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Japanese Invasion of Manchuria
Manchuria was an area rich in natural resources and coveted by Japan. Necessitating a pretext to invade the area, the Japanese staged an attack on their own railway line and blamed the Chinese. -
The Long March
After the Shanghai massacre, the communists were relentlessly pursued at their base in Jiangxi by the Nationalists. A decision was made to retreat north to regroup. Soldiers marched thousands of miles north to Yan'an to establish a new base. Along the way, they won the support of many sympathetic peasants. -
The Sino-Japanese War 1937-1945
War broke out with Japan after their imperialist aggression could no longer be tolerated by Chiang Kai-Shek. The Japanese initially won many victories, but the tide turned after Pearl Harbour in 1941 when the US army joined allied forces. The Japanese committed many atrocities, the worst of which is known as the Nanjing Massacre, when soldiers pillaged, raped and murdered innocent Chinese civilians. The dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the war. -
The Wannan Incident
when troops of the Communist Fourth Army were moving their headquarters from Wannan to the north of the Yangtze River, they were attacked and destroyed by KMT forces. US and USSR prevented the incident from escalating into a civil war. The attack intensified distrust between the CCP and KMT. In 1943, Chiang published a pamphlet in which he argued that the CCP would have no role to play in post war China. The CCP responded angrily by calling on the Chinese people to resist KMT dictatorship. -
Maos Strategy 1944-1945
the strength of the CCP had greatly increased. It had an army of nearly a million people supported by an additional force of about 900,000 militiary men, while party membership was over a million. The KMT, on the other hand, had suffered a series of devastating defeats at the hands of the Japanese in the spring and summer of 1944, which, combined with high inflation and governmental corruption in the areas it controlled, undermined Chiang's claims to be China's national leader. -
Chiang's response
In June 1945, Chiang observed that Japan is our enemy abroad and the CCP is our enemy at home'. He would enter a coalition with Mao only if he were given complete control of the CCP's armed forces, a condition which Mao could hardly accept. Chiang began to blockade the areas liberated from Japanese rule in China by the CCP and sought to negotiate an agreement with Stalin, which would strengthen his position as China's leader. -
The Marshall Mission
Marshall Mission, special mission undertaken in late 1945 by U.S. general George C. Marshall to negotiate a settlement of the Chinese civil war (1945–49), fought between the Nationalist and the communist forces. Though Marshall stayed in China for more than a year, his mission ended in failure. -
The surrender of Japan
When the USSR declared war against Japan, Mao ordered his forces to co-operate closely with the Soviet army and occupy key cities and rail links in central and northern China, particularly the north-east. He was convinced that the Soviet entry into the war had created a new international dimension which would favour the CCP in its struggle with the KMT. He also instructed his generals and the party leaders to prepare for renewed conflict with the KMT once Japan had surrendered. -
The Chongqing negotiations
The CCP's authorized Mao to meet Chiang. The main stumbling block continued to be whether the CCP should maintain an independent army. Chiang insisted that Mao should place all troops under the command of the government. Mao rejected this, but he was ready to reduce the number of his troops, provided the KMT did likewise. The two sides also failed to agree on a constitution for a new democratic China. By October, it was clear that the gap between the two sides was as wide as ever. -
Civil War 1945-1949
Despite official peace talks, civil war broke out once more between the Communists and the Nationalists. The Nationalists invasion of the Communist stronghold in Manchuria was initially successful, but by 1948, they were on the retreat. Knowing they would lose, the Nationalists retreated to Taiwan in 1949. Mao proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China on 1 October 1949. -
Defeat of the Nationalists 1946-1949
Chiang launched a major assault, taking the key city of Zhangjiakou, and swept the CCP out of the Yangtze region. The KM'T failed to capture Manchuria where the CCP had, with Soviet assistance, established a strong base, but in 1947 the Nationalists resumed the offensive and seized Yenan, the CCP's capital. However, the war began to favour the CCP. On 1948, Mao ordered a series of offensives in Manchuria and northern China, and by autumn the CCP had advanced into central China. -
The US
The US reviewed its policy towards China. Many US diplomats,urged greater commitment and substantially more military aid to the KMT. Marshall and Truman rejected this that such a policy would both prove prohibitively expensive and possibly lead to war with the USSR. The US, therefore, limited its assistance to giving Chiang financial aid which allowed him to purchase arms from the US. This policy continued even when Chiang, defeated on the mainland, withdrew to Taiwan in December 1949 -
Soviet assistance to the CCP 1948-1949 (Part 1)
By 1948, Stalin decided that the CCP had a genuine chance of success and he sent a Soviet Commissar for Transportation, to oversee the repair of bridges and railways to facilitate the advance of CCP forces and to act as his contact with Mao's headquarters. However, he still kept in contact with the KMT. He was worried that a posible victory by the Republican Party in the US in the November 1948 elections would bring to power a president who might intervene militarily in China. -
Mao's triumph
In January 1949, the KMT forces north of the Yangtze River were defeated and Beijing captured. CCP armies crossed the Yangtze in April, occupied Shanghai in late May and captured Guangzhou in October. On 1 October, the People's Republic of China (PRC) was proclaimed in Beijing. Chiang Kai-shek fled to the island of Taiwan in December, with over 2 million others, where he maintained the Nationalist Government, claiming that it was still China's legal government. -
Soviet assistance to the CCP. 1948-1949 (Part 2)
Consequently, when Mao's forces moved into central and southern China where the US and Britain had strong economic interests, Stalin responded positively to a request from Chiang to mediate between the two sides. He informed Mao of his concern about posible US intervention, but Mao, confident of victory, firmly rejected any mediation by the USSR -
Agrarian Reform Law Passed
In 1950, land redistribution became official government policy. Landlords were forced to give up their land to peasants, many of whom had payed extortionate rents and struggled to make ends meet. Peasants were encouraged to accuse landlords and state their grievances in public courts, which became known as speaking bitterness. These sessions often became violent with landlords even being executed as a result. -
The Sino-Soviet Pact (Part 1)
On 1950, Mao visited Stalin's. This was the occasion when the Sino-Soviet Pact was negotiated. It was, as Mao said, 'a big political asset to deal with imperialist countries in the world.
Nevertheless, the Pact was not signed without gains by Stalin. The USSR was to be supplied with tungsten, tin, and antimony for ten years at very low prices. Stalin, in return, provided military support for the PRC, including the establishment of air-defence installations in coastal areas near Taiwan. -
The Sino-Soviet Pact (Part 2)
The Pact committed both states to: co-operate in terms of defence in the case of attack by Japan or its ally (meaning the US) conclude a peace treaty with Japan which would not be hostile to the interests of either state not conclude any hostile agreement with another power aimed at the other member of the Pact consult closely on matters of mutual interest.