Chen Yao-huang, 2012, Domination and Disintegration: Communist Revolution in Hebei, 1921-1949, 510 pages, Taipei: Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica.

The Chinese Communist Party was born in a divided Chinese society. As a result, the Party could not exert dominance by the power of organization from the top down, nor did it want to be engulfed by the communities it was trying to rule. Therefore, the CCP had to tolerate social diversity through its United Front strategy, while at the same time working to rip Chinese society apart through class struggle in order to achieve its goals. In the end, the CCP was able to build an enormous party-state on the foundations of China’s diverse communities. The history of Communist revolution in Hebei is a concrete example of how this process played out at the local level.