Chin A Long And Painful Past

The battle of Chipyong-ni took place from 13-15 February 1951, in the small road hub and railway town of the same name1. The 8th Army Commander, General Ridgeway, determined that it was a key location to keep the Chinese from moving farther south to stabilize the UN front2. COL Paul Freeman, who would later become a four-star general, commanded the 23rd Infantry Regiment3. The unit recently won the battle of Twin Tunnels several miles south. “Freeman’s mission was to deny the enemy the use of the road net and hold the area” of Chipyong-ni4. Over the course of three long nights the Soldiers of the 23rd infantry regiment held back an overwhelming Chinese force, estimates from after the battle believe that there were six Chinese Communist Force (CCF) Divisions5.

China remains a current world super power that has been around for thousands of years. It was one of the first civilizations ever created and it has evolved into an enormous country. China is a large territory, but only 10% of the land can be farmed on. This continues to be a tremendous problem, especially with the large population that mostly lives in rural areas. In the past China was seen as a fragile nation that was still stuck in the past, although after the Four Humiliations this began to change. The Four Humiliations were a group of events that forced China to modernize due to the losses it faced. After the last of the four humiliations and the fall of the dynasty era during 1911, China began to catch up to the westernized world by modernizing their government, military, and education. The Chinese

“As one of the Red Guards in the middle school, I was given power through Mao to torture and humiliate our teachers, headmaster or anyone we didn’t like. I didn’t know it was wrong. I thought I was doing the right thing to continue the revolution, to fight and win the class struggle”- Zhao, Lin Qing. As a teenager Zhao was a Red Guard in Guangzhou during the Cultural Revolution. When asked what her impression was a member of the Red Guards, Zhao answered with two words: “naïve and senseless”. She refused answering anything more about her experience. She said, “The memories are still too painful to recall.”

Between circa 1925 and circa 1950, the relations between the Chinese peasants and the Chinese Communist Party became out of hand due to the peasant rebellions/uprising groups present, the tension between Japan and the communist party, and most notable the mass reform during this time period.

While Mao’s interpretation of Marxism included using peasants as the basis for revolution, Stalin felt that workers were meant to lead an urban-based class war. This led to Stalin’s view that the revolution in China was not genuinely Marxist and his refusal to support the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). However, Stalin also feared Mao as a rival, did not want the Cold War to spread to Asia, and favored the Guomindang over the CCP. These personality clashes and Stalin’s instinct for self-preservation convinced Mao that Stalin wished for a divided and weak China that would be unable to

A communist leader, Mao Zedong led the Chinese Communist party while, Jiang Jieshi was the leader of a Nationalist Party. Also, Mao believed in Marx’s policy of Socialism. Communists won control of China; won the loyalty and support of the peasants by using propaganda. He led the Long March, where the communists ran away from the Nationalists for 6,000 miles across the

March from Bataan… But he would not be back, so far as those boys in Bataan were concerned,

Major Sales boarded the train with the additional Soldiers he was bringing with him from Bragg; they were there to operate the equipment they were transporting. It would take a little over twelve hours to make it to the capital, another couple of hours to unload everything, test it, and then get it into action. Both General Clayton and Colonel Lambert were foaming at the mouth to get them there and into the fight. The train moved out at 1945 under the cover of darkness, it was time to get some shut-eye Major Sales said to himself, come morning they were going to be very busy.

At first, the Chinese Communist Party adopted the advice from a Russian agent rather than Mao’s suggestions . Due to their poor planing the Communist Party suffered another heavy casualties. Under this condition, the Chinese Communist Party appointed Mao ZeDong to leadership after they had a conference in January 1935. Since then, Mao apply different tactics in this terrible hardship of The Long March. He guided the Red Army to maneuver stealthy. “As the Red army moved away from Xiang, it used twisting movement patterns that made predicting its direction very difficult. Mao also split up the Red Army into smaller units. In theory this made theme more open to attack, in practice, they were more difficult to find in the open spaces on China”(Trueman, n.d.). Mao decided ShanXi, Northern China will be their destination. Under Mao’s leadership, the Red Army overcome the surmount numerous difficulties, at the cost of more than 70,000 men. During the entire battle the Red Army did not have those advanced military equipment like the Kuomintang Party. It took 368 days for Mao ZeDong and his Red Army to marched about 9,000 kilometers by foot in order to

The Long March began Mao’s ascent into power, with his leadership throughout the retreat gaining him the support of many of the party members. The March’s physical scale gave it a political significance and Mao’ choice of route and vindication of judgement meant he arrived at

kept hazy the purpose for the invasion of the north. They had several attacks against china and

In 1927, a war commenced between the Nationalist administration of China, headed by Christian official Chiang Kai-shek, and the Communist Chinese, headed by Mao Tse-tung. Thus, war was waged between the Nationalists, representatives of freedom; and the Communists, representatives of the soul-crushing oppression of Communism. Conversely, in America, the sides were interchanged, as liberal American reporters referred to Mao Tse-tung a “true man of the people” and an “agrarian reformer”; however, patriot of freedom, Chiang Kai-shek was prejudicially labeled as “power-hungry” and “corrupt”. Because assistance was not given from the United States to an ally in desperate need, the toxin of Communism invaded China and remains a parasite on a formerly great land.

Towards the end of the Chinese Civil War, the Chinese Communist Party under the leadership of Mao Zedong was able to defeat the Nationalists Party (KMT) which was under Chiang Kai-Shriek. Several reasons have lied upon the triumph of the CCP. Mao and his party were capable of gaining support from the majority of the population through their restrained land policies; they were also able to take advantage of KMT weaknesses, in addition to their complete dedication during the years.

Later Japanese intervention of Manchuria saved the Communist Party, forcing the Kuomintang to decide their priorities: Declare war to Japan or put all effort in defeating the CCP. As they prioritized crushing the Communist Party, they were seen as unpatriotic and traitors, enabling Japanese forces to penetrate deep into the country, summiting locals to torture and humiliation, creating hate towards the Chinese government as they were blamed for their miserable living standards. Furthermore, the Nationalists located in Northern areas had to face war on two fronts, weakening final attack on CCP. Being able to survive several extermination campaigns starting in 1928 by the Nationalists, they used the excellent opportunity such as with the warlords to boost their popularity and nationalism by defeating and reconquering Japanese areas by using cautious guerrilla tactics and finally the Hundred Regiments Battle campaign in 1940, saving local peasants, who would get land due to the ambitious Land Reform from Japanese influence and Kuomintang´s incompetence. Without foreign intervention, it would have been more complex to get in power, as the country would have lacked of instability with the warlord era and the Kuomintang would possibly have had defeated the CCP, saving them from a two-front war and people´s discontent of

The long process of transition in China known as the Chinese Revolution that lasted for nearly half a century is marked by many significant events. On October 16th 1934, 86,000 troops escaped from Jiangxi province away from the Nationalists without knowing that they just started a 10,000 kilometer hike to the north of China through some of the harshest terrains. The Long March was an unexpected, unplanned one year long retreat that turned into a memorable, and inspirable victory for the Communist Party. The Long March was arguably the most defining moment of the Chinese Revolution that led to the rise of Mao as a leader of the Communist Party and the commander of the Red Army; it ensured that the Red Army survived and continued their battle