WI Mao dies of disease a few months into the Long March?

It's an interesting PoD. Unfortunately, I don't know enough to say who would be the next in line. It's possible, however, that whomever takes over the movement won't be as successful in taking over China. Whatever else you can say about Mao (and I would say virtually nothing good about him), he was willing to take big chances and make sweeping changes to society/the movement/etc.

If there is no strong communist movement in China, perhaps the USSR makes a client Chinese/Manchurian SSR?
 
It's an interesting PoD. Unfortunately, I don't know enough to say who would be the next in line. It's possible, however, that whomever takes over the movement won't be as successful in taking over China. Whatever else you can say about Mao (and I would say virtually nothing good about him), he was willing to take big chances and make sweeping changes to society/the movement/etc.

If there is no strong communist movement in China, perhaps the USSR makes a client Chinese/Manchurian SSR?
I think the general consensus on a Chinese-Soviet union of any kind is that it's Sovietwank. Chinese communism was going in different ideological directions even before Maoism became a formalized thing, and it's doubtful the Soviets would have had the administrative ability to handle China. Even beyond all that, the Chinese were and are a fiercely independent people and would never tolerate becoming another cog in a foreign empire.

As for who succeeds Mao, maybe Zhou Enlai?
 
It really depends who survived. The Communists were on their death throes by the time the survivors reached Yan'an and only when Chiang's bodyguards kidnapped him and demanded he form a united front against the Japanese, were the Commies not finished off.

And regardless, a Sino-Soviet split would have occurred regardless after the formation of the PRC. If it wasn't Mao using Khrushchev's "revisionism" as an excuse to grab power it would have been Deng (or Liu, or Zhou) using the Hundred Flower Bloom campaign to seize power and begin pro-market reforms 20 years earlier than OTL.
 
and it's doubtful the Soviets would have had the administrative ability to handle China. Even beyond all that, the Chinese were and are a fiercely independent people and would never tolerate becoming another cog in a foreign empire.

And regardless, a Sino-Soviet split would have occurred regardless after the formation of the PRC.

Sorry, I worded that poorly. I was not trying to suggest that all of China would become part of the Soviet Union. I was merely saying that, given a China with no strong communist movement, perhaps the Soviets would hold on to Manchuria after August Storm. It could be transformed into a Manchurian SSR, or perhaps just called Communist China.

That's what I was trying to dicuss, at any rate.
 
If Mao died in 1936, there are a few possibilities of what may happen, but it's unlikely that the CCP would be able to do as well as it did IOTL during the Yan'an years. Without Mao's foresight, they might actually help the KMT actively resist the Japanese (instead of merely expanding influence in occupied areas) and wear themselves out in fighting. Their activities could provide a bunch of headaches for the Japanese, but ultimately they probably would'nt have the fortune to oust the KMT from the mainland. After WW2 they could either wither and die in the ensuing civil war or escape to Manchuria and become a Soviet client. Some of this depends on how willing the Russians are to help them. Even in OTL Stalin gave Manchuria back to Chiang after the war ended.
 
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