Tibetan, Miao, Li and Gao Li peoples can voluntarily decide whether to break away from the Chinese Soviet Federation to set up independent regions."