Institutionalization within Revolutionary Crisis: The Chinese Communist Party’s Radio Communications and Reconnaissance, 1933–1936

Abstract

This article highlights how a revolutionary crisis in 1933–1936 drove the institutional development of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) radio communications and reconnaissance and provided inadvertent opportunities for institutional integration and standardization in radio communications across the revolutionary movement. It also reveals how effective radio communications and reconnaissance operations contributed to the survival of the revolution and the rise of Mao Zedong. The findings suggest that the turbulent and politicized environment of revolutionary crisis within the CCP could facilitate institutional development and integration. Nonetheless, it also contributed to the rise of an authoritarian command structure that would be embedded in this institutionalization.