As with other nations that embraced Communism, its appeal resided in the fact that it promised to bring harmony and order to a setting of fragmentation and disorder. The emergence of China after the Sino- Japanese War was one in which China was victorious, but financially crippled. There was no means by which China was able to generate any kind of profit and at the same time, the political leadership did not present a vision to the Chinese people about how life should be constructed after the conflict with the Japanese was resolved. Mao had a vision, though. He was eager to share it with the Chinese people. The vision of Mao's brand of Communism appealed to the Chinese body politic because it helped to establish a sense of control and structure to a people ripped apart by foreign war and then domestic civil war. At such a point, Communism's appeal was "the other," a recognition that anything that could be seen as plausible was superior to what was happening. With the eventual retreat of the Kuomanting, the people understood Communism as something that can provide stability and structure to a people yearning for some type of restorative vision. In this, China's Communism began with a broad- based appeal.
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