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Essay about The Fall of the Kuomintang to the Chinese Communist Party

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In 1949 the Chinese Communist Party (CPP) beat the Kuomintang (KMT) in the Chinese Civil War becoming the reigning regime in China. The new communist leadership drastically changed China’s future. Today the CCP remains in power in China, shaping every aspect of Chinese society. Academics like Chalmers Johnson argue that the CCP’s ability to mobilize Chinese peasants ultimately led to the CCP’s victory. This paper will supplement Johnson’s argument by examining how KMT economic, military, and ideological missteps led to the CCP’s victory.
The Chinese Civil War started in 1927 when the KMT ended their partnership with the CCP during the Northern Expedition, an effort aimed at unifying all of China under one political rule. The war ended …show more content…

Because the CCP had no contractual obligation to Chinese citizens, the CCP was able gain support from economic successes and go unnoticed in the case of economic failures. Therefore, being in power going into the war was actually a disadvantage for the KMT. China’s deteriorating economy during the war and the KMT’s poor economic planning began to unravel Chinese citizens’ trust and faith in the KMT’s ability to govern. The KMT’s most damaging economic misstep was inflation and the government’s inability to respond with policy measures. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the KMT was cut off from coastal cities by the Japanese invaders. These coastal city taxes were a main source of revenue for the KMT government. In order to makeup for the deficit, the government began to print money. The KMT faced a lot of criticism from the Chinese people for rising inflation. The Chinese people’s disdain for their government grew even more when the KMT was unable to fix their inflation mistake and began to implement a string of ineffective and damaging economic policies. In order to combat the rising inflation, the KMT implemented multiple contradictory and ineffective economic policies. For example, the KMT oscillated between expansion and suspension of credit. The KMT also continued to implement a tax system that discouraged the starting of businesses, while encouraging corrupt behavior. Additionally, the KMT’s economic policies focused on giving advantages to

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