The Long March: lessons in overcoming the impossible

The Chinese Red Army’s arduous journey 90 years ago offers a powerful reminder that collective resolve can overcome even the most daunting obstacles, says OLIVER VARGAS

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SICHUAN is at the forefront of setting cultural trends for those around the world boarding the “chinamaxxing” train.

This south-western province has filled the social media feeds of all curious people with streetside hotpot and cuddly pandas. These USPs are cultural ambassadors, fantastic opportunities for sorely needed cultural exchange at a time when conflict and uncertainty cloud much of our world today.

However, the mountains, lakes and grasslands of this incredible province are also the cradle of a world-changing historical process that has shaped our reality, and which should inspire us all, at both a collective and even individual level.

From 1934, the Communist Party of China’s Red Army embarked on a truly daring and awe-inspiring mission, the Long March. A two-year-long odyssey in which revolutionary fighters broke out of encirclement in the south to march the length and breadth of China’s vast national territory for the dream of liberation.

They marched for two years on foot, without resources, without external aid, with nothing but the clothes on their backs and the support of the people.

I recently followed the steps of the Red Army — not the entire journey, but to the key sites of their time in one province, Sichuan. Here, they crossed their most difficult terrain through snow-capped mountains and endless muddy grasslands, so as to reach the north and defend their country from the Japanese invasion at the time.

As a foreigner, I was aware of the general history, but experiencing the terrain in person was something else entirely. In the process, I learned something very fundamental about the endless capacity of human achievement against all the odds — something that can inspire us across the Global South at a time when wars of aggression and sanctions are dialled up on countries that choose an independent path.

At a time when my own continent, Latin America, is now openly discussed as a territory for colonial expansion and subjugation under the “Donroe Doctrine.”

The response from some is resignation and panic, but the Long March shows us that no mountain is too high.

Our starting point was the southern counties of Sichuan, today the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, where the Red Army entered the province and immediately faced a challenge that became a hinge point in the success of the Long March.

These hills are home to numerous ethnic minority communities, the largest of whom are the Yi people. We spoke to village leaders there who recalled how people’s first reaction was fear. These were communities that had suffered years of subjugation at the hands of the state and regional warlords who press-ganged their young men into fighting wars that were not their own, while leaving the communities in desperate poverty at best, massacres at worst.

However, the Red Army were the first to not only respect the local culture and people, but to explain their programme and show how they were fighting for the liberation of all Chinese people across all ethnic lines. Through words and deeds, they won the support of these communities, who even signed a blood pact with the CPC to join the Red Army in huge numbers. They also provided crucial navigational guides and knowledge needed to cross their ancestral mountains.

Achieving a common goal and seeking common prosperity, not by lecturing or obligating others, but by leading through example and embracing partners as equals. This is something we see today as the world strives for co-operation and multilateralism against the failed vision of those trying to shore up unipolar hegemony through bullying.

We then moved further north to the Dadu River, site of perhaps the most iconic moment of the entire odyssey. The Dadu River crossing, almost unknown outside of China, is a testament to how human beings can overcome even the most unimaginable obstacles.

All the work building alliances and winning the support of the people — that was groundwork for when their backs were against the wall. Sometimes in life, everything aligns against you; sometimes you’re surrounded and there’s no clear way out.

The Red Army had to cross this river to march north. However, they were surrounded on all sides by the enemy. Historical precedent was also an albatross around their neck. Failure to cross this river destroyed part of the Taiping Rebellion, a huge peasant uprising in the 1800s.

Chiang Kai-shek’s forces arrogantly sneered at how Mao Zedong was destined to end as those who led that rebellion to ruin.

Rather than surrender, the Red Army analysed the situation and identified how mobile warfare tactics could outmanoeuvre the enemy, draw out their fire, and allow the revolutionaries to cross on a precarious bridge made out of metal chains.

The legendary paintings of this scene, of Red Army soldiers clinging to chains while returning fire, are immortalised within the country. Even when all seemed lost, they pushed on and won. They defeated the enemy forces there and successfully crossed the Luding Bridge.

When push comes to shove, are you ready to act? The Red Army were. Even when powerful forces think they’ve overwhelmed you, there’s always a solution. What does that teach us about how we should view the desperate acts of powerful bullies today? What can it teach us about predicaments we might find ourselves in personally?

The history of my own region, and its fight for sovereignty, has been a cycle of victory, defeat, massacre, victory, defeat, what now? The future certainly doesn’t belong to those who lose their heads when up against the wall. It’ll be defined by those who can calmly take stock of the situation and make a plan for how to achieve the final goal, even under overwhelming pressure. I finally realised what that means while standing on the chains of Luding Bridge.

The last third of our journey was visiting the highlands of Sichuan, the most gruelling physical terrain of the march. We moved up into Baoxing County, home of the legendary snow-capped Jiajin Mountain. After that, the swamplands of Hongyuan and Zoige counties, all at an altitude of more than 3,600 metres above sea level — the exact altitude of my city, La Paz, Bolivia.

After having marched from the south-east to the south-west, all under constant and brutal enemy fire, without the funds and resources of a regular standing army, the only option left was to continue the march through territorially inhospitable areas — areas that the state couldn’t reach — all with the aim of marching north to resist the Japanese invasion.

That’s when they did the impossible and crossed this impassable terrain. Huge numbers lost their lives. Some froze in the snow; many who survived the freezing mountain were subsequently sucked into the swamp’s mud pits. They didn’t have enough rations; some survived by boiling and chewing on leather belts. Some died in the swamp with grass in their mouths as they tried to quieten their hungry stomachs in their last moments.

It seems impossible. They made it possible. The Red Army made it through and reached Gansu Province, and eventually Shaanxi. After that, victory.

We’ve heard stories of heroic sacrifice and probably understand the concept abstractly, but seeing all these sites in person seared into my mind: People can win. When organised and united, the people can win against all the odds. Nothing was “written in the stars”; at every step those soldiers could have lost it all. 

Finally, in 1949, they won through collective determination and the unshakable knowledge that history is made by the people. We collectively forge our own destiny if and when we act together. 

Today, the descendants of those who died in the mountains and the swamps are living in peace and development. With these sacrifices, they cleared the way. If the impossible was made possible, why shouldn’t that inspire us all to march on?

Oliver Vargas is a CGTN commentator.

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