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154-621: Soviet Zone can refer to: Communist-controlled China (1927–1949) , area of China controlled by the Chinese Communist Party prior to the establishment of the People's Republic of China, commonly referred to as the "Soviet Zone", or "Liberated Zone". Soviet occupation zone of Germany , area of Nazi Germany occupied by the Soviet Union after World War II Topics referred to by
308-451: 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
462-618: A beggar, he tore off the covers of the four dictionaries and hid them at the bottom of his bag with rotten food, then successfully crossed several lines of the blockade and reached Ruijin on 7 October 1934. The valuable intelligence provided by Mo Xiong finally convinced the communists in Jiangxi Soviet to abandon its base and started a general retreat before Chiang could complete the building of his blockade lines with supporting barbed wire fences, and mobilizing trucks and troops, thus saving themselves from total annihilation. The portion of
616-528: 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
770-617: A brilliant intelligence success by planting more than a dozen moles in Chiang Kai-shek's inner circle, including at the general headquarters for the nationalist forces at Nanchang . Surprisingly, the most important of the agents, Mo Xiong , was actually never a communist, but his contribution eventually saved the CCP and the Chinese Red Army. Under the recommendation of Chiang Kai-shek's secretary-general Yang Yongtai , who
924-501: 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
1078-993: 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
1232-697: 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
1386-570: 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
1540-480: 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
1694-571: A plan of diversions, and then a regroup after a temporary retreat. Once the regroup was complete, a counterattack would be launched in conjunction with the earlier diversion forces, driving the enemy out of the Jiangxi Soviet. The first movements of the retreating diversion were undertaken by Fang Zhimin . Fang Zhimin and his deputy, Xun Weizhou , were first to break through Kuomintang lines in June, followed by Xiao Ke in August. These movements surprised
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#17327580725161848-537: 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
2002-482: 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
2156-566: 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
2310-579: 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
2464-418: 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
2618-769: 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
2772-520: 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
2926-479: 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
3080-604: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Communist-controlled China (1927%E2%80%931949) The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had sphere of influence zones within Republican era China from 1927 to 1949 during the Chinese Civil War , collectively called revolutionary base areas . They were also known as the Soviet Zone from 1927 to 1937 during
3234-797: 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,
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#17327580725163388-626: 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
3542-696: 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
3696-551: 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
3850-1073: The early stages of the Chinese Civil War , the Anti-Japanese Base Areas during the Second Sino-Japanese War , and the Liberated Zone during the final Stages of the Civil War from 1946 until the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. There were six soviet areas from 1927 to 1933: the Jinggang Mountains , the Central Soviet in Eastern Jiangxi on the border of Fujian , the Eyuwan Soviet , Xiangexi (West Hubei and Hunan), and Xianggan (Hunan-Jiangxi). The first soviet
4004-577: 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
4158-675: 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
4312-553: 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
4466-565: 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
4620-566: 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
4774-569: The CCP fostered and taxed opium production and dealing, selling to Japanese-occupied and KMT-controlled provinces. On 1 February 1932, the National Bank of the Chinese Soviet Republic was established with Mao Zemin , the brother of Mao Zedong, as its president. The CSR Central Mint issued three kinds of currency, including the paper bill, the copper coin, and the silver dollar . The Central Mint briefly issued both
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4928-475: The CCP in 1921. They created an alliance known as 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
5082-571: 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
5236-422: The CCP, Xiang Yunian [ zh ] his communist handler, whom he hired as his secretary, and Lu Zhiying , the communist agent who was the acting head of the spy ring, which was directly under the command of Zhou Enlai. After successfully besieging the adjacent regions of Ruijin , the capital of the Jiangxi Soviet, and occupying most of Jiangxi Soviet itself, Chiang was confident that he would finish off
5390-478: 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
5544-749: 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
5698-575: 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
5852-616: 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
6006-600: The Chinese Red Army led by Mao. However, after the third counter encirclement campaign, Mao was removed from the leadership and replaced by the Chinese communists returning from the Soviet Union such as Wang Ming , and the command of the Chinese Red Army was handled by a three-man committee that included Wang Ming's associates Otto Braun , the Comintern military advisor, Bo Gu , and Zhou Enlai . The Jiangxi Soviet thus began its inevitable rapid downfall under their policy of extreme leftism and incompetent military command, though
6160-468: The Chinese Red Army stayed in a place for longer than a day was to tell the local population to exchange any Communist paper bills and copper coins to goods and currency used in nationalist controlled regions, so that the local population would not be persecuted by the pursuing nationalists after the Communists had left. After the Zunyi Conference , it was decided that carrying the entire bank on
6314-483: 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
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6468-507: 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,
6622-543: 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
6776-406: 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
6930-627: 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
7084-439: 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 the CCP and KMT should cooperate to fight
7238-434: 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
7392-615: The Field Army Personnel, Weaponry, Ammunition, and Supply completed by the Chinese Red Army on 8 October 1934, two days before the Long March begun, the Communist Long March force consisted of: The Statistical Chart of Field Army Personnel, Weaponry, Ammunition, and Supply (currently kept at the People's Liberation Army Archives) also provided the weaponry and provisions prepared for the Long March, and
7546-403: The First Front Red Army engaged in the so-called mobile warfare was actually the bulk of the communist force making a general retreat, but this force was only much diminished from its peak of more than 140,000 men army. With most of its equipment lost, many of the surviving members of the Chinese Red Army were forced to arm themselves with ancient weaponry. According to the Statistical Chart of
7700-432: The First United Front's military successes, KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek ended 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
7854-451: 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
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#17327580725168008-410: The Japanese client state of Manchukuo . Mao Zedong in April and May 1945 had planned to mobilize 150,000 to 250,000 soldiers from across China to work with forces of the Soviet Union in capturing Manchuria. After the end of the war, the CCP controlled one-third of the territory of China. From 1945 to 1949, in the Chinese Communist Revolution , the CCP captured all Chinese territory except for Taiwan and
8162-432: 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
8316-429: 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 the CCP to once again expand their areas of influence by waging
8470-451: The Jiangxi Soviet gradually expanded, reaching a peak of more than 30,000 square kilometres and a population that numbered more than three million, covering considerable parts of two provinces (with Tingzhou in Fujian ). Furthermore, its economy was doing better than most areas that were under the control of the Chinese warlords. In addition to the militia and guerilla, its regular Chinese Red Army alone already numbered more than 140,000 by
8624-418: 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
8778-417: 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
8932-432: 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
9086-452: 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
9240-447: 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
9394-467: 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
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#17327580725169548-428: 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
9702-425: The Kuomintang, who were numerically superior to the communists at the time and did not expect an attack on their fortified perimeter. However, things did not turn out as the communists had hoped: Fang Zhimin's force was crushed after its initial success, and with Xun Weizhou killed in action, nearly every commander in this force was wounded and captured alive, including Fang Zhimin himself, and all were executed later by
9856-473: 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
10010-440: 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
10164-449: 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
10318-487: 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
10472-456: 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
10626-488: 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,
10780-433: 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
10934-446: 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
11088-617: 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,
11242-544: The Soviet republic and led other Chinese warlords to have the National Revolutionary Army besiege the Soviet Republic repeatedly, launching what Chiang and his fellow nationalists called encirclement campaigns at the time, while the communists called their counterattacks "counter encirclement campaigns". Chiang Kai-shek's first , second and third encirclement campaigns were defeated by
11396-623: 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
11550-587: 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
11704-471: 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
11858-496: 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
12012-471: 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
12166-540: The anniversary of the 1917 Russian Bolshevik Revolution, with the help of the Soviet Union , a National Soviet People's Delegates Conference took place in Ruijin , Jiangxi province, which was selected as the national capital. The " Chinese Soviet Republic " was born, even though the majority of China was still under the control of the national Government of the Republic of China . On that day, they had an open ceremony for
12320-455: The army would be renamed as the “Field Army”. By the fall of 1934, the communists faced total annihilation. This situation had already convinced Mao Zedong and his supporters to believe that the communists should abandon their bases in the Jiangxi Soviet republic. However, the communist leadership stubbornly refused to accept the inevitable failure and still daydreamed of defeating the victorious nationalist forces. The three man committee devised
12474-583: 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
12628-514: The common erroneous belief, the original destination was He Long 's communist base in Hubei , and the final destination Yan'an was not decided on until much later during the Long March, well after the rise of Mao Zedong. To avoid panic, the goal was kept a secret from most people, including Mao Zedong, and the public was told that only a portion of the Chinese Red Army would be engaged in mobile warfare to defeat nationalist forces, and thus this part of
12782-402: The communists in a final decisive strike. In late September 1934, Chiang distributed his top secret plan named "Iron Bucket Plan" to everyone in his general headquarter at Lushan (the alternative summer site to Nanchang), which detailed the final push to totally annihilate the communist forces. The plan was to build 30 blockade lines supported by 30 barbed wire fences, most of them electric, in
12936-481: 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
13090-569: 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
13244-464: 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
13398-613: The disconnected areas controlled by the CCP were declared the Chinese Soviet Republic . Somewhat separately from the Chinese Soviets, there was a pro-Soviet Union protectorate ruled by Sheng Shicai following the Soviet invasion of Xinjiang . Sheng switched between alliance and hostility to the communists in the east. Upon the intervention of the Soviet Union against Japan in World War II in 1945, USSR forces invaded
13552-517: The early 1930s, and they were better armed than most Chinese warlords' armies at the time. For example, not only did the Chinese Red Army already have modern communication means such as telephones, telegraphs and radios which most Chinese warlords' armies still lacked, it was already regularly transmitting wireless messages in codes and breaking nationalist codes. Only Chiang Kai-shek 's army could match this formidable communist force. The Nationalist government , led by Chiang Kai-shek, felt threatened by
13706-403: 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
13860-546: 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
14014-471: The fact that coins last longer than paper bills, these coins were issued and circulated in much greater numbers. However, these coins are currently rarer than the paper bill, mainly because the copper used was in need of cartridges , so these copper coins were recalled and replaced by silver dollars . The largest and most predominant currency produced by the Central Mint was the silver dollar. Unlike
14168-428: 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
14322-470: The fragments of Fujian, and established the People's Republic of China that exists today. The CCP Soviets revised marriage law in their territories, issued laws to control the activities of counter-revolutionaries, and established a soviet-style judicial system. The judicial system was considered impressive even by opponents of the Communists, such as General Chen Cheng , who spoke of its "scarcity of cases of embezzlement and corruption". On 7 November 1931,
14476-405: 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
14630-480: The help of Liu Yafo and Lu Zhiying, the communist agents copied the important intelligence onto four dictionaries and Xiang Yunian was tasked to take the intelligence personally to the Jiangxi Soviet. The trip was hazardous, as the nationalist force would arrest and even execute anyone who attempted to cross the blockade. Xiang Yunian was forced to hide in the mountains for a while, and then used rocks to knock out 4 of his own teeth, resulting in swollen face. Disguised as
14784-555: 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
14938-487: 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
15092-404: 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
15246-486: 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
15400-592: 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,
15554-494: The march was not practical, so on 29 January 1935, at Earth Town (Tucheng, 土城 ), the bank employees burned all Communist paper bills and mint machinery under order. By the time the Long March had concluded in October 1935, only 8 out of the 14 original employees survived; the other 6 had died along the way. The CCP seemed to have been doomed under the crushing blows of the Nationalists. However, Zhou Enlai had previously achieved
15708-499: The nationalists. The only exception was Su Yu , who managed to escape. Xiao Ke fared no better: although his force initially managed to break through and then reached He Long's communist base in Hubei, but even with their combined forces, they were unable to challenge the far superior nationalist force besieging the Jiangxi Soviet, never to return until the establishment of the People's Republic of China 15 years later. To raise funds,
15862-605: 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
16016-768: 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
16170-557: The new country, and Mao Zedong and other communists attended the military parade . Because it had its own bank, printed its own money and collected tax through its own tax bureau, it is considered as the beginning of Two Chinas . With Mao Zedong as both head of state ( 中央執行委員會主席 , "Chairman of the Central Executive Committee") and head of government ( 人民委員會主席 , "Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars"),
16324-484: The new leadership could not immediately rid itself of Mao's influence which prevailed during the fourth encirclement campaign , and thus saved the communists temporarily. However, as a result of the complete dominance the new communist leadership achieved after the fourth counter encirclement campaign, the Red Army was nearly halved, with most its equipment lost during Chiang's fifth encirclement campaign , started in 1933 and orchestrated by his German advisors, that involved
16478-401: 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
16632-702: 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
16786-462: The paper bills and copper coins, but neither circulated for long, primarily because the currency could not be used in the rest of China. The paper bill had "Chinese Soviet Republic" ( 中華蘇維埃共和國 ) printed on the bill in traditional Chinese characters , with a picture of Vladimir Lenin . Like the paper bill, the copper coins issued by the Central Mint also had "Chinese Soviet Republic" ( 中華蘇維埃共和國 ) in traditional Chinese characters engraved, and due to
16940-473: The paper bills and the copper coins, the silver dollars had no Communist symbols and instead, they were the direct copy of other silver dollars produced by other mints in China, including the most popular Chinese silver dollar with Yuan Shikai 's head engraved, and the eagle silver dollar of the Mexican peso . This and the fact that the coin was made of the precious metal silver, enabled them to be circulated in
17094-455: 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
17248-506: 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
17402-466: The peasantry. One of the most successful local leaders 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,
17556-440: 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
17710-616: The preceding century, termed the century of humiliation , 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
17864-612: 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
18018-402: 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
18172-444: The region 150 km around Ruijin, to starve the communists. In addition, more than 1,000 trucks were to be mobilized to form a rapid reaction force in order to prevent any communist breakout. Realizing the certain annihilation of the communists, Mo Xiong handed the document weighing several kilograms to his communist handler Xiang Yunian the same night he received it, risking not only his own life, but that of his entire family. With
18326-431: 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
18480-410: The rest of China and thus was the trade currency of choice. When the Chinese Red Army's First Front began their Long March in October 1934, the Communist bank was part of the retreating force, with 14 bank employees, over a hundred coolies and a company of soldiers escorting them while they carried all of the money and mint machinery. One of the important tasks of the bank during the Long March whenever
18634-551: 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 ,
18788-455: 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
18942-419: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Soviet Zone . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Soviet_Zone&oldid=1239176284 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
19096-532: 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
19250-432: 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
19404-614: 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
19558-567: 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
19712-687: 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
19866-555: 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
20020-405: 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
20174-456: The systematic encirclement of the Jiangxi Soviet region with fortified blockhouses. This method proved to be very effective. In an effort to break the blockade, the Red Army under the orders of the three man committee besieged the forts many times but suffered heavy casualties with little success, resulting in the Jiangxi Soviet shrinking significantly in size due to the Chinese Red Army's disastrous manpower and material losses. On 10 October 1934,
20328-447: 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
20482-442: 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
20636-415: 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
20790-426: The three-man committee communist leadership formally issued the order of the general retreat, and on 16 October 1934, the Chinese Red Army begun what was later known as the Long March , fully abandoning the Jiangxi Soviet. 17 days after the main communist force had already left its base, the nationalists were finally aware that the enemy had escaped after reaching the empty city of Ruijin on 5 November 1934. Contrary to
20944-493: 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
21098-412: 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
21252-457: 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
21406-495: 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
21560-403: 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
21714-398: The weapons deployed included: [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 Chinese Communist Revolution The Chinese Communist Revolution
21868-571: 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
22022-427: 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
22176-414: 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
22330-416: Was a social revolution in China that began in 1927 and culminated with 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
22484-461: 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
22638-415: 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
22792-414: 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
22946-503: 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
23100-405: 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
23254-529: Was the Hailufeng Soviet created in 1927. The Central Soviet was the main base of the CCP where its leader Mao Zedong issued a directive on 1 September 1931 for the Central Soviet to mass mobilize the region as a base area. As problems occurred over being able to control territories outside the Central Soviet, by 1933 a full transfer of CCP forces to the Central Soviet was achieved. In 1931,
23408-596: 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
23562-544: 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
23716-589: Was unaware of Mo's communist activities, Mo Xiong steadily excelled in Chiang Kai-shek's regime, eventually becoming an important member within Chiang Kai-shek's general headquarters in the early 1930s. In January 1934, Chiang Kai-shek named him as the administrator and commander-in-chief of the Fourth Special District in northern Jiangxi. Mo used his position to plant more than a dozen communist agents within Chiang's general headquarters, including Liu Yafo ( 劉亞佛 ),the communist who first introduced to
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