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183-934: The Double Tenth Agreement , formally known as the Summary of Conversations Between the Government and Representatives of the Communist Party of China , was an agreement between the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that was concluded on 10 October 1945 (the Double Ten Day of the Republic of China ) after 43 days of negotiations. CCP Chairman Mao Zedong and United States Ambassador to China Patrick J. Hurley flew together to Chongqing on 27 August 1945 to begin
366-451: A conference in Zunyi . Here, Mao Zedong denounced the party leadership for its dogmatic adherence to urban revolution in the face of repeated defeats. He also criticized Otto Braun's conventional tactics. Instead, Mao put forward a strategy based on rural guerilla warfare that prioritized winning peasant support. This was controversial because it conflicted with traditional party doctrine and
549-589: A bloodless purge of hardline communists who were opposed to the proposed expedition from the Guangzhou administration and its military, known as the Canton Coup . The rapid replacement of leadership enabled Chiang to effectively end civilian oversight of the military. At the same time, Chiang made conciliatory moves toward the Soviet Union, and attempted to balance the need for Soviet and CCP assistance in
732-501: A bulwark against the encroachment of the Soviet Union. Marshall drew both sides into negotiations which would drag on for more than a year. No significant agreements were reached, as both sides used the time to further prepare themselves for the ensuing conflict. By the time that Nationalist units had been able to arrive in the major cities of northeastern China, Communist forces commanded by Lin Biao were already in firm control of most of
915-558: A cult figure after his death. The control by one single party began the period of "political tutelage", whereby the party was to lead the government while instructing the people on how to participate in a democratic system. The topic of reorganizing the army, brought up at a military conference in 1929, sparked the Central Plains War . The cliques, some of them former warlords, demanded to retain their army and political power within their own territories. Although Chiang finally won
1098-613: A leaderless and decentralized way and that Sun was only later elected provisional president of the new Chinese republic. However, Sun did not have military power and ceded the provisional presidency of the republic to Yuan Shikai , who arranged for the abdication of Puyi , the last Emperor, on 12 February. On 25 August 1912, the Nationalist Party was established at the Huguang Guild Hall in Beijing , where
1281-697: A long period of decline popularly known as the " century of humiliation ". Successive administrations within the imperial administration of the Qing dynasty failed to address the mounting problems of economic stagnation, official corruption, and military weakness. Massive peasant rebellions, most notably the Taiping Rebellion , cost millions of lives and ravaged the countryside. Japan and the Western powers forced China to accept unequal treaties that gave them territorial concessions and allowed them to exploit
1464-570: A membership of about 100,000, or one-quarter of the population of the entire county. Later that year, Peng worked with the KMT to establish a joint " Peasant Movement Training Institute " to train young idealists to work in rural areas, which slowly increased both parties' awareness of and engagement with the peasants and their issues. At the same time as CCP was developing in Shanghai, in Guangzhou
1647-480: A naval bombardment that left the city burning and at least forty people dead. He's forces arrived on 25 March, and on the next day, Cheng and He were finally able to put an end to the violence. Although it was a mix of both Nationalists and Communist soldiers within the army who had participated in the riots, Chiang Kai-shek's faction accused Lin Boqu of planning the unrest in order to turn international opinion against
1830-460: A party opposition in a democratic coalition. There is also evidence of Chiang not viewing the talks earnestly. Chiang used the talks as a way to reduce international pressure on the KMT party as well as a stalling tactic to help assist his primary goal of eliminating the CCP. A secret telegram sent on 29 September by Chiang to various commanders-in-chief stated "The purpose of the current negotiation with
2013-651: A poorly planned and ill-supported armed rising to overthrow Yuan, and failed. Yuan, claiming subversiveness and betrayal, expelled adherents of the KMT from the parliament . Yuan dissolved the Nationalists, whose members had largely fled into exile in Japan, in November and dismissed the parliament early in 1914. Yuan Shikai proclaimed himself emperor in December 1915. While exiled in Japan in 1914, Sun established
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#17327655760002196-500: A position within the new government in which they could not gain complete power. As well as years of poor relations between the two parties, and a general mistrust of each side, the Double Tenth Agreement resulted in failure and by 1946, civil war had erupted between the CCP and KMT. During the talks between the KMT and CCP, United States Ambassador to China Patrick J. Hurley , traveled to Chongqing to assist with
2379-537: A reprieve. In 1931, the Japanese army had occupied Manchuria , which had nominally been under Chinese sovereignty. This triggered debates inside China on whether the Nationalist Government of Chiang Kai-shek, the administration with the strongest claim to national leadership at the time, should declare war on Japan. Chiang, despite popular disapproval, wanted to continue to focus on wiping out
2562-482: A request that the latter fly to Chongqing to negotiate. At first, Mao demanded that Chiang grant the CCP certain conditions, but sustained pressure from Joseph Stalin made him realize the extent of the CCP's international isolation. On August 23, Mao told the Politburo that without Soviet backing, the CCP would have to make concessions to Chiang. Meanwhile, military forces on all sides continued their maneuvers. On
2745-566: A semi-colonial nation. Historian Tony Saich wrote that the early Chinese Communists "were Bolsheviks before they were Marxists." Interest in the Bolsheviks led to an interest in Marxism. Students formed study groups to discuss Marx's ideas, including one at Peking University led by Li Dazhao . His study group included Chen Duxiu, who was now working as a dean at the university. As the editor of New Youth , Chen used his journal to publish
2928-579: A series of Marxist articles, including an entire issue devoted to the subject in 1919. By 1920, Li and Chen had fully converted to Marxism, and Li founded the Peking Socialist Youth Corps in Beijing. Chen moved back to Shanghai, where he also founded a small Communist group. By 1920, "skepticism about [study groups'] suitability as vehicles for reform had become widespread." Instead, most Chinese Marxists had determined to follow
3111-418: A short distance from Shanghai, rural landlords operated essentially as feudal lords, paying for private armies, dominating local politics, and keeping numerous concubines . In the first decade of the twentieth century, young Chinese intellectuals such as Ma Junwu , Liang Qichao , and Zhao Bizhen were the first to translate and summarize socialist and Marxist ideas into Chinese. However, this happened on
3294-769: A symbolic victory by seizing Yan'an, the capital of the Yan'an Soviet. The Communists counterattacked soon afterwards; on 30 June 1947 CCP troops crossed the Yellow River and moved to the Dabie Mountains , restored and developed the Central Plain . At the same time, Communist forces also began to counterattack in Northeastern China, North China and East China . In late 1948, the CCP and the newly rechristened " People's Liberation Army " (PLA) launched
3477-520: A very small scale, and had no immediate impacts. This would change following the 1911 Revolution , which saw military and popular revolts overthrow the Qing Dynasty . The failure of the new Chinese Republic to improve social conditions or modernize the country led scholars to take a greater interest in Western ideas such as socialism. The New Culture Movement was especially strong in cities like Shanghai , where Chen Duxiu began to publish
3660-479: A village in north China: The land held by the landlords and rich peasants, while ample, was not enough in itself to make them the dominant group in the village. It served primarily as a solid foundation for other forms of open and concealed exploitation which taken together raised a handful of families far above the rest of the inhabitants economically and hence politically and socially as well. Landlords utilized forms of exploitation such as usury , corruption , and
3843-457: A war would be primarily air-based. Therefore, the US saw no use in sending military support to the KMT if a civil war were to erupt. The US believed that, if a civil war was to occur, without US military intervention, it would be likely that the CCP would win. Therefore, to ensure the survival of the KMT, the US supported the idea of a joint coalition government of the KMT and CCP. This was believed to be
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#17327655760004026-974: Is a centre-right to right-wing party and the largest in the Pan-Blue Coalition , one of the two main political groups in Taiwan. Its primary rival is the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the largest party in the Pan-Green Coalition . As of 2024, the KMT is the largest single party in the Legislative Yuan . The current chairman is Eric Chu . The party originated as the Revive China Society founded by Sun Yat-sen in 1894 in Honolulu . The party underwent reorganization before and after
4209-797: Is free to choose, but events will force you to make the choice quickly. After the capture of Wuhan, the Central Committee of the Kuomintang voted to move to their government to this more central location. Headed in Chiang's absence by Minister of Justice Xu Qian , the executive committee was a mix of liberals and conservatives who had not been subject to Chiang's purge of leftists. They included Minister of Finance Sun Fo , Minister for Foreign Affairs Eugene Chen , and banker and industrialist T. V. Soong . When they arrived in Wuhan on December 10,
4392-679: Is the Proclamation of the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949. Nonetheless, the Nationalist Government had not evacuated to Taiwan until December, and significant fighting (such as the conquest of Hainan ) continued well into 1950 and the takeover of Tibet in 1951. While never posing a serious threat to the People's Republic, the Kuomintang Islamic insurgency continued until as late as 1958 in
4575-822: Is the second-largest political party in the world. Many historians agree with the Chinese Communist Party official history that the Chinese Revolution dates to the founding of the Party in 1921. A few consider it to be the latter part of the Chinese Civil War , since it was only after the Second Sino-Japanese War that the tide turned decisively in favour of the Communists. That said, it is not entirely clear when
4758-604: The 1911 Xinhai Revolution , which resulted in the collapse of the Qing dynasty and establishment of the Republic of China (ROC), with Sun as the first president. In 1919, Sun re-established the party under the name "Kuomintang" in the Shanghai French Concession . From 1926 to 1928, the KMT under Chiang Kai-shek successfully led the Northern Expedition against regional warlords and unified
4941-616: The 2016 election , but regained a legislative plurality in the 2024 election . The KMT is a member of the International Democracy Union . The party's guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People , advocated by Sun Yat-sen and organized on a basis of democratic centralism . As the KMT strongly supports the ROC as the only representative of China, it strongly opposes both Chinese unification under
5124-573: The First United Front with the much larger Kuomintang (KMT), having the shared goal of overthrowing the warlords governing China. During this period the CCP rapidly expanded its membership, organized a militant labor movement in several of China's major cities, and established rudimentary peasant associations in rural areas. Nonetheless, and despite the First United Front's military successes, KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek ended
5307-551: The Leninist model, which they understood as organizing a vanguard party around a core group of professional revolutionaries. The Chinese Communist Party was founded on 23 July 1921 in Shanghai, at the 1st National Congress of the CCP . The dozen delegates resolved to affiliate with the Communist International (Comintern), although the CCP would only formally become a member at its second congress . Chen
5490-639: The Meiji Restoration , Chiang knew relatively little about the West. He also studied in Japan, but he was firmly rooted in his ancient Han Chinese identity and was steeped in Chinese culture . As his life progressed, he became increasingly attached to ancient Chinese culture and traditions. His few trips to the West confirmed his pro-ancient Chinese outlook and he studied the ancient Chinese classics and ancient Chinese history assiduously. In 1923, after
5673-745: The Nanjing incident in March 1927, the NRA stormed the consulates of the United States, the United Kingdom and Imperial Japan , looted foreign properties and almost assassinated the Japanese consul. An American, two British, one French, an Italian and a Japanese were killed. These looters also stormed and seized millions of dollars' worth of British concessions in Hankou , refusing to hand them back to
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5856-542: The Northern Expedition to suppress the warlords began. Chiang had to defeat three separate warlords and two independent armies. Chiang, with Soviet supplies, conquered the southern half of China in nine months. A split erupted between the Chinese Communist Party and the KMT, which threatened the Northern Expedition. Wang Jing Wei, who led the KMT leftist allies, took the city of Wuhan in January 1927. With
6039-511: The Tongmenghui and five smaller pro-revolution parties merged to contest the first national elections. Sun was chosen as the party chairman with Huang Xing as his deputy. The most influential member of the party was the third ranking Song Jiaoren , who mobilized mass support from gentry and merchants for the Nationalists to advocate a constitutional parliamentary democracy. The party opposed constitutional monarchists and sought to check
6222-417: The Tongmenghui days, was sent to Moscow for several months' military and political study. At the first party congress in 1924 in Guangzhou , Guangdong, which included non-KMT delegates such as members of the CCP, they adopted Sun's political theory, which included the Three Principles of the People : nationalism, democracy and people's livelihood. When Sun Yat-sen died in 1925, the political leadership of
6405-719: The Tongmenghui , a group committed to the overthrow of the Qing dynasty and to establish a republic in China. The group supported the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 and the founding of the Republic of China on 1 January 1912. Although Sun and the Tongmenghui are often depicted as the principal organizers of the Xinhai Revolution, this view is disputed by scholars who argue that the Revolution broke out in
6588-480: The national government relocated to Taiwan . Following the death of Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek emerged as the KMT leader and launched the Northern Expedition to defeat the northern warlords and unite China under the party. With its power confirmed in the southeast, the Nationalist Government appointed Chiang Kai-shek commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army (NRA), and
6771-402: The proclamation of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. The revolution was led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which afterwards became the ruling party of China. The revolution resulted in major social changes within China and has been looked at as a model by revolutionary Communist movements in other countries. During the preceding century, termed the century of humiliation ,
6954-514: The 1956 Sino-Soviet split . The People's Republic offered direct and indirect support to communist movements around the world, and inspired the growth of Maoist parties in a number of countries. Shock at the CCP's success and the emerging geopolitical domino theory postulating its spread across East Asia led the United States to stage successive military interventions in Korea and Southeast Asia . The CCP remains in government in mainland China, and
7137-510: The 1990s. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was under Comintern instructions to cooperate with the KMT, and its members were encouraged to join while maintaining their separate party identities, forming the First United Front between the two parties. Mao Zedong and early members of the CCP also joined the KMT in 1923. Soviet advisers also helped the KMT to set up a political institute to train propagandists in mass mobilization techniques, and in 1923 Chiang Kai-shek, one of Sun's lieutenants from
7320-675: The 20th, the last Japanese units in Manchuria surrendered to the Soviet Red Army. On the 26th, the CCP authorized army units and cadres to begin infiltrating the Manchurian countryside (a move tolerated by the Soviets). CCP dominance in northern China seriously concerned Chiang, who was not in a position to stop the CCP from taking Beiping or Tianjin . Chiang Kai-shek ordered the Japanese troops to remain at their post to receive
7503-608: The British concession at Hankou . Eugene Chen successfully negotiated its evacuation by the British and handover to the Chinese. The Wuhan administration gradually drifted away from Chiang, becoming a center of leftist power and seeking to reassert civilian control over the military. On 10 March, the Wuhan leadership nominally stripped Chiang of much of his military authority, though refrained from deposing him as commander-in-chief. At
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7686-407: The CCP and KMT should cooperate to fight the Japanese, an appeal to patriotism that won them broad sympathy. In 1936, Nationalist troops who had become sympathetic to the Communists kidnapped Chiang Kai-shek and forced him to begin ceasefire negotiations. The Second United Front was finalized when the Japanese launched a full-scale invasion of China the following year. The renewed alliance allowed
7869-412: The CCP and KMT, known as the Shangdang Campaign , began on 10 September and concluded on 12 October. This was done to put Mao and the CCP in a greater position of power during the talks and also to emphasise the goals that Mao had in mind for the negotiations. The battles resulted in a victory for Mao and the CCP which skewed the negotiations to Mao's favour. The CCP did initially make some concessions to
8052-1756: The CCP and by preventing KMT access to Manchuria. Unlike Hurley, the Soviets mainly saw the talks as a disappointment, with Stalin even stating that the Soviet government was not happy with the Chinese Communists' behaviour and that the KMT government should have made more concessions towards the CCP. [REDACTED] Communist Party / [REDACTED] Soviet Republic ( [REDACTED] Red Army ) → Liberated Area ( [REDACTED] 8th Route Army , New Fourth Army , etc. → [REDACTED] People's Liberation Army ) → [REDACTED] People's Republic of China Kuomintang Lai Ching-te ( DPP ) Hsiao Bi-khim ( DPP ) Cho Jung-tai ( DPP ) 11th Legislative Yuan Han Kuo-yu ( KMT ) Shieh Ming-yan acting Vacant Vacant Vacant Control Yuan Chen Chu Lee Hung-chun Local government Central Election Commission Kuomintang Democratic Progressive Party Taiwan People's Party Others New Power Party Taiwan Statebuilding Party People First Party Taiwan Solidarity Union New Party Non-Partisan Solidarity Union Newspapers United Daily News Liberty Times China Times Taipei Times Propaganda Censorship Film censorship Lin Chia-lung Cross-Strait relations Special state-to-state relations One Country on Each Side 1992 Consensus Taiwan consensus Chinese Taipei Australia–Taiwan relations Canada–Taiwan relations France–Taiwan relations Russia–Taiwan relations Taiwan–United Kingdom relations Taiwan–United States relations Republic of China (1912–1949) Chinese Civil War One-China policy China and
8235-444: The CCP entirely crushed, to command Marshal Rodion Malinovsky to give most captured Japanese weapons to the CCP. This was decisive; from this point onwards the Communist forces were no longer just an army of "millet plus rifles". In March 1946, despite repeated requests from Chiang Kai-shek, the Soviet Red Army under the command of Marshal Rodion Malinovsky continued to delay pulling out of Manchuria, while Malinovsky secretly told
8418-566: The CCP forces to move in behind them. Mao quickly seized the opportunity, ordering Lin Biao and Zhu De to begin taking key cities, including Siping and Harbin . These favourable conditions also facilitated many changes inside the Communist leadership: the more radical faction who wanted a complete military take-over of China finally gained the upper hand and defeated the careful opportunists. By May 3, all Soviet troops had withdrawn, and fighting between local Communist and Nationalist forces had broken out in earnest. The conflict would escalate to
8601-465: The CCP to begin negotiation with the KMT and Soviet wishes to foster positive relations and maintain peace between the two political parties led to the CCP accepting the invitations from the KMT for talks. Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the KMT party, had been sending invitations for the CCP to join Chiang in Chongqing to initiate conversations between the two major parties after the Japanese surrender on 14 August 1945. Mao Zedong, after being pressured by
8784-650: The CCP to once again expand their areas of influence by waging a guerrilla war behind Japanese lines. Following the Japanese surrender in 1945, China became a battlefield in the Cold War . The Nationalists received military support from the United States and the Communists from the Soviet Union . Although the Nationalists at first held most of the country, sympathy for the Communists grew in urban areas suffering from high unemployment, runaway inflation, and rampant government corruption. The presence of American Marines in Chinese cities further inflammed anti-imperialist sentiment, especially among students. When peace talks between
8967-500: The CCP's New Fourth Army , one of the Communist armies that had been placed under Nationalist command, for alleged insubordination. The New Fourth Army Incident effectively ended any substantive co-operation between the Nationalists and the Communists, although open fighting between the two sides remained sporadic throughout the war. The war with Japan and the Second United Front created an enormous opportunity to expand CCP influence. French historian Lucien Bianco argues that before
9150-422: The CCP. The outcome of these encounters were decisive for the military outcome of the civil war. The Pingjin Campaign resulted in the Communist conquest of northern China. It lasted 64 days, from 21 November 1948 to 31 January 1949. The PLA suffered heavy casualties while securing Zhangjiakou , Tianjin along with its port and garrison at Taku and Beijing (then "Beiping"). The CCP brought 890,000 troops from
9333-455: The Central Military Band of the PLA) provided musical accompaniment which included the Military Anthem of the People's Liberation Army and new national anthem of China, the March of the Volunteers . On October 1, 1949, Chairman Mao Zedong officially proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China at Tiananmen Square. Chiang Kai-shek, 600,000 Nationalist troops and about two million Nationalist-sympathizer refugees retreated to
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#17327655760009516-472: The Chinese Communist Party before moving on to Japan. In 1936, Chiang was arrested by two of his generals in Xi'an , who forced him to form a united front with the Communists against Japan. In return for the ceasefire, the Communists agreed to dissolve the Red Army and place their units under National Revolutionary Army command. This arrangement did not end tensions between the CCP and KMT. In January 1941, Chiang Kai-shek ordered Nationalist troops to ambush
9699-422: The Chinese Communist Revolution argue that these rents were often exorbitant and contributed to the extreme poverty of the peasantry. Agricultural economist John Lossing Buck disagreed, arguing that landlords' return on investment was not especially high in comparison to the standard rates of interest in China at the time. According to William H. Hinton , author of a case study on how the Revolution impacted
9882-408: The Chinese Revolutionary Party on 8 July 1914, but many of his old revolutionary comrades, including Huang Xing, Wang Jingwei , Hu Hanmin and Chen Jiongming , refused to join him or support his efforts in inciting armed uprising against Yuan. To join the Revolutionary Party, members had to take an oath of personal loyalty to Sun, which many old revolutionaries regarded as undemocratic and contrary to
10065-419: The Chinese economy. China had been turned into a "semi-colony" by the time of the Boxer Rebellion . Prior to the revolution, the majority of agricultural land in rural China was owned by a class of landlords and wealthy peasants, with between 50 and 65 percent of peasants owning little or no land and thus needing to rent additional land from landlords. This disparity in land ownership differed by region, and
10248-399: The Comintern began pressuring the CCP to conduct more "anti-rightist" actions and Li Lisan was promoted to propaganda chief. Li grew to become the effective paramount leader with support from Xiang and advocated for an immediate armed uprising in the cities. This was attempted in July 1930, but failed and again led to heavy losses. Under pressure from Zhou Enlai and many others in the party,
10431-543: The Comintern instructed the CCP to disband and join the KMT as individuals. This was justified in view of the " two-stage theory " of revolution, which postulated that "feudal" societies such as China's needed to undergo a period of capitalist development before they could experience a successful socialist revolution. Although the CCP did agree to allow members to join the KMT, it did not disband. Sun encouraged this decision by offering praise for Vladimir Lenin and calling his principle of livelihood "a form of communism". This
10614-406: The Comintern sent Soviet functionary Pavel Mif to replace Li Lisan and Xiang Zhongfa with members of the 28 Bolsheviks. Bo Gu became nominal party secretary while Wang Ming became the de facto paramount leader. Under the influence of Moscow, the strategy of direct confrontation with the KMT by organizing urban uprisings continued until 1933, when party leadership was finally forced to evacuate to
10797-402: The Communist Party is to find out its demands and purposes and to reduce international pressure on us". Later onwards in the telegram Chiang orders his commanders to occupy the major cities in the previously occupied Japanese zones. The military advantage gained over the CCP through doing this would then be used to make the CCP submit to the KMT. If the CCP refused to submit to the military rule of
10980-443: The Communists had an army based on " millet plus rifles ." The international situation for the Communists was unfavorable in 1945. At Yalta , the Allies had agreed to recognize USSR claims in the Far East in exchange for a Soviet declaration of war on Japan . These claims included control of Port Arthur and joint control over the Chinese Eastern Railway , which Chiang reluctantly accepted in return for Soviet recognition of
11163-434: The Communists. The Americans were anxious to have the Nationalists take over their duties, and so General Wedemeyer further ordered the airlifting of 100,000 Nationalist troops into Northern China. As Nationalist troops moved in to formerly occupied territories, looting and large-scale corruption were common. Under the pretext of "receiving the Japanese surrender," business interests within the KMT government occupied most of
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#173276557600011346-451: The Japanese as possible, which would yield not just land, but also weapons and equipment from the defeated Japanese units. Although Chiang Kai-shek was confident that he was in a strong position to win a civil war against the CCP, he also knew that if the Communists gained control of Japanese materiel, the balance of power would change. In order to buy time, and under American pressure to negotiate, Chiang Kai-shek reached out to Mao Zedong with
11529-485: The Japanese factories and their supplies. Full-scale civil war between the Communists and the Nationalists erupted in 1946. The Communist Chinese armies, the People's Liberation Army (PLA), previously a minor faction, grew rapidly in influence and power due to several errors on the KMT's part. First, the KMT reduced troop levels precipitously after the Japanese surrender, leaving large numbers of able-bodied, trained fighting men who became unemployed and disgruntled with
11712-432: The Japanese surrendered, the Communists' "Liberated Zone" grew to contain 19 base areas (mostly in north China), making up one-quarter of the country's territory and one-third of its population. In the south, the New Fourth Army had recovered from the attempted massacre of its forces and established a serious Communist presence along the banks of the Yangtze . Nonetheless, the CCP's forces were still numerically inferior to
11895-423: The KMT and its Canton government accepted aid from the Soviet Union after being denied recognition by the western powers. Soviet advisers—the most prominent of whom was Mikhail Borodin , an agent of the Comintern —arrived in China in 1923 to aid in the reorganization and consolidation of the KMT along the lines of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) , establishing a Leninist party structure that lasted into
12078-468: The KMT as prime recruits for the PLA. Second, the KMT government proved thoroughly unable to manage the economy, allowing hyperinflation to result. Among the most despised and ineffective efforts it undertook to contain inflation was the conversion to the gold standard for the national treasury and the Chinese gold yuan in August 1948, outlawing private ownership of gold, silver and foreign exchange, collecting all such precious metals and foreign exchange from
12261-418: The KMT as the sole legitimate government of China. In that way, the Communists appeared to have lost their most likely ally. The American Dixie Mission had investigated the possibility of American support for the Communists, but although its findings were favorable, cooperation was stubbornly blocked by American Ambassador Patrick J. Hurley . Hurley and the powerful pro-Nationalist China Lobby orchestrated
12444-445: The KMT during the talks, however none of them came to fruition. Some examples of the concessions initially made was a reduction of the CCP military to 20 divisions and the withdrawal of troops from a few southern CCP-occupied provinces. The reduction of the CCP military to 20 divisions was not an issue for Mao however, as to maintain the current military, Mao planned to increase the size of each division, resulting in no actual reduction of
12627-404: The KMT fell to Wang Jingwei (" Reorganization Group ") and Hu Hanmin (" Western Hills Group "), respectively the left-wing and right-wing leaders of the party. However, the real power was in the hands of Chiang Kai-shek, who was in near complete control of the military as the superintendent of the Whampoa Military Academy . With their military superiority, the KMT confirmed their rule on Canton,
12810-417: The KMT forces. Now with tanks, heavy artillery, and other combined-arms assets, the PLA was prepared to execute offensive operations south of the Great Wall. In April 1948 the city of Luoyang fell, cutting the KMT army off from Xi'an. Following a fierce battle, the CCP captured Jinan and Shandong province on 24 September 1948. The Huaihai Campaign of late 1948 and early 1949 secured east-central China for
12993-410: The KMT government and military. Chiang was alarmed by the expansion of communist influence; he wanted to suppress internal conflicts before confronting foreign aggression. The KMT were aided by German military advisors. The CSR was destroyed in 1934 after a series of KMT offensives. The communists abandoned bases in southeast China for Shaanxi in a military retreat called the Long March ; less than 10% of
13176-486: The KMT government would continue, as would co-operation with the CCP. A fragile coalition between KMT rightists, centrists led by Chiang, KMT leftists, and the CCP managed to hold together, laying the groundwork for the Northern Expedition. By 1926, the Kuomintang (KMT) had solidified their control over Guangdong enough to rival the legitimacy of the Beiyang government based in Beijing . After purging his opponents in
13359-503: The KMT leadership, Chiang Kai-shek was appointed Generalissimo of the National Revolutionary Army and set out to defeat the warlords one at a time. The campaign saw massive success against Wu Peifu in Hunan , Hubei , and Henan . Sun Chuanfang put up a stronger resistance, but popular support for the KMT and opposition to the warlords helped the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) make inroads into Jiangxi , Fujian , and Zhejiang . As
13542-413: The KMT, then they would be eliminated "as bandits". The treaty between the CCP and KMT ultimately failed. Neither side wished to compromise with each other as it would result in a future where their respective party could not gain complete control over China. The KMT would not agree to a treaty in which they would have to give up many of their advantages held over the CCP and the CCP did not desire to be in
13725-573: The KMT. Lin, a member of both the CCP and the KMT, had been serving as political commissar of the Sixth Army, part of the forces that captured Nanjing. Whatever was responsible, the Nanjing Incident represented the culmination of tensions within the First United Front. On April 12, 1927, Chiang Kai-shek and his right-wing faction of the KMT ordered the massacre of the Communists in Shanghai. The White Terror spread nationwide and
13908-585: The KMT. In the two years following the Sino-Japanese War, the KMT had received $ 4.43 billion from the US—most of which was military aid. On August 8, 1945, the Soviet Union invaded Manchuria , immediately altering the military situation in China. The Soviet invasion, among other contemporary developments, made Japan's defeat inevitable. Both the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party immediately ordered their forces to take as much territory from
14091-547: The Kuomintang and not surrender their arms to the Communists. Chiang called on the Americans for assistance, and the United States landed more than 50,000 marines in northern China to occupy the major cities until the Nationalists could arrive. Although greeted with enthusiasm, incidents such as the rape of a Chinese student quickly turned the population against the Americans and contributed to growing support for
14274-596: The May Fourth Movement "marked a new stage in China's bourgeois-democratic revolution against imperialism and feudalism...a powerful camp made its appearance in the bourgeois-democratic revolution, a camp consisting of the working class, the student masses and the new national bourgeoisie." Many political, and social leaders of the next five decades emerged at this time, including those of the Chinese Communist Party. The October Revolution in Russia attracted
14457-440: The NRA advanced, workers in the cities organized themselves into left-leaning trade unions : in Wuhan , for example, more than 300,000 had joined trade unions by the end of the year. The All-China Federation of Labor (ACFL), founded by the Communists in 1925, reached 2.8 million members by 1927. At the same time as workers organized in the cities, peasants rose up across the countryside of Hunan and Hubei provinces, appropriating
14640-624: The Nationalist ranks also were beginning to defect to the PLA in larger and larger numbers, drawn by the promise of land and much better treatment by Communist officers. The defection and capture of large numbers of well-trained KMT troops finally gave the PLA material superiority over the Nationalist army. Manpower continued to grow as well; during the Huaihai Campaign alone the CCP was able to mobilize 5,430,000 peasants to fight against
14823-487: The Nationalists found a city gripped by enthusiasm for the revolution. The rapidly-expanding, Communist-led labor movement staged near-constant demonstrations in Wuhan itself and across the nominally KMT-controlled territories. Although still prevented from participating in the KMT government, the CCP established parallel structures of administration in areas liberated by the NRA. The Wuhan government proved its competency when, in January 1927, violent protests broke out in
15006-600: The PRC and formal Taiwan independence . As the KMT opposes non-peaceful means to resolve the cross-strait disputes while still strongly adhering to the ROC constitution , the party favors a closer relationship with the PRC and accepts the 1992 Consensus , which defines both sides of the Taiwan Strait as " one China " but maintains its ambiguity to different interpretations. It seeks to maintain Taiwan's status quo rather than
15189-703: The PRC government continued to call for the unification of all China. The last direct fighting between Nationalist and Communist forces ended with the Communist capture of Hainan Island in April 1950, though shelling and guerrilla raids continued for several years. In June 1950, the outbreak of the Korean War led the United States government to place the United States Seventh Fleet in the Taiwan Strait to prevent either side from attacking
15372-669: The People's Liberation Army was pursuing remnants of KMT forces southwards in southern China, and only Tibet was left. A Chinese Muslim Hui cavalry regiment, the 14th Dungan Cavalry, was sent by the Chinese government to attack Mongol and Soviet positions along the border in the Battle of Baitag Bogd . The founding of the Central People's Government of China was formally proclaimed by Chairman Mao Zedong on October 1, 1949, at 3:00 pm in Tiananmen Square in Beijing,
15555-491: The ROC losing its United Nations seat and most countries, including its ally the US, switching diplomatic recognition to the CCP-led People's Republic of China (PRC) in the 1970s. In the late 1980s, Chiang Ching-kuo , Chiang Kai-shek's son, lifted martial law and the ban on opposition parties. His successor Lee Teng-hui continued democratic reforms and was re-elected in 1996 through a direct presidential election ,
15738-550: The Settlement, which was governed by the British and Americans. The Shanghai Municipal Police , largely operated by the British, opened fire on the crowd of demonstrators. This incident sparked outrage throughout China, culminating in the Canton–Hong Kong strike , which began on 18 June, and proved a fertile recruiting ground for the CCP. Membership was catapulted to over 20,000, almost ten times what it had been earlier in
15921-529: The Soviet Model. Chiang was also particularly committed to Sun's idea of "political tutelage". Sun believed that the only hope for a unified and better China lay in a military conquest, followed by a period of political tutelage that would culminate in the transition to democracy. Using this ideology, Chiang built himself into the dictator of the Republic of China, both in the Chinese mainland and after
16104-446: The Soviet Union. On August 20 Hu Hanmin 's far-right faction likely orchestrated Liao's assassination. Hu was arrested for his connections to the murderers, leaving Chiang and Wang Jingwei —Sun's former confidant and a leftist sympathizer—as the two main contenders for control of the party. Amidst this backdrop, Chiang began to consolidate power in preparation for an expedition against the northern warlords. On 20 March 1926, he launched
16287-617: The Soviet leadership to hold the CCP's 6th Party Congress there, rather than in China. With the help of the 28 Bolsheviks , Chinese students studying Marxism at the Moscow Sun Yat-sen University , Xiang replaced Chen Duxiu as general secretary to the dismay of CCP leaders back in China. Upon his return to Shanghai, Xiang attempted several bureaucratic changes to consolidate centralized power, with mixed success. In 1930,
16470-665: The Soviets, finally accepted and arrived in Chongqing with the U.S. Ambassador Patrick J. Hurley and Zhang Zhizhong in late August. The talks ran over a course of 41 days starting from 28 August 1945 and concluded with the signing of the Double Tenth Agreement on 10 October 1945. During the negotiations, CCP military operations were increased with Mao ordering the CCP troops in Shandong and Central China to attack 40-50 thousand KMT troops in each region. This string of battles between
16653-523: The UK government. Both Nationalists and Communist soldiers within the army participated in the rioting and looting of foreign residents in Nanjing. NRA took Beijing in 1928. The city was the internationally recognized capital, even when it was previously controlled by warlords. This event allowed the KMT to receive widespread diplomatic recognition in the same year. The capital was moved from Beijing to Nanjing,
16836-561: The US. This became an issue which proved to be a hindrance of its relationship with US government . US President Harry S. Truman wrote that " the Chiangs , the Kungs and the Soongs (were) all thieves", having taken $ 750 million in US aid. Chinese Communist Revolution The Chinese Communist Revolution was a social revolution in China that began in 1927 and culminated with
17019-623: The United Front collapsed. In Beijing, 19 leading Communists were killed by Zhang Zuolin . That May, tens of thousands of Communists and those suspected of being communists were killed, and the CCP lost approximately 15,000 of its 25,000 members. Only in Wuhan, where leftist sympathizer Wang Jingwei split from Chiang and proclaimed a rival nationalist government , were the Communists safe to hold their Fifth National Congress . However, under pressure from Chiang, Wang eventually purged Communists from his government and declared his loyalty to
17202-752: The United Nations Chinese unification Taiwan independence movement Taiwanese nationalism Tangwai movement The Kuomintang ( KMT ), also referred to as the Guomindang ( GMD ), the Nationalist Party of China ( NPC ) or the Chinese Nationalist Party ( CNP ), is a political party in the Republic of China , initially based on the Chinese mainland and then in Taiwan since 1949. The KMT
17385-587: The Western allies , but also as a failure by the Chinese Republican government to properly defend the country against imperialism. In what became known as the May Fourth Movement , large protests erupted in major cities across China. Although led by students, these protests were significant because they included the first mass participation by those outside the traditional intellectual and cultural elites. Mao Zedong later reflected that
17568-471: The Yan'an Soviet. The outbreak of fighting in Manchuria (see next section) proved to Ambassador Hurley that negotiations had failed, and he resigned in disgust. He was replaced by General George Marshall , who arrived in China on 20 December 1945. The goal of the Marshall Mission was to bring both parties into a coalition government, with the hope that a strong, non-Communist China would act as
17751-485: The admiration of many of the organizers of the May Fourth Movement. Although exposure to Marxist theory was extremely limited in China at the time, Chinese radicals found Lenin's ideas about organizing a revolutionary movement to be readily applicable to their own context. Moreover, the Soviet Union (once established in 1922) offered a unique and compelling model of modernization and revolutionary social change in
17934-471: The advice of Otto Braun , they replaced cautious guerilla tactics with a more traditional military strategy. The subsequent fourth encirclement campaign was a disaster for the Communists, and forced them to abandon South China altogether. They began the Long March , a 9,000 kilometer retreat to Northern China, where Chiang Kai-shek's authority was weaker. In January 1935, the CCP paused the march to hold
18117-491: The alliance in 1927 by initiating a purge of Communists . The Chinese Civil War between the Communists and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists fundamentally changed the course of the Chinese Communist Revolution. Forced to flee into the remote countryside, semi-isolated CCP cadres began to experiment with land reform and other ways of appealing to the peasantry. One of the most successful local leaders
18300-583: The banks, factories and commercial properties, which had previously been seized by the Imperial Japanese Army . They also conscripted troops at an accelerated pace from the civilian population and hoarded supplies, preparing for a resumption of war with the Communists. These harsh and unpopular measures caused great hardship for the residents of cities such as Shanghai, where the unemployment rate rose dramatically to 37.5%. The Communists abstained from trying to take and hold any major cities (with
18483-484: The communist army survived. A new base, the Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region , was created with Soviet aid. KMT secret police persecuted suspected communists and political opponents with terror . In The Birth of Communist China , C.P. Fitzgerald describes China under the rule of the KMT thus: "the Chinese people groaned under a regime Fascist in every quality except efficiency." In 1936, Chiang
18666-532: The communists in the civil war. From 1949 to 1987, the KMT ruled Taiwan as an authoritarian one-party state after the February 28 incident . During this period, martial law was in effect and civil liberties were curtailed as part of its anti-communism efforts, with the period known as the White Terror . The party oversaw Taiwan's economic development , but experienced diplomatic setbacks , including
18849-481: The countryside and surrounding areas, including the city of Jinzhou. On 15 November 1945, the Nationalists began a campaign to roll back these gains. Chiang Kai-shek's forces pushed as far as Jinzhou by 26 November 1945, meeting with little resistance. Rather than confront the advancing Nationalists head on, Lin Biao avoided decisive confrontations, and in doing so was able to preserve the strength of his army. The Nationalist advance also prompted Stalin, who did not want
19032-513: The countryside. They fled to Jiangxi, where Mao Zedong had had considerable success in setting up the Chinese Soviet Republic . Established in November 1931, the Soviet had helped expand CCP membership to over 300,000 and supported 100,000 Red Army soldiers. Mao's guerilla tactics had successfully repulsed three KMT encirclement campaigns . The CCP leadership quickly took over from Mao when they arrived from Shanghai. Following
19215-464: The decisive Liaoshen Campaign . The PLA finally captured for good the northern cities of Shenyang and Changchun and consolidated control of the Northeast. The New 1st Army , regarded as the best KMT army, was forced to surrender after the CCP conducted a brutal six-month siege of Changchun that resulted in more than 150,000 civilian deaths from starvation. The conscripted peasants who filled
19398-502: The decline of the Qing dynasty and the rise of foreign imperialism caused escalating social, economic, and political problems in China. The Qing collapsed in 1912 and were replaced with the Republic of China , which had itself fallen into warring factions by 1917. A small group of urban intellectuals, inspired by the October Revolution and European socialist ideas, founded the CCP in 1921. They created an alliance known as
19581-403: The edge of starvation. Periodic famines were common during both the Qing dynasty and the later Republic of China . Between 1900 and the end of WWII, China experienced no less than six major famines, costing tens of millions of lives. Depending on the system of tenancy, peasants renting land might have been expected to pay in kind or in cash, either as a fixed amount or as a proportion of
19764-512: The event of a civil war. Due to ideological similarities, the Soviets did favour the CCP, however during the Double Tenth Agreement did not outwardly support the party. The Soviet invasion of Manchuria at the end of World War II resulted in Soviet occupation of the region , which continued during the talks. The CCP did show a desire to obtain the land. The Soviets assisted CCP skirmishes within Manchuria by turning over seized Japanese armaments to
19947-546: The exception of Jinzhou ), focusing instead on gaining control over the countryside. Nevertheless, as Mao left for negotiations he simultaneously ordered the Shangdang Campaign to defeat as many KMT units in Shanxi as possible and thereby gain a stronger hand at the negotiating table. During negotiations, Chiang's main offer was to move from the second stage of Sun Yat-Sen's stages of unification (KMT tutelage) to
20130-428: The fight against the warlords with his concerns about growing communist influence within the KMT. In the aftermath of the coup, Chiang negotiated a compromise whereby hardline members of the rightist faction, such as Wu Tiecheng , were removed from their posts in compensation for the purged leftists. By doing so, Chiang was able to prove his usefulness to the CCP and their Soviet sponsor, Joseph Stalin . Soviet aid to
20313-423: The first time in the ROC history. The 2000 presidential election ended 72 years of KMT's dominance in the ROC. The KMT reclaimed power from 2008 to 2016, with the landslide victory of Ma Ying-jeou in the 2008 presidential election , whose presidency significantly loosened restrictions on economic and cultural exchanges with the People's Republic of China. The KMT lost the presidency and its legislative majority in
20496-446: The foreign powers and the Qing dynasty. The KMT government demanded that the foreign powers renegotiate the treaties on equal terms. Before the Northern Expedition, the KMT began as a heterogeneous group advocating American-inspired federalism and provincial autonomy. However, the KMT under Chiang's leadership aimed at establishing a centralized one-party state with one ideology. This was even more evident following Sun's elevation into
20679-464: The formal independence or the unification. The KMT traces its ideological and organizational roots to the work of Sun Yat-sen , a proponent of Chinese nationalism and democracy who founded the Revive China Society at the capital of the Republic of Hawaii , Honolulu , on 24 November 1894. On 20 August 1905, Sun joined forces with other anti-monarchist societies in Tokyo, Empire of Japan , to form
20862-606: The formation of the First United Front , Sun Yat-sen sent Chiang to spend three months in Moscow studying the political and military system of the Soviet Union. Although Chiang did not follow the Soviet Communist doctrine, he, like the Communist Party, sought to destroy warlordism and foreign imperialism in China , and upon his return established the Whampoa Military Academy near Guangzhou, following
21045-409: The fragmented nation , leading to the fall of the Beiyang government . KMT was the sole ruling party of the ROC in China from 1928 to 1949, however the party had no actual control over a lot of territory during this period due to the civil war with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the war against Japanese aggression. The party retreated to Taiwan in December 1949, following its defeat by
21228-492: The future control of Manchuria as a "guarantee that peace in the Far East will be preserved". The CCP also believed that the revolution would be impacted by the capture or loss of Manchuria, with each outcome either speeding up or postponing the revolution by a few years. On 10 October 1945, the Double Tenth Agreement was signed by the KMT and CCP in Chongqing. The conditions agreed upon by the KMT and CCP are as follows: After
21411-405: The harvest . Where a share of the harvest was paid, as in much of north China, rates of 40%, 50%, and 60% were common. A system of sharecropping prevailed in much of Shanxi , where landlords owned all agricultural capital and expected 80% of the harvest as rent. The amount of fixed rents varied, but in most areas averaged about $ 4 a year per mu . Proponents of peasant exploitation as a cause of
21594-503: The island of Taiwan. After that, resistance to the Communists on the mainland was substantial but scattered, such as in the far south. An attempt to take the Nationalist-controlled island of Kinmen was thwarted in the Battle of Kuningtou . In December 1949 Chiang proclaimed Taipei , Taiwan the temporary capital of the Republic, and continued to assert his government as the sole legitimate authority of all China, while
21777-487: The land of the wealthy landowners, who were in many cases killed. Such uprisings angered senior KMT figures, who were themselves landowners, emphasising the growing class and ideological divide within the revolutionary movement. CCP leader Chen Duxiu was also upset, both from doubt in the peasants' revolutionary capabilities and fear that premature revolt would wreck the United Front. The KMT-CCP leadership dispatched prominent CCP cadre Mao Zedong to investigate and report on
21960-404: The last and most important cities under Sun Choufang's control: Nanjing and Shanghai. While two of Chiang's columns advanced on Shanghai, Sun was confronted with the defection of his navy and a communist general strike. On 22 March, NRA General Bai Chongxi 's forces marched into Shanghai victorious. But the strike continued until Bai ordered its end on 24 March. The general disorder caused by
22143-486: The left-leaning journal New Youth in 1915. New Youth quickly became the most popular and widely distributed journal amongst the intelligentsia during this period. In May 1919, news reached China that the Versailles Peace Conference had decided to give German -occupied province of Shandong to Japan rather than returning it to China. The Chinese public saw this not only as a betrayal by
22326-708: The line endorsed by the Comintern. But with the support of Zhou Enlai, Mao defeated the 28 Bolsheviks and Otto Braun, becoming chairman of the Politburo and de facto leader of the party. Although the party survived the Long March, it had lost about 90% of its membership and was on the brink of destruction. But the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War gave the Yan'an Soviet , the communists' new base,
22509-484: The military. By the end of the negotiations, the two parties managed to reach agreements on a few policies. The primary policies being the CCP recognising the legitimacy of the KMT governance over China, the democratisation of the political parties, the formation of a national assembly and the nationalisation of troops. Each party had different purposes for negotiating with the opposing side. The KMT, led by Chiang, wished for
22692-422: The most effective method of preventing complete CCP control over China without major US military intervention. Throughout the negotiations, Hurley was optimistic about the talks, even near the end, stating, "the rapprochement between the two leading parties of China seems to be progressing and the discussion and rumors of civil war recede as the conference continues." This was primarily due to his deep investment in
22875-553: The nature of the unrest. Mao had returned from a previous visit to his rural home town Shaoshan personally convinced that the peasantry had revolutionary potential, and over the course of 1926 had established himself as an authority on rural issues while lecturing at the Peasant Movement Training Institute . Mao spent just over a month in Hunan and published his report in March. Rather than condemning
23058-483: The negotiations and to ensure that US policy and goals were realised in China. Hurley arrived in Chongqing in mid-August with Mao Zedong and Zhang Zhizong. The US objective was to maintain peace between the KMT and CCP, and stability in the Chinese region, while remaining out of China's internal affairs. The US government believed that China would not be effective in a possible war against the USSR, due to assumptions that such
23241-532: The negotiations. The outcome was that the CCP acknowledged the KMT as the legitimate government, while the KMT in return recognised the CCP as a legitimate opposition party. The Shangdang Campaign , which began on 10 September, came to an end on 12 October as a result of the announcement of the agreement. The agreement was signed at what is now the Red Rock Village Museum in Chongqing . At
23424-719: The new capital. The new national flag of the People's Republic of China (the Five-starred Red Flag) was officially unveiled and hoisted to a 21-gun salute . The ceremony was followed by a PLA military parade. Commanded by Nie Rongzhen , the Commander of the Northern China Military Region and inspected by Zhu De, the Commander-in-Chief of the PLA, the parade involved around 16,000 PLA officers and personnel. The parade, which
23607-401: The northeast to oppose some 600,000 KMT troops. There were 40,000 PLA casualties at Zhangjiakou alone. They in turn killed, wounded or captured some 520,000 KMT during the campaign. After achieving decisive victory at Liaoshen, Huaihai and Pingjin campaigns, the CCP wiped out 144 regular and 29 irregular KMT divisions, including 1.54 million veteran KMT troops, which significantly reduced
23790-523: The original capital of the Ming dynasty , and thus a symbolic purge of the final Qing elements. This period of KMT rule in China between 1927 and 1937 was relatively stable and prosperous and is still known as the Nanjing decade . After the Northern Expedition in 1928, the Nationalist government under the KMT declared that China had been exploited for decades under the unequal treaties signed between
23973-648: The other as unreasonable. Chiang viewed the degree of local autonomy requested by the Communists as a regression to the Warlord Era, and was not willing to sacrifice his goal of reunification. The Communists, on the other hand, suspected they would be massacred if they laid down their arms. Both sides eventually signed the Double Tenth Agreement , but this was mostly for show and the major issues were left unresolved. Negotiations between Chiang and Zhou would continue in Nanjing , but Mao returned to
24156-455: The peasant movement, his now-famous Hunan Report made the case that a peasant-led revolution was not only justified, but practically possible and even inevitable. Mao predicted that: In a very short time, in China's central, southern and northern provinces, several hundred million peasants will rise like a mighty storm, like a hurricane, a force so swift and violent that no power, however great, will be able to hold it back. They will smash all
24339-506: The peasantry, and ultimately managed to consolidate his position during the Yan'an Rectification Movement . The impact of the war on the social and economics conditions of China had been brutal. An estimated 20 to 25 million Chinese were killed in fighting, massacres, and man-made or natural disasters. By 1946, Chinese industries operated at 20 percent capacity and had 25 percent of the output of pre-war China. The influx of cheap American goods forestalled any recovery. In order to coordinate
24522-474: The people and issuing the Gold Standard Scrip in exchange. As most farmland in the north were under CCP's control, the cities governed by the KMT lacked food supply and this added to the hyperinflation. The new scrip became worthless in only ten months and greatly reinforced the nationwide perception of the KMT as a corrupt or at best inept entity. Third, Chiang Kai-shek ordered his forces to defend
24705-440: The poorer peasants. Communist cadres worked tirelessly to organize the local population in each new village they arrived, which had the dual benefits of spreading Communist ideas and allowing for more effective administration. In the eight years of war, the CCP membership rose from 40,000 to 1,200,000. According to historian Chalmers Johnson , by the end of the war the CCP had also won the support of perhaps 100 million peasants in
24888-522: The power of Yuan. The Nationalists won an overwhelming majority in the first National Assembly election in December 1912. However, Yuan soon began to ignore the parliament in making presidential decisions. Song Jiaoren was assassinated in Shanghai in 1913. Members of the Nationalists, led by Sun Yat-sen, suspected that Yuan was behind the plot and thus staged the Second Revolution in July 1913,
25071-514: The provinces of Gansu , Qinghai , Ningxia , Xinjiang , and Yunnan . ROC soldiers who had fled into the mountains of Burma and Thailand worked with the CIA and KMT to finance anti-Communist activities with drug trafficking well into the 1980s. No formal peace between the ROC and the PRC has ever been negotiated. During the final years of the Qianlong Emperor 's reign, China began
25254-516: The provincial capital of Guangdong . The Guangxi warlords pledged loyalty to the KMT. The KMT now became a rival government in opposition to the warlord Beiyang government based in Beijing . Chiang assumed leadership of the KMT on 6 July 1926. Unlike Sun Yat-sen, whom he admired greatly and who forged all his political, economic, and revolutionary ideas primarily from what he had learned in Hawaii and indirectly through Hong Kong and Japan under
25437-406: The puppet troops, to publish newspapers [and] to develop our secret service". The CCP initially was not interested in negotiating with the KMT at all, but several secret telegrams from Stalin to Mao urging him to accept Chiang's calls for talks resulted in the acceptance of Chiang's invitation for negotiations in Chongqing. The CCP also placed great importance on the occupation of Manchuria. They saw
25620-402: The recall or dismissal of American " China Hands " who favored cutting ties with the Nationalists or supporting the Communists, including John Service , Joseph Stilwell , and David Barrett . By mid-1945, the United States was firmly committed to supporting Chiang. According to William Blum , American aid included substantial amounts of mostly surplus military supplies, and loans were made to
25803-490: The region were met. The USSR ambassador Apollon Petrov [ ru ] was sent to Chongqing in August. The Soviets had similar aims to the United States, wishing to prevent war between the two parties, but had different motives: the Soviets wished for peace between the two parties because they believed that a civil war would impede the reconstruction of China, not because they were concerned with which side would prevail in
25986-431: The regions where they had operated. The temporary truce with the Nationalists also made it possible for the Communists to once again target the urban proletariat, a policy advocated by the "internationalist" faction of the party. Led by Wang Ming , this faction advocated mobilizing labor not for revolution, but rather to support to Nationalists (at least until the war was won). Mao, in contrast, advocated continued focus on
26169-496: The removal of KMT hegemony in China, which included Soviet support. However, a strengthening of Soviet relations with the KMT after the war with the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance , signed on 14 August 1945, resulted in a reversal of Soviet foreign policy in China. A part of the treaty was the Soviet Union recognising the Nationalists (KMT) as the legitimate government of China. This and Soviet pressure on
26352-502: The rest of the NRA, which excluding the Communists counted around 4 million regulars and 1 million militia in its ranks. This was compounded by the Communists' lack of war material like trucks, artillery, and other heavy weaponry. For most of the war the Communists had operated in rural areas without factories or support from the Allies , which the Kuomintang received in abundance. As Mao Zedong said to an American Colonel David D. Barrett ,
26535-400: The right-wing government in Nanjing. In 1927, immediately after the collapse of Wang Jingwei's leftist Kuomintang government in Wuhan and Chiang Kai-shek's suppression of communists , the CCP attempted a series of uprisings and military mutinies in Guangzhou, Nanchang and Hunan . Despite initial success they were unable to withstand direct pressure from the NRA. The immediate effect
26718-467: The same time, the Communist Party became an equal partner in the Wuhan government, sharing power with the KMT leftists. Chiang Kai-shek declined to join the rest of the KMT in Wuhan, wary of the influence the CCP had there. Instead, he stayed at his military headquarters in Nanchang and began to rally anti-Communist elements in the KMT and NRA around him. In February 1927, he launched an offensive on
26901-432: The scale of a nation-wide civil war over the summer, as Chiang Kai-shek launched a large-scale assault on Communist territory in north China with 113 brigades (a total of 1.6 million troops). Knowing their disadvantages in manpower and equipment, the CCP adopted a "passive defence" strategy. It avoided the strong points of the KMT army and was prepared to abandon territory in order to preserve its forces. In most cases
27084-559: The seasoned revolutionary Sun Yat-sen was building the Chinese Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT). Although not a communist, Sun admired the success of the Russian Revolution and sought help from the Soviet Union. The Sun–Joffe Manifesto issued in January 1923 formalized cooperation between the KMT and the Soviet Union. The CCP's Third Party Congress was held in Guangzhou later that year, and
27267-567: The second half of the civil war began. The earliest possible date would be the end of the Second United Front in January 1941, when Nationalist forces ambushed and destroyed the New Fourth Army. Another possible date is the surrender of Japan on August 10, 1945, which began a scramble by Communist and Nationalist forces to seize the equipment and territory left behind by the Japanese. However, full-scale warfare between
27450-430: The signing of the treaty, relations quickly declined between the KMT and CCP. In private conversations with Mao, it is evident that he did not see the talks as a way for peace between the CCP and KMT. Mao states "Our policy was set long ago – to give tit for tat, to fight for every inch of land". Mao was unwilling to abandon his revolutionary goals which implied to the KMT that the CCP would not lay down their arms and become
27633-470: The spirit of the revolution. As a result, he became largely sidelined within the Republican movement during this period. Sun returned to China in 1917 to establish a military junta at Canton to oppose the Beiyang government but was soon forced out of office and exiled to Shanghai . There, with renewed support, he resurrected the KMT on 10 October 1919, under the name Kuomintang of China ( 中國國民黨 ) and established its headquarters in Canton in 1920. In 1923,
27816-546: The strength of Nationalist forces. Stalin initially favored a coalition government in postwar China, and tried to persuade Mao to stop the CCP from crossing the Yangtze and attacking the KMT positions south of the river. Mao rejected Stalin's position and on 21 April, began the Yangtze River Crossing Campaign . On 23 April they captured the KMT's capital, Nanjing. The KMT government retreated to Canton (Guangzhou) until 15 October, Chongqing until 25 November, and then Chengdu before retreating to Taiwan on 7 December. By late 1949
27999-489: The strike is said to have resulted in the deaths of 322 people, with 2,000 wounded, contributing to KMT feelings of unease with its rising Communist allies. The same day the Shanghai strike ended, nationalist forces entered Nanjing. Almost immediately after arrival of the NRA, mass anti-foreigner riots broke out in the city, in an event that came to be known as the Nanjing Incident . British and American naval forces were sent to evacuate their respective citizens, resulting in
28182-548: The support of the Soviet agent Mikhail Borodin , Wang declared the National Government as having moved to Wuhan. Having taken Nanjing in March, Chiang halted his campaign and prepared a violent break with Wang and his communist allies. Chiang's expulsion of the CCP and their Soviet advisers, marked by the Shanghai massacre on 12 April, led to the beginning of the Chinese Civil War . Wang finally surrendered his power to Chiang. Once this split had been healed, Chiang resumed his Northern Expedition and managed to take Shanghai. During
28365-405: The surrounding countryside and small towns had come under Communist influence long before the cities. The CCP also attempted to wear out the KMT forces as much as possible. This tactic seemed to be successful; after a year, the power balance became more favorable to the CCP. They wiped out 1.12 million KMT troops, while their strength grew to about two million men. In March 1947 the KMT achieved
28548-447: The take on the Japanese, while the Communists willingly adopted the rhetoric of national resistance against imperialism. Using their experience in rural guerilla warfare, the Communists were able to operate behind the front lines and gain influence among the numerous peasant resistance groups set-up to fight the Japanese. In contrast with the Nationalists, the Communists undertook moderate land reform that made them extremely popular among
28731-416: The talks and desire for the talks to have gone smoothly. Hurley resigned from his position on 27 November due to his belief that the United States were secretly favouring the CCP. With Hurley's resignation, the US sent General George Marshall to continue mediation in China. As well as the US, the Soviets also sent an ambassador to assist with the negotiations and to ensure that Soviet policy and goals in
28914-442: The theft of public funds to enrich themselves and their families. They ran side businesses with the profits from farming to shore up their finances and isolate themselves from the effects of bad harvests. On holidays, funerals, and other important events, landlords had the right to demand their tenants act as servants, reinforcing the social divide and engendering resentment from the peasants. Agnes Smedley observed how even within
29097-415: The third stage (constitutional government). Mao and Zhou Enlai, on the other hand, were willing to recognize Chiang as de jure President of China in return for de facto autonomy in the provinces of Shanxi, Shandong , Hebei , Rehe , and Chahar . They would be willing to join and support a KMT-led coalition government, but wanted to maintain separate armed forces in their provinces. Both sides criticized
29280-409: The time of the Double Tenth Agreement, China had just concluded the Second Sino-Japanese War , an eight-year war that resulted in a Chinese coalition victory. Poor relations between the KMT and CCP during the war was soon exacerbated due to the loss of a shared goal both parties held; the defeat of the Japanese troops in China. The CCP quickly denounced the KMT as a reactionary clique and had plans for
29463-493: The trammels that bind them and rush forward along the road to liberation. They will sweep all the imperialists, warlords, corrupt officials, local tyrants and evil gentry into their graves. Every revolutionary party and every revolutionary comrade will be put to the test, to be accepted or rejected as they decide. There are three alternatives. To march at their head and lead them. To trail behind them, gesticulating and criticizing. Or to stand in their way and oppose them. Every Chinese
29646-405: The two parties that the KMT decided to begin negotiation with the CCP. Chiang primarily wished for both political and military unity underneath the KMT, however this would never be accepted by the CCP so he changed his goals a little to unity initially underneath the KMT, with the transition of China into a democratic government allowing the CCP to gain power. Mao's intentions for the negotiations
29829-412: The two sides did not truly recommence until June 26, 1946, when Chiang Kai-shek launched a major offensive against Communist bases in Manchuria. This article is focused on the political and social developments that contributed to the Revolution, rather than the military events of the Civil War, so it begins with the founding of the Communist party. The most common date used for the end of the Revolution
30012-401: The two sides floundered, the Civil War resumed. The Communists' newly-formed People's Liberation Army launched a successful series of campaigns that defeated the Nationalists and forced them to retreat to Taiwan . The Communist victory had a major impact on the global balance of power: China became the largest socialist state by population, as well as a third force in the Cold War following
30195-440: The unification of the military and government administration underneath the KMT with the CCP as an opposition party. Chiang also wanted the CCP to "refrain from independent actions" and to assume control over the CCP controlled regions in northern China. However, Chiang initially did not want to negotiate with the CCP and wished to defeat the CCP before they became a larger threat. It was only due to US pressure for peace talks between
30378-460: The urbanized cities. This decision gave CCP a chance to move freely through the countryside. At first, the KMT had the edge with the aid of weapons and ammunition from the United States (US). However, with the country suffering from hyperinflation , widespread corruption and other economic ills, the KMT continued to lose popular support. Some leading officials and military leaders of the KMT hoarded material, armament and military-aid funding provided by
30561-435: The war effort, the Nationalist government had taken over more than 70% of Chinese industry, a dramatic increase from the 15% it owned before the war. This consolidation of wealth in the regime's hands contributed to the pervasive problem of corruption. The Nationalist currency had been undergoing hyperinflation since the beginning of the war. By 1945, retail market prices had reached 3,000% of their 1937 levels. This problem
30744-424: The war, the conflicts among the cliques would have a devastating effect on the survival of the KMT. Muslim Generals in Gansu waged war against the Guominjun in favor of the KMT during the conflict in Gansu in 1927–1930 . In 1931, Japanese aggression resumed with the Mukden Incident and occupation of Manchuria, and the CCP founded the Chinese Soviet Republic (CSR) in Jiangxi while secretly recruiting within
30927-403: The war, the peasantry had not been ready for revolution; economic reasons were not enough to mobilize them. But the nationalism caused by the war changed the situation: "It was the war that brought the Chinese peasantry and China to revolution; at the very least, it considerably accelerated the rise of the CCP to power." The Nationalists' image had been tarnished by Chiang's original reluctance to
31110-409: The year prior had spent three months in the Soviet Union, was appointed commandant of the new National Revolutionary Army (NRA). On 30 May 1925, Chinese students gathered at the Shanghai International Settlement , and held the May Thirtieth Movement in opposition to foreign interference in China. Specifically, with the support of the KMT, they called for the boycott of foreign goods and an end to
31293-427: The year. Concerns about the rising power of the leftist faction, and the effect of the strike on the Guangzhou government's ability to raise funds, which was largely dependent on foreign trade, led to increasing tensions within the United Front. When Sun Yat-sen had died on 12 March, his immediate successor as chairman was the moderate Liao Zhongkai , who supported the United Front and the KMT's close relationship with
31476-745: Was Mao Zedong , who turned the Jiangxi Soviet into a "state within a state". In 1935, the Communists were handed a major military defeat, and the survivors made the Long March to a new base in northwest China. During the Long March, Mao rose from a regional leader to undisputed leader of the entire CCP. After settling in their new base, the Communists undertook a campaign of ideological self-purification to solidify their allegiance to Mao and their new peasant-based strategy. Meanwhile, Japan had taken advantage of China's disunity to seize Manchuria and other Chinese territories. Chiang Kai-shek, prioritizing "first internal pacification, then external resistance", avoided confronting Japan. The Communists argued that
31659-414: Was Chiang's base of support. The power of the CCP had grown considerably by the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Eighth Route Army and New Fourth Army —officially still part of the NRA, but in reality under independent Communist command—counted between 1.2 and 1.27 million men. An additional 1.8 to 2.68 million militia brought the total Communist forces to between 3 million and 4 million. When
31842-408: Was approved in June 1949, was the first large-scale and modern Chinese military parade, with the country having never done a public review of troops before under previous governments. Liu Bocheng proposed to parade directors Yang Chengwu and Tang Yanjie be organized in the Soviet format, having personally witnessed a military parade on Red Square in Moscow. The Northern Military Region Band (now
32025-415: Was compounded by the presence of numerous other currencies printed by the Japanese, Communists, and other local authorities. The Nationalist Government failed to curb inflation after the Japanese surrender and continued to print more currency to pay for the civil war. Hyperinflation reduced the real wages of peasants, workers, and especially soldiers, and destroyed the savings of the upper-middle class that
32208-414: Was elected in absentia to be the first General Secretary . The Chinese Communist Party grew slowly in its first few years. The party had 50 members at the beginning of 1921, 200 in 1922, and 2,428 in 1925. In contrast, the Kuomintang had 50,000 members already in 1923. The CCP continued to be dominated by students and urban intellectuals living in China's large cities, where exposure to Marxist ideas
32391-402: Was kidnapped by Zhang Xueliang in the Xi'an Incident and forced into the Second United Front , an anti-Japanese alliance with the CCP; the Second Sino-Japanese War started the following year. The alliance brought little coordination and was treated as a temporary cease fire in the civil war. The New Fourth Army Incident in 1941 ended the alliance. Japan surrendered in 1945, and Taiwan
32574-447: Was more extreme in southern China where the commercialization of agriculture was more developed. For example, in Guangdong more than half the rural population owned no land at all. Poor peasants owned an average of only 0.87 mu (about 0.14 acres) and so spent most of their time working rented land. Even in north China, where most peasants owned at least some land, the plots they owned were so small and infertile that they remained on
32757-422: Was much less based around peace between the two sides, and instead to assist in preparation for a future revolution. Mao placed great importance on the division of land between the KMT and CCP, desiring a north–south split in the Chinese region between the two parties. Mao also knew that the KMT would not be in the position to start a civil war and so used the negotiations as a way to "mobilize the masses, to win over
32940-406: Was returned to the Republic of China on 25 October of that year. The brief period of celebration was soon shadowed by the possibility of a civil war between the KMT and CCP. The Soviet Union declared war on Japan just before it surrendered and occupied Manchuria , the north eastern part of China. The Soviet Union denied the KMT army the right to enter the region but allowed the CCP to take control of
33123-405: Was strongest: three of the first four party congresses were held in Shanghai, the other in Guangzhou . One exception was Peng Pai , who became the first CCP leader to seriously engage with the peasants. In Haifeng County in rural Guangdong, he organized a powerful peasant association that campaigned for lower rents, led anti-landlord boycotts, and organized welfare activities. By 1923, it claimed
33306-471: Was the basis of the First United Front , which in effect turned the CCP into the left-wing of the larger KMT. The KMT ratified this United Front at its First National Congress in 1924. The Soviets began sending the support the KMT needed for its planned expansion out of Guangdong. Military advisers Mikhail Borodin and Vasily Blyukher arrived in May to oversee the construction of the Whampoa Military Academy , financed with Soviet funds. Chiang Kai-shek, who
33489-406: Was to make it clear to CCP leaders that a formal military apparatus was needed, and during the flight from Nanchang they founded the Chinese Red Army . The defeat left an opening for machinations within the party leadership. In late 1927, Xiang Zhongfa was sent as the CCP's representative to celebrations of the Bolshevik Revolution's 10th Anniversary. While in Moscow, Xiang was able to convince
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