The Chinese Civil War

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Mao had to overcome the Nationalist to come to power and bring communism to China during the Chinese Civil War in the early

“After the 1912 revolution, two groups began to compete for the leadership of China. One group, the Nationalists, was led by Chiang Kai-shek while Mao Zedong was the head of the second group, the Communists. At first, these two groups worked together to unify China. But in the 1920s, Chiang broke with the Communists and declared war on them.”(Civil War: Chiang vs. Mao). Both groups fought each other

By early 1949, Mao’s Communist forces had gained full control and formed the PRC. Its stated goals included returning Tibet, Xinjiang, and Mongolia to the

The People. In most parts of China, the Communists were able to win the suport of the majority of the local population. This was a massive advantage when advancing into territories.

| Containment. US support the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek but Communist guerrilla forces of Mao Zedong won

Due to many economic issues in China, including the devastating effects of the Opium Wars of European imperialism, the Wuchang Uprising, followed by the Xinhai Rebellion, occurred and led to the Qing Dynasty 's fall in 1911 (Szczepanski; "Wuchang"). Soon after, the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party), under the leadership of Sun Yat-sen, established the Republic of China, but it did not stop the centralized political power in China from becoming dismantled and fragmented into many warlord factions fighting to gain control of the country ("Overview"). Another political party, the Chinese Communist Party, formed in attempts to reunify China as well ("Chinese Civil"). At first, the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party worked together (with a bitter rivalry), but eventually the conflicts in how China should be governed conflicted and resulted in a violent civil war ("Chinese Civil"; "Overview").

Looking back in history, one of the most dominant figures in Chinese politics in the 1930’s was Mao Zedong. Mao is very well known as the leader of the CCP as well as a dictator. Mao was inspired by revolutionary potential of peasantry and wanted to create a revolutionary strategy that would rely on their strength. During the First Five-Year Plan, a period between 1953 and 1957, some of the goals of the communist Chinese government were to increase heavy industrial production, collectivize light industry and retail enterprises, and create agricultural communes.

The Chinese Communist Party had made many promises when they had taken over in 1949 and while some had been kept, not all had been. The high death toll of the Great Leap Forward and the violence of the Cultural Revolution had created cynicism among the people remaining and this cynicism created a gap between the government and the people. There was a sense of distrust concerning the government and this would linger for quite some time. While there was still some of the nationalism that had fueled both the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, much of it had disappeared in the aftermath of these tragedies and would never quite come back fully. Also, while Mao is still held in high regard, he is no longer considered a “god” by the Chinese people as the next leader of the CCP loosened some of the restrictions concerning criticizing Mao for his mistakes although it is still frowned upon. Overall, the legacies of the Maoist era made Chinese people somewhat less nationalistic and more cynical concerning their

military. By 1948, the CCP began to wage war against the KMT, taking control of

While leading the communist uprising in China, Mao Zedong managed to gain control over China due to Chiang’s increasing concerns of the Japanese. The people of China had gladly supported Mao and his rise to power because of his surprisingly helpful manner over Chiang’s rule of raping and pillaging cities around the nation. Although it took the communists five years to seize political control of China from military leaders, Zedong began to enact five-year reform plans in hopes of turning China into a world superpower. These reforms, such as the Mass Line, Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward, had failed miserably and threatened China’s living standards and Mao’s control overall. Contrastingly, Mao did successfully managed to increase women’s role in society and step towards gender equality.

Over the course of Mao’s leadership from 1949 until his death in 1976 we can see the significance of his leadership and what made him a good and bad leader. Mao had made some very good decisions to help certain groups but also made some very bad decisions that paid the price, in some cases killing millions. Due to the social and economic changes that then followed by a significant increase in the population and weak leadership that led to rebellions from 1911 that saw the end of 3500years of rule by the Chinese imperial dynasties. The social and economic chaos then led to the formation of two political parties. The CCP, led by Mao Zedong and the GMD led by Chiang Kai Shek. Mao and his party defeated the GMD in 1949 bringing Mao into power. Mao’s main goal was to turn China into a pure communist country. Over the course of Mao’s leadership he did this by making significant social, economic and political changes to the Chinese way of life. However due to his poor leadership and the faults that he made it caused people to oppose him and get in the way of his goal. That is why in 1966 Mao decided to assert his beliefs through a series of decisions, which came to be known as the Cultural Revolution. The Cultural Revolution was a hard time for many people throughout China as Mao enforced many things upon them to achieve his aim of removing capitalism. Mao used the youth of China to be that

Mao founded the Chinese Communist Party and would later establish the People’s Republic of China, ruling China from 1945 to 1976 (The Asia Society, 1984). Mao had be an avid revolutionist, beginning at young age at around 16 (Schram, S. R. 1967), which would be crucial later in his life. A pivotal point before the Chinese Civil War was the setting up of a revolutionary base in 1931 by Mao. This base was forced out of Kiangsi in 1934 and Mao’s followers left with him, thus beginning the Long March which ended in 1935. After the Long March, Mao had enough military power to overcome the Kuomintang, or Chinese Nationalists Party, and gain control of China during the Chinese Civil War (C N Trueman, 2015). During this civil war China received support from Soviet Russia in the form of arms and military guidance. As Yang Kuisong, a Chinese historian from 1945, stated “Soviet leader Joseph Stalin commanded Marshal Rodion Malinovskyto give Mao Zedong most Imperial Japanese Army weapons that were captured.” Clearly by having the support of a foreign force it aided in the overthrowing of the Kuomintang. After the civil war concluded, Mao began to purge the land of all Kuomintang influence. According to Stephen Rosskamm Shalom, of the Arizona State University's Centre for Asian

Once the CCP had complete control over China, they were lead by the fearless leader Mao Zedong. To maintain control of China through the CCP, Mao developed the social revolution of China. He had made the CCP befriend the peasants that

After a bitter civil war (1946-1949), which faced the major Chinese parties Kuomintang and CCP, Kuomintang’s defeat, evidenced with Chiang’s and 200.000 people´s fled to Formosa, Mao Zedong (1893-1976), born in Shoshan, Hunan, proclaimed the new People´s Republic of China with himself as both Chairman of the CCP and President of the republic in October 1949. How did the under numbered and weak CCP, founded by the same person in 1921 manage to survive several extermination campaigns and re-organize the party to win the civil war, crushing opposition and establish the Chinese