WAR YEARS  
Elected first chairman of the new Chinese Soviet Republic in 1931, Mao defied the urban-oriented Communist Central Committee to initiate moderate land reform, a policy attractive to the peasants. Working with the former warlord Zhu De (Chu Teh), he evolved new guerrilla tactics that drew the Kuomintang forces deep into the hostile countryside, where they were harassed by the peasant militia and destroyed piecemeal by the Red Army. In 1934, however, Chiang made a last effort to counter these tactics by throwing a blockade around the Communist bases. Bursting through, Mao and the Red Army undertook the 9,600-km (6,000-mi) Long March north-west to Shaanxi (Shensi), where they set up new bases.

Meanwhile, the Japanese, anxious to expand commercial and territorial interests in China, had invaded Dongbei (1931) and north-eastern China (1932). Mao, acting more as a patriot than a socialist, persuaded his colleagues to oppose the Japanese, and in 1937 Chiang again reluctantly allied himself with the Communists. Relinquishing revolutionary policies during World War II, the Communists carried out hitherto unimplemented Nationalist reforms, such as reduced land rents, fair taxes, and representative village government. Aided by these measures and at the same time brutally treated by the Japanese, the peasants of North China rallied to increase manyfold the Red Army and militia.

During these years Mao's first wife was shot by the Nationalists, and he divorced his second. In 1939 he married the film actress Lan P'ing, who became known as Jiang Qing (Chiang Ch'ing) and after 1964 played an increasingly important role in the party.

The successful Communist guerrilla resistance against the Japanese contrasted with the Nationalists' retreat to south-western China. By 1946 the Communist party was identified with the interests of the peasant majority. Mao, head of the Communist party since the Long March, had become a national leader. Unwilling to cooperate after World War II, Mao and Chiang resumed the civil war. By 1949 corruption and inflation had destroyed the remaining credit of the Nationalists, and the Communists had captured most of China. The People's Republic of China was proclaimed and Mao was elected chairman.