The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has governed the People's Republic (PRC) for more than seventy years. Throughout their books, Joseph Fewsmith and Tony Saich provide a fascinating interpretation of the early experiences of this ruling party and how it has self-adapted over time. One of the intersecting and recurring themes is the CCP's steadfast efforts to establish and control a state apparatus. Both authors assert that despite many governance problems, the major threat comes from divisions within the highest levels of power rather than from unrest at the bottom.
Fewsmith outlines two phases of communist movement at the local level after the doom of the First United Front. The front, established in 1924, was a groundbreaking alliance between the Kuomintang and the CCP with the aim of ending warlordism and Republican government in Beijing and achieving national unification. This collaboration led to the creation of the National Revolutionary Army, which...
