Nationalist takeover of Japanese-occupied
territory
• Takeover of Japanese and collaborator
goods and properties is flawed and corrupt
• Widespread corruption among returning
Nationalist officials: undermines their
legitimacy
• Nationalist’s highly unpopular reliance on
and lenience to former collaborators
• Nationalist government’s hostile attitudes
and policies toward Chinese in formerly
occupied areas, particularly the Northeast
Economic Collapse
• Massive inflation, completely out of control
• Deficit spending: government spending far
more than it receives, so prints more
money
• Gold Yuan Reform: Failure to check the
inflation, hostile policies toward
businessmen erodes support for the
government
Civil War Politics and Student
Unrest
Failure of the Democratic League, a political
“Third Force”
Student Protests:
December 1946: Anti-American protests following
the rape of a Chinese student by U.S. Marines
Spring 1947: “Resist Hunger, Resist civil war”
movement, a nationwide protest against the civil
war
Chinese Communists and “New
Democracy”
• New Democracy: Mao’s concept from the
early 1940s
• Forged in the United Front spirit of broad
appeals
• Promises that “communism” still far off in
the future
• Promises a role for urbanites, intellectuals,
capitalists in building the new order
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/multimedia/chinese-music/Historical_Voices/