Why did Chiang Kai-shek launch encirclement campaigns against the Chinese communists?

Chiang Kai-shek launched encirclement campaigns against the Chinese communists primarily because he was alarmed by the rapid growth and success of the Jiangxi Soviet, an independent government established by Mao Zedong and Zhu De in the early 1930s.12

As the communist base expanded to control a population of several million people, Chiang viewed the movement as a direct threat to the Nationalist Party's authority. Between 1930 and 1933, he initiated four massive military campaigns aimed at encircling and annihilating the communist forces. While the communists initially repulsed these efforts using guerrilla warfare, Chiang's fifth campaign in 1933—which utilized elite units against the communists' shift to fixed positional warfare—ultimately forced the Red Army to abandon its base and begin the Long March in 1934. Chiang remained determined to continue these extermination efforts even as pressure mounted for a united front against Japanese aggression.1234