AN UNLIKELY ALLIANCE

A decade of relentless warfare waged by Chiang Kai-shek’s KMT had all but dashed the Communist Party’s hopes of seizing power. By 1935 the retreat from their mountain hideaway in the south ended and the communists, now firmly under Mao Tse-tung’s leadership, were trapped in the arid canyons of Shaanxi, their manpower and weapons almost depleted.

Further territorial expansion was futile since the KMT, with the support of its German advisors, controlled the outlying cities and had an air force