Complex sentence: Following the establishment of the People's Republic of China, "tongzhi" was used to mean "comrade" in the Communist sense: it was used to address almost everyone, male and female, young and old.
Split into simpler sentences: Following the establishment of the People's Republic of China, "tongzhi" was used to mean "comrade" in the Communist sense. It was used to address almost everyone, male and female, young and old.