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CHINESE CIVIL WAR: A HISTORY
FROM BEGINNING TO END
(HISTORY OF CHINA),
by
HOURLY HISTORY.
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A good attempt, except it is obviously written by someone of West.
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"On a warm Shanghai night in July of 1921, a handful of young Chinese intellectuals came together to form a group that would one day become historic. While this collection of young people did not intend to become a political powerhouse, they would, and the group would later become known as the Chinese Communist Party, or the CCP.
"The CCP was founded by two revolutionaries, Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu, who had formed the group as a forum to discuss Marxism and other western ideologies. When the party first formed, it looked more like a club than a government. Still, the formation of this party would go on to change China’s political destiny and, with it, the world. But what happened to spark such unrest and revolt among the people? Why were students meeting under the cover of darkness to organize against their own government? And how would this small meeting eventually lead to civil war?
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"The answer to these questions lies in the events that took place in China after the fall of the Qing dynasty. China had a long history of violence and political strife, but in 1921, the country was being torn apart at the seams. Any sign of the old, thriving Imperial China was gone, leaving a stumbling new nation in its wake.
"It would take years for China to once more establish itself as a powerful political presence in the world. The nation would face questions of identity and ideology, along with years of unrest. No one knew yet how history would unfold, but it was clear from the beginning that whatever China was to become, it would not do so without a fight."
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"“If the idea of revolution is to win out, it must be through political enlightenment. It is useless to try to impose it by force of arms.”
"—Sun Yat-sen"
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"Following the collapse of the Qing dynasty and the events of the 1911 Revolution, China was essentially a new nation. Imperial China previously had a long, rich history, dating back as far as 221 BCE. ... "
There's no evidence that it didn't hold further back, other than possibly a lack of discovery thereof by West.
" ... So, when the dynasty fell in 1911-1912, it left space for the nation to become something brand new. This should have been good news for a public who had been waiting on the fall of imperialism for years, only tolerating the monarchy because they had no other political option, but this was not the case for the Chinese people."
Much presumption there, imposing thought of West or the author on Chinese people.
"While the previous conflict was over and the monarchy had fallen, all was not peaceful in China. After about 2,000 years of imperialism, this newfound republic was weak and fractured. ... "
Wasn't that due to brutal force by West to push opium into China?
" ... Without the tradition and steadfast rules of the monarchy, China seemed to be scrambling for somewhere to land. The country was suffering a crisis of identity, looking to its allies for guidance. In the aftermath of their long imperial history, what was China to become?
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"There was no easy answer to this question. It seemed that everyone had a different vision for the future of China, and this created conflict and chaos among both the Chinese government and the people. The sheer size and population of China made a centralized government a near-impossible task after such a long time of division. During this era, there was no trust in the shakily established Chinese government, so control of China fell to the most powerful possible candidates, and China spiraled into what is now referred to as its Warlord Era."
When was it not the Warlord Era in China?
"The unease and political confusion across China allowed these warlords, including members of the Beiyang Army, to gain power in many parts of the nation. When China found itself without any leadership after the failed start of the republic and the subsequent death of the first president, Yuan Shikai, the country dissolved into factions. The remaining warlords divided the nation up among themselves. By 1916, China was rife with corruption, littered with power-hungry, militant warlords, and suffering from hunger, poverty, and cruelty. The factions warred with each other, battling for dominance, land, money, and power."
And West takes no responsibility for causing it, by pushing opium?
"The warlords’ main goal was profit. They were seeking power and wealth and used strategies of exploitation and corruption to achieve their goal. Throughout the period of warlord rule, the civil service perished, and the highly educated withdrew from political into academic life, leaving the government to be run by militants and power-hungry careerists. These warlord governments did not care for the well-being of the people of China, instead serving only their own ends."
So the warlords aped Western models.
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"As the warlords seized control of the government, they printed excessive amounts of money to fund their armies and imposed new and increased taxes on the people. As the Chinese people became disheartened with their military leaders and tired of constant war, public sentiment quickly turned against the warlord system. Other political leaders in China saw this unrest and the rise in anti-warlord sentiment and jumped at the chance to rally the people behind a different form of government.
"On May 4, 1919, mass protests broke out in Beijing. The protestors were mostly made up of students who stood in opposition to the Chinese government’s decisions during World War I. China had, for example, given up territory to Japan, a move these protestors did not approve of. These demonstrations, known as the May Fourth Movement, caused a rise in Nationalist sentiment among the Chinese people."
Why did China have territory in Japan?
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"Chinese writer, Han Suyin, said of the May Fourth Movement, “For China, the watershed between ‘yesterday’ and ‘today’ began on May 4, 1919. All my generation date ourselves from this year and this day . . . For it was on this day that China’s intellectuals turned away from the West.” Han Suyin pinpointed the May Fourth Movement as the moment when the Chinese government lost all respect and support from young Chinese intellectuals who were studying politics and new ways of government. This event popularized Communism as a viable, though radical, alternative to the current Chinese government. While Communism was new and unknown, it acted as another option to China’s dynastic past and warlord-ruled current reality.
"In 1919, former president Sun Yat-sen re-established the Chinese Nationalist Party, also known as the Kuomintang (KMT). His direct goal was to position the KMT as an attractive alternative to warlord rule. In the long term, and perhaps more fervently, Sun Yat-sen wanted to revive his republic, which had failed back in 1912, and his own reputation and status in China along with it.
"Sun Yat-sen knew that the northern warlords had a stronger army than he had down south. The KMT had more men than guns and no means to obtain more, forcing them to rely on neighboring warlord regimes for military aid. While the KMT couldn’t hold up to the northern warlords in battle, Sun Yat-sen hoped they could win the approval of the people. To bolster support, he instilled his army with Nationalism, using sweeping, revolutionary rhetoric in an attempt to stir the masses.
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"In the early 1920s, Sun Yat-sen began asking the world for outside support, though most countries were not looking to get involved in China’s affairs at this time. His requests were answered only by Soviet Russia, which had taken an interest in China and planned to use it to spread Communism to other parts of the world.
"In 1921, Sun Yat-sen said of China: “The Republic is my child. It is in danger of drowning. I am trying to keep it afloat, but we are being swept down the river. I called for help from England and America. They stand on the bank and jeer at me. Then came a Russian straw. Drowning, I clutched at it. England and America, on the bank, shout at me on no account to clutch the Russian straw. But do they help me? No. They jeer themselves and, at the same time, tell me not to clutch that Russian straw. I know it is a straw, but better that than nothing.” Here, Sun Yat-sen describes feeling as though China has been abandoned by the western world in the wake of their new beginning. He could see what would become of China if the country did not find its footholds soon.
"Before long, Sun Yat-sen sent Chiang Kai-shek, a member of the KMT, to Moscow to study political and military strategy. When Chiang returned home, he was appointed the leader of Sun Yat-sen’s newly established Whampoa Military Academy with the objective of modernizing the southern military forces while spreading their new ideology. During his time at Whampoa, Chiang Kai-shek rose to prominence as Sun Yat-sen’s likely successor.
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"It was also around this time that the Chinese Communist Party was created, in July 1921, in Shanghai, China. The party was made up of revolutionaries and students who had dreams for a better China and who were studying Marxist ideology. Born directly from the May Fourth Movement, the CCP looked to oppose warlordism and traditional forms of government in China. Mao Zedong, a revolutionary who would play a significant role in the future history of China, founded the Changsha branch of the CCP later that same year. Mao even opened his own bookstore, which he used to circulate revolutionary literature and as a base to organize workers’ strikes.
"At this time, pro-Communist sentiment was already spreading across China, partially due to the general unrest and discontent with the current political system but also due to the grassroots efforts of the CCP, which was quickly becoming a more established party. These circumstances led the two groups, the Nationalist KMT and the Chinese Communist Party, to join forces in 1924 to achieve their common goals while maintaining a separation in ideology and remaining unattached as organizations. During this so-called First United Front, members of the CCP were welcomed to join the KMT on a case-by-case basis. The KMT remained a much larger organization at this time, made up of over 50,000 members, compared to the CCP’s 1,500 by the year 1925.
"This peaceful alliance would not last for long, though, as Sun Yat-sen died later that year. He fought for the KMT up until his death, writing a statement shortly beforehand which read: “For 40 years, I have devoted myself to the cause of the people’s revolution with but one end in view: the elevation of China to a position of freedom and equality among the nations.” Sun Yat-sen would not live to see his dream of China become a reality, and he knew that China still had a long path to walk.
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"After Sun Yat-sen’s death in March of 1925, the KMT split down the middle. Without his reassurance and trust in the Russians, many members of the KMT grew afraid that the Russians were attempting to use the CCP to bring the KMT down from the inside. While the left side of the KMT, led by Wang Jingwei, remained aligned with the CCP, the right side, led by Hu Hanmin and Chiang Kai-shek, started distancing themselves from their Communist counterparts.
"Unlike his predecessor, Chiang Kai-shek harbored a deep mistrust of both the Soviets and the Chinese Communist Party. When Chiang held a party meeting, he declared any Communist activity to be a distraction from the true cause. He felt that in order for the revolution to succeed, the CCP would have to be stopped. This internal split is what really set China in a position that would lead to full-on civil war.
"In response to this threat, Chiang launched his Northern Expedition on the warlord territories in the north, specifically those of the Beiyang government, which was still being recognized as the legitimate Chinese government by the rest of the world. The expedition, which got underway in the summer of 1926, aimed to rid China of the warlords’ influence and angle the Nationalist government as a viable replacement. These efforts began successfully, with Chiang Kai-shek leading the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) on their campaign through the north. Many warlords, now outdone by the KMT’s forces, folded easily, allowing their armies to join up with the NRA. By spring, the NRA had captured Wuhan, Nanjing, and Shanghai.
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"At this point, however, the Kuomintang began experiencing increasing internal tensions. Within the KMT, a range of opinions existed, especially concerning the presence of a Communist party within the country. As mentioned before, one half of the KMT sympathized with the CCP, while the other condemned them as a danger to the nation. Was left-wing Wang Jingwei, Sun Yat-sen’s chosen predecessor, the right leader for their growing empire? Or, would right-wing Chiang Kai-shek, with his proven military power, be a better choice? This sparked competition among the leaders. For instance, when Wang formed a new civilian national government in Wuhan, far from Chiang’s military influence in the south, Chiang retaliated by lobbying for the capital to be moved from Wuhan to Nanchang, the home of his military headquarters.
"Due to Wang and Chiang’s political back and forth, the two wings of the KMT began to grow further and further apart. Without the common danger of the warlords to rally against, the cracks in the foundation of the KMT began to show. The unity and patriotism on which the KMT had once so heavily relied were thwarted by these internal power struggles.
"By March of 1927, Chiang Kai-shek had given up any hope of establishing peace through negotiation. He officially charged the Chinese Communist Party with armed rebellion, swearing to eradicate them and their influence in China by any means possible.
"Then, on April 12, the KMT purged hundreds of left-leaning KMT members, performing arrests and executions on the orders of General Bai Chongxi. This incident would be referred to as the April 12 Incident, or the Shanghai Massacre. The event deepened the rift between Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Jingwei, who controlled the city of Wuhan. Even the KMT’s left wing eventually abandoned their Communist allies, exiling the CCP from their newly established Wuhan government.
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"This event made the goals of the KMT crystal clear to the Communists and laid the foundation for civil war. Following the Shanghai Massacre, many Communists went underground and into hiding. The massacre also ended any alliance left between the KMT and the Russian forces.
"Over the next month, the KMT continued its purge of the CCP in Shanghai and other notable Communist areas. The CCP lost around 50,000 people in the campaign, which would later be dubbed “The White Terror.” It was a pivotal moment in the political history of China. The Shanghai Massacre and the White Terror marked the end of the First United Front in China and opened the door for years of anti-Communist violence and internal struggles within the country."
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"“In waking a tiger, use a long stick.”
"—Mao Zedong"
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"In the summer of 1927, after months of lying low, reassessing political strategy, and stirring unrest among the people, Chinese Communist forces re-emerged to launch an armed uprising in the city of Nanchang. The Communists had rallied a following among the peasants and lower classes, convincing their people to join their ranks. This combination of forces came together to form what would later be known as the Chinese Red Army. The Red Army would operate as the main opposing army to the KMT’s National Revolutionary Army.
"An attack on Nanchang was launched by these Red Army forces on August 1, and the Communists soon occupied the city. This success only lasted for three days before the Nationalists’ counterattacks drove the Communists to retreat on August 4. The Communists moved south during their retreat toward the province of Guangdong, leaving the KMT to quickly regain control of Nanchang. The Communists’ march to Guangdong ended in another defeat, sending many CCP leaders and members into hiding once more.
"This brief resistance in Nanchang was an act of rebellion by the Communist Party and stood in opposition to the Nationalist government in Wuhan. The seizure of the city was a direct retaliation to the Shanghai Massacre, which many pinpoint as the true beginning of the Chinese Civil War. The Communists refused to let the bloodshed in Shanghai go unopposed and made a grab for the city even despite their weaker political position. The CCP intended to seize political power from the KMT by force, but they were outmatched and overpowered by the more established forces of the KMT. Although the uprising in Nanchang failed to bring the CCP any real political power, the remnants of these Communist forces, who would go on to become the Chinese Red Army, would be a major player in the Civil War.
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"As a guide for this new army, Mao Zedong implemented a military doctrine titled “The Three Rules of Discipline and Eight Points for Attention.” This document outlined the ways in which the Red Army sought to operate differently from Nationalist armies of the time. While the KMT often disregarded the general public, boarding them into their homes without warning and even confiscating property for their own use, the Red Army instated rules against confiscation and guidelines for polite speaking and honest protocol. The “Three Rules of Discipline” included in the document listed the army’s intentions. The document stated that the three simple rules of discipline were: prompt obedience to orders, no confiscations from the poor peasantry, and prompt delivery to the government of all goods confiscated from landlords. This guide won the Red Army, and therefore the CCP, even more favor among the lower and working-class populations in China.
"In response to the Communist uprising in Nanchang, the leaders of the KMT had begun cooperating once more. Under the common goal of suppressing the CCP, the differing factions of the KMT were united. This proved fortunate since the following months were littered with rebellions and uprisings. The Red Army, now growing in size due to support and volunteers from the lower classes, made multiple attempts to seize regions of southern China. In September of 1927, for instance, Mao Zedong led a group of peasants and farmers in the Autumn Harvest Uprising, a rural insurrection which flourished briefly before falling to KMT forces after two months. Then, in December, the CCP organized an uprising of 20,000 soldiers and workers to seize and establish a soviet in Guangzhou. While Communist forces were briefly successful in this, they, too, were quickly taken down by the KMT’s counterattack.
"This pattern repeated itself throughout the following years, beginning what many referred to as the Ten Years of Civil War. This fighting would act as the first half of China’s Civil War, laying the foundation for further bloodshed down the line. Communist forces would launch an insurrection and find momentary success, only to be thwarted by the Nationalist forces in a matter of days or weeks. As the KMT maintained their power, they continued their attacks on the remaining warlords and their shunning of the Communists, eventually forcing the remaining CCP members out of the left wing of the KMT government in Wuhan.
"By this time, there were three conflicting governments ruling over China from different parts of the country. There was the KMT, or the Nationalists, who were led by Chiang Kai-shek and ruled from Nanjing. The second was the CCP, still an insurgency but which now had an established army and a base in Ruijin, Jiangxi. Lastly, remnants of warlord influence remained, including the Beiyang government, which ruled from Beijing.
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"In June of 1928, though, the KMT captured Beijing, causing the warlord Zhang Zuolin and his army to retreat to Manchuria, the northernmost region of China. Over the next few months, other warlords followed and were either defeated or killed by KMT forces. This effectively ended the rule of the Beiyang government and finally “united” China under the Nationalist Kuomintang government. It also marked the end of Chiang Kai-shek’s Northern Expedition, as his army had officially ousted all warlord influence from the country. Now that the warlords and Communists were mostly under control, the KMT began to plan for China’s future. Chiang Kai-shek even married the sister of Sun Yat-sen’s widow in an effort to legitimize his rule.
"Unfortunately, a new threat was on the horizon. The Japanese had become wrapped up in China’s internal conflicts by this time. Throughout the summer, Japan had deployed soldiers to Jinan in eastern China in an effort to protect Japanese commercial interests, which were being threatened by Chiang’s Northern Expedition. When the National Revolutionary Army arrived in Jinan, a shaky peace was reached between the parties, facilitated by Chiang Kai-shek’s negotiations with the Imperial Japanese Army. This brief coexistence came to a halt, however, when over 13 Japanese civilians were killed in a dispute with Chinese soldiers. Their deaths sparked a larger conflict, resulting in thousands of NRA casualties and their eventual withdrawal from Jinan to continue north on their expedition. It was clear that the NRA was outmatched by Japanese forces, and Jinan would remain under Japanese rule until March of 1929.
"Meanwhile, in the south, the Communists were once more reorganizing and recovering. The CCP was working hard to improve their public image in retaliation to the Nationalists’ propaganda about them. Communist forces often medically treated wounded enemy soldiers, an act that shocked Nationalist troops. Of this, Mao Zedong said, “The most effective method of propaganda directed at the enemy forces is to release captured soldiers and give the wounded medical treatment. . . . This immediately knocks the bottom out of the enemy’s slander that the Communist bandits kill everyone on sight.”
"In February of 1930, the CCP implemented the “Li Lisan line,” a strategy aimed at stirring the labor classes and encouraging urban uprisings. While Mao Zedong believed the path to political power lay in the rural population, this new strategy by his rival Li Lisan focused its influence on workers in the city. This shows, early on, Mao’s focus on the peasantry over the proletariat, a sentiment that opposed the Marxist theory to which the rest of Mao’s party subscribed.
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"While the nation was technically unified, the Nationalists were still worried about remaining Communist activity in many parts of China. To combat this, they launched a series of encirclement campaigns over the course of the next few years. These campaigns were designed to locate any dissent or resistance and eradicate it, leaving only support for the Nationalist party. The first four of these campaigns failed for various reasons, taking place on and off over the next few years, but the fifth, a slower and more calculated encirclement of the Jiangxi region, succeeded by cutting off the Communists’ access to food and other supplies. To do this, the KMT utilized fortified blockhouses to surround Communist areas.
"In October of 1934, the CCP escaped this environment by taking advantage of some of these blockhouses, which were manned not by Chiang Kai-shek’s NRA but by the less organized troops of one of Chiang’s warlord allies. They used these gaps in the ring of blockhouses to escape Jiangxi. The warlord armies, for their part, essentially allowed this escape, uninterested in wasting men or supplies in a chase with the Communists. This mass retreat of Communist forces would come to be known as the Long March. While the event was sparked by the retreat of the CCP in Jiangxi, other Communist forces, including the Second and Fourth Red Army, joined in on the march, aiming to meet up with other Communist forces in Shaanxi.
"During the Long March, the figureheads of the CCP were locked in a battle for leadership of the party. Zhang Guotao and Mao Zedong, whose forces had joined up during the march, often disagreed on strategy and argued about the party’s next move. While Mao wanted to continue north toward Shaanxi, Zhang wanted to move south to establish a new base in the Sichuan region. Mao refused to help Zhang in this effort, but Zhang ordered his troops south anyway, essentially leading about 75% of his army to their deaths. Defeated on two counts, Zhang finally led the remaining few thousand soldiers to meet with allies in the north. This military failure on Zhang’s part made Mao appear even more successful in comparison and secured Mao’s position as the true and undisputed leader of the Chinese Communist Party.
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"The Long March lasted a year and spanned over 5,600 miles (9,000 kilometers). During the march, the Red Army utilized guerilla warfare tactics, including confiscating weapons and property from warlords and corrupt landlords and recruiting even more disenfranchised peasants for their cause. While over 90,000 people began the Long March, only 7,000-8,000 made it all the way to Shaanxi, somehow surviving relentless ground and air attacks from the KMT. While the Communists undoubtedly lost greatly during the Long March, Mao Zedong declared the events a victory for the CCP, stating, “The Long March . . . proclaims to the world that the Red Army is an army of heroes. . . . It declares to approximately 200 million people of 11 provinces that only the road of the Red Army leads to their liberation.”
"While Chiang Kai-shek was focused on his attacks on the Red Army, the Japanese threat toward China intensified. Chiang used a new strategy, called “first internal pacification, then external resistance,” in an attempt to eliminate the CCP and appease the Japanese, essentially buying time for the Chinese government and army to grow in strength. He believed that they could eradicate the smaller CCP threat before having to deal with the larger threat of a Japanese invasion.
"Then, in a betrayal by some of his own subordinates, Generals Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng detained Chiang Kai-shek, placing him under house arrest and forcing a stop to his attacks on the Red Army. The rest of the Nationalists believed the best move would be to shift focus from attacking the Red Army to defending against the incoming Japanese threat. The generals agreed not to execute Chiang on the condition that he cooperate with the Communists and change his policies. This incident, which would later come to be known as the Xi’an Incident, forced Chiang into an unstable truce with the Chinese Communist Party, ceasing the first phase of the Civil War in late 1936."
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"“Japan cannot conquer China with America in her rear, Soviet Russia on her right, and England on her left—her most powerful enemies in the South Sea all flanking her.”
"—Chiang Kai-shek"
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"Now that Chiang Kai-shek had refocused his energy on the Japanese invasion, the Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang, the two warring sides of China, began working together against their common enemy. This cooperation, called the Second United Front, led to new anti-civil war rhetoric in China, which promoted much-needed peace among the Chinese people. While both sides still greatly disagreed with each other, they outwardly acted as a team at this time and were not actively attacking each other for land or power. Under this newfound peace, the Communist Party had the time and space to rebuild their army and join forces with the National Revolutionary Army.
"On the surface, it seemed that the two opposing parties were getting along well enough to strengthen China’s position. The Red Army was eventually absorbed into the National Army while continuing to operate on its own. Beyond appearances, however, the truce between the KMT and the CCP was less successful. Despite their common enemy, the Communists still disagreed strongly with the National Army’s tactics and practices, finding them violent and inhumane. The Nationalists, on the other hand, felt that the Communists would bring disaster to China. Both parties held tightly to their distinct visions for China, and each continued pursuing advantages over the other during their fight against the Japanese.
"The Marco Polo Bridge Incident was a battle between the Imperial Japanese Army and KMT forces in July 1937 and is often pointed to as the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War. After scoring a victory in this battle, the Japanese captured Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing, the Chinese capital, forcing the Chinese to temporarily relocate their government to Chongqing.
"By 1939, with the help of the Sino-Soviet Treaty, the Chinese were able to score victories over Japan in Changsha and Guangxi, at which time the war hit a stalemate. Eventually, after another year of fighting, the Japanese gained another victory and were able to occupy Nanning, the largest city in Guangxi. Now the Japanese ruled over most major cities in China. While Japan had enough resources to maintain control of the cities, they lacked the manpower to gain an advantage in the Chinese countryside.
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"Meanwhile, in the fall of 1939, German forces invaded Poland, sparking the beginning of World War II. During the war, the Chinese Communists and Nationalists attempted to continue their cooperation. Around the same time, however, Wang Jingwei, a former KMT leader, signed a deal with Japan, defecting to the Japanese side and becoming the head of a new puppet government in Nanjing. This government situated itself as an alternative to Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist party, claiming to be the true inheritors of China’s government. While this puppet government claimed all of China as theirs, they only held influence over territory under their direct control.
"The following year, in 1940, Mao Zedong published On New Democracy, an ideological statement outlining his vision for a brand-new China, free of feudalism and imperialism. The text argued that the path to democracy looked different for each country that pursued it. It differentiated China’s political journey from the democratic and parliamentary trajectory of many western nations and from Soviet-style dictatorship. In it, Mao stated, “Not only do we want to change a China that is politically oppressed and economically exploited into a China that is politically free and economically prosperous, but we also want to change the China that is being kept ignorant and backward under the sway of the old culture into an enlightened and progressive China under the sway of a new culture.”"
Was that the first time China acknowledged being not quite at the top of human civilisation?
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"Then, in August, the Red Army launched its Hundred Regiment Offensive. Partially in reaction to the KMT’s claims that the Communists were not doing enough for the war effort, this major campaign by the Communists targeted the Imperial Japanese Army and aimed to destabilize the puppet government in Nanjing. Thanks to the Red Army’s guerilla warfare tactics, the offensive was successful in weakening the puppet government.
"But, while this movement proved the Communists’ dedication to the cause and largely succeeded in weakening Japanese forces, it did not solve China’s internal tensions. In the winter of 1940, Nationalist and Communist forces clashed while working together in the Anhui and Jiangsu provinces. That December, Chiang Kai-shek demanded that the Communist New Fourth Army retreat and evacuate the area, citing their harassment of KMT soldiers. Under pressure to keep the shaky peace on the Chinese front, Communist forces complied with these orders. As they evacuated, KMT forces launched an ambush on the retreating soldiers, resulting in thousands of deaths, mostly on the Communist side. While China was defending itself against Japan with all its might, the Chinese were simultaneously weakening their own strength, wasting resources, time, and men on continued internal conflicts.
"Even today, many historians disagree on the true cause of the conflict in Anhui. One thing that is agreed upon, though, is that this event effectively ended the Second United Front and any facade of cooperation between the CCP and the KMT. While neither side was ever truly allied with the other, the appearance of cooperation had helped to reduce Chinese bloodshed. In the aftermath of the battle, Chiang ordered the disbanding of the New Fourth Army. The CCP at first complied with this order, before re-forming the army again later, under new leadership.
"In the eyes of the public, the KMT was mostly responsible for the New Fourth Army Incident and for simultaneously ruining whatever fragile peace the two parties had been able to maintain in the face of the Japanese threat. The New Fourth Army, on the other hand, were lauded as heroes for the Chinese cause, having done whatever possible to maintain the united front. Although the Communists essentially lost the battle and many men in the process, they won even more favor with the Chinese people, strengthening their foundations, an asset that would eventually lead to a turn in the tide."
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"“War can only be abolished through war, and in order to get rid of the gun, it is necessary to take up the gun.”
"—Mao Zedong"
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"The New Fourth Army Incident sparked even more unrest between the CCP and the KMT. In an effort to stave off the consequences of a renewed Chinese civil war, foreign countries began intervening in China’s affairs, worried about what a Chinese civil war would mean for the rest of the world. A much greater war was already on the horizon, and increased internal conflict would only serve to make China weaker in the face of these new threats. Both the CCP and the KMT heard similar advice from their allies, urging them to remain peaceful for the sake of the bigger picture.
"President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States arranged talks between Chiang Kai-shek and U.S. special envoy Lauchlin Currie. Currie warned the KMT that further civil war would only benefit the Japanese by weakening China as a whole. The CCP received similar advice from their allies, the Soviet Union. In 1941, the Soviets sent Mao a telegram warning against giving the Japanese any new advantages. This foreign interference encouraged another superficial peace between the parties, harkening back to China’s previous “United Front,” a strategy that had already failed twice to unite the nation. The KMT and CCP both knew that maintaining the united front was impossible at this point, but they agreed to a temporary truce anyway.
"Then, on December 7, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and the United States officially entered World War II. China formally declared war on the Axis Powers shortly after. By now, the events of the Sino-Japanese War and any hostility between China and Japan were interlinked and would be considered a part of World War II.
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"In the midst of all of this, the CCP and KMT were still vying for power within their own country. In May of 1942, Mao Zedong began a rectification campaign in CCP-controlled areas, encouraging Chinese citizens to report any instances of corruption among leaders. This was a new concept for citizens who were used to the strict and more hostile laws of the KMT. These rectification campaigns focused on reshaping the internal focus of the CCP and largely influenced Communist thought in the following years."
In short, witchhunts copying inquisition era.
"In reaction to his rectification campaigns, the CCP’s Congress endorsed and encouraged Mao’s new way of thinking, declaring “Mao Zedong Thought,” or “Maoism,” as the party’s new central ideology. Maoism is a derivative of Marxism-Leninism, with the main difference being an ideological focus on the peasantry, or the lower classes, rather than the proletariat, or the working class. This type of thought was widely accepted throughout China at the time it was adopted officially by the Communist Party.
"In response, Chiang published a propaganda piece titled China’s Destiny in 1943, in which he criticized the CCP and called their power into question. In retaliation, the CCP spread anti-Nationalist sentiment, referring to the KMT’s regime as Fascist, a narrative which the KMT immediately argued against."
These labels are by now familiar tactic by either side.
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"As World War II intensified, the CCP’s guerilla warfare strategies earned them even more support from the public. Their lower-key tactics cost them fewer lives than more extreme approaches to warfare, keeping their ranks full. By the end of the war, the ranks of the Red Army would grow to over 1.2 million. Meanwhile, the KMT was still defending China against the Japanese, acting on its duty as the legal government. In 1944, Japan launched Operation Ichi-Go, which would be their last major attack on the KMT. The operation greatly weakened Chiang’s forces and cost the National Army more than half a million troops.
"World War II continued through the summer of 1945. In August, the United States Air Force dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Around the same time, Soviet troops arrived in Manchuria to help China combat the Japanese there. This operation, titled the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation, brought down the Japanese Kwantung Army, which had been the dominant force in Manchuria and other areas along the Chinese-Mongolian border.
"On September 2, Japanese officials signed the Instrument of Surrender, officially ending World War II and the Sino-Japanese War. By September 9, any remnants of the Imperial Japanese Army had surrendered to the KMT. Yet although the events of 1945 effectively ended both the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II, the political tension within China only grew as external threats waned. Without an outside war to focus on, the Chinese had nothing to distract them from, or unite them despite, the discord within their own ranks. While China’s international threats were defeated at this time, the internal tensions threatened to boil over and send China into the next phase of the Chinese Civil War."
................................................................................................
................................................................................................
"“Externally China desires independence, internally she seeks to maintain her existence as a nation; China therefore strives to loose the bonds that bind her people, and to complete the establishment of a new State.”
"—Chiang Kai-shek"
................................................................................................
"In August of 1945, Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists signed a treaty with the Russians, known as the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance. As a part of this agreement, Moscow and the Soviets agreed to stop supplying the CCP with weapons and support. The Russians did not intend to keep this promise. Although World War II and the Sino-Japanese conflict were over, Marshal Rodion Malinovsky and the rest of the Soviet Red Army remained in Manchuria, delaying their departure from China. At this time, Malinovsky was also secretly communicating with the CCP, telling their forces to move into Manchuria behind the Soviet army.
"The Soviets’ continued alliance with the Chinese Communists, along with the United States’ support of the Nationalists, would soon lead to a full-on war for control over northeastern China. This was partially due to a number of clashes that occurred between the KMT and the CCP at the end of World War II. One of these, the Linyi Campaign, occurred in August of 1945 when the Communists decided to take Linyi, a city in Shandong. The Nationalists there, who had been mostly absorbed by the Japanese army during the war, refused to surrender, so the Communists decided to take the city by force. To do this, Communist forces from Binhai and the Central Shandong Military Districts launched a joint assault on Linyi, initially attempting to breach the city wall before changing tactics, digging tunnels and placing explosives and dynamite underneath the walls. The campaign lasted through September 11, when the city officially fell to the Communists.
"Around this time, Chiang Kai-shek invited Mao Zedong to Chongqing, the temporary capital of China, for peace talks and to discuss the future of the nation. Mao Zedong arrived, along with the U.S. Ambassador to China, Patrick J. Hurley. As a result, the KMT and the CCP signed the Double Tenth Agreement on October 10. The agreement stated that the Nationalist government would recognize the Communists as an opposing political party, while the Communists would recognize the KMT as the ruling Chinese government. Both parties even organized committees for future talks but would never meet again, as fighting among the Communists and Nationalists would persist.
................................................................................................
"While both parties expressed a desire for a peaceful reconstruction after the war and the decades of unrest, these peace talks did not succeed in reuniting a deeply fractured China. Chiang Kai-shek had not let go of his anti-Communist policies and was preparing to continue his campaign against the CCP. At the same time, Mao Zedong was preparing his base for a complete takeover of China.
"While the KMT’s forces had been thoroughly weakened by China’s most recent wars, by the end of World War II, the Communist camp had grown in size and influence. They boasted more than 1.2 million troops supported by 2 million militiamen, and their “Liberated Zone” had 19 separate bases. This zone included about one-quarter of China’s territory and one-third of the population. Understandably, the Nationalists and their allies became very interested in preventing the CCP from further strengthening their base of support.
"To do this, U.S. forces airlifted KMT troops into many key cities in northeastern China. The countryside was already controlled by the CCP, so KMT forces focused on large urban areas. On November 15, these KMT troops began an offensive meant to prevent the CCP from gaining any more power, influence, or advantage in this part of the country.
"The U.S. intervened once more when General George C. Marshall of the United States Army arrived in China on December 23 to mediate the conflict. He began work on negotiating a ceasefire between the two parties and organizing a coalition government. This coalition government was meant to merge the two warring ideologies together under one Chinese government. Still, U.S. forces were supplying aid and supplies to the Nationalist Army at the same time, making their allegiance clear. At any rate, the rift between the Nationalist and Communist factions of China would prove too strong and would bring the nation into a time of all-out civil war once again.
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"In March of 1946, the Soviet forces from the USSR finally moved out of Manchuria, where they had been stationed during World War II. This led to a race for the region between the KMT and the CCP. The Communists already had a presence in Manchuria from the time they had spent there fighting the Japanese during the Sino-Japanese War. Afraid that Communist influence would quickly gain traction in Manchuria, the U.S. airlifted KMT troops to the region to ensure the KMT could maintain some control of the area. Of course, tensions spiked between the parties during the scramble for Manchuria, deepening China’s internal conflicts.
"By now, the truce between the KMT and the CCP in China had completely dissolved, and the next stages of the Chinese Civil War would commence. This state of civil war would last for more than three years, sending China into a state of warfare once more.
"In July, Chiang Kai-shek launched a large-scale assault on Communist territories throughout northern China. At the time, Chiang controlled a total of 113 brigades, consisting of 1.6 million soldiers. With this open attack, the Civil War resumed in full force. The Nationalists were both larger in size than the Communists, and they were better supplied with weapons and funding, making the CCP the underdogs of the Chinese Civil War. But while the Nationalist government outmatched the Communists physically, the CCP still had their rhetoric to rely on, spreading their ideology as a utopian solution to China’s problems. This rhetoric won over many of the Chinese people.
"Because the Communist troops knew they could not defeat the stronger KMT forces, they used the same strategy that had helped them during the initial fighting of the Civil War. This tactic involved the slow retreat of Communist forces, which forced the National Revolutionary Army to advance and attack, quickly wearing them out while allowing the Communists to avoid casualties. This strategy became known as “people’s war.”
................................................................................................
"The U.S. was at this point still attempting to simultaneously support the KMT and facilitate peace between the Nationalists and Communists. In August, General Marshall was joined by John Leighton Stuart, the newly appointed U.S. ambassador to China. The two attempted to continue discussions between the parties and tried once more to establish a coalition government. During the negotiations, the Nationalists took the city of Kalgan, a city of great symbolic importance to the CCP, and destroyed it. The Communist forces lost around 100,000 soldiers in the fight.
"After this, Chiang Kai-shek ordered a ceasefire, hoping to convince the Communist army and others to join his National Assembly. In December, though, the National Assembly began writing the new Chinese constitution without input from the Communist Party or the other political groups that had been asked to join the assembly. This constitution was ratified quickly, resulting in the Communists immediately leaving the negotiations. They called for an annulment of the constitution and a return to the parties’ previous positions but were denied by the KMT.
"In early 1947, fed up with the stubbornness of both the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party, General Marshall left China, giving up on his mission to establish peace between the parties. Since peace talks were largely unsuccessful, the CCP resumed guerilla warfare against the Nationalist government and brought back the Red Army under a new title: the People’s Liberation Army.
................................................................................................
"Then, in February, Nationalist forces massacred 10,000-20,000 protesters in Taiwan who spoke out against the government. This event, known as the February 28 Incident, kicked off decades of political repression in Taiwan by the KMT government. During the so-called White Terror of Taiwan, more than 3,000 people would be executed and 140,000 imprisoned as the government sought to eradicate any sign of opposition to their rule.
"One month after the February 28 Incident, the KMT seized Yan’an, the CCP capital. This was mostly a symbolic victory for the KMT, but it worked to illustrate their power. The Communist army had arrived in Yan’an in 1934, after the Long March. The town had acted as the CCP’s headquarters during the Sino-Japanese War, and because of that, Yan’an became symbolic of the early successes of the party. This was where Mao Zedong’s leadership was confirmed and established, and where the Communist armies mastered the tactics of guerilla warfare, a strategy that would be integral to their later success. The Communists were deeply wounded by the KMT’s seizure of Yan’an and would not take the loss lying down.
"While the physical advantage still lay with the Kuomintang at this time, the Communists’ propaganda efforts were paying off. Public sentiment was beginning to flip, but how would the CCP’s much weaker forces end up defeating those of the KMT, even after such defeats as the February 28 Incident and the loss of Yan’an?"
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"“Communism is not love. Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy.”
"—Mao Zedong"
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"In the summer of 1947, the Communists began their counterattacks on the Nationalists in reaction to the KMT’s seizure of Yan’an. On June 30, CCP troops crossed the Yellow River and relocated to the Dabie Mountains, working to restore and develop popular support in the Central Plain. Around this same time, Communist forces also began a counterattack in northeastern China. By November, the Nationalists had lost 400,000 troops to casualties, defectors, and Communist captives. During the war, the cost of living in China was sky-high, and conditions were only getting worse. This turned the Chinese people even further against the Nationalist government.
"1948 was a turning point in the Chinese Civil War. Some call 1948 “The Decisive Year,” as its events would decide China’s fate as a nation and the direction the country would go. While the Nationalist army still had the upper hand, with much better artillery and a force that remained completely unopposed in the air, the party’s disorganization, poor leadership, and waning morale began to destroy them from the inside out. The KMT’s lack of an inspirational ideology lost them troops and supporters alike.
"In 1948, the Huaihai Campaign secured east and central China for the Communist Party. This led to a series of victories for the Communists, as they went on to capture the northern cities of Changchun and Shenyang. In October, the New First Army, which was said to be the strongest of the KMT’s forces, surrendered Changchun after a six-month-long siege by Communist troops. The siege resulted in more than 150,000 civilian casualties. Most of these deaths were due to starvation.
................................................................................................
"As the Communists seized more cities and captured more KMT troops, they also obtained their artilleries, which further strengthened their army. Using these supplies, the Communists finally seized control of northeastern China during the Liaoshen Campaign, a military operation to expel the Nationalists from the area. In September, the CCP also captured Shandong and Jinan. By the end of the Liaoshen Campaign in November, the region of Manchuria had fallen to Communist control. At the same time, the Communists began the Pingjin Campaign, which resulted in 64 days of fighting, and the Communist conquest of northern China.
"Then, in January of 1949, the CCP forcibly seized Beijing with minimal resistance from the KMT. Seeing this and being in favor of a coalition government for postwar China, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin attempted to convince Mao to stop war efforts south of the Yangtze River and allow a few Nationalist pockets to remain. From this, they could form a coalition government, combining both the remaining forces into one. Mao rejected this suggestion and initiated the Yangtze River Crossing Campaign in April.
"Not long after, Communist forces captured the Nationalist capital, Nanjing. At this time, Chiang Kai-shek went into temporary retirement, turning power over to his vice president, General Li Zongren. This left Li to attempt to negotiate a peace with Mao, which would fare no better than Chiang’s own attempts. General Li then attempted to broker support from the United States, who turned down the request in an attempt to separate themselves from the failing Nationalists and the Chinese conflict in general.
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"By the end of these victories, the CCP had defeated over 150 KMT divisions, including 1.5 million troops. These losses greatly affected the strength and competency of Nationalist forces and pointed toward the CCP’s success.
"On June 30 of that same year, Mao Zedong gave a speech titled “On the People’s Democratic Dictatorship.” The speech praised the CCP for their role in the revolution and in the improvement of the lives of the Chinese working class. In the speech, Mao described the CCP as a grown man, now past childhood. He stated that the CCP was not meant to last forever and was meant merely as a temporary solution to bring about a truly classless society.
"Not long after this, on a cold October day in 1949 in Beijing, Mao declared the formation of the People’s Republic of China to a large crowd at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. In the address, Mao claimed victory, saying, “It is because we have defeated the reactionary Kuomintang government backed by U.S. imperialism that this great unity of the whole people has been achieved.”
................................................................................................
"Within days of Mao’s announcement, the Soviet Union and the rest of the Communist bloc recognized the CCP as the official and legitimate government of China. By the end of that year, many other countries had done the same, now recognizing the Communists as the government of the nation as opposed to the KMT.
"In late 1949, the People’s Liberation Army began pursuing any remaining KMT strongholds in southern China. The KMT government had by now retreated to Guangzhou, then Chongqing, and finally to Taiwan, an island off the eastern coast. Any remaining pockets of Nationalist control in mainland China were destroyed in December when the remaining KMT generals surrendered their allegiance to the Communists. Despite being chased out to Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek and the KMT continued to claim sovereignty over China, with little effect. To this day, Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China do not recognize each other’s governments. For this reason, many say that it feels as though the Chinese Civil War never truly ended.
"Nevertheless, the Communist victory in 1949 saw a new party in power in China, one that had learned leadership techniques in the countryside and borrowed ideology from Marxism. This was a regime that believed in the struggle of the lower and working classes and aimed for large-scale industrial development. They also hoped to restore China to its previous world-superpower status. While the focus of the Communist Party often shifted from the countryside to the urban areas, Mao Zedong maintained that the vision and future of China lay in the rural struggle and in the peasantry as opposed to the proletariat. “The poor peasants have conquered the country,” Mao declared, “The poor peasants should now sit in the country.”
................................................................................................
"In a series of speeches, Mao, now the chairman of the People’s Republic of China, stated that the party’s goal was socialist society and eventual world communism. This sentiment, and the CCP’s victory over the KMT, contributed to the Red Scare in the United States and bolstered anti-Communist sentiment around the world. American McCarthyism—the repression and persecution of left-leaning individuals in the U.S. starting in the 1950s—is often partially attributed to the events of the Chinese Civil War.
"In the wake of the CCP’s victory, the party began the process of consolidating control over China. To do this, the CCP prosecuted what they called “counter-revolutionaries.” This term was purposefully vague and was able to encompass anyone who might challenge Communist authority. With this policy, the CCP was able to control the narrative around their actions, wielding power over any who may try to argue with the events of the war, or the aftermath of the Communist takeover.
"In the following years, Mao’s ideals would be spread across the whole of China, as he aimed to rapidly modernize China in an era he termed “The Great Leap Forward.”"
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"In 1949, the ever-shifting identity of China, which had been unclear since the fall of the Qing dynasty, was decided. China once more had a clear identity under Mao Zedong as a Communist nation. What began in a candlelit room in Shanghai became an insurgency, then a true force, a political powerhouse, and an influence on many world events. The story of the Chinese Communist Party has also essentially become a “boogeyman” tale in the western world about the dangers of Communism and where it might lead a country.
"In many ways, the cost of the Chinese Civil War was stupendous. The conflict saw more than two million soldiers killed in combat. Additionally, more than seven million civilians died in the crossfire of the war and from famine and disease. This does not count the casualties gathered after the war, during Mao’s obsessive push for modernization at all costs. During Mao Zedong’s “Great Leap Forward,” which was not the Communist utopia that many early adopters of Maoism had hoped, the nation lost some 30 million people in a famine that lasted from 1959 to 1962.
"Even despite his later actions, Mao Zedong remains a widely debated figure, with some believing that he pushed China forward toward modernization and others arguing that he actually stunted the growth of the nation. The Chinese government still recognizes Mao as one of their founding fathers."
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Table of Contents
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Introduction
Background: A War Brews
First Phase: Communist Insurgency
The Japanese Invasion: A “United” Front
World War II: War Inside a War
Civil War: Initial Nationalist Victories
Civil War: The Communist Takeover
Conclusion
Bibliography
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REVIEW
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Introduction
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"On a warm Shanghai night in July of 1921, a handful of young Chinese intellectuals came together to form a group that would one day become historic. While this collection of young people did not intend to become a political powerhouse, they would, and the group would later become known as the Chinese Communist Party, or the CCP.
"The CCP was founded by two revolutionaries, Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu, who had formed the group as a forum to discuss Marxism and other western ideologies. When the party first formed, it looked more like a club than a government. Still, the formation of this party would go on to change China’s political destiny and, with it, the world. But what happened to spark such unrest and revolt among the people? Why were students meeting under the cover of darkness to organize against their own government? And how would this small meeting eventually lead to civil war?
................................................................................................
"The answer to these questions lies in the events that took place in China after the fall of the Qing dynasty. China had a long history of violence and political strife, but in 1921, the country was being torn apart at the seams. Any sign of the old, thriving Imperial China was gone, leaving a stumbling new nation in its wake.
"It would take years for China to once more establish itself as a powerful political presence in the world. The nation would face questions of identity and ideology, along with years of unrest. No one knew yet how history would unfold, but it was clear from the beginning that whatever China was to become, it would not do so without a fight."
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December 30, 2022 - December 30, 2022.
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Chapter 1. Background: A War Brews
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"“If the idea of revolution is to win out, it must be through political enlightenment. It is useless to try to impose it by force of arms.”
"—Sun Yat-sen"
................................................................................................
"Following the collapse of the Qing dynasty and the events of the 1911 Revolution, China was essentially a new nation. Imperial China previously had a long, rich history, dating back as far as 221 BCE. ... "
There's no evidence that it didn't hold further back, other than possibly a lack of discovery thereof by West.
" ... So, when the dynasty fell in 1911-1912, it left space for the nation to become something brand new. This should have been good news for a public who had been waiting on the fall of imperialism for years, only tolerating the monarchy because they had no other political option, but this was not the case for the Chinese people."
Much presumption there, imposing thought of West or the author on Chinese people.
"While the previous conflict was over and the monarchy had fallen, all was not peaceful in China. After about 2,000 years of imperialism, this newfound republic was weak and fractured. ... "
Wasn't that due to brutal force by West to push opium into China?
" ... Without the tradition and steadfast rules of the monarchy, China seemed to be scrambling for somewhere to land. The country was suffering a crisis of identity, looking to its allies for guidance. In the aftermath of their long imperial history, what was China to become?
................................................................................................
"There was no easy answer to this question. It seemed that everyone had a different vision for the future of China, and this created conflict and chaos among both the Chinese government and the people. The sheer size and population of China made a centralized government a near-impossible task after such a long time of division. During this era, there was no trust in the shakily established Chinese government, so control of China fell to the most powerful possible candidates, and China spiraled into what is now referred to as its Warlord Era."
When was it not the Warlord Era in China?
"The unease and political confusion across China allowed these warlords, including members of the Beiyang Army, to gain power in many parts of the nation. When China found itself without any leadership after the failed start of the republic and the subsequent death of the first president, Yuan Shikai, the country dissolved into factions. The remaining warlords divided the nation up among themselves. By 1916, China was rife with corruption, littered with power-hungry, militant warlords, and suffering from hunger, poverty, and cruelty. The factions warred with each other, battling for dominance, land, money, and power."
And West takes no responsibility for causing it, by pushing opium?
"The warlords’ main goal was profit. They were seeking power and wealth and used strategies of exploitation and corruption to achieve their goal. Throughout the period of warlord rule, the civil service perished, and the highly educated withdrew from political into academic life, leaving the government to be run by militants and power-hungry careerists. These warlord governments did not care for the well-being of the people of China, instead serving only their own ends."
So the warlords aped Western models.
................................................................................................
"As the warlords seized control of the government, they printed excessive amounts of money to fund their armies and imposed new and increased taxes on the people. As the Chinese people became disheartened with their military leaders and tired of constant war, public sentiment quickly turned against the warlord system. Other political leaders in China saw this unrest and the rise in anti-warlord sentiment and jumped at the chance to rally the people behind a different form of government.
"On May 4, 1919, mass protests broke out in Beijing. The protestors were mostly made up of students who stood in opposition to the Chinese government’s decisions during World War I. China had, for example, given up territory to Japan, a move these protestors did not approve of. These demonstrations, known as the May Fourth Movement, caused a rise in Nationalist sentiment among the Chinese people."
Why did China have territory in Japan?
................................................................................................
"Chinese writer, Han Suyin, said of the May Fourth Movement, “For China, the watershed between ‘yesterday’ and ‘today’ began on May 4, 1919. All my generation date ourselves from this year and this day . . . For it was on this day that China’s intellectuals turned away from the West.” Han Suyin pinpointed the May Fourth Movement as the moment when the Chinese government lost all respect and support from young Chinese intellectuals who were studying politics and new ways of government. This event popularized Communism as a viable, though radical, alternative to the current Chinese government. While Communism was new and unknown, it acted as another option to China’s dynastic past and warlord-ruled current reality.
"In 1919, former president Sun Yat-sen re-established the Chinese Nationalist Party, also known as the Kuomintang (KMT). His direct goal was to position the KMT as an attractive alternative to warlord rule. In the long term, and perhaps more fervently, Sun Yat-sen wanted to revive his republic, which had failed back in 1912, and his own reputation and status in China along with it.
"Sun Yat-sen knew that the northern warlords had a stronger army than he had down south. The KMT had more men than guns and no means to obtain more, forcing them to rely on neighboring warlord regimes for military aid. While the KMT couldn’t hold up to the northern warlords in battle, Sun Yat-sen hoped they could win the approval of the people. To bolster support, he instilled his army with Nationalism, using sweeping, revolutionary rhetoric in an attempt to stir the masses.
................................................................................................
"In the early 1920s, Sun Yat-sen began asking the world for outside support, though most countries were not looking to get involved in China’s affairs at this time. His requests were answered only by Soviet Russia, which had taken an interest in China and planned to use it to spread Communism to other parts of the world.
"In 1921, Sun Yat-sen said of China: “The Republic is my child. It is in danger of drowning. I am trying to keep it afloat, but we are being swept down the river. I called for help from England and America. They stand on the bank and jeer at me. Then came a Russian straw. Drowning, I clutched at it. England and America, on the bank, shout at me on no account to clutch the Russian straw. But do they help me? No. They jeer themselves and, at the same time, tell me not to clutch that Russian straw. I know it is a straw, but better that than nothing.” Here, Sun Yat-sen describes feeling as though China has been abandoned by the western world in the wake of their new beginning. He could see what would become of China if the country did not find its footholds soon.
"Before long, Sun Yat-sen sent Chiang Kai-shek, a member of the KMT, to Moscow to study political and military strategy. When Chiang returned home, he was appointed the leader of Sun Yat-sen’s newly established Whampoa Military Academy with the objective of modernizing the southern military forces while spreading their new ideology. During his time at Whampoa, Chiang Kai-shek rose to prominence as Sun Yat-sen’s likely successor.
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"It was also around this time that the Chinese Communist Party was created, in July 1921, in Shanghai, China. The party was made up of revolutionaries and students who had dreams for a better China and who were studying Marxist ideology. Born directly from the May Fourth Movement, the CCP looked to oppose warlordism and traditional forms of government in China. Mao Zedong, a revolutionary who would play a significant role in the future history of China, founded the Changsha branch of the CCP later that same year. Mao even opened his own bookstore, which he used to circulate revolutionary literature and as a base to organize workers’ strikes.
"At this time, pro-Communist sentiment was already spreading across China, partially due to the general unrest and discontent with the current political system but also due to the grassroots efforts of the CCP, which was quickly becoming a more established party. These circumstances led the two groups, the Nationalist KMT and the Chinese Communist Party, to join forces in 1924 to achieve their common goals while maintaining a separation in ideology and remaining unattached as organizations. During this so-called First United Front, members of the CCP were welcomed to join the KMT on a case-by-case basis. The KMT remained a much larger organization at this time, made up of over 50,000 members, compared to the CCP’s 1,500 by the year 1925.
"This peaceful alliance would not last for long, though, as Sun Yat-sen died later that year. He fought for the KMT up until his death, writing a statement shortly beforehand which read: “For 40 years, I have devoted myself to the cause of the people’s revolution with but one end in view: the elevation of China to a position of freedom and equality among the nations.” Sun Yat-sen would not live to see his dream of China become a reality, and he knew that China still had a long path to walk.
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"After Sun Yat-sen’s death in March of 1925, the KMT split down the middle. Without his reassurance and trust in the Russians, many members of the KMT grew afraid that the Russians were attempting to use the CCP to bring the KMT down from the inside. While the left side of the KMT, led by Wang Jingwei, remained aligned with the CCP, the right side, led by Hu Hanmin and Chiang Kai-shek, started distancing themselves from their Communist counterparts.
"Unlike his predecessor, Chiang Kai-shek harbored a deep mistrust of both the Soviets and the Chinese Communist Party. When Chiang held a party meeting, he declared any Communist activity to be a distraction from the true cause. He felt that in order for the revolution to succeed, the CCP would have to be stopped. This internal split is what really set China in a position that would lead to full-on civil war.
"In response to this threat, Chiang launched his Northern Expedition on the warlord territories in the north, specifically those of the Beiyang government, which was still being recognized as the legitimate Chinese government by the rest of the world. The expedition, which got underway in the summer of 1926, aimed to rid China of the warlords’ influence and angle the Nationalist government as a viable replacement. These efforts began successfully, with Chiang Kai-shek leading the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) on their campaign through the north. Many warlords, now outdone by the KMT’s forces, folded easily, allowing their armies to join up with the NRA. By spring, the NRA had captured Wuhan, Nanjing, and Shanghai.
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"At this point, however, the Kuomintang began experiencing increasing internal tensions. Within the KMT, a range of opinions existed, especially concerning the presence of a Communist party within the country. As mentioned before, one half of the KMT sympathized with the CCP, while the other condemned them as a danger to the nation. Was left-wing Wang Jingwei, Sun Yat-sen’s chosen predecessor, the right leader for their growing empire? Or, would right-wing Chiang Kai-shek, with his proven military power, be a better choice? This sparked competition among the leaders. For instance, when Wang formed a new civilian national government in Wuhan, far from Chiang’s military influence in the south, Chiang retaliated by lobbying for the capital to be moved from Wuhan to Nanchang, the home of his military headquarters.
"Due to Wang and Chiang’s political back and forth, the two wings of the KMT began to grow further and further apart. Without the common danger of the warlords to rally against, the cracks in the foundation of the KMT began to show. The unity and patriotism on which the KMT had once so heavily relied were thwarted by these internal power struggles.
"By March of 1927, Chiang Kai-shek had given up any hope of establishing peace through negotiation. He officially charged the Chinese Communist Party with armed rebellion, swearing to eradicate them and their influence in China by any means possible.
"Then, on April 12, the KMT purged hundreds of left-leaning KMT members, performing arrests and executions on the orders of General Bai Chongxi. This incident would be referred to as the April 12 Incident, or the Shanghai Massacre. The event deepened the rift between Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Jingwei, who controlled the city of Wuhan. Even the KMT’s left wing eventually abandoned their Communist allies, exiling the CCP from their newly established Wuhan government.
................................................................................................
"This event made the goals of the KMT crystal clear to the Communists and laid the foundation for civil war. Following the Shanghai Massacre, many Communists went underground and into hiding. The massacre also ended any alliance left between the KMT and the Russian forces.
"Over the next month, the KMT continued its purge of the CCP in Shanghai and other notable Communist areas. The CCP lost around 50,000 people in the campaign, which would later be dubbed “The White Terror.” It was a pivotal moment in the political history of China. The Shanghai Massacre and the White Terror marked the end of the First United Front in China and opened the door for years of anti-Communist violence and internal struggles within the country."
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December 30, 2022 - December 30, 2022.
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Chapter 2. First Phase: Communist Insurgency
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"“In waking a tiger, use a long stick.”
"—Mao Zedong"
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"In the summer of 1927, after months of lying low, reassessing political strategy, and stirring unrest among the people, Chinese Communist forces re-emerged to launch an armed uprising in the city of Nanchang. The Communists had rallied a following among the peasants and lower classes, convincing their people to join their ranks. This combination of forces came together to form what would later be known as the Chinese Red Army. The Red Army would operate as the main opposing army to the KMT’s National Revolutionary Army.
"An attack on Nanchang was launched by these Red Army forces on August 1, and the Communists soon occupied the city. This success only lasted for three days before the Nationalists’ counterattacks drove the Communists to retreat on August 4. The Communists moved south during their retreat toward the province of Guangdong, leaving the KMT to quickly regain control of Nanchang. The Communists’ march to Guangdong ended in another defeat, sending many CCP leaders and members into hiding once more.
"This brief resistance in Nanchang was an act of rebellion by the Communist Party and stood in opposition to the Nationalist government in Wuhan. The seizure of the city was a direct retaliation to the Shanghai Massacre, which many pinpoint as the true beginning of the Chinese Civil War. The Communists refused to let the bloodshed in Shanghai go unopposed and made a grab for the city even despite their weaker political position. The CCP intended to seize political power from the KMT by force, but they were outmatched and overpowered by the more established forces of the KMT. Although the uprising in Nanchang failed to bring the CCP any real political power, the remnants of these Communist forces, who would go on to become the Chinese Red Army, would be a major player in the Civil War.
................................................................................................
"As a guide for this new army, Mao Zedong implemented a military doctrine titled “The Three Rules of Discipline and Eight Points for Attention.” This document outlined the ways in which the Red Army sought to operate differently from Nationalist armies of the time. While the KMT often disregarded the general public, boarding them into their homes without warning and even confiscating property for their own use, the Red Army instated rules against confiscation and guidelines for polite speaking and honest protocol. The “Three Rules of Discipline” included in the document listed the army’s intentions. The document stated that the three simple rules of discipline were: prompt obedience to orders, no confiscations from the poor peasantry, and prompt delivery to the government of all goods confiscated from landlords. This guide won the Red Army, and therefore the CCP, even more favor among the lower and working-class populations in China.
"In response to the Communist uprising in Nanchang, the leaders of the KMT had begun cooperating once more. Under the common goal of suppressing the CCP, the differing factions of the KMT were united. This proved fortunate since the following months were littered with rebellions and uprisings. The Red Army, now growing in size due to support and volunteers from the lower classes, made multiple attempts to seize regions of southern China. In September of 1927, for instance, Mao Zedong led a group of peasants and farmers in the Autumn Harvest Uprising, a rural insurrection which flourished briefly before falling to KMT forces after two months. Then, in December, the CCP organized an uprising of 20,000 soldiers and workers to seize and establish a soviet in Guangzhou. While Communist forces were briefly successful in this, they, too, were quickly taken down by the KMT’s counterattack.
"This pattern repeated itself throughout the following years, beginning what many referred to as the Ten Years of Civil War. This fighting would act as the first half of China’s Civil War, laying the foundation for further bloodshed down the line. Communist forces would launch an insurrection and find momentary success, only to be thwarted by the Nationalist forces in a matter of days or weeks. As the KMT maintained their power, they continued their attacks on the remaining warlords and their shunning of the Communists, eventually forcing the remaining CCP members out of the left wing of the KMT government in Wuhan.
"By this time, there were three conflicting governments ruling over China from different parts of the country. There was the KMT, or the Nationalists, who were led by Chiang Kai-shek and ruled from Nanjing. The second was the CCP, still an insurgency but which now had an established army and a base in Ruijin, Jiangxi. Lastly, remnants of warlord influence remained, including the Beiyang government, which ruled from Beijing.
................................................................................................
"In June of 1928, though, the KMT captured Beijing, causing the warlord Zhang Zuolin and his army to retreat to Manchuria, the northernmost region of China. Over the next few months, other warlords followed and were either defeated or killed by KMT forces. This effectively ended the rule of the Beiyang government and finally “united” China under the Nationalist Kuomintang government. It also marked the end of Chiang Kai-shek’s Northern Expedition, as his army had officially ousted all warlord influence from the country. Now that the warlords and Communists were mostly under control, the KMT began to plan for China’s future. Chiang Kai-shek even married the sister of Sun Yat-sen’s widow in an effort to legitimize his rule.
"Unfortunately, a new threat was on the horizon. The Japanese had become wrapped up in China’s internal conflicts by this time. Throughout the summer, Japan had deployed soldiers to Jinan in eastern China in an effort to protect Japanese commercial interests, which were being threatened by Chiang’s Northern Expedition. When the National Revolutionary Army arrived in Jinan, a shaky peace was reached between the parties, facilitated by Chiang Kai-shek’s negotiations with the Imperial Japanese Army. This brief coexistence came to a halt, however, when over 13 Japanese civilians were killed in a dispute with Chinese soldiers. Their deaths sparked a larger conflict, resulting in thousands of NRA casualties and their eventual withdrawal from Jinan to continue north on their expedition. It was clear that the NRA was outmatched by Japanese forces, and Jinan would remain under Japanese rule until March of 1929.
"Meanwhile, in the south, the Communists were once more reorganizing and recovering. The CCP was working hard to improve their public image in retaliation to the Nationalists’ propaganda about them. Communist forces often medically treated wounded enemy soldiers, an act that shocked Nationalist troops. Of this, Mao Zedong said, “The most effective method of propaganda directed at the enemy forces is to release captured soldiers and give the wounded medical treatment. . . . This immediately knocks the bottom out of the enemy’s slander that the Communist bandits kill everyone on sight.”
"In February of 1930, the CCP implemented the “Li Lisan line,” a strategy aimed at stirring the labor classes and encouraging urban uprisings. While Mao Zedong believed the path to political power lay in the rural population, this new strategy by his rival Li Lisan focused its influence on workers in the city. This shows, early on, Mao’s focus on the peasantry over the proletariat, a sentiment that opposed the Marxist theory to which the rest of Mao’s party subscribed.
................................................................................................
"While the nation was technically unified, the Nationalists were still worried about remaining Communist activity in many parts of China. To combat this, they launched a series of encirclement campaigns over the course of the next few years. These campaigns were designed to locate any dissent or resistance and eradicate it, leaving only support for the Nationalist party. The first four of these campaigns failed for various reasons, taking place on and off over the next few years, but the fifth, a slower and more calculated encirclement of the Jiangxi region, succeeded by cutting off the Communists’ access to food and other supplies. To do this, the KMT utilized fortified blockhouses to surround Communist areas.
"In October of 1934, the CCP escaped this environment by taking advantage of some of these blockhouses, which were manned not by Chiang Kai-shek’s NRA but by the less organized troops of one of Chiang’s warlord allies. They used these gaps in the ring of blockhouses to escape Jiangxi. The warlord armies, for their part, essentially allowed this escape, uninterested in wasting men or supplies in a chase with the Communists. This mass retreat of Communist forces would come to be known as the Long March. While the event was sparked by the retreat of the CCP in Jiangxi, other Communist forces, including the Second and Fourth Red Army, joined in on the march, aiming to meet up with other Communist forces in Shaanxi.
"During the Long March, the figureheads of the CCP were locked in a battle for leadership of the party. Zhang Guotao and Mao Zedong, whose forces had joined up during the march, often disagreed on strategy and argued about the party’s next move. While Mao wanted to continue north toward Shaanxi, Zhang wanted to move south to establish a new base in the Sichuan region. Mao refused to help Zhang in this effort, but Zhang ordered his troops south anyway, essentially leading about 75% of his army to their deaths. Defeated on two counts, Zhang finally led the remaining few thousand soldiers to meet with allies in the north. This military failure on Zhang’s part made Mao appear even more successful in comparison and secured Mao’s position as the true and undisputed leader of the Chinese Communist Party.
................................................................................................
"The Long March lasted a year and spanned over 5,600 miles (9,000 kilometers). During the march, the Red Army utilized guerilla warfare tactics, including confiscating weapons and property from warlords and corrupt landlords and recruiting even more disenfranchised peasants for their cause. While over 90,000 people began the Long March, only 7,000-8,000 made it all the way to Shaanxi, somehow surviving relentless ground and air attacks from the KMT. While the Communists undoubtedly lost greatly during the Long March, Mao Zedong declared the events a victory for the CCP, stating, “The Long March . . . proclaims to the world that the Red Army is an army of heroes. . . . It declares to approximately 200 million people of 11 provinces that only the road of the Red Army leads to their liberation.”
"While Chiang Kai-shek was focused on his attacks on the Red Army, the Japanese threat toward China intensified. Chiang used a new strategy, called “first internal pacification, then external resistance,” in an attempt to eliminate the CCP and appease the Japanese, essentially buying time for the Chinese government and army to grow in strength. He believed that they could eradicate the smaller CCP threat before having to deal with the larger threat of a Japanese invasion.
"Then, in a betrayal by some of his own subordinates, Generals Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng detained Chiang Kai-shek, placing him under house arrest and forcing a stop to his attacks on the Red Army. The rest of the Nationalists believed the best move would be to shift focus from attacking the Red Army to defending against the incoming Japanese threat. The generals agreed not to execute Chiang on the condition that he cooperate with the Communists and change his policies. This incident, which would later come to be known as the Xi’an Incident, forced Chiang into an unstable truce with the Chinese Communist Party, ceasing the first phase of the Civil War in late 1936."
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December 30, 2022 - December 30, 2022.
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Chapter 3. The Japanese Invasion: A “United” Front
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"“Japan cannot conquer China with America in her rear, Soviet Russia on her right, and England on her left—her most powerful enemies in the South Sea all flanking her.”
"—Chiang Kai-shek"
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"Now that Chiang Kai-shek had refocused his energy on the Japanese invasion, the Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang, the two warring sides of China, began working together against their common enemy. This cooperation, called the Second United Front, led to new anti-civil war rhetoric in China, which promoted much-needed peace among the Chinese people. While both sides still greatly disagreed with each other, they outwardly acted as a team at this time and were not actively attacking each other for land or power. Under this newfound peace, the Communist Party had the time and space to rebuild their army and join forces with the National Revolutionary Army.
"On the surface, it seemed that the two opposing parties were getting along well enough to strengthen China’s position. The Red Army was eventually absorbed into the National Army while continuing to operate on its own. Beyond appearances, however, the truce between the KMT and the CCP was less successful. Despite their common enemy, the Communists still disagreed strongly with the National Army’s tactics and practices, finding them violent and inhumane. The Nationalists, on the other hand, felt that the Communists would bring disaster to China. Both parties held tightly to their distinct visions for China, and each continued pursuing advantages over the other during their fight against the Japanese.
"The Marco Polo Bridge Incident was a battle between the Imperial Japanese Army and KMT forces in July 1937 and is often pointed to as the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War. After scoring a victory in this battle, the Japanese captured Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing, the Chinese capital, forcing the Chinese to temporarily relocate their government to Chongqing.
"By 1939, with the help of the Sino-Soviet Treaty, the Chinese were able to score victories over Japan in Changsha and Guangxi, at which time the war hit a stalemate. Eventually, after another year of fighting, the Japanese gained another victory and were able to occupy Nanning, the largest city in Guangxi. Now the Japanese ruled over most major cities in China. While Japan had enough resources to maintain control of the cities, they lacked the manpower to gain an advantage in the Chinese countryside.
................................................................................................
"Meanwhile, in the fall of 1939, German forces invaded Poland, sparking the beginning of World War II. During the war, the Chinese Communists and Nationalists attempted to continue their cooperation. Around the same time, however, Wang Jingwei, a former KMT leader, signed a deal with Japan, defecting to the Japanese side and becoming the head of a new puppet government in Nanjing. This government situated itself as an alternative to Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist party, claiming to be the true inheritors of China’s government. While this puppet government claimed all of China as theirs, they only held influence over territory under their direct control.
"The following year, in 1940, Mao Zedong published On New Democracy, an ideological statement outlining his vision for a brand-new China, free of feudalism and imperialism. The text argued that the path to democracy looked different for each country that pursued it. It differentiated China’s political journey from the democratic and parliamentary trajectory of many western nations and from Soviet-style dictatorship. In it, Mao stated, “Not only do we want to change a China that is politically oppressed and economically exploited into a China that is politically free and economically prosperous, but we also want to change the China that is being kept ignorant and backward under the sway of the old culture into an enlightened and progressive China under the sway of a new culture.”"
Was that the first time China acknowledged being not quite at the top of human civilisation?
................................................................................................
"Then, in August, the Red Army launched its Hundred Regiment Offensive. Partially in reaction to the KMT’s claims that the Communists were not doing enough for the war effort, this major campaign by the Communists targeted the Imperial Japanese Army and aimed to destabilize the puppet government in Nanjing. Thanks to the Red Army’s guerilla warfare tactics, the offensive was successful in weakening the puppet government.
"But, while this movement proved the Communists’ dedication to the cause and largely succeeded in weakening Japanese forces, it did not solve China’s internal tensions. In the winter of 1940, Nationalist and Communist forces clashed while working together in the Anhui and Jiangsu provinces. That December, Chiang Kai-shek demanded that the Communist New Fourth Army retreat and evacuate the area, citing their harassment of KMT soldiers. Under pressure to keep the shaky peace on the Chinese front, Communist forces complied with these orders. As they evacuated, KMT forces launched an ambush on the retreating soldiers, resulting in thousands of deaths, mostly on the Communist side. While China was defending itself against Japan with all its might, the Chinese were simultaneously weakening their own strength, wasting resources, time, and men on continued internal conflicts.
"Even today, many historians disagree on the true cause of the conflict in Anhui. One thing that is agreed upon, though, is that this event effectively ended the Second United Front and any facade of cooperation between the CCP and the KMT. While neither side was ever truly allied with the other, the appearance of cooperation had helped to reduce Chinese bloodshed. In the aftermath of the battle, Chiang ordered the disbanding of the New Fourth Army. The CCP at first complied with this order, before re-forming the army again later, under new leadership.
"In the eyes of the public, the KMT was mostly responsible for the New Fourth Army Incident and for simultaneously ruining whatever fragile peace the two parties had been able to maintain in the face of the Japanese threat. The New Fourth Army, on the other hand, were lauded as heroes for the Chinese cause, having done whatever possible to maintain the united front. Although the Communists essentially lost the battle and many men in the process, they won even more favor with the Chinese people, strengthening their foundations, an asset that would eventually lead to a turn in the tide."
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December 30, 2022 - December 30, 2022.
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Chapter 4. World War II: War Inside a War
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"“War can only be abolished through war, and in order to get rid of the gun, it is necessary to take up the gun.”
"—Mao Zedong"
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"The New Fourth Army Incident sparked even more unrest between the CCP and the KMT. In an effort to stave off the consequences of a renewed Chinese civil war, foreign countries began intervening in China’s affairs, worried about what a Chinese civil war would mean for the rest of the world. A much greater war was already on the horizon, and increased internal conflict would only serve to make China weaker in the face of these new threats. Both the CCP and the KMT heard similar advice from their allies, urging them to remain peaceful for the sake of the bigger picture.
"President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States arranged talks between Chiang Kai-shek and U.S. special envoy Lauchlin Currie. Currie warned the KMT that further civil war would only benefit the Japanese by weakening China as a whole. The CCP received similar advice from their allies, the Soviet Union. In 1941, the Soviets sent Mao a telegram warning against giving the Japanese any new advantages. This foreign interference encouraged another superficial peace between the parties, harkening back to China’s previous “United Front,” a strategy that had already failed twice to unite the nation. The KMT and CCP both knew that maintaining the united front was impossible at this point, but they agreed to a temporary truce anyway.
"Then, on December 7, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and the United States officially entered World War II. China formally declared war on the Axis Powers shortly after. By now, the events of the Sino-Japanese War and any hostility between China and Japan were interlinked and would be considered a part of World War II.
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"In the midst of all of this, the CCP and KMT were still vying for power within their own country. In May of 1942, Mao Zedong began a rectification campaign in CCP-controlled areas, encouraging Chinese citizens to report any instances of corruption among leaders. This was a new concept for citizens who were used to the strict and more hostile laws of the KMT. These rectification campaigns focused on reshaping the internal focus of the CCP and largely influenced Communist thought in the following years."
In short, witchhunts copying inquisition era.
"In reaction to his rectification campaigns, the CCP’s Congress endorsed and encouraged Mao’s new way of thinking, declaring “Mao Zedong Thought,” or “Maoism,” as the party’s new central ideology. Maoism is a derivative of Marxism-Leninism, with the main difference being an ideological focus on the peasantry, or the lower classes, rather than the proletariat, or the working class. This type of thought was widely accepted throughout China at the time it was adopted officially by the Communist Party.
"In response, Chiang published a propaganda piece titled China’s Destiny in 1943, in which he criticized the CCP and called their power into question. In retaliation, the CCP spread anti-Nationalist sentiment, referring to the KMT’s regime as Fascist, a narrative which the KMT immediately argued against."
These labels are by now familiar tactic by either side.
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"As World War II intensified, the CCP’s guerilla warfare strategies earned them even more support from the public. Their lower-key tactics cost them fewer lives than more extreme approaches to warfare, keeping their ranks full. By the end of the war, the ranks of the Red Army would grow to over 1.2 million. Meanwhile, the KMT was still defending China against the Japanese, acting on its duty as the legal government. In 1944, Japan launched Operation Ichi-Go, which would be their last major attack on the KMT. The operation greatly weakened Chiang’s forces and cost the National Army more than half a million troops.
"World War II continued through the summer of 1945. In August, the United States Air Force dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Around the same time, Soviet troops arrived in Manchuria to help China combat the Japanese there. This operation, titled the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation, brought down the Japanese Kwantung Army, which had been the dominant force in Manchuria and other areas along the Chinese-Mongolian border.
"On September 2, Japanese officials signed the Instrument of Surrender, officially ending World War II and the Sino-Japanese War. By September 9, any remnants of the Imperial Japanese Army had surrendered to the KMT. Yet although the events of 1945 effectively ended both the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II, the political tension within China only grew as external threats waned. Without an outside war to focus on, the Chinese had nothing to distract them from, or unite them despite, the discord within their own ranks. While China’s international threats were defeated at this time, the internal tensions threatened to boil over and send China into the next phase of the Chinese Civil War."
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December 30, 2022 - December 30, 2022.
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Chapter 5. Civil War: Initial Nationalist Victories
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"“Externally China desires independence, internally she seeks to maintain her existence as a nation; China therefore strives to loose the bonds that bind her people, and to complete the establishment of a new State.”
"—Chiang Kai-shek"
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"In August of 1945, Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists signed a treaty with the Russians, known as the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance. As a part of this agreement, Moscow and the Soviets agreed to stop supplying the CCP with weapons and support. The Russians did not intend to keep this promise. Although World War II and the Sino-Japanese conflict were over, Marshal Rodion Malinovsky and the rest of the Soviet Red Army remained in Manchuria, delaying their departure from China. At this time, Malinovsky was also secretly communicating with the CCP, telling their forces to move into Manchuria behind the Soviet army.
"The Soviets’ continued alliance with the Chinese Communists, along with the United States’ support of the Nationalists, would soon lead to a full-on war for control over northeastern China. This was partially due to a number of clashes that occurred between the KMT and the CCP at the end of World War II. One of these, the Linyi Campaign, occurred in August of 1945 when the Communists decided to take Linyi, a city in Shandong. The Nationalists there, who had been mostly absorbed by the Japanese army during the war, refused to surrender, so the Communists decided to take the city by force. To do this, Communist forces from Binhai and the Central Shandong Military Districts launched a joint assault on Linyi, initially attempting to breach the city wall before changing tactics, digging tunnels and placing explosives and dynamite underneath the walls. The campaign lasted through September 11, when the city officially fell to the Communists.
"Around this time, Chiang Kai-shek invited Mao Zedong to Chongqing, the temporary capital of China, for peace talks and to discuss the future of the nation. Mao Zedong arrived, along with the U.S. Ambassador to China, Patrick J. Hurley. As a result, the KMT and the CCP signed the Double Tenth Agreement on October 10. The agreement stated that the Nationalist government would recognize the Communists as an opposing political party, while the Communists would recognize the KMT as the ruling Chinese government. Both parties even organized committees for future talks but would never meet again, as fighting among the Communists and Nationalists would persist.
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"While both parties expressed a desire for a peaceful reconstruction after the war and the decades of unrest, these peace talks did not succeed in reuniting a deeply fractured China. Chiang Kai-shek had not let go of his anti-Communist policies and was preparing to continue his campaign against the CCP. At the same time, Mao Zedong was preparing his base for a complete takeover of China.
"While the KMT’s forces had been thoroughly weakened by China’s most recent wars, by the end of World War II, the Communist camp had grown in size and influence. They boasted more than 1.2 million troops supported by 2 million militiamen, and their “Liberated Zone” had 19 separate bases. This zone included about one-quarter of China’s territory and one-third of the population. Understandably, the Nationalists and their allies became very interested in preventing the CCP from further strengthening their base of support.
"To do this, U.S. forces airlifted KMT troops into many key cities in northeastern China. The countryside was already controlled by the CCP, so KMT forces focused on large urban areas. On November 15, these KMT troops began an offensive meant to prevent the CCP from gaining any more power, influence, or advantage in this part of the country.
"The U.S. intervened once more when General George C. Marshall of the United States Army arrived in China on December 23 to mediate the conflict. He began work on negotiating a ceasefire between the two parties and organizing a coalition government. This coalition government was meant to merge the two warring ideologies together under one Chinese government. Still, U.S. forces were supplying aid and supplies to the Nationalist Army at the same time, making their allegiance clear. At any rate, the rift between the Nationalist and Communist factions of China would prove too strong and would bring the nation into a time of all-out civil war once again.
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"In March of 1946, the Soviet forces from the USSR finally moved out of Manchuria, where they had been stationed during World War II. This led to a race for the region between the KMT and the CCP. The Communists already had a presence in Manchuria from the time they had spent there fighting the Japanese during the Sino-Japanese War. Afraid that Communist influence would quickly gain traction in Manchuria, the U.S. airlifted KMT troops to the region to ensure the KMT could maintain some control of the area. Of course, tensions spiked between the parties during the scramble for Manchuria, deepening China’s internal conflicts.
"By now, the truce between the KMT and the CCP in China had completely dissolved, and the next stages of the Chinese Civil War would commence. This state of civil war would last for more than three years, sending China into a state of warfare once more.
"In July, Chiang Kai-shek launched a large-scale assault on Communist territories throughout northern China. At the time, Chiang controlled a total of 113 brigades, consisting of 1.6 million soldiers. With this open attack, the Civil War resumed in full force. The Nationalists were both larger in size than the Communists, and they were better supplied with weapons and funding, making the CCP the underdogs of the Chinese Civil War. But while the Nationalist government outmatched the Communists physically, the CCP still had their rhetoric to rely on, spreading their ideology as a utopian solution to China’s problems. This rhetoric won over many of the Chinese people.
"Because the Communist troops knew they could not defeat the stronger KMT forces, they used the same strategy that had helped them during the initial fighting of the Civil War. This tactic involved the slow retreat of Communist forces, which forced the National Revolutionary Army to advance and attack, quickly wearing them out while allowing the Communists to avoid casualties. This strategy became known as “people’s war.”
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"The U.S. was at this point still attempting to simultaneously support the KMT and facilitate peace between the Nationalists and Communists. In August, General Marshall was joined by John Leighton Stuart, the newly appointed U.S. ambassador to China. The two attempted to continue discussions between the parties and tried once more to establish a coalition government. During the negotiations, the Nationalists took the city of Kalgan, a city of great symbolic importance to the CCP, and destroyed it. The Communist forces lost around 100,000 soldiers in the fight.
"After this, Chiang Kai-shek ordered a ceasefire, hoping to convince the Communist army and others to join his National Assembly. In December, though, the National Assembly began writing the new Chinese constitution without input from the Communist Party or the other political groups that had been asked to join the assembly. This constitution was ratified quickly, resulting in the Communists immediately leaving the negotiations. They called for an annulment of the constitution and a return to the parties’ previous positions but were denied by the KMT.
"In early 1947, fed up with the stubbornness of both the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party, General Marshall left China, giving up on his mission to establish peace between the parties. Since peace talks were largely unsuccessful, the CCP resumed guerilla warfare against the Nationalist government and brought back the Red Army under a new title: the People’s Liberation Army.
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"Then, in February, Nationalist forces massacred 10,000-20,000 protesters in Taiwan who spoke out against the government. This event, known as the February 28 Incident, kicked off decades of political repression in Taiwan by the KMT government. During the so-called White Terror of Taiwan, more than 3,000 people would be executed and 140,000 imprisoned as the government sought to eradicate any sign of opposition to their rule.
"One month after the February 28 Incident, the KMT seized Yan’an, the CCP capital. This was mostly a symbolic victory for the KMT, but it worked to illustrate their power. The Communist army had arrived in Yan’an in 1934, after the Long March. The town had acted as the CCP’s headquarters during the Sino-Japanese War, and because of that, Yan’an became symbolic of the early successes of the party. This was where Mao Zedong’s leadership was confirmed and established, and where the Communist armies mastered the tactics of guerilla warfare, a strategy that would be integral to their later success. The Communists were deeply wounded by the KMT’s seizure of Yan’an and would not take the loss lying down.
"While the physical advantage still lay with the Kuomintang at this time, the Communists’ propaganda efforts were paying off. Public sentiment was beginning to flip, but how would the CCP’s much weaker forces end up defeating those of the KMT, even after such defeats as the February 28 Incident and the loss of Yan’an?"
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December 30, 2022 - December 30, 2022.
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Chapter 6. Civil War: The Communist Takeover
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"“Communism is not love. Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy.”
"—Mao Zedong"
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"In the summer of 1947, the Communists began their counterattacks on the Nationalists in reaction to the KMT’s seizure of Yan’an. On June 30, CCP troops crossed the Yellow River and relocated to the Dabie Mountains, working to restore and develop popular support in the Central Plain. Around this same time, Communist forces also began a counterattack in northeastern China. By November, the Nationalists had lost 400,000 troops to casualties, defectors, and Communist captives. During the war, the cost of living in China was sky-high, and conditions were only getting worse. This turned the Chinese people even further against the Nationalist government.
"1948 was a turning point in the Chinese Civil War. Some call 1948 “The Decisive Year,” as its events would decide China’s fate as a nation and the direction the country would go. While the Nationalist army still had the upper hand, with much better artillery and a force that remained completely unopposed in the air, the party’s disorganization, poor leadership, and waning morale began to destroy them from the inside out. The KMT’s lack of an inspirational ideology lost them troops and supporters alike.
"In 1948, the Huaihai Campaign secured east and central China for the Communist Party. This led to a series of victories for the Communists, as they went on to capture the northern cities of Changchun and Shenyang. In October, the New First Army, which was said to be the strongest of the KMT’s forces, surrendered Changchun after a six-month-long siege by Communist troops. The siege resulted in more than 150,000 civilian casualties. Most of these deaths were due to starvation.
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"As the Communists seized more cities and captured more KMT troops, they also obtained their artilleries, which further strengthened their army. Using these supplies, the Communists finally seized control of northeastern China during the Liaoshen Campaign, a military operation to expel the Nationalists from the area. In September, the CCP also captured Shandong and Jinan. By the end of the Liaoshen Campaign in November, the region of Manchuria had fallen to Communist control. At the same time, the Communists began the Pingjin Campaign, which resulted in 64 days of fighting, and the Communist conquest of northern China.
"Then, in January of 1949, the CCP forcibly seized Beijing with minimal resistance from the KMT. Seeing this and being in favor of a coalition government for postwar China, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin attempted to convince Mao to stop war efforts south of the Yangtze River and allow a few Nationalist pockets to remain. From this, they could form a coalition government, combining both the remaining forces into one. Mao rejected this suggestion and initiated the Yangtze River Crossing Campaign in April.
"Not long after, Communist forces captured the Nationalist capital, Nanjing. At this time, Chiang Kai-shek went into temporary retirement, turning power over to his vice president, General Li Zongren. This left Li to attempt to negotiate a peace with Mao, which would fare no better than Chiang’s own attempts. General Li then attempted to broker support from the United States, who turned down the request in an attempt to separate themselves from the failing Nationalists and the Chinese conflict in general.
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"By the end of these victories, the CCP had defeated over 150 KMT divisions, including 1.5 million troops. These losses greatly affected the strength and competency of Nationalist forces and pointed toward the CCP’s success.
"On June 30 of that same year, Mao Zedong gave a speech titled “On the People’s Democratic Dictatorship.” The speech praised the CCP for their role in the revolution and in the improvement of the lives of the Chinese working class. In the speech, Mao described the CCP as a grown man, now past childhood. He stated that the CCP was not meant to last forever and was meant merely as a temporary solution to bring about a truly classless society.
"Not long after this, on a cold October day in 1949 in Beijing, Mao declared the formation of the People’s Republic of China to a large crowd at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. In the address, Mao claimed victory, saying, “It is because we have defeated the reactionary Kuomintang government backed by U.S. imperialism that this great unity of the whole people has been achieved.”
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"Within days of Mao’s announcement, the Soviet Union and the rest of the Communist bloc recognized the CCP as the official and legitimate government of China. By the end of that year, many other countries had done the same, now recognizing the Communists as the government of the nation as opposed to the KMT.
"In late 1949, the People’s Liberation Army began pursuing any remaining KMT strongholds in southern China. The KMT government had by now retreated to Guangzhou, then Chongqing, and finally to Taiwan, an island off the eastern coast. Any remaining pockets of Nationalist control in mainland China were destroyed in December when the remaining KMT generals surrendered their allegiance to the Communists. Despite being chased out to Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek and the KMT continued to claim sovereignty over China, with little effect. To this day, Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China do not recognize each other’s governments. For this reason, many say that it feels as though the Chinese Civil War never truly ended.
"Nevertheless, the Communist victory in 1949 saw a new party in power in China, one that had learned leadership techniques in the countryside and borrowed ideology from Marxism. This was a regime that believed in the struggle of the lower and working classes and aimed for large-scale industrial development. They also hoped to restore China to its previous world-superpower status. While the focus of the Communist Party often shifted from the countryside to the urban areas, Mao Zedong maintained that the vision and future of China lay in the rural struggle and in the peasantry as opposed to the proletariat. “The poor peasants have conquered the country,” Mao declared, “The poor peasants should now sit in the country.”
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"In a series of speeches, Mao, now the chairman of the People’s Republic of China, stated that the party’s goal was socialist society and eventual world communism. This sentiment, and the CCP’s victory over the KMT, contributed to the Red Scare in the United States and bolstered anti-Communist sentiment around the world. American McCarthyism—the repression and persecution of left-leaning individuals in the U.S. starting in the 1950s—is often partially attributed to the events of the Chinese Civil War.
"In the wake of the CCP’s victory, the party began the process of consolidating control over China. To do this, the CCP prosecuted what they called “counter-revolutionaries.” This term was purposefully vague and was able to encompass anyone who might challenge Communist authority. With this policy, the CCP was able to control the narrative around their actions, wielding power over any who may try to argue with the events of the war, or the aftermath of the Communist takeover.
"In the following years, Mao’s ideals would be spread across the whole of China, as he aimed to rapidly modernize China in an era he termed “The Great Leap Forward.”"
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December 30, 2022 - December 30, 2022.
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Conclusion
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"In 1949, the ever-shifting identity of China, which had been unclear since the fall of the Qing dynasty, was decided. China once more had a clear identity under Mao Zedong as a Communist nation. What began in a candlelit room in Shanghai became an insurgency, then a true force, a political powerhouse, and an influence on many world events. The story of the Chinese Communist Party has also essentially become a “boogeyman” tale in the western world about the dangers of Communism and where it might lead a country.
"In many ways, the cost of the Chinese Civil War was stupendous. The conflict saw more than two million soldiers killed in combat. Additionally, more than seven million civilians died in the crossfire of the war and from famine and disease. This does not count the casualties gathered after the war, during Mao’s obsessive push for modernization at all costs. During Mao Zedong’s “Great Leap Forward,” which was not the Communist utopia that many early adopters of Maoism had hoped, the nation lost some 30 million people in a famine that lasted from 1959 to 1962.
"Even despite his later actions, Mao Zedong remains a widely debated figure, with some believing that he pushed China forward toward modernization and others arguing that he actually stunted the growth of the nation. The Chinese government still recognizes Mao as one of their founding fathers."
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December 30, 2022 - December 30, 2022.
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Bibliography
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"Fenby, J. (2003). Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the China He Lost.
"Fitzgerald, C. P. (1952). Revolution in China.
"Jowett, P. (1997). Chinese Civil War Armies 1911–49.
"Lary, D. (2015). China's Civil War: A Social history, 1945-1949.
"Li, Xiaobing (2012). China at War: An Encyclopedia.
"Lynch, M. (2010). The Chinese Civil War 1945–49.
"Saich, T. (2021). From Rebel to Ruler: One Hundred Years of the Chinese Communist Party.
"U.S. Department of State. Retrieved April 12, 2022, from https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/chinese-rev"
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December 30, 2022 - December 30, 2022.
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CHINESE CIVIL WAR: A HISTORY
FROM BEGINNING TO END
(HISTORY OF CHINA), by
HOURLY HISTORY.
Part of: History of China (9 books)
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December 28, 2022 -
December 30, 2022 - December 30, 2022.
Purchased December 28, 2022.
ASIN:- B09YRHVKML
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https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5197029699
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