Mao, Lin Biao and the Fifth Encirclement Campaign

In: The China quarterly, Volume 82, p. 250-280

Abstract

In more respects than one, the Fifth Encirclement Campaign launched by Chiang Kai-shek in 1933–34 against the Jiangxi Soviet may be considered as an important landmark in contemporary Chinese history. From a purely military standpoint, in view of its scope and the particular means used, it is undoubtedly the first modern Chinese campaign. General Jacques Guillermaz points out, quite rightly, that "the methodical nature of the operations, the importance given to fire power and logistical resources, and the tactical use of large and small units all bring the Fifth Campaign closer to certain phases of the 1914–18 war than to traditional Chinese civil wars." Precisely because of its scope and its methodical nature, the Fifth Campaign, rather than the first four, led Mao, after the Long March, to evolve a theory of guerrilla warfare which "has broken out of the bounds of tactics to knock at the gates of strategy." This theory, applied first of all to the war against Japan and later to the Third Revolutionary Civil War, was to change the face of China.