Sarah Paine

This is the white terror.

Why?

Because he thinks that while he's away fighting, they're trying to take over his government.

He's correct.

So he keeps on moving there.

There's a nominal unification of China under nationalist rule when this takes place.

In addition, once he's done with that, then he wants to eliminate the communists for good.

And so he runs a series of five encirclement campaigns around their base areas that are scattered in South China.

The primary base area, base area is also called a Soviet, is the Jiangxi Soviet.

And on the fifth encirclement campaign, Chiang Kai-shek is finally successful.

And he sends them off on the Long March up to way up north in desolate Yan'an.

Long March is a real misnomer.

It's the long route.

And the communists lose 95% of their forces.

I believe in English, decimate, lose, it means to lose 10%.

Losing 95%, I think you need a whole new verb for what's happened to you.

But Chiang Kai-shek doesn't wipe them out because he's suffering from divided attentions.

When the West did the original, well, both the United States and Europe, the United States does its original America first thing with a holly smooth tariff.

putting tariffs up to historic highs.

And then everybody, of course, retaliates.