Page "Long March" Paragraph 25

After the establishment of the Jiangxi Soviet, Mao's status within the Party declined.

In 1930, Mao claimed a need to eliminate alleged KMT spies and Anti-Bolsheviks operating inside the Jiangxi Soviet and began an ideological campaign featuring torture and guilt by association, in order to eliminate his enemies.

The campaign continued until the end of 1931, killing approximately 100, 000 people and reducing the size of the Red Army from 40, 000 to less than 10, 000.

Although the de facto leader of the party at the time, Zhou Enlai, originally supported Mao's purges as necessary to eliminate KMT spies, after he arrived in Jiangxi in December 1931 Zhou criticized Mao's campaigns for being directed more against anti-Maoists than legitimate threats to the Party, for the campaign's general senselessness, and for the widespread use of torture to extract confessions.

Following Zhou's efforts to end Mao's ideological persecutions the campaigns gradually subsided in 1932.