Shanghai Commune during GPCR

[BobKKKindle$]

I've been doing some reading on modern China recently as I'm going to be studying Chinese politics next year, and I came across the Shanghai Commune. From what I've read so far, Mao encouraged the workers and students of Shanghai to topple the bureaucratic government structures and develop a new system of administration which would incorporate the lessons of the Paris Commune and and allow for mass political participation, in the hope that a similar system could eventually be extended across the whole of China to complete the struggle against the bureaucratic stratum inside the party apparatus, which would signify the victory of the progressive forces, and prevent China from returning to the capitalist road. How did the Commune come into being? What changes took place during the Commune's brief period of existence? Why did Mao eventually want the experiment to be abandoned?

And no, this thread is not going to turn into a series of rants about how bad China was.

[Reclaimed Dasein]

I've been doing some reading on modern China recently as I'm going to be studying Chinese politics next year, and I came across the Shanghai Commune. From what I've read so far, Mao encouraged the workers and students of Shanghai to topple the bureaucratic government structures and develop a new system of administration which would incorporate the lessons of the Paris Commune and and allow for mass political participation, in the hope that a similar system could eventually be extended across the whole of China to complete the struggle against the bureaucratic stratum inside the party apparatus, which would signify the victory of the progressive forces, and prevent China from returning to the capitalist road. How did the Commune come into being? What changes took place during the Commune's brief period of existence? Why did Mao eventually want the experiment to be abandoned?

And no, this thread is not going to turn into a series of rants about how bad China was.
The cheap shot answer is that Mao had used the student uprising to secure his power and so he didn't need liberation anymore.

The more sophisticated answer is that he realized that such a strong rejection of state power would destabilize China and leave in vulnerable to other pressures.

I personally view as a mix of the two. I think Mao initially started many of the uprisings in China in response to his political struggles in the Central Committee. Yet, after Shanghai was started, he was genuinely fearful of the powerful idea he started. He couldn't handle the implications and dangers inherent within it (and there are serious dangers to removing state power) so he ended up crushing it. I must say, Mao's actions are understandable, even if I don't agree with them.