Mao used various tactics and strategies to be able to consolidate his power over china. He used social, admin, military and political aspects to help him in the process. I do agree that the structure of the PRC in the 6 regions played a huge role in Mao’s consolidation of power but I don’t think it was the main reason. I believe that along with it, other factors were equally as important, such as training people who weren’t members of the CCP to join the government, terror with mass killings, imposed starvation and letting the national capitalists keep their job until he needed them to, so that the system was stable enough for him to control. He also made land reforms and introduced a registration system, which also helped consolidate his power. Mao also extended his political control with the “anti-movements” and the Politburo.

The Anti-Movements was a movement against waste, bribery, and inefficiency. It was used as an excuse to getting rid of anybody standing in Mao’s was of ruling. He used to get rid of the people whom he had given jobs to in the beginning, those who weren’t past of the CCP, accusing them of inefficiency. He called these people “the bureaucratic capitalist class”. The Politburo was a circle of twenty leading members of the Communist Party, and the carried the government under the authority of Mao of course. So it was the party that ruled, and not the people. This helped Mao have a better control on the decisions taken for the country and therefore created a controllable system, which helped consolidation of power. In 1952 other political parties were banned. The CCP was structured into 6 regions, which eased the consolidation of Mao’s power. This is because he allocated four loyal important people to be in charge of each region, which allowed him to control people in these regions closely.

The Registration system played another huge role