What would Chen Duxiu have done differently than Mao Zedong?

[★Bandiera Rossa☭]

Chen Duxiu was co-founder and the first Chairman of the CCP, he was also a mentor and teacher to Mao Tse-Tsung - although him and Mao disagreed over many issues, Chen being an Orthodox Marxist while Mao was of the Stalinist ideological line, this disagreement eventually led to his expulsion from the CCP and his alignment with the 4th (Trotskyist) International. in 1932 he was arrested by the Nationalist government, and wasn't released until 1937, at which time the CCP had been almost completely destroyed, the remnants having been led North by Mao in the "Long March". My Question - if the CCP had taken Chen's advice and never allied with the Nationalists, and had managed to not be captured, what would the result be? Would the "Liberation" have still taken place, or would the lack of emphasis on peasants robbed the party of its support? Also what would the result of this victory be? Would we have a legitimate Workers' State or a Deformed Workers' State?

[bushbush]

chen was a nerd, not a fighter. If he was still in charge, the KMT would have destroyed the CCP at least ten times.

[Argeus the Paladin]

^^ That.

For all what one might accuse Maoist/Stalinists, there is one thing I agree: In times of great crises, sometimes it takes a strong AND totalitarian leader to take the movement anywhere.

[★Bandiera Rossa☭]

chen was a nerd, not a fighter. If he was still in charge, the KMT would have destroyed the CCP at least ten times.

He wasn't a proven leader in war, but he was involved in the Hsinhai Revolution and the Revolution against Yuan Shikai.

[bushbush]

He wasn't a proven leader in war, but he was involved in the Hsinhai Revolution and the Revolution against Yuan Shikai.

he didnt do any fighting at all. His prominence was first as a critic of confucianism, then as a liberal, finally evolved into a communist. His most important contribution was New Youth magazine which fueled the May 4th movement and created an environment for chinese intellectuals to search for different ideologies to revive china. In his writings, you can tell he was a patriot and an idealist. Mao on the other hand was more pragmatic. He saw Chen's orthodoxy in communist belief as not useful because china was not urbanized. So instead mao focused on peasantry and "revised" the ideology. The fact that Chen never figured out his books weren't gonna win China over showed he wasnt exactly a skillful revolutionary.

[Argeus the Paladin]

And let's not forget that, if Wiki is to be trusted, in the end of his life Chen favored a highly utopian Libertarian Socialism. The keyword here is utopian: it had colors of anarchism, which does not at all bid well for the state of conflict in China at that time. This may sound pro-Maoist for me to say this, but at that time the CCP required a strong leader who isn't afraid to consolidate power into his hand to get out of the 1930s tight spot. Chen doesn't seem to have this capacity.