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During the Agrarian Revolution, Communist Party
activists retreated underground or to the countryside where they fomented
a military revolt (Nanchang Uprising on August 1, , combined the force
with remnants of peasant rebels, and established control over several
areas in southern China. Attempts by the Nationalist armies to suppress
the rebellion were unsuccessful but extremely damaging to the Communist
forces.A Communist leader addressing Long March survivors.After Chiang
Kai-shek had foiled the coup to oust him launched by Feng Yü-hsiang,
Yen Hsi-shan, and Wang Ching-wei he immediately turned his attention to
rooting out the remaining pockets of Communist activity. The first two
campaigns failed and the third was aborted due to the Mukden Incident.
The fourth campaign achieved some early successes, but Chiang’s
armies were badly mauled when they tried to penetrate into the heart of
Mao’s Soviet Chinese Republic. Finally in late Chiang launched a
fifth campaign orchestrated by his German advisors that involved the systematic
encirclement of the Jiangxi Soviet region with fortified blockhouses.
By the fall of the Communists faced the possibility of total annihilation.
It seemed that the time was now ripe to finish off the CPC, then turn
against the remaining warlords, before finally retaking Manchuria from
the Japanese.In October of the Communists decided to make a massive military
retreat to the west to escape the ensuing KMT forces. It was under this
yearlong, 6000 km retreat, called the Long March, which ended when the
Communists reached the interior of Shaanxi, that Mao Zedong emerged as
the top Communist leader. Along the way, the Communist Army confiscated
property and weapons from local warlords and landlords, while recruiting
peasants and the poor, solidifying its appeal to the masses.
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (pictured here in March was severely weakened
in power by the Second Sino-Japanese War.During the Japanese invasion
and occupation of Manchuria, Chiang Kai-shek, who saw the Communists as
a greater threat, refused to ally with the Communists to fight against
the Japanese. On December 12, Kuomintang Generals Zhang Xueliang and Yang
Hucheng kidnapped Chiang Kai-Shek and forced him to a truce with the Communists.
The incident became known as the Xian Incident. Both parties agreed to
suspend fighting and form a Second United Front to focus their energies
against the Japanese. In Japanese airplanes bombed Chinese cities and
well-equipped troops overran eastern China. Cities that were overrun included
Beijing and Guangzhou.The alliance that was created with the Communists
was in name only. The level of actual cooperation and coordination between
the CPC and KMT during the Second World War was minimal. In the midst
of the Second United Front, the Communists and the Kuomintang were still
vying for territorial advantage in "Free China" (i.e. those
areas not occupied by the Japanese or ruled by puppet governments). The
situation came to a head in late 1940 and early 1941 when there were major
clashes between the Communist and KMT forces. In December 1940, Chiang
Kai-shek demanded that the CPC’s New Fourth Army evacuate Anhui
and Jiangsu Provinces. Under intense pressure, the New Fourth Army commanders
complied, but they were ambushed by Nationalist troops and soundly defeated
in January 1941. This clash, which would be known as the New Fourth Army
Incident, weakened the CPC position in Central China and effectively ended
any substantive cooperation between the Nationalists and the Communists
and both sides concentrated on jockeying for position in the inevitable
Civil War.
Chiang and Mao met in the wartime capital of Chongqing to toast to the
Chinese victory over Japan, but their shaky alliance was short-lived.The
dropping of the atomic bomb and the Soviet entry into the Pacific War
caused Japan to surrender much more quickly than anyone in China had imagined.
Under the terms of the unconditional Japanese surrender dictated by the
United States, Japanese troops were ordered to surrender to KMT troops
and not the Communists.With the sudden end of WWII in East Asia, Soviet
forces flooded into the Manchurian Provinces to seize Japanese positions
and to take the surrender of the 700,000 Japanese troops still stationed
in the region. Later in the year Chiang Kai-shek came to the painful realization
that he lacked the resources to prevent a CPC takeover of Manchuria following
the scheduled Soviet departure, he therefore made a deal with the Russians
to delay their withdrawal until he had moved enough of his best-trained
men and modern material into the region. The Soviets spent the extra time
systematically dismantling the entire Manchurian industrial plant (worth
up to 2 billion dollars) and shipping it back to their war-ravaged Motherland.General
George Marshall arrived in China and was part of negotiations over a cease-fire
between the KMT and the CPC, the terms of which would build a coalition
government that would include all of the contending political/military
groups in China. Neither the Communists (represented by Zhou Enlai) nor
Chiang Kai-shek’s representatives were willing to compromise on
certain fundamental issues or relinquish the territories they had seized
in the wake of the Japanese surrender. Notably, however, was the fact
that the Nationalists demilitarized 1.5 million troops in an effort to
support the Marshall Mission, whereas the Communists did not. The truce
fell apart in the spring of 1946, and although negotiations continued,
Marshall was recalled in January
With the breakdown of peace talks, an all out war resumed. To the Communists,
this stage was called the War of Liberation (????). While the Soviet Union
provided limited aid to the Communists, the United States assisted the
Nationalists with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of now surplus
military supplies and generous loans of hundreds of millions of dollars
worth of military equipment.Belatedly, the Nationalist government sought
to enlist popular support through internal reforms. The effort was in
vain, however, because of the rampant corruption in government and the
accompanying political and economic chaos including massive hyperinflation.
By late 1948 the Nationalist position was bleak. The demoralized and undisciplined
Nationalist troops proved no match for the communist People's Liberation
Army. The Communists were well established in the north and northeast.
Although the Nationalists had an advantage in numbers of men and weapons,
controlled a much larger territory and population than their adversaries,
and enjoyed considerable international support, they were exhausted by
the long war with Japan and the attendant internal responsibilities.
After numerous operational set-backs in Manchuria, especially in attempting
to take the major cities, the Communists were ultimately able to seize
the region and then focus on the war south of the Great Wall. In January
Peiping was taken by the Communists without a fight, and its name was
changed back to Beijing. Between April and November, major cities passed
from Nationalist to Communist control with minimal resistance. In most
cases the surrounding countryside and small towns had come under Communist
influence long before the cities.Ultimately, the Communist Party was victorious.
Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China. Chiang Kai-shek
andNationalist troops andrefugees, predominantly from the government and
business community, fled from the mainland to the island of Taiwan, and
there remained only isolated pockets of resistance. In DecemberChiang
proclaimed Taipei, Taiwan, the temporary capital of the Republic of China
and continued to assert his government as the sole legitimate authority
in China.
Though viewed as a military liability by the United States, the ROC viewed
its remaining islands in Fujian as vital for any future campaign to retake
the mainland. On September 3, , the First Taiwan Strait crisis began when
the PLA started shelling Quemoy and threatened to take the Dachen Islands.
On January 20, 1955, the PLA took nearby Yi Kiang Shan, with the entire
ROC garrison of 720 troops killed defending the island. of the same year,
the U.S. Congress passed the Formosa Resolution authorizing the President
to defend the ROC's offshore islands. Instead of committing to defend
the ROC's offshore islands, President Eisenhower pressured Chiang Kai-shek
to evacuate his troops and 20,000 civilians from the Dachen Islands, leaving
them for PLA takeover. Nanchi Island was abandoned as well, leaving Quemoy
and Matsu the only major islands remaining. The First Taiwan Straits crisis
ended in March when the PLA ceased its bombardment, amid U.S. threats
of escalation and use of nuclear weapons.The Second Taiwan Strait Crisis
began on with another intense artillery bombardment of Quemoy and ended
on November of the same year. PLA patrol boats blockaded the islands from
ROC supply ships. Though the U.S. rejected Chiang Kai-shek's proposal
to bomb mainland artillery batteries, it quickly moved to supply fighter
jets and anti-aircraft missiles to the ROC. It also provided amphibious
assault ships to land supply, as a sunken ROC naval vessel was blocking
the harbor. On September 7, the U.S. escorted a convoy of ROC supply ships
and the PRC refrained from firing. On October the PRC announced an "even-day
ceasefire" — the PLA would only shell Quemoy on odd-numbered
days. By the end of the crisis, Quemoy had been struck with artillery
rounds andsoldiers had been killed or wounded. Quemoy and Matsu were major
campaign issues in theUnited States Presidential elections. Gradually
through the 1960s live artillery was replaced by leafletsIn January 1979,
the PRC announced it would stop shelling Quemoy and Matsu. Though the
PRC conducted missile tests in and escalated tensions, armed clashes between
the two sides have ceased. Since the late 1980s, there has been growing
economic exchanges on both sides while the Taiwan straits remain a dangerous
flashpoint. The political dynamics across the Taiwan straits have changed
with Taiwan's democratization and a more vocal Taiwan independence movement
throughout the Ironically, in Taiwan itself, the Kuomintang has become
one of the more active supporters of a conciliatory policy toward the
PRC and the Communist Party.
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