The CCP agreed to work with the KMT for three main reasons. The most important was the influence of Russia. This was linked to the second reason: the smallness of the CCP. A similarity of ideas was the third and the least important reason.

Russian involvement in the CCP was a major reason why the party agreed to work with the KMT. Comintern, the international Communist organisation dedicated to spreading Communism throughout the world, gave the newly-established CCP a good deal of help. In 1922, the CCP joined Comintern which further strengthened its ties with Russia. The Russians were aware that the CCP was far too weak to attempt a Communist revolution alone, so they encouraged the Chinese Communists to join in an alliance, the First United Front, with the KMT.

Secondly, the CCP was a very small and insignificant political group in the early 1920s. It had only...