For those who don't play paradox games or Hearts of Iron 4, I did a difficult achievement, which is starting as communist china and proclaiming the People's republic of china. You have to fight an uphill battle starting from a single province. I managed to consolidate, drive out the japanese, and turn on the Kuomintang in a few years. This last year has been researching and preparing a naval invasion to fully defeat Japan. Of course, I had to keep Mao as the head, otherwise how could I really claim to have created the PRC?
Also, my manpower is hella low (18k) because I have 2.5% conscription and total mobilization, which gives a -3% recruitable population. I'll bump it to 5% conscription and have several million to spare, no problem.