Maybe one little thing since you might be coming from a Trotskist international outlook. During the first couple of crisis the CPC control of China was a much different one that the one Soviets had after the Russian or October revolution. The preceding Chinese state (not only due to civil war and external attack on the country) was a centralized one but its executive power was weakened at that point and in some rural regions, but also in some urban areas outside the countries main area the influence from the government was not as strong. After the revolution there remained a lot of de-centrality though with a growing professionalism there were both movements for centralization, but also leading by objectives in which the cadres were schooled and involved in the political process, but implementing objectives was sometimes their deal. Over time the CPC did expand more on how stuff ought or could be executed, but in a similar but different vein the experimental regional aspects of Chinese governance are a feature of the system.

Zhou Enlai and Mao were not controlling people directly, this means the struggle for people's minds was more prevalent than it would've been in some other states. Of course the further you go away from the (civil) war the less true it became.