Revolution in China
© Student Handouts, Inc.
Fall of the Qing (Manchu) Dynasty
• Empress Dowager Cixi (18351908)
– De facto Chinese monarch (18611908)
– “Make me unhappy for a day and I
will make you unhappy for a
lifetime.”
– Conservative and anti-foreign
– Blamed by many Chinese for foreign
imperialist power in China
Fall of the Qing (Manchu) Dynasty
• Emperor Puyi – the “Last Emperor”
– Lived 1906-1967
– Ruled China 1908-1912, and as a
puppet for 12 days in 1917
– Puppet emperor of Manchukuo
(Japanese-ruled Manchuria), 19321945
– Spent ten years in a Soviet prison
after WWII
– Lived a quiet life as a regular citizen
in communist China
– Died of disease during the Cultural
Revolution (1967)
Republican Revolution (1912)
• Sun Yat-sen (Sun Yixian)
– Founded Kuomintang
(KMT) – Nationalist party
• Overthrew Manchu (Qing)
dynasty
• Established a republic
• President of Chinese
Republic who succeeded him
– Yuan Shih-k’ai
Kuomintang symbol
Republic of China: Weaknesses
• Disunity
– Local warlords fought Kuomintang for control
– Wars raged between 1912 and 1928
• Foreign imperialists
– Americans, Europeans, and Japanese
• Poor transportation
– 1914 – only 6,000 miles of railroad track
• 225,000 miles in the smaller United States
– Few decent roads
Questions of Definition
• Definition: CIVIL WAR
– Armed disputes between rival factions with radically
different ideas about the future shape/direction of a
country
– Differences do not cause the civil war itself
– Lack of a political system with legitimacy or monopoly
of force to manage the competing claims in a society
– Deeply divided society can erupt into civil war when
there is no mechanism to manage those divisions.
Questions of Definition II
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Long” Civil War
– 1912-1949
– Starting with the collapse of imperial power
– Mao's ultimate victory in 1949 allowed a single ruler of the country to
emerge
– Sustained 37 year period of conflict.
“The First” Civil War
– 1927-1937
– Started with the “white terror”
• Decade of Chaing Kai Shek and the KMT trying to root out the
Communists
– Interrupted by the Japanese invasion and World War 2
“Second” Chinese Civil War
– After World War 2: 1946-1949
Causes: Long-term Timeline
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Peasant Poverty
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Demographic Crisis: Population grows from 120 to 440 Million 1712 to 1900
White Lotus Rebellion
Opium Wars 1839-42 (Unequal Treaties and Spheres of Influence
Taiping Rebellion 1850-64
Boxer Rebellion 1898
Boxer Protocol 1901
Hundred Days 1898
Revolution of the Double Tenth 1911
Yuan Shi Kai 1912-16
Warlord Era 1916-27
Treaty of Versailles and the May 4 Movement 1919
CCP formed 1921
First United Front 1924-27
Causes: Long-term
• Collapse of imperial power (19th century)
– in 19th century played a fundamental role in creating the
conditions for the later civil war.
– Manchu Qing dynasty weakened due to major external
and internal threats
» increase in foreign interest in China after defeated by
Britain in Opium wars 1839-42
» The superpowers wanted to form spheres of
influence and control Chinese trade
Causes: Long-term II
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emperor unable to resist foreign invasion
rising of nationalist resentment and internal opposition to the imperial power
China’s self-image was distorted
nationalists were convinced that the abdication of the emperor was
necessary to modernize the country (regain power and reputation)
late attempts at reform
dynasty was overthrown in 1911 in the Double Tenth Revolution (a military
nationalistic uprising)
power vacuum arose
KMT and CCP fight over power in the civil war
collapse of imperial power created the conditions for the later civil war
Warlords
Causes: Warlords
• Warlords and regionalism
– failure to fill the power vacuum in 1911 divided
up China into different regions
• warlords brutally exercised their power over
peasants
• internal chaos in China due to regionalism
• fueled the social and political conditions for the civil
war.
Causes: Warlords II
• Warlords and regionalism
– Yuan Shikai
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set up a military dictatorship
failed to resolve any major problems
could not stop foreign control
died in 1916 -country descended into chaos as he
had not appointed a successor
Causes: Warlords III
• Warlords and regionalism
– powerful warlords divided up the country into independent
regions
• As country was divided up, more people became nationalistic
and wanted to unify China
• The social conditions under the warlords were very poor, and
the exploitation of peasants would lead to later significant
support for the CCP.
• As China was internally weak, it had to accept the TOV and
grant the former German colony of Shangdong to China’s
greatest enemy, Japan (more nationalistic pride)
• Chinese desire for change and modernization was very
intense: KMT and the CCP formed, offered a solution to
China’s problems; both willing to fight for it
Foreign Imperialists
• Twenty-One Demands (1915)
– Japan attempted to make China a Japanese
protectorate
– Action condemned and stopped by other leading
world powers
• World War I and the Treaty of Versailles
– China attempted to abolish concessions and
extraterritoriality
• Attempt failed
– China did not sign the Treaty of Versailles
– Japan gained mandate over most of Germany’s
Asian possessions and rights
Three Principles of the People
• Book published by Sun Yat-sen before his
death in 1925
1. Principle of Mínquán
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Democracy – the people are sovereign
2. Principle of Mínzú
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Nationalism – an end to foreign imperialism
3. Principle of Mínshēng
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Livelihood – economic development,
industrialization, land reform, and social welfare –
elements of progressivism and socialism
Growth of Communism
• Sun Yat-sen appealed for Russian (Soviet)
aid following the Versailles Conference
– 1921-1925 – China received advisors, arms,
communist propaganda, and loans
– Russia revoked its imperialist rights in China
Chinese flag, 1912-1928
The Kuomintang (KMT) is Split
• Right wing
– Business people
– Politicians
• Left wing
– Communists
– Intellectuals
– Radicals
– Students
Nationalist Revolution
• Sun Yat-sen succeeded by Chiang Kaishek
• Communists expelled by Kuomintang
• 1926-1928 – war to control the warlords
• Capital moved from Peiping (a.k.a. Peking,
today’s Beijing) to Nanking (Nanjing)
Presidential Palace under Kuomintang Government in Nanjing
The Ideological Divide
– Ideological Divide
• played crucial role in bringing about war (how was China to
be united?)
– Positions of the belligerents
• CCP (Mao)
– Communist ideology (classless society, state withered
away)
– Soviet communism (Chinese conditions) → peasant
class is revolutionary class
– revolutionize Chinese society
» eradicate rural poverty through collective ownership
» replace traditional values with CCP powers
» abolish foreign (esp. western) influence
– centralized economy
The Ideological Divide
• Kuomintang (KMT) (Sun Yatsen)
– Main principles
» Nationalism (eradicate foreign influence)
» people’s democracy
» people’s livelihood (socialism, poor benefitted)
– Chiang Kai-Shek
» shifts more to right
» more on nationalism, less on socialism
» capitalist government
– Parties initially work together to defeat
regionalism: The First United Front
Short term Causes
– End of WWII and failure of U.S. diplomacy
• US failure to secure peace allowed conflict to
break out
– Japan withdraws from China, allows CCP and KMT to
fight
» no longer need to be united against foreign enemy
– US seeks to create coalition government with both CCP
and KMT → fails
» wants to stall communism in China
» no one obeys this
» KMT and CCP begin fighting again, civil war breaks
out
Civil War in China
• 1927-1932 and 1933-1937 – war between
Communists and Nationalists
• Communists – Mao Tse-tung (Mao Zedong)
• Nationalists – Chiang Kai-shek
• War halted 1932-1933 and 1937-1945 to fight
Japanese aggression
• Communists were victorious in 1949
• Nationalists retreated to Formosa (Taiwan)
• End of imperialism in China
– Hong Kong returned to China in 1997
Mao’s Definition of Guerilla War
• Organization Phase:
• Build up a structure of ‘cadres’ to organize population
support (‘agit-prop’ teams to develop popular
awareness)
• Use of ‘selective terror’ against government officials, to
eliminate landlords and others the population disliked,
and to deter informers.
• Guerilla Phase:
• Introduce guerilla attacks and ambushes (to acquire
weapons and blow up infrastructure) and make
it difficult for governments to maintain a
military presence (creation of ‘liberated areas’)
Mao’s Definition of Guerilla War
• Mobile War (Third Phase)
• Amounted to civil war / force government forces to retreat to
major cities until these were surrounded by a hostile
countryside.
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Used where to engage in conventional warfare would mean defeat.
Developed in rural societies where Marxist style revolution was not possible b/c of the
lack of a proletariat.
Guerrilla tactics are the ‘practical methods of achieving the strategic objectives’ (Che
Guevara) including mobility, self-sufficiency, sabotage…
Must establish parallel structures of government
Aim must be the changing of an unjust society / shouldn’t be used until
all peaceful methods of obtaining change have been exhausted
(Che Guevara)
Must have support of people. (Mao’s metaphor of the guerilla fighter
being the fish and the people the sea)
Most movements have a middle class leadership.
Civil War in China
• Chiang‘s shift to right → white terror
– Killing of CCP officials, “civil war” ensues
– divisions foundation of conflict for civil war in 40s
– Failure of KMT to secure single party state
• Chiang fails to secure single party state, makes
conflict inevitable
• failed to defeat CCP in 20s even though severely
weakened
– could have established control but did not
– allowed for CCP to rebuild strength,
– Stronger position than KMT when fighting
resumes
Civil War in China
• Background
– Northern Expedition
– Sun Yat Sen (SYS) dies 1925 and Chiang Kai Shek (CKS) former Cmdr of
Whampoa Military Academy rises to Power
– 50,00 KMT only 1500 CCP Members
– Form 1st United Front v. Warlords
– CKS limits CCP at high levels of GMD and is supreme in
KMT by 1926
• Attacks War Lords Zhang Zuo Lin (Manchuria), Wu Pei Fu (Central
Plains and Sun Chuanfang (East Coast)
• Crushes Wu and Sun in 6 months and army grows to 250,000
• Deeply distrustful of Communists CKS now decides to Purge them
• Shanghai Massacre Apr. 12, 1927 and then spreads throughout
China
• KMT Splits And Left KMT forms gov’t at Wuhan under
Wang Jing, CKS is based at Nanjing
Warlords
Civil War in China
White Terror and 10 Years Civil War
• Consequences of the Terror
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Split of KMT results in Warlord Counter-attack
KMT crushed and driven South of Yangtze River, CKS resigns
Li Zogren (new leader) can’t stop WL’s
Left KMT purges CCP after revolt and rejoin KMT
• 8000 KMT dead in attempted CCP Coup d’etat
• United KMT defeats Warlord Sun and saves Nanjing
• Second Expedition
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CKS reinstated moves north to Yellow River Apr.1928
Some WL’s assassinated by Japan others join KMT to resist Japan
Still a lot of Warlords but centralization begun and capture Beijing
Result CCP expelled and KMT controls East China and allies in most of the
South
KMT v. CCP
• CCP retreats to countryside 1927-37 “Ten Years Civil
War”
– Mao builds up Soviet in Jiangxi
– Mao has army but is not yet on the politburo
• Encirclement Campaigns after CKS defeats WL’s
– #1 100,000 troops, #2 200,000, #3 300,000
– First 4 attacks fail (guerilla tactics) but Li Lisan is removed from
Politburo, and Mao replaced as the head of the Army (Comintern
uses 28 Bolshevik group to do this)
– Stand and Fight Policy implemented by CCP
– KMT with German advisors adopts gradualist strategy
• Build blockhouses/forts in ring around Jiangxi, advance slowly
and build smaller ring inside the first
• Red Army crushed at Ruijin
The Long March
The Long March
• Mao escapes with 90,000 through Warlord manned
section of forts, Zheng Guotao also gets out with large
army
• The March
– Zhang stays in central China follows 28 Bolshevik policies and is
largely destroyed (50,000 dead at Xiang River)
– Mao heads West then North crosses upper Yangtze
– Tricks KMT and crosses dismantled bridge at Ludin
– Traveling light Mao evades pursuers in Song Pan Marshes and
finally arrives in Shaanxi (Estimates of 6000 to 20,000 survivors)
– Zunyi conference during march purges 28 Bolshevik/Urban
faction and Mao is firmly in command
Japanese Occupation
WWII: The Second United Front
(SUF)
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CKS kidnapped by Zhang Zu De to force alliance with CCP
Japan invades China July 1937
– Marco Polo Bridge Incident leads to full scale attack
– SUF never really unified
– CKS knows foreign aid is vital so he defends Shanghai
• 200,000 of best German trained troops killed, but battle convinces
allies to send aid
• Now trade “space for time, loose Nanjing then major battle at
Wuhan
– Wuhan 1938 is high point of SUF but it falls with heavy casualties for all
armies
– CKS retreats to Chongqing (Chunking) and uses scorched earth policy
(dams, cities, crops destroyed and civilian casualties huge)
WWII: The Second United Front
(SUF) II
• Stalemate develops with Japan controlling only the North, some
major cities and the rail lines
– KMT loses many battles but exhausts Japan and CCP continues to harass and
sabotage areas “lost” by the KMT
– SUF breaks down 1939-40 both sides harass each other
• New 4th Army Incident 1941
– KMT force surrounds CCP New 4th Army (possibly as the result of attacks on its
troops by the CCP)
– Kill most of them and alliance disintegrates
– Mao and CKS are both now clearly planning to destroy each other when WWII
ends
– Each tries to set up the best conditions to achieve their goals
WWII and post-war period
(FDR) 1942 -- General Stillwell, US commander, China
operations
• critical of Chiang for his lack of cooperation with
communists, and unwillingness to attack Japanese
• Chiang saving his forces for renewal of civil war
State Dept. John Davies, John Service
• will be labeled as “pro-communist” and forced out—they
knew China, but FDR did not want an angry Chiang on
his hands
1944 -- Dixie Mission
• US military leaders visit CCP base at Yenan and
favorably report
• Some have speculated that if war with Japan had
continued after 1945, US would have worked with them
WWII and post-war period
1944 -- Patrick Hurley
• became US ambassador to China; he removed Davies
and Service from China duties and favored Chiang
(FDR/TRUMAN) General Wedemeyer
• pro-Chiang
1946-47 -- General Marshall – China Marshall Plan
• sought to establish coalition government having shared
power by all parties; Chiang makes demands that CCP
cannot accept
• Becomes frustrated with Chiang too as he seems less
willing to cooperate than do communists
End of WWII
Important historical terminology
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Political Consultative Conference (Jan 1946): proposed by US, brought
KMT and CCP together to discuss proposed National Assembly as China’s
official post-war government, based on principles of democracy and unity
Truce teams: (est’d early 1946) KMT and CCP representatives assigned to
major cities to handle transitions under US supervision; Chiang expelled all
CCP members from these (and cities) in Dec. 1947
Five Demands (June-Aug 1946): made by Chiang on CCP, essentially,
demanded CCP leave resource and strategically important territories under
their control after war in exchange for ending the civil war that had recently
broken out again; Mao rejected
National Assembly: initially agreed upon in 1946 to be open to all parties,
Chiang quickly violated by creating his own, KMT National Assembly (Oct
1946); the communists boycotted it
“democracy, peace, end famine”: focus of communist propaganda against
the KMT during the 1946-1949 civil war
Post War 1946
• Marshall talks break down
– US troops garrison ports and Japanese troops kept in
place until KMT Arrives
– Massive aid in US equipment sent in
– USSR agrees not to leave Manchuria until KMT
arrives (US airlifts KMT troops there)
– Mao moves into Manchuria while Russians delay
withdrawal
• Mao uses standard tactics, avoids battle and even abandons Yenan
to withdraw to Manchuria(1947)
• Mao key advantage is land reform policy
• Orders all commanders to avoid battle unless victory is certain
Post War 1947-48
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CKS key error: Concentrates too many troops in Manchuria without full
control of North and Central China
GMD holds cities but too spread out and PLA in countryside cuts
communications between GMD Units and towns
Summer of 1947
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Lin Biao launches 3 prong assault in Manchuria
Controls railroads
640,000 GMD casualties, 1 million surrender and most absorbed into PLA
Full control of Manchuria by 1948
Best remaining force, the New 1st Army surrenders after 6 month siege at Chanchun
Tanks, artillery captured but best weapons are peasants, 5 million mobilized for one assault
Offensive in North China begins
GMD best forces destroyed in Manchuria PLA rapidly seizes North China
between Beijing and and Yangtze River
Post War 1948-49
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With fall of Manchuria Lin Biao takes troops 600 miles to link with PLA
Northeast Armies
Tianjin and Beijing surrounded
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Huaihai Campaign
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Tianjin stormed and Beijing then surrenders
North China GMD is now split and quickly collapses
Northeast is absorbed first with .5 million troops on both sides. Peasant militias are huge
Mao concentrates on small GMD forces first and by January 1949 GMD force killed or
captured CKS resigns
Conquest of the South
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Stalin urges Mao to pause to avoid US intervention (Also fears united China)
Mao ignores him Nanjing falls in April, Shanghai in May and Chiang flees to Taiwan in
October 1949
• Why do the Communists win? Or does the
GMD lose???
Chiang’s Offensive
Mao Counter-Offensives
Communist Offensives 1948-49
Final Victory
Japanese Aggression
• Japan was a threat to China – 1894-1941
• 1937 – Japanese invasion
– Japanese took control of north and areas
along the coast
– Rape of Nanking
– Chinese Communists and Nationalists
• Intermittently were at peace as they united to fight
against the Japanese
• Guerrilla and scorched earth tactics
• Received American aid against the Japanese
World War II
• U.S. interest in China increased after
Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941
• Cairo Conference (1943)
– Chiang Kai-shek met with Allied leaders
– Discussed war in eastern Asia
• Westerners gave up imperialist rights in
China
• U.S. Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 repealed
in 1943
Communists in Control – 1949
• Communists and Nationalists resumed civil
war following World War II
• Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist government
wasted foreign economic aid
• Many Kuomintang deserted to Communists
• Manchuria – taken over by Communists in
1948
• December, 1949 -- Communists in control
• Chiang Kai-shek and Nationalists retreated to
Formosa (Taiwan)
Geographical Changes
• Communist
China gained
control over:
– Chinese
– Turkestan
(Xinjiang)
– Inner
Mongolia
– Manchuria
– Tibet
PRC = People’s Republic of China (Communists) / ROC = Republic of China (Nationalists)
Political Changes under Mao
• Communist government
on mainland China
• Mao Tse-tung (Mao
Zedong)
– Chairman Mao –
chairman of the
Communist party and
leader of China – 19431976
Mao Zedong
毛泽东
Economic Changes under Mao
• First Five-Year Plan (1953-1957)
– Advances in agriculture and coal, electricity, iron,
and steel production
• Second Five-Year Plan (1958-1962)
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“Great Leap Forward”
China became a leading industrial country
Peasants organized into communes
Widespread catastrophe – famine – at least
14,000,000 deaths
Propaganda Poster for the Great Leap Forward
Foreign Relations
• Russia (Soviet Union)
– Growing split between USSR and China
• “Peaceful coexistence” policy of USSR viewed as surrender
– 1960 – end of Soviet economic aid
• Tibet
– Seized in 1962
• Korea
– Aided North Korea in the Korean War (1950-1953)
• Vietnam
– Supported North Vietnam and aided Viet Cong during
Vietnam War (1959-1975)
Foreign Relations
• Cold War
– Economic aid to Africa, Asia, and Latin America
• “Atomic Club” (1964)
– Fifth overall, and first non-white, country to
develop nuclear weapons
• United Nations
– One of five permanent members of U.N. Security
Council (1971, replacing Taiwan)
• Relations with United States
– 1972 – U.S. President Richard Nixon opened
diplomatic relations with China
Mao’s Little Red Book
• The Chinese Communist Party is the core
of the Chinese revolution, and its principles
are based on Marxism-Leninism. Party
criticism should be carried out within the
Party.
• The revolution, and the recognition of class
and class struggle, are necessary for
peasants and the Chinese people to
overcome both domestic and foreign
enemy elements. This is not a simple,
clean, or quick struggle.
• War is a continuation of politics, and there
are at least two types: just (progressive)
and unjust wars, which only serve
bourgeois interests. While no one likes war,
we must remain ready to wage just wars
against imperialist agitations.
Mao’s Little Red Book
• Fighting is unpleasant, and the people of China
would prefer not to do it at all. At the same time,
they stand ready to wage a just struggle of selfpreservation against reactionary elements, both
foreign and domestic.
• China's road to modernization will be built on
the principles of diligence and frugality. Nor will
it be legitimate to relax if, 50 years later,
modernization is realized on a mass scale.
• A communist must be selfless, with the interests
of the masses at heart. He must also possess a
largeness of mind, as well as a practical, farsighted mindset.
• Women represent a great productive force in
China, and equality among the sexes is one of
the goals of communism. The multiple burdens
which women must shoulder are to be eased.
Cultural Revolution (1966-1969)
• “Great Proletarian Cultural
Revolution”
– Effort to revive interest in Mao’s
ideas (and for Mao to regain
power) after the failed Great
Leap Forward
– Mao claimed that reactionary
bourgeoisie elements were
taking over the party
– Call for youths to engage in
post-revolutionary class warfare
– Red Guards (consisting of
young people) marched
throughout China
– Older alleged reactionaries
removed from positions of
power
China after Chairman Mao
• Mao died in September, 1976
• “Gang of Four”
– Failed at a coup d’état in
October, 1976
• China continued to industrialize
• One-Child Policy adopted –
1979
• Tiananmen Square Massacre –
1989
• Today – issues include:
– Balancing limited capitalism with
communist ideals
– Environmental pollution
– Unequal male-to-female ratios
resulting from One-Child Policy
– Control of Tibet
Review Questions
1. Which group led the Republican
Revolution of 1912?
2. What common enemy united the
Nationalists and Communists?
3. Who led the Communist Revolution?
4. Describe the Great Leap Forward.
5. Describe the Cultural Revolution.
6. What issues face China today?