CPC's laudable helmsmanship

The bloody decimation of the "Shanghai massacre of 1927" by Kuomintang reactionaries nearly strangled it in the cradle;

The ensuing "white terror" and smothering enemy sieges brewed suspicion in its own ranks over how long it would be able to "keep the red flag flying";

No sooner had it secured State power in 1949 than isolation and blockades by ideological foes on the other side of the "iron curtain" raised doubt about it sustaining the newborn People's Republic;