People's war

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People's War (Simplified Chinese:人民战争; Traditional Chinese: 人民戰爭; Pinyin: rénmín zhànzhēng), officially called the Protracted People's War, is a military strategy developed by Mao Zedong and the Communist Party of China as an alternative to the conventional struggle brought by the Bolsheviks. The military strategy is adopted by Maoists, who claim that the People's War is universal and can span across all nations provided that it is adapted to the material conditions. The only parties to use the People's War are the Communist Party of China and Maoist Guerrilla Groups such as the Shining Path, Communist Party of India (Maoist), and the Communist Party of the Philippines.

The Strategy

In its original formulation by Chairman Mao Zedong, people's war exploits the few advantages that a small revolutionary movement has—broad-based popular support can be one of them—against a state's power with a large, professional, well-equipped and well-funded army. People's war strategically avoids decisive battles, since a tiny force of a few dozen soldiers would easily be routed in an all-out confrontation with the state. Instead, it favors' a three-phase strategy of protracted warfare, with carefully chosen battles that can realistically be won.

In phase one, the revolutionary force conducting people's war starts in a remote rural region with mountainous or forested terrain in which its enemy is weak. It attempts to establish a local stronghold known as a revolutionary base area. As it grows in power, it enters phase two, establishes other revolutionary base areas and spreads its influence through the surrounding countryside, where it may become the governing power and gain popular support through programmes such as land reform. Eventually in phase three, the movement has enough strength to encircle and capture small cities, then larger ones, until finally it seizes power in the entire country.

The Strategy

Further Reading