In 1927, the reactionary clique within the KMT betrayed the revolution, brutally massacring communists and other revolutionaries. Meanwhile, the Right deviationist ideas within the Party represented by Chen Duxiu grew into Right opportunist errors and came to dominate the Party’s leadership. The Party and the people were unable to mount an effective resistance, resulting in a disastrous defeat for the Great Revolution under the surprise attack of a powerful enemy.

土地革命战争时期，党从残酷的现实中认识到，没有革命的武装就无法战胜武装的反革命，就无法夺取中国革命胜利，就无法改变中国人民和中华民族的命运，，必须以武装的革命反对武装的反革命。南昌起义打响武装反抗国民党反动派的第一枪，标志着中国共产党独立领导革命战争、创建人民军队和武装夺取政权的开端。八七会议确定实行土地革命和武装起义的方针。党领导举行秋收起义、广州起义和其他许多地区起义，但由于敌我力量悬殊，这些起义大多数失败了。事实证明，在当时的客观条件下，中国共产党人不可能像俄国十月革命那样通过首先占领中心城市来取得革命在全国的胜利，党迫切需要找到适合中国国情的革命道路。
During the Agrarian Revolutionary War, the Party realized in light of harsh realities that without revolutionary armed forces, it would be impossible to defeat armed counter-revolutionaries, win the Chinese revolution, and thus change the fate of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation. The Party would need to fight armed counter-revolution with armed revolution.

The Nanchang Uprising of 1927 fired the opening shot of armed resistance against KMT reactionaries. This marked the start of the Communist Party of China’s journey to lead the revolutionary struggle independently, build the people’s armed forces, and seize state power by force. Soon afterwards, the policy of carrying out agrarian revolution and organizing armed uprisings was established at the August 7th Meeting. The Party led the Autumn Harvest Uprising, the Guangzhou Uprising, and uprisings in many other areas. Due to the great disparity in strength between the enemy forces and our own, most of these uprisings ended in failure. The fact of the matter was that in view of objective conditions at the time, the Chinese communists could not follow the example of Russia’s October Revolution and win nationwide revolutionary victory by taking key cities first. The Party urgently needed to find a revolutionary path compatible with China’s actual conditions.

从进攻大城市转为向农村进军，是中国革命具有决定意义的新起点。毛泽东同志领导军民在井冈山建立第一个农村革命根据地，党领导人民打土豪、分田地。古田会议确立思想建党、政治建军原则。随着斗争发展，党创建了中央革命根据地和湘鄂西、海陆丰、鄂豫皖、琼崖、闽浙赣、湘鄂赣、湘赣、左右江、川陕、陕甘、湘鄂川黔等根据地。党在国民党统治下的白区也发展了党和其他革命组织，开展了群众革命斗争。然而，由于王明“左”倾教条主义在党内的错误领导，中央革命根据地第五次反“围剿”失败，红军不得不进行战略转移，经过艰苦卓绝的长征转战到陕北。“左”倾路线的错误给革命根据地和白区革命力量造成极大损失。
The shift from attacking big cities to advancing into rural areas was a new starting point of decisive importance in the Chinese revolution. Led by Comrade Mao Zedong, soldiers and civilians established the first rural revolutionary base in the Jinggang Mountains, where the Party led the people in overthrowing local despots and redistributing the land. The Gutian Meeting of 1929 established the principles of strengthening the Party ideologically and the military politically. As progress was made in the struggle, the Party established the Central Revolutionary Base as well as the Western Hunan-Hubei, Haifeng-Lufeng, Hubei-Henan-Anhui, Qiongya, Fujian-Zhejiang-Jiangxi, Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi, Hunan-Jiangxi, Zuojiang-Youjiang, Sichuan-Shaanxi, Shaanxi-Gansu, and Hunan-Hubei-Sichuan-Guizhou bases. In addition, the Party also set up Party organizations and other revolutionary organizations in KMT-controlled areas and launched revolutionary mass struggles.

However, the fifth counter-encirclement and suppression campaign in the Central Revolutionary Base ended in failure as a result of the misguided leadership of Wang Ming’s “Left” dogmatism within the Party. The Red Army was forced to make a strategic shift, and arrived in northern Shaanxi Province after enduring the extraordinarily bitter and arduous journey of the Long March. The errors of the “Left” line caused enormous losses to revolutionary bases as well as revolutionary forces in KMT-controlled areas.

一九三五年一月，中央政治局在长征途中举行遵义会议，事实上确立了毛泽东同志在党中央和红军的领导地位，开始确立以毛泽东同志为主要代表的马克思主义正确路线在党中央的领导地位，开始形成以毛泽东同志为核心的党的第一代中央领导集体，开启了党独立自主解决中国革命实际问题新阶段，在最危急关头挽救了党、挽救了红军、挽救了中国革命，并且在这以后使党能够战胜张国焘的分裂主义，胜利完成长征，打开中国革命新局面。这在党的历史上是一个生死攸关的转折点。
In January 1935, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee convened a meeting in Zunyi on the Long March, at which Comrade Mao Zedong was confirmed as the de facto leader of the Central Committee and the Red Army. The meeting laid the groundwork for establishing the leading position within the Central Committee of the correct Marxist line chiefly represented by Comrade Mao Zedong, as well as for the formation of the first generation of the central collective leadership with Comrade Mao Zedong at its core. The meeting opened a new stage in which the Party would act on its own initiative to address practical problems concerning the Chinese revolution, and saved the Party, the Red Army, and the Chinese revolution at a moment of greatest peril. It also subsequently enabled the Party to defeat Zhang Guotao’s separatism, bring the Long March to a triumphant conclusion, and open up new horizons for the Chinese revolution. The Zunyi Meeting is therefore considered a pivotal turning point in the Party’s history.