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Zbigniew Brzezinski in an interview with China Central Television (CCTV) on July 8, 2016. (Click here to view the video) |
The Long March of the Red Army in 1934 is a great statement of the determination of the Chinese people fighting for a change and a historically important milestone, said former US National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, as China is marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the Long March this year.
Brzezinski retraced part of the route of the Long March with his family when visiting China in July 1981, and said it made his China visit worthwhile and interesting.
"When I received the invitation, for myself and for my family to be the guests of the Chinese government, specifically from Deng Xiaoping, I asked myself what can I do to make it the most worthwhile and interesting, not just for myself but particularly for my children. Then I read somewhere about the Long March in general, and more specifically about the battle for the Luding Bridge over the river. So I said well how about that? That's how the choice was made," recalled Brzezinski during an interview on July 8.
He added that the geographical setting and physical manifestation particularly in the battle to seize the Luding Bridge was very impressive.
"It was staggeringly impressive in terms of its geographical setting, in terms of its physical manifestation -- very high, very deep gorge with the water underneath, just chains to walk across, with planks connected to the two sides, and presumably somebody from the other sides shooting, so that was very dramatic," said Brzezinski.
Dr. Brzezinski, currently counselor with the Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS), said that the Long March was a historically important milestone for China.
"It gave the Chinese Communist Party a more nationally militant profile, in other words, not just a political movement, but a national movement, and also a militant movement, capable of engaging in a prolonged struggle, physical struggle, armed struggle. Symbolically, of course, it remains and was then already, a great great statement of the determination of the people fighting for a change and winning, so it was a historically important milestone," he added.
The two-year-long Long March, which started in October 1934, was a famous military maneuver carried out by the Chinese Red Army led by the Communist Party of China (CPC) to combat the Kuomintang Regime. It was a forced expedition that eventually laid an important foundation for the Communist victory in the civil war.
