1936+Extermination+Campaign

 //GOOD ARGUMENT BELOW TO STUDY FOR EXAM//  **As Condition for the Rise of Mao's Single Party State, how can this event be said to have strengthened him?**

The Extermination Campaign of 1936 strengthened Mao and his party. Mao had requested a “united front” between the GMD and the CCP in order to fight the Japanese. However, Kaishek refused this and ordered the Extermination Campaigns. In the Extermination Campaigns, the GMD was ordered to wipe out the CCP. From this alone Mao most likely gained some support from the Chinese people who were not members of either the GMD or the CCP. Then, when Mao heard of the Extermination Campaigns, he and Zhang, the leader of the Japanese army, made a deal not to fight against each other. It took months before Kaishek finally found out about this, and when he did he re-ordered the Extermination Campaigns. **This helped strengthen Mao in his rise to power because it showed that Mao knew when to stand on his own two feet and when to align with other parties**. It also showed that Kaishek was a bit slow on the uptake, and the Chinese people could not afford to be behind a leader that didn’t know exactly what was going on. It also strengthened Mao because it showed that Mao wasn’t vicious towards the other parties when he didn’t need to be; as the call for an “Extermination Campaign” is a bit extreme.