Why do you think the Long March defined Chinese Communism into the 1990s?

In October 1934, during a civil war, embattled Chinese Communists broke through Nationalist enemy lines and began an epic flight from their encircled headquarters in southwest China. Known as the Long March, the trek lasted a year and covered some 4,000 miles (or more, by some estimates). The Long March marked the emergence of Mao Zedong (1893-1976) as the undisputed leader of the Chinese Communists.Long March: Background

Civil war in China between the Nationalists and the Communists broke out in 1927. In 1931, Communist leader Mao Zedong was elected chairman of the newly established Soviet Republic of China, based in Jiangxi province in the southeast. Between 1930 and 1934, the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975) launched a series of five encirclement campaigns against the Chinese Soviet Republic. Under the leadership of Mao, the Communists employed guerrilla tactics to successfully resist the first four campaigns, but in the fifth, Chiang raised a huge force and built fortifications around the Communist positions. Mao was removed as chairman, and the new Communist leadership employed more conventional warfare tactics, and its Red army was decimated.Explanation:

Becouse