GradeGen

The Chinese Communist Party, which governed China under Mao.

The Chinese Communist Party, led by Mao Zedong during the Chinese Civil War.

The Chinese Civil War of 1945–49 was a struggle for control of China between Mao Zedong’s Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chiang Kai-shek’s Guomindang, or Nationalists. They had cooperated against Japan during the Second World War, but Japan’s defeat in August 1945 did not settle their rivalry. Attempts to negotiate a lasting agreement failed, and large-scale fighting resumed in 1946.

The Chinese Communist Party: the political organisation led by Mao Zedong that controlled China’s government after the communist victory in 1949.

The Chinese Communist Party, the ruling political party in Mao’s China.

The Chinese Communist Party, which ruled mainland China under Mao Zedong from 1949.

Explain causal links. For example, land reform encouraged peasant support, which helped the CCP recruit soldiers and sustain its campaigns.

Distinguish the CCP’s National Congress from the National People’s Congress, which was a state institution.

Distinguish Mao’s aim of removing alleged ‘capitalist roaders’ from the wider attacks on CCP authority.