TheChinese Civil War was fought between theKuomintang-ledgovernment of theRepublic of China and the forces of theChinese Communist Party (CCP), with armed conflict continuing intermittently from 1 August 1927 until Communist victory resulted in their total control overmainland China on 7 December 1949.
The war is generally divided into two phases with an interlude: from August 1927 to 1937, theFirst United Front alliance of the KMT and CCP collapsed during theNorthern Expedition, and the Nationalists controlled most of China. From 1937 to 1945, hostilities were mostly put on hold as theSecond United Front fought theJapanese invasion of China with eventual help from theAllies of World War II, although armed clashes between the groups remained common. Exacerbating the divisions within China further was the formation of theWang Jingwei regime, a Japan-sponsored puppet government led byWang Jingwei, which was established to nominally govern the regions of China that came under Japanese occupation.
TheKuomintang (KMT), led by Sun Yat-sen, created a new government inGuangzhou to rival the warlords who ruled over large swathes of China and prevented the formation of a solid central government.[15] After Sun's efforts to obtain aid from Western countries were ignored, he turned to theSoviet Union. In 1923, Sun and Soviet representativeAdolph Joffe inShanghai pledged Soviet assistance to China's unification in theSun–Joffe Manifesto, a declaration of cooperation among theComintern, KMT, and theChinese Communist Party (CCP).[16] Comintern agentMikhail Borodin arrived in 1923 to aid in the reorganization and consolidation of both the CCP and the KMT along the lines of theCommunist Party of the Soviet Union. The CCP, which was initially a study group, and the KMT jointly formed theFirst United Front.[15][16]
In 1923, Sun sentChiang Kai-shek, one of his lieutenants, for several months of military and political study in Moscow.[17] Chiang then became the head of theWhampoa Military Academy that trained the next generation of military leaders. The Soviets provided the academy with teaching material, organization, and equipment, including munitions.[17] They also provided education in many of the techniques for mass mobilization. With this aid, Sun raised a dedicated "army of the party", with which he hoped to defeat the warlords militarily. CCP members were also present in the academy, and many of them became instructors, includingZhou Enlai, who was made a political instructor.[18]
Communist members were allowed to join the KMT on an individual basis.[16] The CCP itself was still small at the time, having a membership of 300 in 1922 and only 1,500 by 1925.[19] As of 1923, the KMT had 50,000 members.[19]
However, after Sun died in 1925, the KMT split into left- and right-wing movements. KMT members worried that the Soviets were trying to destroy the KMT from inside using the CCP. The CCP then began movements in opposition of theNorthern Expedition, passing a resolution against it at a party meeting.
Then, in March 1927, the KMT held its second party meeting where the Soviets helped pass resolutions against the Expedition and curbing Chiang's power. Soon, the KMT would be clearly divided.
Throughout this time, the Soviet Union sent money and spies to support the CCP. Without their support, the CCP likely would have failed. This is evidenced by documents showing other communist parties in China at the time, one with as many as 10,000 members, which all failed without support from the Soviet Union.[20][additional citation(s) needed]
In early 1927, the KMT–CCP rivalry led to a split in the revolutionary ranks. The CCP and the left wing of the KMT decided to move the seat of the KMT government from Guangzhou toWuhan, where communist influence was strong.[19] However, Chiang andLi Zongren, whose armies defeated the warlordSun Chuanfang, moved eastward towardJiangxi. The leftists rejected Chiang's demand to eliminate Communist influence within KMT, and Chiang denounced them for betraying Sun Yat-sen'sThree Principles of the People by taking orders from the Soviet Union. According toMao Zedong, Chiang's tolerance of the CCP in the KMT camp decreased as his power increased.[21]
On 7 April, Chiang and several other KMT leaders held a meeting, during which they proposed that Communist activities were socially and economically disruptive and had to be undone for the Nationalist revolution to proceed. On 12 April, many communists within the KMT were purged in Shanghai[15] through hundreds of arrests and executions[22] on the orders of GeneralBai Chongxi. The CCP referred to this as the12 April Incident, the White Terror, or theShanghai massacre.[23] This incident widened the rift between Chiang andWang Jingwei, the leader of the left wing faction of the KMT. The left wing of the KMT also expelled CCP members from theWuhan Government, which in turn was toppled by Chiang Kai-shek. The KMT resumed its campaign against warlords and captured Beijing in June 1928.[24] Soon, most ofeastern China was under the control of the Nanjing central government, which received prompt international recognition as the sole legitimate government of China. The KMT government announced, in conformity with Sun Yat-sen, the formula for the three stages of revolution: military unification, political tutelage, and constitutional democracy.[25]
On 1 August 1927, the CCP launched anuprising in Nanchang against the Nationalist government in Wuhan. This conflict led to the creation of theRed Army.[1][26] On 4 August, the main forces of the Red Army left Nanchang and headed southwards for an assault on Guangdong. Nationalist forces quickly reoccupied Nanchang while the remaining members of the CCP in Nanchang went into hiding.[1] A CCP meeting on 7 August confirmed the objective of the party was to seize the political power by force, but the CCP was quickly suppressed the next day by the Nationalist government in Wuhan, led by Wang Jingwei. On 14 August, Chiang Kai-shek announced his temporary retirement, as the Wuhan faction and Nanjing faction of the Kuomintang were allied once again with common goal of suppressing the CCP after the earlier split. Wang Jingwei took the leadership of KMT after Chiang.[citation needed]
Attempts were later made by the CCP to take the cities ofChangsha,Shantou and Guangzhou. The Red Army consisting of mutinous former National Revolutionary Army (NRA) soldiers as well as armed peasants established control over several areas insouthern China.[26] KMT forces continued to attempt to suppress the rebellions.[26] Then, in September, Wang Jingwei was forced out of Wuhan. September also saw an unsuccessful armed rural insurrection, known as theAutumn Harvest Uprising, led by Mao Zedong.[27] Borodin then returned to the Soviet Union in October via Mongolia. In November, Chiang Kai-shek went to Shanghai and invited Wang to join him. On 11 December, the CCP started theGuangzhou Uprising, establishing a soviet there the next day, but lost the city by 13 December to a counter-attack under the orders of GeneralZhang Fakui. On 16 December, Wang Jingwei fled to France. There were now three capitals in China: the internationally recognized republic capital inBeijing, the CCP andleft-wing KMT at Wuhan and the right-wing KMT regime atNanjing, which would remain the KMT capital for the next decade.[28][29]
This marked the beginning of a ten-year armed struggle, known in mainland China as the "Ten-Year Civil War" (十年内战) which ended with theXi'an Incident, when Chiang Kai-shek was forced to form theSecond United Front against invading forces from theEmpire of Japan. In 1930, theCentral Plains War broke out as an internal conflict of the KMT; launched byFeng Yuxiang,Yan Xishan, and Wang Jingwei. The attention was turned to root out remaining pockets of CCP activity in a series of fiveencirclement campaigns.[30] Thefirst andsecond campaigns failed, and thethird was aborted due to theMukden Incident. Thefourth campaign (1932–1933) achieved some early successes, but Chiang's armies were badly mauled when they tried to penetrate into the heart of Mao'sSoviet Chinese Republic. During these campaigns, KMT columns struck swiftly into CCP areas, but were easily engulfed by the vast countryside and were not able to consolidate their foothold.
Finally, in late 1934, Chiang launched afifth campaign that involved the systematic encirclement of theJiangxi Soviet region with fortifiedblockhouses.[31] The blockhouse strategy was devised and implemented in part by newly hiredNazi advisors.[32] Unlike previous campaigns in which they penetrated deeply in a single strike, this time the KMT troops patiently built blockhouses, each separated by about eight kilometres (five miles), to surround the Communist areas and cut off their supplies and food sources.[31]
In October 1934, the CCP took advantage of gaps in the ring of blockhouses (manned by the forces of a warlord ally of Chiang Kai-shek's, rather than regular KMT troops) and broke out of the encirclement. The warlord armies were reluctant to challenge Communist forces for fear of losing their own men and did not pursue the CCP with much fervor. In addition, the main KMT forces were preoccupied with annihilatingZhang Guotao's army, which was much larger than Mao's. The massive military retreat of Communist forces lasted a year and covered what Mao estimated as 12,500 km (25,000Li); it became known as theLong March.[33]
This military retreat was undertaken by the Chinese Communist Party, led by Mao Zedong, to evade the pursuit or attack of the Kuomintang army. It consisted of a series of marches, during which numerous Communist armies in the south escaped to the north and west. Over the course of the march from Jiangxi the First Front Army, led by an inexperienced military commission, was on the brink of annihilation by Chiang Kai-Shek's troops as their stronghold was in Jiangxi. The Communists, under the command of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, "escaped in a circling retreat to the west and north, which reportedly traversed over 9,000 kilometers over 370 days." The route passed through some of the most difficult terrain of western China by traveling west, and then northwards towards Shaanxi. "In November 1935, shortly after settling in northern Shaanxi, Mao officially took over Zhou Enlai's leading position in the Red Army. Following a major reshuffling of official roles, Mao became the chairman of the Military Commission, with Zhou and Deng Xiaoping as vice-chairmen." This marked Mao's position as the pre-eminent leader of the CCP, with Zhou in second position to him.[citation needed]
The march ended when the CCP reached the interior ofShaanxi.Zhang Guotao's army (Red 4th Front Army), which took a different route through northwest China, was largely destroyed by the forces of Chiang Kai-shek and hisChinese Muslim allies, theMa clique. 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. Of the 90,000–100,000 people who began the Long March from the Soviet Chinese Republic, only around 7,000–8,000 made it to Shaanxi.[34] The remnants of Zhang's forces eventually joined Mao in Shaanxi, but with his army destroyed, Zhang, even as a founding member of the CCP, was never able to challenge Mao's authority. Essentially, the great retreat made Mao the undisputed leader of the Chinese Communist Party.
The Kuomintang usedKhampa troops – who were former bandits – to battle the Communist Red Army as it advanced and to undermine local warlords who often refused to fight Communist forces to conserve their own strength. The KMT enlisted 300 "Khampa bandits" into its Consolatory Commission military in Sichuan, where they were part of the effort of the central government to penetrate and destabilize local Han warlords such asLiu Wenhui. The government was seeking to exert full control over frontier areas against the warlords. Liu had refused to battle the Communists in order to conserve his army. The Consolatory Commission forces were used to battle the Red Army, but they were defeated when their religious leader was captured by the Communists.[35]
In 1936, Zhou Enlai andZhang Xueliang grew closer, with Zhou even suggesting that he join the CCP. However, this was turned down by the Comintern in the USSR. Later on, Zhou persuaded Zhang andYang Hucheng, another warlord, to instigate the Xi'an Incident. Chiang was placed under house arrest and forced to stop his attacks on the Red Army, instead focusing on the Japanese threat.
The situation in China in 1929: After theNorthern Expedition, the KMT had direct control over east and central China, while the rest of China proper as well as Manchuria was under the control of warlords loyal to the Nationalist government.
Map showing the communist-controlled Soviet Zones of China during and after the encirclement campaigns
Route(s) taken by Communist forces during the Long March
A Communist leader addressing survivors of the Long March
During Japan's invasion and occupation of Manchuria, Chiang Kai-shek saw the CCP as the greater threat. Chiang refused to ally with the CCP, preferring to unite China by eliminating the warlord and CCP forces first. He believed his forces were too weak to face theJapanese Imperial Army; only after unification could the KMT mobilize against Japan. He ignored the Chinese people's discontent and anger at the KMT policy of compromise with the Japanese, instead ordering KMT generals Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng to suppress the CCP. However, their provincial forces suffered significant casualties in battles against the Red Army.[36]
On 12 December 1936, the disgruntled Zhang and Yang conspired to kidnap Chiang and force him into a truce with the CCP. The incident became known as the Xi'an Incident.[37] Both parties suspended fighting to form a Second United Front to focus their energies and fight the Japanese.[37] In 1937, Japan launched its full-scale invasion of China and its well-equipped troops overran KMT defenders in northern and coastal China.
The alliance of CCP and KMT was in name only.[38] Unlike the KMT forces, CCP troops shunnedconventional warfare and instead wagedguerrilla warfare against the Japanese. The level of actual cooperation and coordination between the CCP and KMT duringWorld War II was minimal.[38] In the midst of the Second United Front, the CCP and the KMT were still vying for territorial advantage in "Free China" (i.e., areas not occupied by the Japanese or ruled by Japanesepuppet governments such as Manchukuo and theReorganized National Government of China).[38]
The situation came to a head in late 1940 and early 1941 when clashes between Communist and KMT forces intensified. Chiang demanded in December 1940 that the CCP'sNew Fourth Army evacuateAnhui andJiangsu Provinces, due to its provocation and harassment of KMT forces in this area. Under intense pressure, the New Fourth Army commanders complied. The following year they wereambushed by KMT forces during their evacuation, which led to several thousand deaths.[39] It also ended the Second United Front, formed earlier to fight the Japanese.[39]
As clashes between the CCP and KMT intensified, countries such as the United States and the Soviet Union attempted to prevent a disastrous civil war. After the New Fourth Army incident, US PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt sentspecial envoyLauchlin Currie to talk with Chiang Kai-shek and KMT party leaders to express their concern regarding the hostility between the two parties, with Currie stating that the only ones to benefit from a civil war would be the Japanese. The Soviet Union, allied more closely with the CCP, sent an imperative telegram to Mao in 1941, warning that civil war would also make the situation easier for the Japanese military. Due to the international community's efforts, there was a temporary and superficial peace. Chiang criticized the CCP in 1943 with the propaganda pieceChina's Destiny, which questioned the CCP's power after the war, while the CCP strongly opposed Chiang's leadership and referred to his regime as fascist in an attempt to generate a negative public image. Both leaders knew that a deadly battle had begun between themselves.[40]
In general, developments in theSecond Sino-Japanese War were to the advantage of the CCP, as its guerrilla war tactics had won them popular support within the Japanese-occupied areas. In occupied areas, the Communists established military and political bases from which it carried out guerilla warfare.[41]: 35 The Communists built popular support in these areas, returning land to poor peasants, reducing peasant's rent, and arming the people.[41]: 35 By Spring 1945, there were 19 Communist-governed areas in China in which 95 million people lived.[41]: 36 In Fall 1945, the Communist armies had 1.27 million men and were supported by 2.68 million militia members.[41]: 36 The KMT had to defend the country against the main Japanese campaigns, since it was the legal Chinese government, a factor which proved costly to Chiang Kai-shek and his troops. Japan launched its last major offensive against the KMT,Operation Ichi-Go, in 1944, which resulted in the severe weakening of Chiang's forces.[42] The CCP also suffered fewer losses through its guerrilla tactics.[43]
Japanese occupation (red) of eastern China near the end of the war, and Communist bases (striped)
Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong met in Chongqing in 1945.
Under the terms of the Japaneseunconditional surrender dictated by the Allies, Japanese troops were to surrender to KMT troops but not to the CCP, which was present in some of the occupied areas.[44] InManchuria, however, where the KMT had no forces, the Japanese surrendered to the Soviet Union. Chiang Kai-shek reminded Japanese troops to remain at their posts to receive the KMT, but Communist forces soon began taking surrenders from the Japanese and fighting those who resisted.[44]General Wedemeyer of the United States Army became alarmed at these developments and wanted seven American divisions to be sent to China, butGeneral Marshall replied that it should not be given priority over Japan and Korea.[45]
The first post-war peace negotiation, attended by both Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong, was inChongqing from 28 August to 10 October 1945. Chiang entered the meeting at an advantage because he had recently signed afriendly treaty with the Soviet Union while the Communists were still forcing the Japanese to surrender in some places. Mao was accompanied by American ambassadorPatrick J. Hurley, who was devoted to Chiang but also wanted to ensure Mao's safety in light of the past history between the two Chinese leaders.[46] It concluded with the signing of theDouble Tenth Agreement.[47] Both sides stressed the importance of a peaceful reconstruction, but the conference did not produce any concrete results.[47] Battles between the two sides continued even as peace negotiations were in progress, until the agreement was reached in January 1946. However, large campaigns and full-scale confrontations between the CCP and Chiang's troops were temporarily avoided. On 26 November 1945, Hurley resigned, viewing Chiang as having gone against his agreement with the Communists.[41]: 53 In December 1945, Hurley's former position was filled by Marshall.[41]: 54
In the last month of World War II in East Asia, Soviet forces launched the hugeManchurian Strategic Offensive Operation against the JapaneseKwantung Army in Manchuria and along the Chinese-Mongolian border.[48] This operation destroyed the Kwantung Army in just three weeks and left the USSR occupying all of Manchuria by the end of the war in a total power vacuum of local Chinese forces. Consequently, the 700,000 Japanese troops stationed in the region surrendered. Later in the year Chiang Kai-shek realized that he lacked the resources to prevent a CCP takeover of Manchuria following the scheduled Soviet departure.[49] He therefore made a deal with the Soviets to delay their withdrawal until he had moved enough of his best-trained men and modernmateriel into the region. However, the Soviets refused permission for the Nationalist troops to traverse its territory and spent the extra time systematically dismantling the extensive Manchurian industrial base (worth up to $2 billion) and shipping it back to their war-ravaged country.[49] KMT troops were then airlifted by the US to occupy key cities in North China, while the countryside was already dominated by the CCP. On 15 November 1945, the KMT began a campaign to prevent the CCP from strengthening its already strong base.[50] At the same time, however, the return of the KMT also brought widespread graft and corruption, with anOSS officer remarking that the only winners were the Communists.[51]
Chiang Kai-shek's forces pushed as far asJinzhou by 26 November 1945, meeting with little resistance. This was followed by a Communist offensive on theShandong Peninsula that was largely successful, as all of the peninsula, except what was controlled by the US, fell to the Communists.[50] The truce fell apart in June 1946 when full-scale war between CCP and KMT forces broke out on 26 June 1946. China then entered a state of civil war that lasted more than three years.[53]
By the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the power of the Chinese Communist Party grew considerably. Their main force grew to 1.2 million troops, backed with additional militia of 2 million, totalling 3.2 million troops.[41]: 36 Their "Liberated Zone" in 1945 contained 19 base areas,[41]: 36 including one-quarter of the country's territory and one-third of its population; this included many important towns and cities. Moreover, the Soviet Union turned over all of its captured Japanese weapons and a substantial amount of their own supplies to the Communists, who received Northeastern China from the Soviets as well.[54]
In March 1946, despite repeated requests from Chiang, theSoviet Red Army under the command of Marshal Rodion Malinovsky continued to delay pulling out of Manchuria, while Malinovsky secretly told the CCP forces to move in behind them, which led to full-scale war for the control of the Northeast. These favorable conditions also facilitated many changes inside the Communist leadership: the more radical hard-line faction who wanted a complete military take-over of China finally gained the upper hand and defeated the careful opportunists.[55] Before giving control to Communist leaders, on 27 March, Soviet diplomats requested a joint venture of industrial development with the Nationalist Party in Manchuria.[56]
AlthoughGeneral Marshall stated that he knew of no evidence that the CCP was being supplied by the Soviet Union, the CCP was able to utilize a large number of weapons abandoned by the Japanese, including some tanks. When large numbers of well-trained KMT troops began to defect to the Communist forces, the CCP was finally able to achieve material superiority.[57][58] The CCP's most effective political reform was its land reform policy. This drew the massive number of landless and starving peasants in the countryside into the Communist cause.[59] This strategy enabled the CCP to access an extensive supply of manpower for both combat and logistical purposes; despite suffering heavy casualties throughout many of the war's campaigns, manpower continued to grow. For example, during theHuaihai Campaign alone the CCP was able to mobilize 5,430,000 peasants to fight against the KMT forces.[60]
Nationalist warplanes being prepared for an air raid on Communist bases
After the war with the Japanese ended, Chiang Kai-shek quickly moved KMT troops to newly liberated areas to prevent Communist forces from receiving the Japanese surrender.[54] The US airlifted many KMT troops from central China to theNortheast (Manchuria). PresidentHarry S. Truman was very clear about what he described as "using the Japanese to hold off the Communists". In his memoirs he writes:
It was perfectly clear to us that if we told the Japanese to lay down their arms immediately and march to the seaboard, the entire country would be taken over by the Communists. We therefore had to take the unusual step of using the enemy as a garrison until we could airlift Chinese National troops to South China and sendMarines to guard the seaports.
Using the pretext of "receiving the Japanese surrender", business interests within the KMT government occupied most of the banks, factories and commercial properties, which had previously been seized by the Imperial Japanese Army.[54] 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 hasty and harsh preparations caused great hardship for the residents of cities such as Shanghai, where the unemployment rate rose dramatically to 37.5%.[54]
Hyperinflation meant those employed in the Kuomintang forces lost the purchasing power of their pay.[62]: 204 This resulted in corruption and the embezzlement of supplies which disappeared into the barter economy.[62]: 204 Ordinary Kuomintang soldiers were often malnourished and desertion was common.[62]: 204
The US strongly supported the Kuomintang forces. About 50,000 US soldiers were sent to guard strategic sites in Hebei and Shandong inOperation Beleaguer. The US equipped and trained KMT troops, and transported Japanese and Koreans back to help KMT forces to occupy liberated zones as well as to contain Communist-controlled areas.[54] According toWilliam Blum, American aid included substantial amounts of mostly surplus military supplies, and loans were made to the KMT.[63] Within less than two years after the Sino-Japanese War, the KMT had received $4.43 billion from the US – most of which was military aid.[54] Highlighting the aid provided by the US to the KMT, the Communists' position was that the US was stirring domestic warfare and characterized the civil war as both a national revolution against the KMT and a revolution against US colonization and aggression.[64]: 14
As postwar negotiations between the Nationalist government and the CCP failed, the civil war between these two parties resumed. This stage of war is referred to inmainland China and Communist historiography as the "War of Liberation" (Chinese:解放战争; pinyin:Jiěfàng Zhànzhēng). On 20 July 1946, Chiang Kai-shek launched a large-scale assault on Communist territory inNorth China with 113 brigades (a total of 1.6 million troops).[54]
Knowing their disadvantages in manpower and equipment, the CCP executed a "passive defense" 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 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.[54]
North China areas of politico-military control in August 1947The PLA enters Beiping in thePingjin CampaignMap of the Far East from the Time magazine showing the situation of the Chinese Civil War in late 1948
In March 1947, the KMT achieved a symbolic victory by seizing Yan'an, the capital of theYan'an Soviet.[65] The Communists counterattacked soon afterwards. With KMT efforts for an all-out offensive failing, the Nationalists changed strategy from broad assaults to concentrating on key targets, including Communist-controlled areas in Shandong and Shaanxi.[41]: 56 This approach also failed.[41]: 56
From June to September 1947, the Communists launched offensives and Nationalist-controlled areas became the primary battlefields.[41]: 56 On 30 June 1947, CCP troops crossed the Yellow River and moved to theDabie Mountains area, restored and developed theCentral Plain. At the same time, Communist forces also began to counterattack in Northeastern China, North China and East China.[54]
The period of August 1948 through October 1949 included the three most significant Communist military campaigns of the civil war: theLiaoshen Campaign (northeast China),Huaihai Campaign (east China), andPingjin Campaign (Beijing-Tianjin).[41]: 57
The Liaoshen campaign was launched on 12 September 1948 and led byLin Biao.[41]: 57 The main focus of the campaign was Jinzhou.[41]: 57 On 14 October, the Communists launched an all-out assault and captured the city in 24 hours.[41]: 57 Most of the 90,000 Nationalists casualties in this battle were incorporated into the Communist ranks.[41]: 57 Thesiege of Changchun ended on 19 October when the Nationalist garrison surrendered.[41]: 57 On 1 November, the Communists capturedShenyang.[41]: 57 By late 1948, the CCP had taken control of the Northeast through the decisive Liaoshen Campaign.[66]
The capture of large KMT units provided the CCP with the tanks, heavy artillery and other combined-arms assets needed to execute offensive operations south of the Great Wall. By April 1948, the city of Luoyang fell, cutting the KMT army off from Xi'an.[67] Following a fierce battle, the CCP capturedJinan and Shandong province on 24 September 1948. During this period,Battle of Weixian took place, which was an important battle for the CCP to liberate Shandong. Through the Weixian Campaign, the CCP controlled the Jiaoji Railway and cut off the connection between Jinan and Qingdao.
The Huaihai Campaign of late 1948 and early 1949 secured east-central China for the CCP.[66] It was the largest military operation of the civil war.[41]: 57 A large number of KMT troops deserted and changed sides in these conflicts.[62]: 204 The outcome of these encounters were decisive for the military outcome of the civil war.[66]
ThePingjin campaign lasted 64 days, from 21 November 1948 to 31 January 1949.[68] The PLA suffered heavy casualties while securingZhangjiakou, Tianjin along with its port and garrison atDagu andBeiping.[68] The CCP brought 890,000 troops from the northeast to oppose some 600,000 KMT troops.[67] There were 40,000 CCP casualties at Zhangjiakou alone. They in turn killed, wounded or captured some 520,000 KMT during the campaign.[68] The KMT's defeat in the Pingjin campaign ended its ability to be an effective fighting force on the mainland.[41]: 58
After achieving decisive victory through the Liaoshen, Huaihai, and Pingjin campaigns, the CCP destroyed 144 regular and 29 irregular KMT divisions, including 1.54 millionveteran KMT troops.[54][41]: 58
Stalin initially favored acoalition 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.[69] Mao rejected Stalin's position and on 21 April, began theYangtze River Crossing Campaign. On 23 April, they captured the KMT's capital, Nanjing.[33] The KMT government retreated to Canton (Guangzhou) until 15 October,Chongqing until 25 November, and then Chengdu beforeretreating to Taiwan on 7 December. By late 1949, the People's Liberation Army was pursuing remnants of KMT forces southwards in southern China, and onlyTibet was left. A Chinese MuslimHui cavalry regiment, the 14thTungan Cavalry, was sent by the Kuomintang to attack Mongol and Soviet positions along the border during thePei-ta-shan Incident.[70]
The Kuomintang made several last-ditch attempts to useKhampa troops against the Communists in southwest China. The Kuomintang formulated a plan in which three Khampa divisions would be assisted by thePanchen Lama to oppose the Communists.[71] Kuomintang intelligence reported that some Tibetan tusi chiefs and the Khampa Su Yonghe controlled 80,000 troops in Sichuan, Qinghai and Tibet. They hoped to use them against the Communist army.[72]
On 1 October 1949, Mao Zedongofficially proclaimed the People's Republic of China with its capital at Beiping, which was returned to the former name Beijing. Chiang Kai-shek and approximately two million Nationalist soldiersretreated from mainland China to theisland of Taiwan in December after the PLA advanced into Sichuan province. Isolated Nationalist pockets of resistance remained in the area, but the majority of the resistance collapsed after thefall of Chengdu on 10 December 1949, with some resistance continuing in the far south.[73]
A PRC attempt to take the ROC-controlled island ofQuemoy was thwarted in theBattle of Kuningtou, halting the PLA advance towards Taiwan.[74] In December 1949, Chiang proclaimed Taipei thetemporary capital of theRepublic of China and continued to assert his government as the sole legitimate authority in China.
Map of the Chinese Civil War (1946–1949, and 1950)
Most observers expected Chiang's government to eventually fall to the imminent invasion of Taiwan by the People's Liberation Army, and the US was initially reluctant in offering full support for Chiang in their final stand. US PresidentHarry S. Truman announced on 5 January 1950 that the United States would not engage in any dispute involving the Taiwan Strait, and that he would not intervene in the event of an attack by the PRC.[76] Truman, seeking to exploit the possibility of a Titoist-styleSino-Soviet split, announced in his United States Policy toward Formosa that the US would obey theCairo Declaration's designation of Taiwan as Chinese territory and would not assist the Nationalists. However, the Communist leadership was not aware of this change of policy, instead becoming increasingly hostile to the US.[77] The situation quickly changed after the sudden onset of theKorean War in June 1950. This led to changing political climate in the US, and President Truman ordered theUnited States Seventh Fleet to sail to theTaiwan Strait as part of thecontainment policy against potential Communist advance.[78]
"Forget not that you are inJǔ" – a rock in Kinmen Island with Chiang Kai-shek's calligraphy signifying the retaking of one's homeland
In June 1949, the ROC declared a "closure" of all mainland China ports and its navy attempted to intercept all foreign ships. The closure was from a point north of the mouth ofMin River inFujian to the mouth of theLiao River inLiaoning.[79] Since mainland China's railroad network was underdeveloped, north–south trade depended heavily on sea lanes. ROC naval activity also caused severe hardship for mainland China fishermen.
Duringthe retreat of the Republic of China to Taiwan, KMT troops, who could not retreat to Taiwan, were left behind to fight aguerrilla war against the Communists. TheseKMT remnants were eliminated in what the PRC called theCampaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries and theCampaigns to Suppress Bandits.[80] According to official statistics from the CCP in 1954, during the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries, at least 2.6 million people were arrested, some 1.29 million people wereimprisoned, and 712,000 people were executed.[81] Most of those killed were former Kuomintang officials, businessmen, former employees of Western companies and intellectuals whose loyalty was suspect.[82]
Winning China proper in 1950, also afterannexation of Tibet, the CCP controlled the entire mainland in late 1951 (excludingKinmen andMatsu Islands). But a group of approximately 3,000 KMT Central soldiers retreated toBurma and continued launching guerrilla attacks into south China during theKuomintang Islamic Insurgency in China (1950–1958) andCampaign at the China–Burma Border. Their leader,Li Mi, was paid a salary by the ROC government and given the nominal title of Governor ofYunnan. Initially, the US-supported these remnants and theCentral Intelligence Agency provided them with military aid. After the Burmese government appealed to theUnited Nations in 1953, the US began pressuring the ROC to withdraw its loyalists. By the end of 1954 nearly 6,000 soldiers had left Burma and Li declared his army disbanded. However, thousands remained, and the ROC continued to supply and command them, even secretly supplying reinforcements at times to maintain a base close to China.
Following World War II, victory in the civil war and the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the Chinese communists supportedHo Chi Minh'sViet Minh guerrillasagainst France. China, like theEastern bloc, recognized theHanoi government and began supplying military equipment in accordance with the agreement of April 1, 1950. By 1950, the Viet Minh had established full control over the Northern Free Zone and the common Sino-Vietnamese border, and the communists had consolidated their positions in Laos and Cambodia. This fact allowed the supply of materials and weapons to Vietnam, as well as the establishment of training camps and base areas. Chinese military aid played a key role in the Viet Minh's victory at theBattle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954.[83][84][85] The recognition of North Vietnam by the People's Republic of China and otherEastern Bloc countries also forced the issue of creating an independent "State of Vietnam" in the south as a counterweight to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the north.
In the end, the Communist military forces suffered 1.3 million combat casualties in the 1945–1949 phase of the war: 260,000 killed, 190,000 missing, and 850,000 wounded, discounting irregulars. Nationalist casualties in the same phase were recorded after the war by the PRC 5,452,700 regulars and 2,258,800 irregulars.[9][page needed]
After the formation of the PRC, the PRC government named the Western nations, led by the U.S., as the biggest threat to its national security.[86] Basing this judgment on multiple factors, including the idea of a Chinesecentury of humiliation at the hands of Western powers beginning in the mid-19th century,[87] U.S. support for the Nationalists during the Chinese Civil War,[88] and the ideological struggles between revolutionaries and reactionaries,[89] the PRC leadership believed that China would become a critical battleground in the U.S.'s crusade against Communism.[90] As a countermeasure and to elevate China's standing among the worldwide Communist movements, the PRC leadership adopted a foreign policy that actively promoted Communist revolutions throughout territories on China's periphery.[91]
Monument in memory of the crossing of the Yangtze in Nanjing
Though viewed as a military liability by the US, the ROC viewed its remaining islands inFujian as vital for any future campaign to defeat the PRC and retake mainland China. On 3 September 1954, theFirst Taiwan Strait Crisis started with the PRC shellingKinmen.[79] The PRCcaptured the Yijiangshan Islands on 19 January 1955, leading to the ROC abandoning theDachen Islands the following month.[92] On 24 January 1955, theUnited States Congress passed theFormosa Resolution authorizing the President to defend the ROC's offshore islands. The First Taiwan Straits crisis ended in March 1955 when the PLA ceased its bombardment. The crisis ended during theBandung conference.[79]
TheSecond Taiwan Strait Crisis began on 23 August 1958 with air and naval engagements between PRC and ROC forces, leading to intense artillery bombardment of Kinmen by the PRC andXiamen by the ROC, and ended on November of the same year.[79] PLA patrol boats blockaded the islands from ROC supply ships. Though the US rejected Chiang Kai-shek's proposal to bomb mainland China artillery batteries, it quickly moved to supply fighter jets and anti-aircraft missiles to the ROC. It also providedamphibious assault ships to land supplies, as a sunken ROC naval vessel was blocking the harbor. On 7 September, the US escorted a convoy of ROC supply ships and the PRC refrained from firing.
The third crisis occurred in 1995–96. The PRC responded to Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui's visit to the United States, and the U.S. recognition of Lee as a representative of Taiwan, with military exercises. The exercises were also meant to deter Taiwanese voters from supporting Lee in the 1996 election; Lee won the election. Two U.S. aircraft carriers were deployed during the crisis; they were not attacked and deescalation followed.[93]
US Speaker of the HouseNancy Pelosi'svisit to Taiwan in August 2022 triggeredPRC military exercises across the Taiwan Strait. She originally intended to travel to Taiwan in April 2022,[94] but was delayed due toCOVID-19.[95] She rescheduled the trip to August as part of a wider Asian trip. The White House was reported to have been initially divided over the appropriateness of the trip but later affirmed Pelosi's right to visit Taiwan.[96][97][98][99] As a result, the PLA announced four days of unprecedented military live-fire drills,[100] in six zones that encircle the island on the busiest international waterways and aviation routes.[101] In response to the announcement, ROC officials complained that the PRC's live-fire drills were an invasion of Taiwan's territorial space and a direct challenge to free air and sea navigation.[102]
On 25 October 1971, theUnited Nations General Assembly admitted the PRC andexpelled the ROC, which had been a founding member of theUnited Nations and was one of the five permanent members of the Security Council. Representatives of Chiang Kai-shek refused to recognise their accreditations as representatives of China and left the assembly. Recognition for the People's Republic of China soon followed from most other member nations, including the United States.[103]
By 1984, PRC and ROC began to de-escalate their hostilities through diplomatic relations with each other, and cross-straits trade and investment has been growing ever since. The state of war was officially declared over by the ROC in 1991.[104] Despite the end of the hostilities, the two sides have never signed any agreement or treaty to officially end the war. According to Mao Zedong, there were three ways of "staving off imperialist intervention in the short term" during the continuation of the Chinese Revolution. The first was through a rapid completion of the military takeover of the country, and through showing determination and strength against "foreign attempts at challenging the new regime along its borders". The second was by "formalising a comprehensive military alliance with the Soviet Union", which would dedicate Soviet power to directly defending China against its enemies; this aspect became extensively significant given the backdrop of the start of the Cold War. And finally, the regime had to "root out its domestic opponents: the heads of secret societies, religious sects, independent unions, or tribal and ethnic organisations". By destroying the basis of domestic reaction, Mao believed a safer world for the Chinese revolution to spread in would come into existence.[105]
Under the new ROC presidentLee Teng-hui, theTemporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion was renounced in May 1991, thus ending the chances of the Kuomintang's quest to retake the mainland. In July 1999, Lee announced a "special diplomatic relationship". China was furious again, but the military drills were stopped by the921 earthquakes. It was the last tense moment of this civil war.[106]
With the election in 2000 ofDemocratic Progressive Party candidateChen Shui-bian, a party other than the KMT gained the presidency for the first time in Taiwan. The new president did not share the Chinese nationalist ideology of the KMT and CCP. This led to tension between the two sides, although trade and other ties such as the2005 Pan-Blue visit continued to increase.
With the election of pro-mainland PresidentMa Ying-jeou (KMT) in 2008, significant warming of relations resumed between Taipei and Beijing, with high-level exchanges between the semi-official diplomatic organizations of both states such as theChen-Chiang summit series. Although theTaiwan Strait remains a potential flash point, regular direct air links were established in 2009.[14][page needed]
The Communist victory over the Nationalists is regarded as one of the most impressive twentieth century insurgent victories.[107]: 1 Historians and political scientists cite a number of factors, including the CCP's success at mobilizing mass support and the shortcomings of the Nationalist government.[107]: 1
Almost all studies of the failure of the Nationalist government identifyhyperinflation as a major factor in the government's collapse.[62]: 5 The Nationalist military and the government's civilian employees were most impacted by hyperinflation which in turn prompted widespread corruption and pilfering.[62]: 5 Little funding reached enlisted soldiers, who were typically malnourished and poorly equipped.[62]: 9 Desertion was common.[62]: 9
The historianRana Mitter writes that a lack of trust in the Nationalist government developed, as it was increasingly seen as "corrupt, vindictive, and with no overall vision of what China under its rule should look like".[108] Chiang wrote in his diary in June 1948: "After the fall of Kaifeng our conditions worsened and became more serious. I now realized that the main reason our nation has collapsed, time after time throughout our history, was not because of superior power used by our external enemies, but because of disintegration and rot from within."[109]
HistorianOdd Arne Westad says the Communists won the Civil War because they made fewer military mistakes than Chiang Kai-shek and also because in his search for a powerful centralized government, Chiang antagonized too many interest groups in China. Furthermore, his party was weakened in the war against the Japanese. Meanwhile, the Communists targeted different groups, such as peasants, and brought them to their side.[110] After 1945, the economy in the ROC areas collapsed because of hyperinflation and the failure ofprice controls by the ROC government and financial reforms; the Gold Yuan depreciated sharply in late 1948[111] and resulted in the ROC government losing the support of the cities'middle classes.
United States Secretary of StateDean Acheson described the Nationalists as "corrupt, reactionary, and inefficient". He believed that the Nationalists had displayed both political inadequacy as well as "the grossest incompetence ever experienced by any military command," and that the Communists "did not create this condition", but skillfully exploited the opportunity it provided.[112]
In the meantime, the Communists continued their land reform programs, winning the support of the population in the countryside. This was a decisive factor in the Communists' success.[113] Millions of peasants who obtained land through the movement joined the People's Liberation Army or assisted in its logistical networks.[113] According to historian Brian DeMare, land redistribution was a critical factor because it linked the interests of peasants in the north and northeast to the Communists' success.[114] Ultimately, the Communists obtained the greatest popular support of any insurgency in modern history.[107]: 3
An important advantage of the Communists was the "extraordinary cohesion" within its top leadership. This cohesion not only secured it from defections during difficult times but also facilitated "communications and top level debates over tactics". Thecharismatic style of leadership of Mao Zedong created a "unity of purpose" and a "unity of command" which the KMT lacked. Apart from that, the CCP had mastered the manipulation of local politics to their benefit; this was also derived from theirpropaganda skills that had also been decentralised successfully by portraying their opponents as "enemies of all groups of Chinese" and itself as "defenders of the nation" and people (given the backdrop of the war with Japan).[115]
After the Second Sino-Japanese War ended, the United States government provided economic and military support exclusively to the Nationalists.[41]: 53–54 As the United States increased aid to the Nationalists in 1947 and 1948, the Communists incorporated United States involvement into its political discourse and framed the conflict not as one between two Chinese sides, but between the Communists and "US imperialists and their puppets".[41]: 55 Mao contended that the United States had provided US$5.9 billion to the Nationalists from 1945 to 1949 "to help Chiang Kai-shek slaughter several million Chinese".[41]: 55
Strong American support for the Nationalists was hedged with the failure of theMarshall Mission, and then stopped completely mainly because of KMT corruption[116] (such as the notorious Yangtze Development Corporation controlled byH. H. Kung andT. V. Soong's family)[117][118] and KMT's military setback in Northeast China. Historians such as Jay Taylor, Robert Cowley, and Anne W. Carroll argue that the Nationalists' failure was largely caused by external reasons outside of the KMT's control, most notably the refusal of the Truman administration to support Chiang with the withdrawal of aid, the US armed embargo, the failed pursuit of a détente between the Nationalists and the communists, and the USSR's consistent support of the CCP in the Chinese Civil War.[119][120][121][122] The better-trained Communist army's support from the USSR helped counter the American aid that the Nationalists received.[108]Chen Yun said: "They did their best to help us, we were backed by the Soviet Union and North Korea."[123][124][125][126]
During the war, both the Nationalists and Communists carried out mass atrocities, with millions of non-combatants deliberately killed by both sides.[127]
Over several years after the 1927Shanghai massacre, the Kuomintang killed between 300,000 and one million people, primarily peasants, in anti-communist campaigns as part of the White Terror.[128][129] During the White Terror, the Nationalists specifically targeted women with short hair who had not been subjected tofoot binding, on the presumption that such "non-traditional" women were radicals.[129] Nationalist forces cut off their breasts, shaved their heads, and displayed their mutilated bodies to intimidate the populace.[129]
Torture, rape, and collective punishment were common Nationalist practices during its counter-insurgency campaigns.[107]: 91–92 The Nationalists uprooted and moved entire communities in an effort to more easily monitor Communist activities.[107]: 92
From 1946 to 1949, the Nationalists arrested, tortured, and killed political dissidents via the Sino-American Cooperative Organization.[130]
During the December 1930Futian incident, the communists executed 2,000 to 3,000 members of the Futian battalion after its leaders had mutinied against Mao Zedong.[131]
Between 1931 and 1934 in theJiangxi–Fujian Soviet, the communist authorities engaged in a widespread campaign of violence against civilians to ensure compliance with its policies and to stop defection to the advancing KMT, including mass executions, land confiscation and forced labor.[132] According toLi Weihan, a high-ranking communist in Jiangxi at the time, in response to mass flight of civilians to KMT held areas, the local authorities would "usually to send armed squads after those attempting to flee and kill them on the spot, producing numerousmass graves throughout the CSR [Chinese Soviet Republic in Jiangxi] that would later be uncovered by the KMT and its allies."Zhang Wentian, another high-ranking communist, reported that "the policy of annihilating landlords as an exploiting class had degenerated into a massacre".[133]
During theSiege of Changchun, thePeople's Liberation Army implemented a military blockade on the KMT-held city of Changchun and prevented civilians from leaving the city during the blockade;[134] this blockade caused the starvation of tens[134] to 150[135] thousand civilians. The PLA continued to use siege tactics throughout Northeast China.[136]
At the outbreak of the Chinese Civil War in 1946, Mao Zedong began to push for a return to radical policies to mobilize China against the landlord class, but protected the rights of middle peasants and specified that rich peasants were not landlords.[137] The 7 July Directive of 1946 set off eighteen months of fierce conflict in which all rich peasant and landlord property of all types was to be confiscated and redistributed to poor peasants. CCP work teams went quickly from village to village and divided the population into landlords, rich, middle, poor, and landless peasants. Because the work teams did not involve villagers in the process, however, rich and middle peasants quickly returned to power.[138] The Outline Land Law of October 1947 increased the pressure.[139] Those condemned as landlords were buried alive, dismembered, strangled and shot.[140]In response to the aforementioned land reform campaign, the Kuomintang helped establish the "Huanxiang Tuan" (還鄉團), or Homecoming Legion, which was composed of landlords who sought the return of their redistributed land and property from peasants and CCP guerrillas, as well as forcibly conscripted peasants and communist POWs.[141] The Homecoming legion conducted its guerrilla warfare campaign against CCP forces and purported collaborators up until the end of the civil war in 1949.[141]
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