History 352

Questions from Red Star Over China

by Edgar Snow 

1. What incident occurred just after Mr. White’s entry into Soviet China what led to rumors of his death or capture? 

2. When Mr. White met Mao at Pao An, what views did the latter express about the importance of defeating Japan compared to the conflict with the Kuomintang (KMT)? 

3. What military strategy did Mao recommend employing against the Japanese? 

4. Describe the role of Red Theater as an instrument of the Chinese Communist movement. 

5. How did Mao’s experiences as a child and youth shape his views as a revolutionary? 

6. What kind of a reception was initially given to Mao’s ideas on agrarian reform and the role of the peasant in the revolutionary movement by the Communist party inside and outside of China? 

7. Where was the role of the proletariat in Mao’s vision of the revolution? 

8. Describe the tactics used by the Red Army to successfully engage the Kuomintang (KMT) during the latter’s first four extermination campaigns.  What made the KMT’s fifth campaign successful? 

9. Describe the Long March of 1934-35.  How did the Red Army manage to cross the Yangtze and Tatu Rivers? 

10. How many persons are estimated to have started on the Long March?  How many of the original group reached their destination?  Approximately how far did they travel in the how many days? 

11. Describe the activities taking place in the Shensi Soviet at the time of Mr. White’s visit and trip to the front.  What was the nature of the Soviet’s finances, its economy and its system of trade? Why were the local inhabitants loyal the Soviet and the Red Army? 

12. What were the ten tactics of partisan warfare according to Pieng Teh- huai? 

13. What were the reasons given by representatives of the Red Army for claiming that peasants preferred Red Bandits to White Bandits? 

14. Why were the Chinese Communists interested in forming a Moslem Army?  What barriers existed to doing so?  How were they overcome? 

15. What was the nature and extent of Russian influence on and support for the Chinese Communist?  What caused fluctuations in the relationship between the Chinese Communist and the COMINTERN? 

16. What happened at Sian on December 12, 1936 that changed the entire character of the conflict in China?  Explain the circumstances leading to this incident and the outcome. 

17. Explain the factors at work in the Kuomintang-Communist alliance against Japan as described by Mr. Snow. 

18. When did the Kuomintang-Communist Alliance begin to dissolve? Why?