I've been learning more about Chinese history recently, and one thing that really stood out to me was how violent the CCP's internal politics were. Thousands of party members were tortured and executed during internal power struggles, often without any serious ideological differences between the factions. Most notably for me, just after having successfully completed the Long March and with the CCP at its lowest ebb, with just a few thousand half starved soldiers, Mao ordered an army commanded by his rival Zhang Guotao to make a suicidal attack against the Ma warlords, where tens of thousands of Communist soldiers were killed, all so Mao could sideline one of his rivals for political power

All of this is just hard to understand for me - CCP leaders were willing to murder their internal rivals who shared the same ideology and goals as them, as well as tens of thousands of loyal party rank-and-file in the process, even as the party was a small hunted force constantly on the brink of destruction by their ideological enemies. On the contrary, it would seem to make much more sense to band together while the party was in jeopardy, only fighting internal battles once the larger struggle was won. Yet the reverse was true - when the CCP was small and hunted, it fought intense internal battles, but once the Party was growing in strength and eventually on the road to defeat the Nationalists, Mao and the CCP were far more willing to accept former KMT members and defectors into their ranks

Thank you in advance!