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Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses
Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses
(ETDs)

2002

The Causes and Effects of the Chinese Civil War,

1927-1949
Jennifer Lynn Cucchisi
Seton Hall University

Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.shu.edu/dissertations

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Recommended Citation
Cucchisi, Jennifer Lynn, "The Causes and Effects of the Chinese Civil War, 1927-1949" (2002). Seton Hall University Dissertations and
Theses (ETDs). 2361.
https://scholarship.shu.edu/dissertations/2361
 THE CAUSES AND EFFECTS

OF THE CHINESE CIVIL WAR,

1927-1949

BY

JENNIFER LYNN CUCC!flSI

B.A., PACE UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK CITY, 1997

A THESIS

SUBMITIED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENf OF THE REQUIREMENTS

FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN THE DEPARTMENT

OF ASIAN STUDIES AT SETON HALL UNIVERSITY

SOUTH ORANGE, NEW JERSEY

2002
THE CAUSFS AND EFFECTS OF TIIE CHINESE CIVIL WAR, 1927·1'49

TIIESIS TITLE

BY:

Jennifer L. Cuccbtsi

MONTH, DAY, YEAR

APPR<WFn

F.dwln p ·Wah Leung,

MENTOR (FIRST READER)

<:!,J,/,,J- 2.A:-11. 7

G�rt-Ma�os, Ph.D

EXAMINER (SECOND READER)

SJ.;.�
Sbi,eru Osuka., Ed.D

EXAMINER (TiilRD READER)

EXAMINER (FOURTH READER)

<7.Jll 2... /h"ilC)

G�;�at�� Ph.D

HEAD OF DEPARTMENT

THIS THES[S IS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFlll.MENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR

TIIE MASTER OF ARTS DEGREE AS SPECIFCED FOR MAJORS IN THE DFPARTMENT OF

ASlAN STlIDIES AT SETON HAU. UNIVERSITY, SOlITH ORANGE, NEW JERSEY.

 Contents

Preface II

2 Introduction

3 Chapter 1-The Three Fathers of Modem China 4

Dr. Sun Yat-sen 5
Chiang Kai-shek 9
Mao Tse-tung 12
The Endless Dedication of the Great Revolutionaries 15
Summary 17

4 Chapter 2- The Chinese Civil War 19

China After the Collapse oflmperialism 22
The "Presidency" of Yuan Shih-kai and the Warlord Era 23

Chiang Kai-shek and the Establishment of the Nationalist Govenunent in

China 28
The History of Conflict Between the KMT and the CCP 29
Sununary 34

5 Chapter 3- The Power Struggle Between Chiang Kai-shck and Mao Tse-tung 37
Chiang Kai-shek's Rise to Power 38
Mao Tse-tung in the Early Days of the CCP 40

Chiang Kai-shek and the Young Marshal 42

The Sian Incident 44

U.S. Intervention 47

Mao's Revolution 49

Where Chiang Went Wrong 51

Summary 53

6 Chapter 4- The Second Sino-Japanese War 55

Toe United States and Asia During WWII 56

The Devastating Results of the Japanese Invasion on China 60

Japanese Reaction to their War Crimes 62

 The KMT and the CCP During the War 64

The Communist Growth During the War 66

Summary 69

7 Conclusion 72

8 Bibliography 75
 Preface

This thesis is a study of China's civil war between the Kuomintang (KMf) and the

Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and its effects on the country and its people. This was

a turning point in Chinese history, which resulted in the establishment of Communism in

China. General Chiang Kai-shek's dedication to this civil war cost him the respect of the

Chinese people and helped lead to his exile to Taiwan. The Sino-Japanese War (1937-

1945), however, was the main factor in Chiang's defeat, for while Chiang Kai-shek's

army was busy fighting the Japanese, the Chinese Communist Party was building in

strength and popularity.

In this thesis, I intend to:

(1) Present a background of China after the collapse of the imperial system.

(2) Objectively present the events of the Chinese Civil War as they occurred.

(3) Discuss the events leading up to the downfall of the Kuomintang, as well as the

reasons for the Chinese Communist Party's success in China.

The research methods that I used include literary sources such as biographies,

autobiographical accounts and periodicals.

This thesis is divided into chapters, and intends to be in a mini-textbook format.

Chapter 1 discusses the three men who are ultimately responsible for China's political

system of today, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Tse-tung. While Dr. Sun

wished to instil] democracy into China, he did not have a strong enough military backing

and was kept out of power by the warlords. He did, however, open the door for the later

ii
fonns of government that will fo1low in China, such as nationalism and communism.

Chiang Kai-shek was responsible for bringing nationalism and order into China, but was

later defeated by Mao Tse-tung who was responsible f

or instituting the communist

government in China.

Chapter 2 deals with China after the collapse of imperialism, including the invasion of

the warlords and the brief presidency of Yuan Shih-k'ai. It also discusses the history of

the tension between the KMf and the CCP, which will be covered in further detail in

Chapter 3.

The final chapter discusses the Sino-Japanese War and its effects on China's political

system focusing on Chiang Kai-shek and the KMT' s downfall.

I would like to extend my gratitude to those who helped make this work possible. I

would like to thank my husband Timothy Mount, as well as my parents, stepparents and

grandparents for their help and support and especially my daughter Drew for her

patience. I would like to thank Dr. Shigueru Osuka for his support and for believing in

me and I also thank Dr. Marcelline Jenny for being an inspiration to me. Finally, I would

like to extend my sincere gratitude to my mentor Dr. Edwin Pak-wah Leung for having

faith in me and for his tremendous assistance in this project. He is the reason I took such

a vast interest in the topic. I sincerely appreciate the time and effort that he put into

reading this work and the end results would not have been the same without his help.

iii
 Introduction

The Civil War in China from 1927 to 1949 was a result of the fall of the monarchical

system in 1912. Without a structured fonn of government, the country was in chaos.

Warlords, military men who controlled specific regions of China, were vying for power

and had taken over the country. Obviously the lack of structure caused economic

problems in China as well as distress among the Chinese people. While Dr. Sun Yat-sen,

an essential figure in the fall of the Imperial government, strove to find a solution to this

growing problem, he did not have the military power to back up any of his plans. His

plan was to instill democracy into China, yet he died before he could accomplish this.

After his death, one of his followers and head of the Whampoa Military Academy which

Dr. Sun had opened, General Chiang Kai-shek, decided to continue carrying out his plans

to institute nationalism into China. By this time, an opposing political party had started

gaining popularity in China: communism. Chiang had witnessed a Communist fonn of

government when he had trained in the Soviet Union and did not agree with it, his

mission became keeping it out of China. Chiang's persistence towards fighting the

Communists certainly did not make him popular with the Chinese people. They had just

witnessed twelve years of fighting among the warlords and a provisional president who

had tried to tum the country back to a monarchy and now they were ready for peace and

structure. Although Dr. Sun had formed a United Front between the two parties in
 2

August 1922, Chiang still did not trust the Communists and felt ifhe did not stop them,

they would grow and take over China. Thus, in 1927, he attempted to purge all the

Chinese Communists and was successful in murdering many. However, the future head

of China, Mao Tse-tung, survived these attacks and became instrumental in the Chinese

Communist Party (CCP). He would eventually win control and institute a Communist

government in China.

There are many factors as to why Chiang Kai-shek lost control of China. The main

factor was the Japanese invasion of China beginning in 1937, known as the second Sino­

Japanese War. From this stemmed many additional factors, such as a poor economy,

rising inflation, and decreasing confidence in their leader among the Chinese people.

Chiang also failed to address many issues during his rule such as land and other

necessary refonns. Part of this was due to his focus on fighting the Communists. This

focus also led the Chinese people to start losing interest in Chiang, saying that he should

be fighting the Japanese instead of the Communists. However, historical hindsight

proves that Chiang was correct in fearing the Communist takeover, although it is not

unlikely that his preoccupation with this did cloud his judgment when fighting the

Japanese, leading to great atrocities such as the Nanking Massacre. Earlier intervention

by the United States and the Soviet Union during the war, however, may have prevented

some of the devastation caused by the war as well. One question remains whether or not

the Communists would have taken over when they did if the war had not occurred. It is

not probable, for while the war was occuning they had the opportunity to grow, which

they most likely would not have been able to do under different circumstances. Another

question is whether or not China would have been better off under Chiang Kai-shek' s and
 3

the KMT's rule than Mao and the CCP. While Mao fonned not a true Communist

government, but more of a totalitarian dictatorship, Chiang ordered innocent people,

women and children, to be executed during the Communist purge. H he had not been

focusing on keeping the Communists out of power than perhaps there would have been

more of an indication of what he was capable of, whether it be good or evil, yet his

paranoia, although not completely unwarranted, seemed to lead to his downfall.

While all three men seemed went about it in different ways, each of them wanted to

work towards bettering China's future. While Dr. Sun did it purely out of patriotism for

his country, Chiang and Mao seemed to have their own interests in mind as well.
 4

Chapter 1

The Three Fathers of Modern China

Three men arc primarily responsible for modem China. One worked towards freeing

China of imperial rule, one tried to instill democracy into China and the other began the

Communist form of government that is still prevalent in China today. In 1911, Dr. Sun

Yat-scn, who headed the Republican Revolution, overthrew the monarchy. He struggled

unsuccessfully to bring a full-fledged democracy into China until his death inl925. In

1926 General Chiang Kai-shek took it upon himself to instill nationalism into China and

attempted to destroy communism. By 1949, Chiang was overthrown by Mao Tse-tung,

who brought communism into China along with numerous refonns. These three men

were all drawn by a common goal-they all struggled to do what they felt was best for

China's future. Their lives became dedicated to China. Dr. Sun was a medical doctor

who ended up dedicating his life to fighting for democracy in China. Chiang fought for

China so that communism would not be dominant in the country. Mao was a Communist

who had been brought up reading the Confucian Classics. Once in power he ruled China

by the strict ideology of communism-although it was not full-fledged communism.

Each of these men felt that they were certain what was right for China-and also what

was the wrong political ideology for the nation. They were all struggling to become great

leaders of China. They were not only struggling to bring ideologies into China, but also

to rid China of its current policies. The main thing that all of these men had in common,

is whether or not they were Communist, democratic, or Nationalist, they all had a
 5

Nationalist sentiment, for they were fighting for the best interest of China. To get a better

idea of what the three men had in common, it is important to look at the ways they all

took control of the Chinese government and some of the major steps that they took while

in power.

Dr. Sun Vat-sen

Sun Yat-sen was born in 1866 to a well-off peasant family in Tsui-heng Village. As a

1
young boy Sun studied the Confucian classics and helped on his parents' fann. By age

eleven, Sun wanted to join his brother where he was working in Hawaii, but his parents

felt this was too young. One year later, in 1879, Sun went to Hawaii to be with his

brother and began to study at the Iolani College. It was there that Sun began to take an

interest in Christianity. In 1883 Sun's brother Sun Mei sent him back to China, fearful

2•
that the West was corrupting him with it's religious teachings Soon after he returned to

3
China, in 1884, Sun's parents arranged a marriage for him to a girl named Lu Szu. He

would later have three children with Lu, but was not home often, for he soon became

embroiled in revolutionary activity. China was still under the monarchical system of the

Chi 'ing Dynasty and Sun felt that the Imperial system was no longer right for China.

This was after several revolts against the government in the last century China, including

the White Lotus Rebellion and the Boxer Rebellion. Dr. Sun was deeply influenced by

Western democracy and felt it would be the right political policy for China. Sun

I
Jeffrey Barlow, Sun Yat-.sen, (New York: Chelsea House 1987). 27.
2
Ibid. 33.
1
Ibid. 35.
 6

graduated from medical school in Hong Kong in 1893, but his concern over China's fate

took precedence over his career.

Dr. Sun began his revolutionary actions in 1894. This is the year that the Revival of

China Society was formed-Dr. Sun was often given credit as being the founder,

however it has been written that Yang Ch'u-yun was the organization's true founder and

4
party head for approximately five years. The purpose of this society was to overthrow

the Manchus, who controlled the government, because they were unable to protect China

5•
from foreigner invaders such as the Japanese This was proven by China's loss of

territory to Japan in the Sino-Japanese War in 1895. In fact an oath was taken by the

twenty members which said:

I, so-and-so, of such-and-such a province and district,

swear to overthrow the Tartar slaves (Manchus), restore

China to the Chinese, and establish a democratic government.

6
If I am double-minded, may God examine and judge me!

In January of 1885, the Revival of China Society set up their headquarters in Hong Kong.

Unfortunately this initial revolution was unsuccessful and resulted in the death of Sun's

longtime friend, Lu Hao-tung. Lu was the man who had designed the national flag of the

Republic of China and Sun later remarked sadly that he was "the first man in the history

7
to die for the Republican cause".

After his first revolt failed Dr. Sun was exiled. After ending up in London, trying to

escape from danger, Dr. Sun was kidnapped by officials of the Ch'ing Embassy in

4
Chun-tu Hsueh, Revolutionary Leaders o
f Modem China, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971),

102.

' Edwm Pak-wah Leung ed., Historical Dictionary o

f Revolutionary China, 1839-1976, (New York:

Greenwood Press, 1992) 368-9.

• John C.H. Wu, Sun Yat-sen: The Man and His Ideas (Taipei: Taipei Commercial Press, 1971), 84.
7
lbid. 86.
 7

8
London for plotting against the monarchy. He was held for twelve days before being

released on October 23, 1896. While he was being held captive Dr. Sun devised the

9
Three Principles of the People. This was the ideology which China's revolution was

based on and they principles were nationalism, democracy (or people's rights) and

socialism (or people's Hvelihood).'? Dr. Sun was released when a friend received an

11
anonymous note from a servant in the house where Dr. Sun was being held. When the

friend, Sun's old teacher Dr. James Cantlie, could not convince the British government to

release Sun, he brought the story to the London newspaper The Globe. They printed the

story with the headline "Chinese Revolutionary Kidnapped in London" and as a result Dr.

12
Sun was released on October 23, 1896. This article was an embarrassment to the

British government, whose Chinese Embassy had kidnapped a medical doctor from

China. The kidnapping worked towards Sun's advantage in that he became popular

overnight from the newspaper article and people pitied him for his ordeal.

Dr. Sun continued his revolutionary activities throughout 1 9 1 1 when the Republican

13
Revolution which caused the downfall of the imperial system occurred. The revolution

was said to be divided into three major stages: the first was from 1894-1900 and included

Sun's implementation of the Revive China Society in Honolulu in 1984 and in Hong

Kong in 1895; the second stage was from 1901-1905 and included the establishment of

the Chinese United League by Sun Yat-sen and Huang Hsing; and the third stage was the

14
militant stage led by Huang Hsing. In October of 1911 the Ch'ing emperor ordered a

81..eung, 500.
9
Barlow, v.
10
Leung, 412-413.
11
Barlow, 50.
12
Ibid. 50.
13
John King Fairbank, The Great Chinese Revolution, 1800-1985, (New York: Harper & Row, 1987), 141.
14
Leung, 346-347.
 8

military man by the name of Yuan Shih-k'ai to overthrow Dr. Sun and the revolution.

Yuan than told Dr. Sun that he would support the revolution and not squelch it, but only

if he were given the presidency," Thus on March 10, 1912, after Dr. Sun had only

presided over the Republic for six months, Yuan Shih-kai was named the president of the

16
republic. For the remainder Yuan's rule until his death in 1916, Dr. Sun remained

politically ineffective, for his attempts would be stifled by Yuan.

After Yuan died, Dr. Sun continued to try to tum China into a true democracy. In

October of 1919 Dr. Sun converted the Chinese Revolutionary Party into the

17
Kuomintang, (KMT), also known as the Nationalist party. On January 26, 1923, Dr.

Sun signed the Sun-Joffe Manifesto with Adolf Joffe of the Soviet Union which outlined

Sino-Soviet relations:

1- It is not possible to carry out Communism or the Soviet system in China at the

present.

2- The Soviet government reaffirms it's earlier announcement of September 27,

1920, regarding the renouncement of special rights and privileges in China.

3- A mutual understanding is reached with regard to the future administration and

reorganization of the Chinese Eastern Railway.

4- The Soviets disavow any imperialistic intentions or policies in Outer

18
Mongolia.

1�
Fairbank, 162.
16
Ibid.
17
Immanuel C. Y. Hsu, The Rise o
f Modem China 6'� ed.• (New York, Oxford University Press, 2000), 485.

Jg Ibid. 521.
 9

Dr. Sun also received aid from the Soviet Union as the result of this treaty, and they sent

out an advisor to help reorganize the KMT. This is also the time period that Chiang Kai-

19
shek was sent to the USSR for three months to undergo military training. Although Dr.

Sun made many important changes in China, he never truly presided over China for after

the death of Yuan Shih-k'ai because the warlords overran China. Dr. Sun had no military

power until the reconstruction of the KMT. He than planned the Northern Expedition,

which was a military strategy to gain China back from the warlords. Dr. Sun never got to

20
see his plan in action. He died before the Expedition in 1925. His dream was left

unfulfilled.

Chiang Kai-shek

When Dr. Sun Yat-sen died in 1925, the dream of having a democratic government

seemed to die with him. Dr. Sun had died a broken man who had worked his entire life

for a dream that was not fulfilled. The Communist Party arose in 1921. This meant that

there was now political competition in China, and even though Nationalism was still

preferred without a leader, it was very possible for things to lean towards Communism or

towards warlord.ism since the country had been ridden with warlords since the death of

provisional president Yuan Shih-kai in 1916. One person who did not want to see

Communism prevail was General Chiang Kai-shek-the man who Dr. Sun had placed in

charge of the Whampoa Military Academy which he had founded in 1924. Chiang had

spent three months training in the Soviet Union and did not believe that Communism was

19
Ibid. 521.
10
Ibid. 523.
 10

appropriate for China. Chiang had an advantage over Dr. Sun in that not only did he

have an ideology for the state, thanks to Dr. Sun, but he also had the military force to

back it up. Chiang implemented Dr. Sun's Northern Expedition-a strategy to remove

the war1ords from power and gain control of China. This was to be launched in July of

21
1926. Chiang was successful in ridding most of the warlords from China, but some

refused to leave, thus Chiang left them in power to avoid problems. Chiang was probably

unsuccessful in getting rid of all of the warlords because he developed and utilized his

plan too quickly. There was no time for planning a strategy, he simply used his military

power to take the whole of China back fonn the warlords regardless of whether or not

22
some had to be left in place.

By 1927, Chiang not only saw the warlords as a threat to China, but also began to

question the actions of the Communists. Under the precept that if the Communists were

not destroyed, they would destroy the Nationalists, Chiang ordered a Communist purge

on April 12, 1927. The purge began in Shanghai, then spread to Nanking, Hangchow,

23
Foochow, and Canton among other places. This purge of the Communists marks

Chiang's fear of other ideologies gaining dominance in China. The result of this purge

was the end of the KMf-CCP United Front.

By October 1928, Chiang Kai-shek became the president of the Nationalist

24
government in Nanking. Chiang spent the next twenty-one years trying to keep

Communism out of China. His actions started with the purge of 1927 and lasted until the

end of his rule in 1949. He had seen communism in the Soviet Union and knew that it

21
Ibid. 525.
22
James Sheridan, China in Disintegration: The Republican Era in Chinese History 1912-1949, (New

York: The Free Press, 1975), 205.

23
Hsu, 528.
 II

was not right for China-perhaps he knew it could mean the end of traditional Confucian

va]ucs.

Chiang Kai-shck was born on October 31, 1887 in Chikow, into a peasant family and his

father died when he was only 9 years old, so Chiang was raised by his mother." His

mother taught him to devote himself to the nation: "She impressed upon my mind that to

be merely a dutiful son does not fulfill the exacting conditions of the principle of filial

26
piety; the principle demands also an unflinching devotion to the cause of the nation."

This directly follows the Confucian belief that the family structure was directly related to

27
national leadership.

Chiang was brought up believing Confucian values. He finished reading the

28
Confucian Canons by the time he was only nine years old. He would eventually try to

bring the old system of Confucian values back into China during his rule. In 1934

Chiang began the New Life Movement which was represented by the slogan "li-yi-Jien­

29
ch 'ih '', These were the principles of behavior which were taught by Confucius and

30
they meant "propriety, justice, honesty, and sense of self respect". The New Life

Movement included a set of guidelines for the people to follow which were called the

eight principles:

1- Regard yesterday as a period of death, today as a period of life. Let us rid

ourselves of old abuses and build up a new nation.

2- Let us accept the heavy responsibilities of reviving the nation.

2-4 Leung 508.

25
Keiji Furuya, Chiang Kai-shek: His Ufe and Times, (New York: St. John's University Press, 1981) 3.

u Ibid. 6.
27
Charles 0. Bucker, China's Imperial Past: an Introduction to Chinese History and Culture (Stanford:

Stanford University Press, 1975) 57.

211
Brian Crozier, The Man Who Lost China, (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1976), 33.
2
9
Ibid. 165.
 12

3- We must observe rules and have faith, honesty and shame.

4- Our clothing, eating, living and traveling must be simple, orderly, plain and

clean.

5- We must willingly face hardships. We must strive for frugality.

6- We must have adequate knowledge and moral integrity as citizens.

7- Our actions must be courageous and rapid.

8- We must act on our promises, or even act without promising".

These principles were profoundly Confucian in content. Chiang wished to bring old

virtues into the new system. By 1949 Chiang was forced into exile in Taiwan to make

way for a new system that would eventually condemn Confucian values.

Mao Tse-tung

32
Mao was born in Shao Shan to a peasant family in 1893. As a youth Mao often

33
helped with the farm and kept up with his Confucian studies. He did not like reading

the classics, however, and soon dropped out of school". He was influenced as a young

child by a primary school teacher. This teacher was considered radical because he did

not believe in Buddhism and wanted to convert temples into schools and bring China out

35
of the past-Mao respected this man and agreed with his ideas. As an older youth Mao

witnessed the struggles of the peasant class under the imperial system. In fact, in the

30
Ibid.
31
Ibid. 166.
32
Hsueh 395.

n Edgar Snow, Red Star Over China (New York: Random House, 1968), 134.
 13

early 1900's there was a flood in Changsha which resulted in a famine. This caused the

peasants to complain to the government. The result was the decapitation of many

peasants-often their heads were put on poles in the middle of the town as an example to

36
others. Mao witnessed this and stated that "I felt that there with the rebels were

ordinary people like my own family and I deeply resented the injustice of the treatment

37
given to them." By this time Mao was not yet opposed to the imperial system in

38
China. It was not until 1911 that Mao began to rebel against the Manchu government

39
for its poor treatment of the peasants.

In 1911, Mao moved to Changsha and enrolled in the Hunan First Normal School."°

After graduating in 1918. Mao was a library assistant to Ll Ta-chao, a founding member

41
of the CCP. By 1919 Mao had taken an interest in Communist Russia and had read

2
Communist literature while he was in Peking.4 Mao attended the first meeting of the

CCP in 1921. He was also one of the Communists who survived Chiang Kai-shek's

purge of 1927. Until 1949 Mao spent his time devoted to building up the Communist

Party. During the Sino-Japanese Invasion of 1937 Mao got the opportunity to expand the

CCP. While Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists were fighting the Japanese, Mao built

up the CCP at their base in Yenan. He had already orchestrated the Long March from

3
October of 1934 to October of 1935 to raise Communist esteem and prestige." By the

l4 Ibid. 134.
35
Ibid. 136.
36
Stanley Kamow, Mao and China: A Legacy o
f Turmoil (New York: Penguin Books, 1990), 29.
3
7
Ibid.
31
Ibid 30.
39
Snow 146.

�Leung 248.
41
Ibid 214.
4
2
Snow, 155.
4
3
Leung, 236.
 14

end of the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) Mao had built up the CCP enough to overtake

theKMT.

Mao Tse-tung gained control of China in 1949. This began a new era in Chinese

politics-the Communist era. The Chinese Civil War had exhausted the people of China

and they had little faith left in nationalism, the KMT, or Chiang Kai-shek. The Sino-

Japanese War had left the country in devastation------the economy was poor and many

Chinese were left dead or homeless. With Mao and the Communist Party in charge,

many reforms began to take shape. Mao began to implement a lean-to-one-side policy in

China, which stressed importance on Sino-Soviet relations. Mao stated that this meant

'The Chinese people must lean either to the side of imperialism or to the side of

socialism. There can be no exception. There can be no sitting on the fence; there is no

third path. ,,44 Part of this policy was to appeal to the Soviet Union in order to get

financial assistance. In 1950, Mao, after being denied assistance from the United States,

5
requested financial aid from Russia, who granted China a $300,000,000 loan." This

money was used for the reforms which were about to begin. In 1950, a marriage refonn

was put into place stating that manied men were no longer allowed to keep concubines-

this was the beginning of monogamous marriages in China. Mao started land refonns in

1950, which was his attempt to mobilize the peasants to work together. This land refonn

effort had three stages. The first stage was to take the lands back from the landlords and

re-distribute it among the peasants. This ended in 1953 with the introduction of

cooperatives, which is a piece of land owned and worked by a group of farmers who all

reap the benefits. By 1958, Mao had instituted communes in China. These were farms

44
Hsu, 661.
45
Snow, 26.
 15

that were state owned, but operated by a group of fanners, and at the head of a group was

the commune leader who was a party official. This was also the beginning of the Great

Leap Foiward-Mao's plan to increase China's economy. The problem of The Great

Leap Forward was that the peasants exaggerated their output numbers to please and

impress the great chairman. The peasants did not keep their share of the food, as they

had been required to do earlier, and as a result, a great famine ensued. For this, Mao was

forced to step down as state chairman. These failures show Mao's eagerness to get rid of

the traditionalism in China's culture and bring about a Communist society. Mao

struggled to implement a true Communist system in China until his death in I 976.

The Endless Dedication of the Great Revolutionaries

Dr. Sun dedicated his entire life to dismantling the monarchy and attempting to instill

democracy into China. Chiang worked to unify China from the warlords and to make

sure that nationalism continued to prevail over communism. Mao strove to dismantle the

KMT and bring communism into China. These three men were all driven by a common

goal despite different affiliations-they all wished to do what they believed was best for

China. The question still remains among historians regarding the legitimacy of whether

or not these power struggles were done for the good of China. Dr. Sun was a medical

doctor-an educated man who had seen first hand the workings of democracy and also

the problems of the imperial system. But Chiang had only witnessed a Communist

system for 3 months and in that short period of time he had formed a severe bias of

communism. Chiang felt that Communism was so wrong for China that he attempted to
 16

have all the Communists killed in 1927. Mao was born into a poor peasant family. He

was brought up on the Confucian classics as were most Chinese at this time, however he

46
stated that he did not enjoy them. Mao began to neglect the classics and read other

47
books which held his interest, such as Charles Darwin's Origin o/Species. So although

Mao was at the first meeting of the CCP in 1921, he was raised to follow the beliefs of

Confucius, like most Chinese. Although Mao stated that he always disliked the

Confucian classics, that is all historians today have to go by. While Mao says that he

paid no attention to the classics, he followed the principle of "a good scholar wiH make

48
an official" to an extent. Even though he dropped out of First Middle School because

he did not like the curriculum, he educated himself by reading works such as Darwin,

49
Adam Smith, Mill, Rousseau, and Montesquieu on a daily basis. This pattern of self-

education continued into adulthood.

All three of these men were raised by Confucian ethics because of the time period they

were living in. Although Mao later formed an attack on Confucianism, he started out by

studying it. Sun read the classics as a boy and continued with a formal education. He

however, strayed from strict Confucianism when he became a Christian in Hong Kong in

50
1885. Soon after was when Sun made his decision to become a medical doctor. This

was his way of serving his country after his revolt was unsuccessful. He then continued

his quest to remove the monarchy from power with the motive that it was what was best

for the people of China. Although Dr. Sun had converted into Christianity, Confucianism

held a high precedence on doing what was the best for the people-especially within the

"'Snow, 134.
4
7
Ibid. 144.

u Tien-wci Wu, Un Biao and the Gang o

f Four: Contra-Confucianism in Historical and Intellectual

Perspective (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1983), 19.

 17

51
govcmment. Chiang also was brought up a Confucian, but later converted to

52
Christianity when he married a Christian woman. Chiang was influenced not only by

Dr. Sun, whom he had worked under at the Whampoa Academy, but also by the NAZI

53
party. This was the basis for Chiang's fascist-type group known as the "Blue Shirts",

54
who were to carry out the New Life Movcment. Chiang proclaimed his sense of loyalty

and Nationalism towards Mainland China until the day he died even though he had been

55
exiled to Taiwan in 1949. He ruled in Taiwan until his death in 1975. His will, which

was dated March 29, 1975, stated:

Just at the time when we are getting stronger, my colleagues and my countrymen,

you should not forget our sorrow and our hopes because of my death. My spirit

will always be with my colleagues and my countrymen to fulfill the Three

people's Principles, to recover the mainland, and to restore our national culture. I

have always regarded myself as a disciple of Dr. Sun Yat-sen and also of Jesus
56
Christ.

Summary

In retrospect, the sense of Nationalism that the three men possessed undoubtedly

comes from their upbringings in Confucianism and China's monarchical past. Although

Mao launched the Criticize Confucius campaign during the Cultural Revolution, he too

57
was educated in the classics as a child. Even though he professed that he did not enjoy

them, Confucianism shaped most Chinese people's lives at the time of Mao's youth.

'9 Snow, 144.

'° Tein-wci Wu, 33.

51
Hucker, 56.
52
Crozier, 4.
5
3
Ibid. 1 1 .

5' Ibid. 1 1 .

,s Leung, 519.

'6 Crozier, 15.

"Tien-wet Wu, 7.
 18

Confucianism most likely influenced Mao as a child, as well. All three men wanted the

collapse of the imperial system. Sun and Chiang were drawn profoundly to the idea of

utilizing Confucianism without a monarchical system. A different force, the Communist

system, drove Mao. This system would have collided with Confucian views. Yet Mao

and Chiang both ruled over China even when the Chinese people were not happy with

them, and for a long period of time-much like the emperors of the imperial past. Each

of these men was driven by a certain ideology, which they adhered to until their deaths.

Chiang fought against the CCP even when it did not look as though it would be possible

for them to take over, but he always viewed them as a threat. Dr. Sun continued to work

for a democracy in China even though he was not able to take control from the warlords.

Mao built up a victorious army out of what started out as a vast minority. These men

faced extreme adversity and still continued to dedicate themselves towards China. Dr.

Sun had been kidnapped for his revolts and continued his revolutionary actions after his

release. Chiang was run out of China while struggling to keep Nationalism in the nation.

Once in Taiwan in 1949, he continued to rule by a Nationalist government. Mao made

endless errors by trying to instill communism in China, and was removed from the

position of state chairman as a result. He still continued to bring reforms into China and

struggled to regain power of China before his death in 1976. While Mao's ideology

varied from Sun and Chiang's, these men all had the common goa1 of bringing a

Nationa1ist sentiment into China. Their Chinese upbringing and education also

influenced a11 of them to dedicate their lives to China. These men are all responsible for

the China of today.

 19

Chapter2

The Chinese Civil War

Chinese Imperialism crumbled in 1912 due mainly to the Chinese revolutionary Dr.

Sun Yat-sen. Sun had visited the West as a young boy and realized that the democratic

system would be a more appropriate system of government for China than the imperial

system. He strove the crush the imperial system and to build a new democratic

government and by 1911, his dream partially came true. The imperial system soon

collapsed. However, directly after the collapse, the Chinese government ordered a

military officer named Yuan Shih-kai to crush Dr. Sun's plan for the Republic of China

(what the new democratic government would be named) and Yuan began his task. Once

Yuan encountered Dr. Sun, however, he did not defeat him, but offered to bargain with

him. He offered to let Dr. Sun's new Republic survive if he could be named the

President. Dr. Sun, having left with either the choice of his Republic being crushed or

having this military officer take the presidency away from him, had not choice but to

oblige Yuan. Once Yuan was named president, the Republic had very little chance to

survive. Yuan did not care about the Republic of China (ROC), but about his own

position of power. Yuan attempted to turn China back into a monarchy, however the

people rebelled and Yuan was forced to tum the government back to the ROC. Having

failed as a president and having failed at realizing his dream of being king, Yuan died in

1916. Dr. Sun's dream of having a fully democratic government in China seemed to be

impossible to realize so the Kuomintang or KMT, was fonned. It was to no avail,

 20

however for after Yuan died, China had no central government. Dr. Sun still had hopes

of being the president of the PRC however he did not have any military strength and the

warlords began to over-run China, each trying to ultimately gain total control of China.

In 1925, Dr. Sun died, his dream left unrealized, but he would be remembered forever as

being the father of modern China.

In 1926 a man named General Chiang Kai-shek, who had been named head of the

Whampoa Military Academy by Dr. Sun, resolved to wipe the warlords out of China.

Chiang would do this in the name of Dr. Sun, for he too believed that Nationalism was

58
the appropriate fonn of government for China. Chiang began what was known as the

Northern Expedition and eventually conquered most of the warlords in China. Those that

he did not conquer, he made deals with that agreeing they would stay only in their own

designated territory and not cause him any grief and in tum he would allow them to live.

By this time there was talk of Communism in China and Chiang, who had spent time in

Russia during military training, did not approve of the communist system and felt that it

was completely wrong for China. He became vehemently opposed to Communism in

China. So opposed, in fact, that in 1927 during the Northern Expedition, Chiang stopped

at the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) base and to their surprise began a mass

59
slaughter of the communists. Thousands of communists were killed. When Chiang

returned, he became the new president of China.

As president, Chiang's main objective was to keep the communists out of power.

From 1927 until 1949 China spent much of their time and energies on an ongoing civil

war between the CCP and the KMT. The outcome of the civil war seemed inevitable,

51
Leung, 507.

'9 Ibid.
 21

with the KMT being the stronger of the two parties and the CCP still keeping much of it's

activity underground. The CCP had fewer members and were not supported by the

Chinese government. In 1937 however, the Japanese attacked China, which changed the

course of China's priorities-the situation had been forthcoming with the Mukden

Incident of 1931, which sparked sour feelings between the two powers. Chiang could no

longer focus all of his attentions on suppressing the CCP for he had to assure that the

Japanese did not take over China. He did however still continue to use some of his

energies on fighting the CCP, which later worked against his favor for many Chinese felt

that he did not focus enough on fighting against the Japanese. Under the leadership of

Chiang, the KMT fought against the Japanese invaders. Since their base was on the coast

in Nanking, although the wartime capital was Chungking, they were more vulnerable to

60
the attack than were the communists who were in their inland base of Yen an. While the

KMT was busy fighting the Japanese military, the CCP was building in strength and

number. People were fleeing from the coast in great numbers so it became fairly easy to

encourage them to join the CCP. By 1945 the war was over. Members of the KMT were

exhausted from the fighting. China's economy was crushed, as were people's opinions of

the leadership of the KMT. People felt that if Chiang would have fought more against

the Japanese and less against the CCP that much of the devastation caused by the war

could have been avoided. After the war, the KMT and the CCP picked up where they

had left off before the war except now the CCP had grown and the KMf was left

weakened as a result of fighting the Japanese. By 1949 the CCP took advantage of the

KMT's weakened state as well as a few blunders that they committed during some of the

60
Hsu Long-hsucn and Chang Ming-kai, History o
f the Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1945, trans. Wen Ha­

hsiung (Taipei: Chung Wu Publishing Co., 1971), 17.

 22

major battles between the two, and overthrew the Nationalist government. Chiang Kai­

shek and the KMT were exiled to China and Mao Tse-tung became the new ruler of the

newly formed Communist government of China. The Japanese invasion had taken its toll

on China not only economically, but politically and culturally as well. Some historians

and Chinese believe that if the Japanese had not invaded that the KMI' may have still

been in power for at least twenty more years, if not currently.

China after the collapse of Imperialism

Dr. Sun Yat-sen is considered by many historians to be the father of modern China,

for he was responsible for the collapse of the imperial system which had prevailed in

China until 1 9 1 1 . His failed attempt at establishing a true democratic government in

China was due mainly to China's past-China which had been ruled by a monarchy

during it's entire history was not ready for the Western concept of democracy. Aside

from crushing the imperial system, Dr. Sun's attempts at reforming China were not all in

vain for he was also responsible for forming the Nationalist party or the KMT, born out

of the Chinese Revolutionary party in 1919, which would remain the official government

of China until 1949. After the crumble of the imperial system in 1911, Dr. Sun

established the Republic of China in Nanking. Unfortunately, Dr. Sun did not go

unopposed and while he was forming the Republic, the emperor of China wished to

squelch his revolution, knowing that it could be detrimental to the monarchy. The head

of the Northern Anny, Yuan Shih-kai, was sent by the emperor to squash Dr. Sun's

revolution. Instead, however, Yuan, a power hungry man, gave Dr. Sun the choice of
 23

having his new government crushed or making Yuan the provisional president. Dr. Sun

did not possess an mi1itary power himself and knew that Yuan's armies would crush their

revolution, thus he had no choice but to agree to let Yuan become provisionaJ president

61
of the Republic of China in 1912.

The "Presidency" of Yuan Shih-kai and the Warlord Era

During the period that Yuan Shih-kai was president of the Republic, China saw many

changes. Dr. Sun, who had been originally named president of the republic, continued his

vocation as a revolutionary and fanned the Nationalist party in 1912. In an attempt to

placate the revolutionary Dr. Sun, Yuan named him the director of the railways and

requested that he design a national railway system; this served as a twofold plan for not

only was Dr. Sun now out of the way, but his confidence in Yuan as president of the

62
Republic was increased. However, Dr. Sun soon saw that Yuan was not fit to be

president of China. With the imperial system dissolved, Dr. Sun had tried to institute

Western fonns of politics in China. On January 28, 1912, a Senate was established in

Nanking, however by January 10, 1914, Yuan Shih-kai was successful in having the

deputy chairman Sung Chiao-jen assassinated, and abolished the Parliament, fearful that

63
it would become dominated by Nationalists who would try to remove him from power.

Instead, Yuan installed his own military men into the positions of Foreign Affairs,

61
Ian P. McGreal, ed. Great ThinUrs o
f the Western World: t
he Major Thinkers and the Philosophical and

Religious Classics o f Islam, (New York: Harper Collins Publishers,

f China, India, Korea and the World o

1995), 138.
62
Ibid. 476.
63
Leung, 503.
 24

64
Internal Affairs, War and Navy, knowing that they would not betray him. By 1913, Dr.

Sun had staged a revolution against the government of Yuan Shih-kai, attempting to

65
remove him from power, yet he failed and was forced into exile.

By taking on the position of president, Yuan had become the first non-monarchical

leader of China. Dr. Sun and his supporters, namely Huang Hsing and Yang Ch'u-yun

66
among others, had created the Republic. They had been responsible for the crumbling

of the monarchy and in it's place had tried to instill a democratic government. A

Proclamation had been drafted by the revolutionaries in 1900 and had originally consisted

of the following reforms:

1. Moving the capital to a central location such as Nanking in order to be able to

control international affairs and to be accessible to other provinces.

2. Establish a constitutional central government headed by a well-liked president.

3. To set up a Council composed of representatives from several provinces

4. To set up an Advisory board constituted by Foreign Ministers, as well as

establishing self-governing provincial governments governed by a native of the

province, who would be selected by the Central government.

5. Equal rights in China in the areas of railway development, mining, industries and

trade.

6. To increase the salaries of state officials as an incentive for them to rule the

government mora1ly.

"'Hsu, 475.

,s Leung, 352.

"Chun-tu Hsueh, Revolutionary Leo.ckrs o

f Modern China, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971),

142.
 25

7. To adopt the American and European system in regard to civil and criminal law and

abolishing the past methods of using torture to obtain confession to a crime.

8. To refonn the education system in China and add special training and examination

67
in areas of study such as literature, politics and law.

Although this Proclamation was sent to the imperial government of China but never

imposed, it contained the principles that later led to Dr. Suns' ideology for national

68
reconstruction, the Three People's Principles-nationalism, livelihood and democracy.

This was the basis for the newly formed Republic when Yuan forced his way into the

presidency. Aside from being a military man with no knowledge of presiding over a

country, Yuan had forced himself into the position of ruling a government that was

recovering from the collapse of the old system. In addition, he was now also expected to

rule the government using Dr. Sun's ideologies-ideologies which he neither came up

with on his own, did not seem to fully comprehend, nor did he believe in them. Yuan had

taken the position of president to further his own political power, not to ensure the

success of Dr. Sun's Republic. Yuan, as did many men in China, had always dreamed of

becoming the leader of China-the problem, however, was that dream entailed him being

the emperor, not the president. By 1913, Yuan had decided that he wished to re-establish

the imperial system in China. He betrayed the Republic which he had sworn not to

69
demolish in 1912 in return for his presidency, and dispelled the KMT. On February 13,

1912, Dr. Sun and Yuan Shih-kai agreed that Yuan could take the position as president

based on the following conditions: (l} Nanking would remain the capital, (2} Yuan would

'7 Ibid.117-7.
61
ft
Edgar Snow, Tht! Other Sidt! o he River: Rt!d China Today, (New York: Random House, 1961), 39.
 26

come to Nanking to assume his presidency and (3) that Yuan would observe the

70
provisional constitution drafted by the provisional parliament. Yuan had already

dispelled the Parliament and now he had betrayed the very Republic that he was named

president of. In 1915 claiming that the people wished to see the return of the monarchy,

Yuan had re-established the imperial system. By January 1916, Yuan Shih-kai was

71
inaugurated as emperor of China. This was not acceptable for the people or other

military members of China, who had become enthralled with the idea of democracy and

did not wish to see imperialism return to China. By March of the same year,

revolutionaries, as well as his own military, forced Yuan to dissolve the monarchy.P

Along with attempting to tum the government of China back into a monarchy, Yuan

also made many other disastrous moves during his tenn as president. His government

was financed mainly by loans, thus the time of his death, China was in financial ruins.

Other countries were wary of Yuan Shih-kai 's leadership abilities and cut back on

relations with China. Perhaps Yuan's most irresponsible decision during his presidency

was to accept as list of demands from Japan, known as the Twenty-one Demands. World

War I had just begun and Japan wanted to have more rights in China. The Japanese

minister ordered that Yuan agree to demands, including the following: more economic

rights for the Japanese in Manchuria and Mongolia; partial control (along with the

Chinese) of the iron and coal industry in China; an agreement that China would close

their ports and islands to other foreign powers; the right for Japanese police and

economic advisors to be stationed in northern China; and commercial rights in the Fujian

69
Fairbank. 174.
70
Hsu, 474.
71
Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modem China, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1990), 286.
72
Snow, 38.
 27

province.P Although Yuan altered some of the conditions, he did agree to the demands.

As a result, his own popularity waned and China suffered. Yuan's choice of government

officials would also have a detrimental effect on China's future. By choosing all of his

military associates to run the government beside him, Yuan was almost fully responsible

for the chaos that followed after his death. Yuan's military comrades began to compete

for the leadership of China, one or two of them presiding over each province, and thus

began the eleven-year long period of warlordism in China.

After Yuan's death in 1916, Vice-president Li Yuan-huang took over as president of

the Republic. However, there was question to whether or not Li was the legitimate

successor, for there had been two different constitutions during Yuan Shih-kai 's

presidency-according to the original constitution of 1912, Li was the successor and this

74
prescription ultimately prevailed. This caused internal strife among the other military

members who had served with Yuan Shih-kai and eventually chaos ensued. During the

course of the next eleven years, China turned back to imperialism in Peking, declared war

75
on Germany in 1917 and took out further Joans to support their military during the war.

Dr. Sun still continued his plight to take back control of China, but did it in exile for he

had no military power to back him up against the warlords. On March 12, 1925 Dr. Sun

whose last words were said to have been ''peace, struggling ... save China," died a broken

76
man. Little did he know that he would forever after go on to be known to many

Chinese and non-Chinese alike, as the father of modem China.

73
Spence, 286.
7
4
Hsu, 482.
1
5
Ibid. 483-4.
76
Ibid. 486.
 28

Chiang Kal-shek and the Establishment of the Nationalist Government in China

General Chiang Kai-shek was responsible for establishing the first Nationalist

government of China in 1925 in Canton. Two other Nationa1ist governments were then

established in Wuhan and Nanking in 1927. Dr. Sun had also established a republican

government in Canton in 1921, however a democratic society was not practical in China

and the Nationalist government was not operable until Chiang Kai-shek removed the

warlords after Dr. Sun's death. The Nationalist government was the first true

government that China had possessed after the collapse of Imperialism. Dr. Sun Yat-sen

formed the Republic of China in 1912, however in order for it to not be crushed Dr. Sun

was forced to let the Yuan Shih-kai become the president of the newly formed republic."

The Republic only lasted until the death of Yuan Shih-kai in 1916, where-upon the

warlord period began and lasted until it was crushed by Chiang Kai-shek's Northern

Expedition in 1926-1928.

The Nationalist government was problematic from the start. To begin, it was the first

true government that China had possessed since the chaos of the warlord years. Although

it was a we1come change for the Chinese people, the government still had to deal with the

problems that had been left behind by the destructive warlords such as a poor economy

and a lack of modernization. The country was still plagued by warlords in certain regions

and also by corrupt politicians. China was also constantly in danger of being invaded by

outside forces such as Japan, who had previously defeated China in the first Sino­

Japanese War of 1894-1895. The problem was aggravated further when the Manchurian

warlord and leader of the Manchurian anny General Chang Hsueh-liang, (the Young
 29

Marshal) moved his troops from Manchuria into Northern China, leaving Manchuria

78
vulnerable to invasion. Japan had possessed interest in occupying Manchuria for

almost three decades. Positioning their troops in Manchuria would be advantageous to

them for one because the territory possessed rich mineral resources and agricultural

products and also because they would be stationed directly between the two other great

powers of China and Russia-this would give them the benefit of keeping the other

79
countries militaries in check. The main issue, however, that would end up leading to

the downfall of the KMT was the internal struggle of the two dominant political parties in

China-the KMf and the CCP.

The History of Conflict Between the KMT and the CCP

By 1922 Dr. Sun intended to tum the KMT into a party dictatorship resembling that of

80
the Soviet Union. He received help from the Soviet Union, financially and militarily

and he had even admitted Communists into the Nationalist Party. This was done under

the intent of assimilating the communists into the KMT. In August of 1922 the founder

of the CCP, Ll Ta-chao, became the first communist member to join the KMT-this

81
begins the first United Front between the CCP and the KMT. In 1924 Dr. Sun

appointed the military General Chiang Kai-shek to be the head of the newly formed

Whampoa Military Academy. Chiang along with other members of the Chinese military

were sent to Russia to receive military training. While over in Russia, Chiang was able to

n Ibid. 122.
78
Hsu, 545.
79
Ibid.
80
Fairbank, 210.
 30

observe the ways of communism and ascertained that it was not a proper political system

for China. When Dr. Sun died in 1925, Chiang took it upon himseJf to rid China of the

turmoil which had plagued China for 9 years-the warlords. In 1926, he planned the

Northern Expedition to terminate the warlord's power. His plan was broken down into

three steps: the first step would be going along the Hsiang River to Changsha, then into

Kiangsi and finally into the Fukien Province-Wuhan, Nanking and Shanghai were to be

82
next if the first three steps were successful. The Expedition proved to be successful and

by December of 1926 the Nationalists controlled the seven provinces of Guangdong,

83
Hunan, Hupei, Kiangsi, Fukien, Guangsi and Kuichou. By March of 1927 the

Nationalists controlled Shanghai and Nanking. Having gained so much territory so

quickly made Chiang realize that the warlords were not as much of a threat as originally

anticipated. By April of 1927 Chiang decided to try to remove the remaining threat to the

KMT--the Chinese Communist Party. Starting on April 12 the Nationalist military, under

Chiang's orders, began a massacre on the Communists. This atrocity began in Shanghai

84
and spread to Nanking, Hangchow, Foochow, Canton and several other smaller cities.

Thousands of communists were ki1led. This, obviously, marked the end of the First

United Front between the CCP and the KMT.

Mao Tse-tung had been active in the Communist party from the beginning of it's

establishment in 1920. A young Mao had gained interest in communism while working

85
in Peking University's library, alongside of the founder of the CCP, Ll Ta-chao. Mao

attended the first meeting of the CCP. While Mao leaned towards communism, his

81
Leung, 506.
12
Spence, 344.
83
Ibid. 348.

M Hsu, 528.
 31

interest in fighting against nationalism became persona] in 1929 when a Nationalist killed

his adopted sister, Mao 2.ejian. 86 The Nationalists inflicted another tragedy upon Mao in

1930 when his estranged wife and mother of their two sons, Kaihui, was tortured and

87
killed by a NationaJist in Changsha in 1930. While the KMf was taking care of

government matters, Mao was busy strengthening his party. Mao started to lean towards

mobilizing the poorer classes of China, the peasants namely, and promised them a

brighter future. He believed that they would be able to fight and win a revolution. He

focused his efforts on learning about the peasants and their conditions. He became aware

of their plights and their needs-in fact, he turned himself into what could be perceived

as a caring leader. Mao began to launch refotms such as the marriage law of 1944. This

would later be to Mao's advantage when the people began to lose faith in the KMT who

had not made the refonns they had promised, opposed to Mao and the CCP, who had

already instituted important amendments.

Since the KMT had a longer history and a stronger base than the CCP, the communists

felt that they needed to do something to boost the morals of the party members. By 1934

Mao had orchestrated the Long March which was to be a 6,000-mile walk through China,

which started out with 100,000 members and ended with fewer than 10,000 members

88.
completing the journey The purpose of the march was not only to boost esteem of the

party members but also to gain public attention and support-and it was successful in

doing just that. The trip, even going through the dangerously mountainous region of

Southern China, took only a year to complete. The Long March also succeeding in

u Hsueh, 378.
86
Ross Terrill, Mao: A Biography. (New York: Simon and Schuster. 1980), 126.
8
1
Ibid, 126-7.
 32

gaining prestige for Mao-not only in the eyes of his foJlowers, but in the eyes of other

Chinese, as well as raising his own self esteem. In fact, Mao commenting on the fact that

the journey started out with 100,000 people and less than 10,000 survived said that he

89
assumed that "death did just not seem to want him." Although the Long March did

seem to achieve great publicity, the Nationalist party was still continuing to grow at a

rapid rate. This was due to the increasing threat of Japanese invasion, which encouraged

Chinese to band together and show support for their country-this sentiment was greatly

90
promoted by the KMT and was greatly to their advantage. China stayed in a civil war-

tom state until the Japanese invaded China in 1937. The two parties were forced to

collaborate and created a Second United Front in order to concentrate their efforts on

fighting against the foreign invaders. The Second United Front was based on a doctrine

which outlined the positions of the CCP during the Japanese invasion:

L The CCP will struggle to fulfill completely Dr. Sun's Three People's Principles,

which best answers China's needs today.

2. The CCP will abolish the policy of sabotage and Sovietization which aims at the

overthrow of the KMT government, and will stop the forcible confiscation of the

holdings of landlords.

3. The CCP will abolish all existing Soviets in favor of democratic government, so as

to achieve unified political administration through-out the country.

4. The CCP will abolish the name and insignia of the Red Army, which will be

reorganized as the National Revolutionary Army and is to be subject to control by

13
Maurice Meisner, Mao's China and After: a History o
f the People's Republic 3"' ed., (New York: the

Free Press, 1999). 33.

1
9
Terrill, 35.
90
Leung, 354.
 33

the Military Commission; it is ready to march forward and fight the Japanese at the

front.91

While the CCP had initiated the decree stating their position during the war, they were

not doing it entirely out of being faithful to fighting for China. Mao knew that Chiang

would not completely give up his battle against the CCP, even during a time of adversity.

For the CCP to make their loyalty towards fighting the Japanese public, it would gain

support for them and would ultimately serve in making the KMT looking Jess loyal

towards the cause of fighting the Japanese, than were the Communists.

The Second United Front proved to be unsuccessful in keeping peace between China's

two political powers. By 1939 the parties had begun to make international alliances,

92
which violated the terms of the United Front. By 1941, the Nationalists launched a full-

blown attack against the Communists by destroying part of the CCP' s New Fourth

93
Anny. Not only did this violate the United Front, but it made the public lose yet more

faith in the Nationalist government, whom they felt were not putting enough effort into

fighting the Japanese. By this time, the Japanese had already ravaged the capital of

Nanking in December of 1937, killing anywhere from an estimated number of 260,000 to

94
350,000 innocent Chinese civilians and causing mass land destruction as well. Many

Chinese felt that the carnage caused by the Japanese was the fault of Chiang K.ai-shek

who did not employ his troops against the Japanese threat which had ensuing since 1931,

until 1936. Chiang, however, did have good reason for holding back his troops. He

'1 Hsu, 588.

92
Hsu, 590.
93
John King Fairbank, The United States and China. 411t ed., (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979),

297.
 34

knew that all the inroads from Japan to Northern China must be blocked before his troops

were deployed-the Japanese army was much stronger than the Chinese army and

Chiang was fully aware of that.9S His troops, however, got tired of waiting and in

December of 1936, in what is known as the Sian Incident, Chiang was kidnapped by the

leader of the Manchurian army, the Young Marshall, who attempted to talk Chiang into

disregarding the civil war and focus on fighting the Japanese. Chiang was released on

Christmas Eve of the same year and although the outcome of the discussions that took

place while Chiang was in containment is unknown, it is assumed that Chiang agreed to

make some sort of temporary peace with the CCP, for in 1937 the Second United Front

96•
was fonned

Summary

After the collapse of the imperial government, China faced decades of turmoil. Dr.

Sun worked to remove the hnperial government from China and had instituted a new,

democratic form of government in its place, only to be removed from the presidency by

Yuan Shih-kai. Under his leadership, China faced great economic hardship and adversity

as well as being subjected to Yuan's dream to recreate the imperial system in China.

Once Yuan's dream was crushed and he died in 1916, the warlords ruled China, causing

further economic hardship and distress. Dr. Sun, who had created the Republic of China,

but had never truly been able to control it, died in 1925. By 1926, General Chiang Kai-

94
f Nanlcing: tne Forgotten Holocaust o
Iris Chang, The Rapt! o f World War II, (New York: Penguin Books,

1997), 4.

,s John Hunter Boyle, China and Japan at War, 1937-1945: the Politics o
f Collaboration, (Stanford:

Stanford University Press, 1972), 42.

 35

shek devoted himself to ridding China of the warlords and carrying out Dr. Sun's dream

of a Nationalist society. The Nationalist government was China's first true government

after the collapse of the monarchy. Although it grew out of adversity, the Nationalist

government managed to stay in power more than 20 years. Chiang Kai-shek spent his

time as head of the government trying to keep the CCP out of power. Many Chinese felt

that Chiang spent too much time focusing on the CCP and not enough time tending to the

problem of foreign invaders. While it was true that Chiang did hold his troops back from

fighting the Japanese, he did it in the best interest of his military. He knew that they were

not capable of defeating the Japanese. He also was so determined against keeping the

communists out of the government that he still focused his energies on fighting them

during much of the Sino-Japanese War. His fears eventually became true when the

communists took control of the Chinese government in 1949. Ironically, the KMT had a

tremendous advantage over the CCP before the Japanese invasion and although Chiang

directed much of his energy towards keeping the communists out of power, chances are

good that they would not have been a threat before the war. The CCP was a small party

and the KMT had full control over the government. The Sino-Japanese War left the

KMT weakened from fighting and strengthened the CCP that was gaining members while

the KMT were in combat. Whether or not the KMT would have maintained power had

the Japanese not attacked remains a long-standing question among historians. The war

ended in 1945 however the effects of the war weakened the Nationalist government,

further enabling the communists to take over in 1949. After the war, not only was much

of China left destroyed, but the economy was devastated, as well as were the Chinese

people. They had put their faith into the Nationalist government and they felt as though

96
Ibid, 43.
 36

Chiang Kai-shek had Jet them down. While the people were Josing faith in the KMf,

they were gaining interest in the CCP, desperately searching for a change for the better.

Internal chaos between rival political parties and powers prevailed in China until 1949

when the Conununists took over. Under the rule of the Communists China would still

experience a great deal of chaos, but the China's thirty-eight year history of serious civil

wars as a result of conflicting political viewpoints had finally come to an end.

 37

Cbapter3

The Power Struggle Between Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Tse-tung

"Only through unity can we save

our country and our people.'"'

Clduo"--

General Chiang Kai-shek was one of the most powerful presidents in Chinese history.

He had been a prominent Kuomintang figure in the early 1920's and was appointed the

head of the Whampoa Military Academy on May 3, 1924. In 1926, he launched the

Northern Expedition, which was a plan to take China back from the warlords and to make

the KMT the dominant power in China. To ensure this he arranged a purge of the

communists in Shanghai in 1927. He appointed himself president of China in 1928 and

was referred to as Generalissimo, which was used as a term of respect. Chiang ruled

China for twenty-one years constantly facing opposition from the Chinese Communist

Party (CCP), namely Mao Tse-tung who was instrumental in forming the Fourth Red

Army in April of 1928. While the two political powers were battling for control the

Japanese began to invade China. They began their attacks in 1931 with the September

181h Mukden incident, however a full-scale war did not break out until 1937. The Sino-

Japanese War began in 1937. The war not only meant a loss of millions of Chinese lives,

but it also opened the door for the growth of communism in China. The target areas for

the Japanese invasion were the coastal regions including Nanking. This meant that there

was a tremendous influx of people fleeing to inner China, which is where the communist

base was-the communists were stationed in Yenan. Some historians claim that this is

why the communists were able to take power so easily, while others claim that Chiang
 38

Kai-shck had actually already lost his power on September 18, 1931, during the Mukden

Incident. Presumably Chiang spent too much of his efforts on the internal war and not

enough on the foreign invaders. When asked by the Chan Hsueh-liang, head of

Manchuria, what to do about the foreign attacks, Chiang replied: ••In order to avoid any

98
enlargement of the incident, it is necessary to maintain the principle of non-resistance."

Chiang's military plans including getting rid of the internal problems before battling

foreign invaders. It is possible that this led to his downfall. Mao Tse-tung was waiting

patiently, while the CCP's population grew. He had a plan to use 100% of the

Communist energy and resources to take power from the KMf when they were at their

most vulnerable.

Chiang Kai-shek's Rise to Power

General Chiang Kai-shek held the presidency of China from 1928 to 1949. Chiang

was a KMT member who worked very closely with Dr. Sun Yat-sen-the father of

Chinese Nationalism. Dr. Sun had chosen to send some of his military officers to the

USSR for military training and since Chiang was an intelligent and capable officer, he

choose him. Chiang went to the USSR in 1923, where he trained for approximately four

months. He returned to China at the end of 1923, with the impression that communism

was not right for China. Chiang felt that communism went against Chinese tradition. He

was able to take the presidency for one simple reason--he possessed military power and

was able to save China from the warlords who were over running the country. In order to

97
Govemment Information Offi.ce,eds ..Aphori.rm.t o
f President Chiang Kai-shek (Republic of China, 1974),

74.
 39

do this he formed a carefully outlined strategy to wipe the warlords out of China. This

was known as the Northern Expedition and it was executed in the fonn of a three-part

plan. The first part of the plan was to recruit young officers from all over China who

wou1d be dedicated to the internal struggle of power between the KMT and the CCP---thc

revolution. The next part of Chiang's plan was to build an army out of these men. The

third part of the plan was to lead armies to Central and North China to take China back

from the wertords". Chiang intended to first wipe out Wu Pei-fu, who contro1led the

Hupci and Hunan regions, then he wanted to move on to the Shanghai and Nanking

regions controlled by Sun Ch'uan Fang. Finally Chiang was to move down to the Peking

region which was controlled by the Manchurian Chang Tso-lin. During the Northern

100,
Expedition, on April 12, 1927 Chiang Kai-shek moved to the base of the CCP in

Shanghai, and ordered all of the communists killed-without the exclusion of any women

and children who happened to be in the way. Approximately 5,000 Chinese communists

were killed during this purge. The remaining Communists fled to the mountainous areas

surrounding Shanghai ua _ Wang Ching-wei, the head of the KMT, threw Chiang Kai-

shek out of the KMT claiming to the communists that the purge was purely Chiang's idea

and not his own. Despite this atrocity, Chiang was able to take over with relative ease

and appointed himself the president of China in 1928. Dr. Sun Yat-sen died in 1925,

however Chiang Kai-shek had managed to realize his dream of using military power to

take China back from the warlords. Chiang was following Dr. Sun's famous 3 Stage

Theory which consisted of the military stage, tutoring the people on democratic ways,

"Crozier, 145.
99
Fwuya, 171.

L
OO Leung, 507.

LOI Sheridan, 246.

 40

and finally to create a constitution. Up until this point the warlords had been controlling

China and before this, Yuan Shih-k'ai had used his military power to persuade Dr. Sun

Yat-scn to make him president of the new Republic of China. Yuan was a selfish

president who failed to effectively rule the country and attempted to tum China back to

the imperial system that it had tried so hard to get away from.

Mao Tse-tung In the Early Days of the CCP

One of the survivors of the purge of the communists was a man who had been a

member of the CCP from the beginning-Mao Tse-tung. Mao was a library clerk at Peita

(Peking University) during the Intellectual Revolution in China in late 1919-early 1920.

He worked next to the chief librarian, Professor Li Ta-chao, who was a professor of

political science at the University. Li Ta-chao was one of the earliest Chinese communist

converts. He also created the Marxist Research Society. The main purpose of this

institution was to translate Marxist teachings into Chinese to make communist thought

accessible to the public. Mao was a young, impressionable man at the time and also

happened to be non-communist. However, he was exposed to Li's discussions and his

lectures on a daily basis and soon began to take an interest in them. Professor Ll became

Mao's mentor and under his influence Mao became a communist. Mao was a member of

the CCP when Chiang Kai-shek tried to purge China of the communists. Mao, in fact,

was very instrumental in rebuilding the communist party after the purge and after many

defeats at the hands of Chiang Kai-shek. Mao joined forces with a Communist military

officer by the name of Chu Teh. The two men realized that the creation of a Red Army

would be necessary for the communists to succeed. The Red Anny originally consisted
 41

of the groups of Communists who had fled from Chiang Kai-shek's murderous attack, as

well as a small number of units under Mao. By 1929, however, this small army had

102•
turned into largest and most well trained Communist army in China Mao's strategy

was to use guenilla warfare. In order to do this. he had to mobilize the peasants of the

land and seek their approval--the guerrillas would be working among them and they

needed the peasants cooperation. The Communists were still facing tremendous

opposition from Chiang Kai-shek and the KMT. In 1934, the KMT tried to remove the

CCP from their base in Kiangsi, which had been their home for seven years 1°3• Kiangsi,

also known as the Koviet Republic was the first communist territory in China. The Fifth

Encirclement Campaign of the KMT called for the extermination of the Red Anny-as a

result of the battle of Kuanchang alone 4,CXX> Communist soldiers were killed and 20,000

were injured 104• As a result of this tragedy for the communists, Mao orchestrated the

Long March. It was set to begin on October 16, 1934. The march was approximately

105•
25,000-li or 6,000 miles long-from Kiangsi to Shensi 100,000 Red Anny soldiers and

dozens of women pushed past Chiang Kai-shek's military barrier. Part of the strategy of

the Long March was to establish a rural base to promote guerriJla warlare. Mao also

stated that the significance of the Long March was that it was "the first of its kind in the

106
annals of history, that it is a manifesto, a propaganda force, a seeding machine." There

was only an 8% success rate of the marchers-most were simply not strong enough to

make the march. Some were killed and some simply could not walk any further. The

march started with over 100,000 people and only 8,000 actually completed the journey.

102
Ibid. 247.

I
OJ Hsu, 559.
1
04
Leung, p.237.
 42

They settled on the border region of Yenan. Although it seemed as though the

communists had met their defeat, Mao still felt that the Chinese Communist Party wou1d

be making a comeback soon.

Chiang Kai-shek and the Young Marshal

Chang Hsueh-Hang was the warlord leader of the Manchurian army. The Manchurian

anny was instrumental in the anti-Communist campaign during the late 1930's. Chang

was also known as the Young Marshal, following suite of his father, Chang Tso-Jin who

was referred to as the Old Marsha]. Chang graduated from the Military Institute when he

was twenty years old and went on to become commander of his father's brigade of

107•
guards The Young Marshal fought during the Northern Expedition led by Chiang

Kai-shek. Chang Tso-lin returned to Manchuria in 1928, after having ruled over Peking

and was bombed to death by the Japanese. The Young Marshal succeeded his father after

a struggle for power between other warlords. He then, in 1929, joined forces with Chiang

under the agreement that if he supported Chiang he would continue to preside over

Manchuria. Meanwhile, as outlined in the Japanese Tanaka Memorial, the Japanese were

looking to use Manchuria as a base in order to penetrate the rest of China-if they were

1
to take over the world, they believed they had to get through China first og. They had

also always been very interested in Manchuria's vast farmlands and mineral resources.

The Young Marshal had a grievance with the Japanese, for they had killed his father; thus

105
Han Suyin, The Morning Deluie: Mao T:setung and the Chinese Revolution (Boston: Little Brown and

Company, 1972), 270.

106
Leung, p.238.
107
Ibid. 33.
 43

he was cager to get vengeance. He was however, under the orders of Chiang Kai-shek

and Chiang wished to avoid confronting the Japanese for as long as possible. Thus, on

September 6, 1931, Chang issued the following statement: "In order to avoid furnishing

the Japanese with any pretext for aggressive action, we must not allow ourselves to be

provoked into fighting with them even under circumstances which are humiliating and

109
intolcrable." Twelve days later on the evening of September 18, 1931, the Japanese

bombed Mukden, although they claimed that the Kwantung Anny actually planted it. By

the next morning the city had been taken over by the Japanese. The Japanese occupied

11•
four more Manchurian cities by September 21 Chiang Kai-shek chose not to fight the

Japanese at the point of the Mukden Incident, for he knew that his army could not defeat

the Japanese and he did not want to waste all of their energy on Manchuria. Chiang had

the Young Marshal, who was in Peiping, pull his troops out of Manchuria. This paved

the way for a full-fledged Japanese take over. The Mukden Incident is often considered a

day of great humiliation for the Chinese-a day that their troops stood back at the orders

of their president, and let the Japanese penetrate Manchuria.

Chiang had other things in mind for many of his troops-he had some on reserve to

fight the CCP if necessary. By this time, Chiang was absorbed in pursuing and

destroying the communist army. While the Japanese were conquering Manchuria, the

Manchurian army was pursuing the communists, at Chiang's orders. The Manchurian

army had become exhausted and homesick by the end of 1936 and the Young Marshal

pleaded with Chiang to let them return home, but to no avail. While Chiang believed that

the communists must be destroyed before they destroyed the KMT, Chang felt a strong

1
°' Crozier, p.147.
109
Furuya, 314
 44

1
need for unification of China=especially during a foreign invasion io. In his defense,

however, Chiang did arrange a meeting with one of his advisors to be set in Vienna,

discussing the idea of the Communists and the Nationalists working together against the

111•
Japanese at the end of 1935 That meeting produced no results and was Chiang's soul

attempt at the unification of the two powers until he was forced. The Manchurians no

longer wanted to fight the communists and they no longer wanted to listen to Chiang,

who they felt was essentially fighting the wrong war-that against his own people,

instead of the foreign invaders. The Young Marshal did not wish to disappoint his own

army, for they looked up to him, so he defied Chiang and brought them towards home.

On December 10, 1936, Chiang tried to take Chang Hsueh-liang's position away and

112•
replace him with Chiang T'ing-wen Chang was not to be gotten rid of so easily,

however.

The Sian Incident

In the middle of 1936, the Communists secretly contacted Chang Hsueh-Jiang. The

Young Marshal willingly told the Communists to send representatives to Sian where he

would meet with them. Chiang was not extremely vexed to learn of these arrangements,

for he had long been searching for a way to eliminate Chang--as he had been opposing

Chiang's anti-Communist policy for far too long. The Young Marshal was, however,

very anti-Japanese, not only because he had lost his father at the hands of them, but

because of the loss of much of China as well. He knew that wasting their efforts fighting

lt
G Ibid. 260
111
Crozier. 178
 45

113•
the Communists would make his anny too weak to fight the Japanese The

Communists wanted to stop this civil strife and fight the Japanese and were trying to get

Chang to convince Chiang to do the same. Chang's pleas had fallen on deaf ears. The

Communists did not realize that Chiang also knew that the Japanese were China's worst

enemy-but he did not feel that China was ready to fight a winning battle. Chiang also

had the constant fear that the Communists were going to tum on him. His suspicions

were soon going to prove true.

On December 8 Chiang flew to Sian to speak with Chang Hsueh-liang. The issue was

still divided-Chiang wished to commence war against the Communist army, while

Chang had joined forces with the Communists and was ready to fight the Japanese.

Chiang was obviously not looking to make an alliance with the Communists--he had

already sent approximately 15,000 members of the Blue Shirt regiment, led by his

114•
nephew Chiang Hsiao-hsien, to Sian to arrest suspected Communists In response to

this the Blue Shirts were disarmed by the Communists while they were sleeping and

many of them were arrested, while others were killed. On December 12, 1936, at

5:00am, Chiang Kai-shek was in his room at Lintung. He was dressing after his morning

115•
exercise and heard noises, which he recognized as gunfire Sensing danger, Chiang,

wearing only a nightshirt and a robe, left out of the back of his cabin with two of his

guards, into the bitter cold air and falling snow. In an effort to escape, Chiang scaled a

116•
wall and fell thirty feet into a moat, injuring his back and losing his dentures Chiang

and his bodyguards made it up the mountain behind the hotel, where gunfire erupted.

112
Sven Hedin, Chiang Kai-shelt:: Marshal o
f China (New York: Da Capo Press, 1940), 102.
113
Furuya, 508
114
Crozier, 182
115
Furuya,p.512
 46

Many of Chiang's bodyguards were killed by the troops of General Yang Hu-ch'eng, the

Pacification Commissioner of Shensi. Sun Ming-chiu, Chang Hsueh-Hang's bodyguard

who had led the troops to fire at Chiang's hotel, was also the man who found Chiang.

Chiang challenged Sun to shoot him, however the young man refused and simply

responded, "We only ask you to lead our country against Japan.?'" Captain Sun then

proceeded to carry Chiang down the mountain on his back, for Chiang was not wearing

shoes and his feet were bleeding from climbing.

Chiang was then taken to the office of General Yang Hu-ch 'eng, where Chang

presented him with a list of eight demands. These demands included ending the civil war

immediately and adopting the policy of armed resistance against Japan, and to safeguard

the people's rights to join patriotic movements and express political freedom'P. The two

captors, Chang and Yang, read Chiang's diary and realized that he did have every

intention of resisting the Japanese forces. Seeing their mistake, the men apologized to

Chiang and when they asked him what they could do for him, he responded that they

should return him to Nanking'!", In the meantime, Mayling Soong Chiang, Chiang Kai-

shek's wife, had written a letter to Chang Hsueh-liang urging him to return Chiang safely.

She went on to say how his actions could seriously harm any unification relations and

120•
that she was sure that Chang did not wish to harm Chiang Chiang was still not

released. Instead, the vice-chairman of the CCP, Chou En-lai was sent to have a

conference with Chiang. He arrived in mid-December. Ch'en Li-fua, a close associate of

116
Crozier, p.182
117
Ibid. 183
111
Ibid. 183
119
Ibid. 186

no General and Madame Chiang Kai-shck, Genual Chiang Kai-shek: The Account o
f the Fortnight in Sian

when the Fate o

f China Hung in the Balance (New York: The Book League of America, 1937), 69.
 47

Chiang Kai-shek. was also at the meeting. He spoke of the four points that would allow

the KMT to unite with the CCP-these were as follows:

1. The Chinese Communist Party should observe the Three People's Principles.

2. The Communists should obey the orders of the Generalissimo.

3. The Red Anny should be abolished; and

4. The Chinese Soviet organization should be abolished, yet under a special treaty with

Yenan the Communists could have their own autonomous government as part of the
121•
Chinese local government structurc

Chou En-lai agreed to these tenns with the understanding that Chiang would then agree

to fight the Japanese. On Christmas Day, December 25, 1936, Chiang Kai-shek was

driven back to Loyang and then flown back to Nanking. Chiang presumably put his

disagreement with the Communists aside for the good of the war and in 1937 the KMT

and the CCP came together to fight against the Japanese.

U.S. Inte"ention

With the defeat of Japan at his back, Chiang was now determined to keep the

Communists from growing. The CCP had grown in size while the Nationalists were

fighting the Japanese. They occupied 175 counties-before the war, they controlled only

121.
116. The KMT still outnumbered the CCP greatly, with approximately 3 million

forces. The Communists totaled approximately 1 million. In the meantime the

Communists were trying to regain power in the Japanese occupied areas. Chu Teh,

commander-in-chief of the People's Liberation Anny (PLA), asked the Japanese

commander-in-chief to surrender to the Communists--Chiang Kai-shek had requested that

the Communists not take action with the areas under Japanese occupation and this

111
Crozier, 187
 48

angered him 123• The Nationalists then required American aid to help them get to the

aforementioned areas as quickly as possible. The Americans willingly obliged. They not

only flew Chiang's troops to the occupied areas, they also ordered the Japanese forces to

surrender to Chiang, and not to the Communists. Chiang wished to resolve his problems

with the CCP, so in August of 1945 he invited Mao to have a conference in Chungking-

the Nationalist wartime capital. More importantly, the Americans, who were now

helping the Chinese, wished to intervene in the situation between the two powers before a

full-fledged civil war broke out. Finally, after being invited to Chungking three times,

and receiving U.S. assurance that he would be safe, Mao finally agreed to attend the

conference. This would be the first meeting of the two great powers. During the

meeting, both men remained amicable and civil. Chiang intended for this meeting to

result in the CCP surrender, thus when Mao tried to make him an offer saying that he

would only employ approximately 20-24 divisions if the KMT cut their power down to

120 divisions, Chiang refused 124• Chiang strongly believed that he had earned the right to

have complete control of China-he was the president and Mao's attempts to compromise

with him were condescending. Chiang was also more than likely aware that Mao would

not honor his dea1 and planned to mobilize as many of his troops as he possibly could,

despite any agreement they may have made. Thus, the meeting in Chungking produced

no results.

After this failure, the Americans created the Marsha]! Mission on December 20, 1945-

-as they did not wish to see strife break out in China. Th.is was for the simple reason that

the Cold War was going on and they did not wish to sec the Russians given a chance to

mlbid. 620

m Ibid. 620
 49

125
expand into a weakened China. The mission involved sending General George C.

Marshall to China to try to help China become a unified nation. Marshall was replacing

Ambassador Patrick Hurley, who had gone to Chungking for the negotiations previously

and had returned unsuccessful.P' The two groups did, however, manage to reach a cease

fire agreement on January 10, 1946 at the urging of Marshall-the KMT was obligated to

oblige Marshan, for they were receiving aid from the United States. The agreement was

to the Communist's advantage for they were not militarily prepared for a civil war.

Marshall was very optimistic about the re-unification of China. Unfortunately. however,

Chiang and Mao did not show Marshall's enthusiasm and soon pulled out of the

agreement. Both men felt that Marshall was simply hindering the progress that they

could have been making in their own struggles to power. In January 1947 a defeated

Marshall returned to America. Before he left, he bid the Chinese a final farewell,

insisting that the United States would no longer be of assistance to them.

Mao's Revolution

With Marshan gone, Mao and Chiang resumed their conflict. Chiang was able to take

back the Communist base of Yenan by March of 1947. He felt that the end of

Communism was less then a year away. Mao, in the meantime, had been building up an

127
agrarian revolution and was ready to fight. Although the Communists did not have the

vast armies of the KMT, they had a well-trained and relatively welJ-rested regime, versus

124
Hsu, 622

Ill Leung, 257

126
Roxane Witke., Comrade Chiang Ch 'ing (Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1977), 195.
 50

the Nationalists who had just gotten done fighting the Japanese. Perhaps this strategic

timing was one reason that Mao would ultimately succeed. Another reason that the

Nationalists would meet their demise was the catastrophic results of three of the major

123
internal battles. In 1947, the Communists advanced into Manchuria. While Chiang

probably should have concentrated more on the more powerful areas of central China, he

instead utilized 500,000 of his 3 million soldiers for this battle alone. He lost

approximately 470,000 soldiers in Manchuria. The next major battle between the

Communist and Nationalist armies was also the largest. This was the Battle of Huai-Hai

129
and it lasted from November 6, 1948-January 10, 1949. This was Mao's effort to

destroy the KMT troops that were north of the Yangtze River, for if he defeated those

forces, it would leave a clear path to the KMT's power bases in Nanking and Shanghai.

Mao's attack was successful-the communist forces managed to crush the Nationalist

army, as well as capturing General Tu Yu-ming, the commander-in-chief of KMT

130
Hsuchow Bandit Suppression Headquarters. Within five days, approximately 500,000

KMT troops were captured or killed. The weather was also working against the

Nationalist army-it was bitter cold and snowing outside and the tanks and other

armaments of the KMT were not functioning properly. This left the KMT troops wide

open for guerrilla attacks. The KMT was badly defeated during this battle, as well as

during the last major battle at Tientsin-Peiping. Chiang Kai-shek had nothing else to do

but resign.

127
Stuart R. Schram. ed., Mao's Road t
o Power: Revolutionary Writings /912-1949 (Armonk: M.E.

Sharpe, 1997),xxvi
121
Alain Bouc, Mao Tse-tung: A Guide To His Thought (New York: St. Marin's Press, 1977), 74.
129
Leung, 13.
130
Ibid. 14
 51

Where Chiong Went Wrong

There is a lot of speculation over what mistakes Chiang Kai-shek could have eluded

during his presidency that would have avoided the Nationalist defeat in 1949. It is

possible that Chiang's tardiness in retaliating against the Japanese troops caused the war

to get blown out of hand. However, the issue remains that Chiang may have been secure

in the fact that if the Chinese were to have fought the Japanese in 1931 they would have

faced a bitter defeat. The issue of whether or not the assault at Nanking could have been

avoided if Chiang took immediate action remains a mystery. The Japanese War

definitely set the stage for the communist take over. The Communists were able to wait

in the wings and grow stronger, while the Nationalist army was forced to use their power

to fight the Japanese. China's economy was also devastated by the costs of war and the

rising inflation as a result. The fact also remains that many of Chiang's troops, inc1uding

the Manchurian army led by Chang Hsueh-liang, were dissatisfied with the way Chiang

was handling the Japanese invasion-Chang's severe discontent actually led him to take

the drastic measures that he did in the Sian Incident. Chang felt that Chiang was

spending too much time fighting the Chinese Communists, who were made up of his own

people, instead of the foreign invaders-who during the course of eight years took over IO

miJJion Chinese lives. Chiang did predict the attack of the CCP correctly however. It

became a fulfilling prophecy-if he were to put more effort on the Japanese perhaps the

war would not have been so disastrous, thus leaving the road for the CCP to take over,

dosed. On the other hand, Chiang was a very bright individual and a shrewd leader, thus
 52

his assessment that the Chinese were not ready to fight the Japanese even by 1936 and

win, was more then likely accurate.

Aside from the war and the economic factors that helped give the Communists the

advantage, there were other points to consider. The one important mistake that Chiang

made was that he spent so much time and effort on battling with the CCP that he failed to

meet the needs and necessities of the people. Any social refonns that had been

previously considered. such as the Principles of People's Livelihood, which was the

policy that promoted the equal distribution of land and regulation of capital, were never

131
put into practice. There was tremendous economic devastation in China and policies

of reform were not put into play quickly enough. Chiang had also managed to Jose the

support and respect of the people after the war due to the poor way in which the

Nationalist officials conducted themselves when they returned to the conquered areas of

132
China. They were rude and disrespectful to the people-they surely did not show the

support that they should have for people who had just been through the atrocities that

these citizens had faced. The people had shown their loyalty to Chiang while he had

spent more time on the civil war than fighting the outside invaders who would eventually

disrupt their lives and they felt betrayed by this insolent behavior. Another factor, which

was only partly Chiang's fault, was the absence of aid from the Americans during the

war. They offered immediate assistance after the war, however it is possible that both

advisors, Hurley and Marshall gave in too quickly. By abandoning the Chinese Marshall

opened the gates for the Communists to attack; however, Chiang himself was at fault for

not accepting his help. Although historical hindsight, as well as Chiang's own insight,

131
Hsu,642

m Ibid, 641
 53

can almost assure that Mao would not have honored any agreement that was made

between the two powers anyway-especially when he was at an advantage after the

war-Chiang should have also sensed this advantage and planned according)y.

Summary

It is ironic that the same man who once said "only through unity can we save our

country and our people," lost his power while trying to destroy the opposing political

133
party in China. What Chiang wanted was not unification, but assimilation. He did not

want the two parties to work together. Chiang's objective was for the KMT to be the

dominant political party in China. There had been several attempts at a United Front

between the CCP and KMT, but they did not produce any permanent results. Chiang

Kai-shek spent his 21 years as president of China trying to ensure that the KMT would be

the dominant political party in China. He did not necessarily try to instill democracy into

the Chinese people as Dr. Sun Yat-sen had-instead he was more interested in the

downfall of communism, which he felt was wrong for China's future. Chiang tried to

purge China of the communists and when that did not work, he became obsessed with

fighting them. Even when faced by a foreign aggressor, Chiang still remained

determined to resolve the internal struggle first. The result was the rebellion by Chang

Hsueh-Jiang who felt that Chiang was wrong in pursuing the Communists when the

Japanese were pervading through China's walls. It is possible that by Chiang's tardiness

in attacking the Japanese invaders, he made his own downfall inevitable-although the

Japanese had been defeated, the war had left the KMT susceptible to a Communist attack.
 54

While the Nationalists had been fighting the Japanese, the CCP was growing as result of

their inland base, which was far from the battleground. The war left behind a China who

was had not been totally decimated. but weak from economic strife, military exhaustion,

and anguished, frustrated civilians. Still, following the war, Chiang succeeded in

capturing the Communist base of Yenan. Enraged Mao Tse-tung took this opportunity to

advance his annies. Chiang Kai-shek responded poorly by dedicating too many of his

troops to the cause, and lost more then I million men in the major battles between the

CCP and the KMf. Knowing that Chiang and the Nationalist army were at their most

vulnerable, Mao broke through the troops at the Yangtze River, and ultimately took

power of China, forcing Chiang Kai-shek to resign. Chiang's 21 years as president of

mainland China ended at the hands of the CCP. After 1949 he fled to Taiwan and

continued his presidency there. Japanese invasion of China enabled the Communists to

defeat the Nationalists and take over China.

133
Aphorisms, 14
 SS

Chapter4

The Second Sino-Japanese War

The second Sino-Japanese War occurred from 1937-1945. It is also referred to as the

Chinese War. It also opened the way for the CCP to defeat the KMT during the Chinese

Civil War. Many observers feel that if the Japanese had not attacked the Chinese during

this time, that the KMT would have stayed in power f

or a much longer period of time.

The Japanese invasion created tremendous devastation in China. There arc many factors

that contributed to this. There had been an impending threat of Japanese attack since

1931, when the Japanese occupied Manchuria and created the Puppet State of

Manchukuo. By 1937, the Chinese army still was not fully prepared for the Japanese

invasion, for Chiang had been preparing his army to fight the civil war against the CCP.

Chiang held the Manchurian Anny back from fighting the Japanese with the thought that

if the Japanese army took-over Manchuria, it would not be as fatal as it would be if the

CCP took power. By 1936, the Manchurian army had lost faith in Chiang and the Sian

Incident occurred on December 12, 1936, as an attempt to force Chiang into putting aside

the civil war and fighting the Japanese. This ended on December 25, 1936 and Chiang

must have agreed to put aside the civil war, for the attack on the Communists ended and

Chiang began to concentrate on fighting the Japanese in 1937. In the same year, the

Second United Front between the KMT and the CCP was formed.

The Japanese ravaged China at an alarming speed. By 1937, a number of Chinese

territories were invaded, including Shanghai and Nanking, where an estimated 200,000
 56

people were massacred. The Chinese continued to fight the Japanese alone until 1941.

Although it is doubtful that the Chinese had a strong enough anny to defeat the Japanese

military under nonnal circumstances, they were constricted further by the fact that

Chiang Kai-shek held back 400,000 of his best troops in case the Communists attacked.

In 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The Chinese were no longer in the war

against the Japanese alone, for now the United States had a vendetta against Japan as

well. The two powers formed an alliance and by 1945, the Japanese were defeated and

the war was over.

The United Stata and Asia during WWII

Up until 1941, the United States had an isolationist policy-they did not get involved in

the affairs of other countries unless it was to their own benefit. On December 7, 1941,

the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Some observers believe that the Japanese bombed

Pearl Harbor because they wanted to conquer the Philippines and it was under American

protection. Pearl Harbor boasted the largest U.S. fleet, the Pacific Fleet. The Japanese

seemed to be under the belief that by bombing Pearl Harbor the U.S. might either comply

with their wishes or at least be so devastated that they would not be able to rebuild for at

least six months. This would have given the Japanese sufficient time to attack the

Philippines, unintenupted by the U.S. The United States were aware that Chinese were

in the middle of a war with the Japanese, so they enlisted their help. The two allied

powers joined to fight the Japanese. The two began to conduct strategies on how to

defeat this military superpower, whose motto was ''war is the father of creation and the
 57

134
mother of culture. " The first allied strategy against the Japanese was known as the

135
CBI (China, Burma, India) Theater of War, effective Jaouary 5, 1942. Chiaog Kai-

shek was the commander of the operation and the United States sent General Joseph

Stil1well to the wartime capital of Chungking, to serve as Chiang's military advisor.

Stillwell was born in 1893 and was a graduate of West Point military Academy. By the

time of the war, Stillwell had already been in China for several years, serving as a

language officer. Although Stillwell had spent many years in China and spoke Chinese,

he was said by a Chinese critic to have "lacked real knowledge of Chinese culture,

136
politics, the aspirations of the Chinese and the ability to evaluate these. " General

Stillwell served Chiang for fifteen months and although in When Tigers Fight, Dick

Wilson stated that Stillwell did not serve Chiang to the best of his ability perhaps

because, "his heart was not in serving a commander he could not admire," Stillwell did

137
issue some commands that Chiang chose not to follow . Stillwell had been put in China

as Chiang's military advisor, not to make decisions. Perhaps this misunderstanding along

with the stubbornness of both men, contributed to their eventual dislike for each other.

While China had put Stillwell in China to help them fight against the Japanese. In 1942-

3, the United States also began to help China economically. They provided China with

approximately 500 million dollars worth of much needed assistance. By this time, the

Chinese economy had been greatly depleted, due to the expenses of the war. The

assistance helped sustain China through the remainder of the war. While the United

States did not send any formal troops into China to fight, they sent a group of one

IJ.4 Dick Wilson, When Tigers Fight (New Yorlc Viking Press, 1982), 8.

mHsu,601.
136
Wilson, 193.

ll7 Ibid.
 58

hundred air force pilots to assist the Chinese military. These men were known as the

"Flying Tigers," and while they originally only aided the Chinese by airlifting soldiers

and materials, they later began to assist in fighting the Japanese on Chinese soil.

Another big step that the U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt took to help China

during the war, was to ask them to become one of the major superpowers in the world,

known as the Big Three, made up of the United States, the Soviet Union and Britain. The

Chinese accepted and it became known as the Big Four. The conditions of the Chinese

admittance were that any unequal treaties between the United States and China since

1843, would be lifted and that the Chinese would be on equal footing with the United

States. This equality, however, would later be broken when President Roosevelt went

behind China's back in February of 1945 and held the Yalta Conference. The Yalta

Conference was a Big Three conference, which was initiated to try to find a way to end

138
the war. During this conference, the United States asked the Soviet Union to help

them fight the Japanese, knowing that they would need their assistance to end the war

quickly. Russia agreed to help the U.S. in fighting the Japanese on two terms. These

were: (I) they would fight only after the Germans collapsed or surrendered, and (2) in

return Russian wanted back the special privileges that they had held in Manchuria before

139
the Japanese took them away in 1905. Because they knew that having the Russians on

their side would expedite the Japanese defeat, the United States agreed to these

conditions, unbeknownst to the Chinese. This was a direct contradiction to the agreement

of the Chinese addition to the Big Threo--the agreement that the Chinese would be on

equal footing with the United States.

IJI Leung, 471.

119
Ibid. 472.
 59

The United States' efforts to assist the Chinese became strained when relations

between Chiang and Stillwell began to sour. Chiang began to tire of Stillwell's caustic

remarks and Stillwell began to resent Chiang for ignoring his military advice. Stillwell

also resented Chiang because he was retaining 400,CKX) of his best troops, in case of a

Communist attack. Stillwell did not understand this and felt that Chiang should put all of

his forces towards fighting the Japanese. Each man was looking out for his own

countries' best interest. Chiang felt that it was in his best interest to be prepared for a

Communist attack, while Stillwell wanted to sec as many Chinese troops fight as

possible, knowing that it would help the U.S. military end the war more quickly. By 1944

tensions between the two were at a high. Stillwell publicly referred to Chiang as

140
"Peanut," a derogatory term Stillwell used to describe the shape of Chiang's head.

Conditions deteriorated even further when President Roosevelt approved the request that

Stillwell become in charge of American and Chinese forces on July 4, 1944 . ..,., Chiang

agreed to the situation on the fo1lowing conditions: (1) that he received a clear definition

of Stillwell's authority, (2) noninclusion of the Communist troops in his command, and

142
(3) complete control and distribution of the lend-lease by Chiang. During the same

year, Chiang asked Roosevelt to recall Stillwell. By September of 1944, President

Roosevelt sent a mediator to China to assess the situation between the two men. The

mediator was the former Secretary of War, Patrick Hurley. Hurley listened to both sides

of the situation and reported back to Roosevelt. He suggested that President Roosevelt

recall Stillwell back to the United States or risk losing Chiang and China. On October

18, Stillwell was recalled back to the United States.

l
<IO Wilson, 9.
1"1
Leung, 390.
 60

On April 12, 1945, United States President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, died after a Jong

illness. His successor was Harry S. Truman. While Roosevelt had wanted to end the war

as quickly as possible not only for the sake of ending it, he also wished to because he

knew that he was dying. Truman took over right where Roosevelt left off and called the

Potsdam Conference between Stalin, Churchill and Truman to be held on July 17, 1945.

Just one day before, Truman had found out that construction of the American Atomic

Bomb had been completed and tested in Los Alamos New Mexico. An ultimatum was

then issued to the Japanese, as a result of this conference and was known as the Potsdam

Declaration. It was issued on July 26, 1945 and demanded that the Japanese issue an

143
"unconditional surrender or prompt and utter destruction." The Japanese were not

aware of the creation of the A-bomb and did not take the threat seriously. They failed to

respond to the ultimatum. As a result, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima

on August 6, 1945. The United States had planned two bomb attacks-the first on

Hiroshima and the second on Nagasaki. If the Japanese surrendered after the first bomb

was launched, the U.S. would not detonate the second. Two days after the first bombing,

the Japanese failed to surrender, thus the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on August 8,

1945. The next day, the Japanese surrendered and by August 14, the surrender was made

official and the war was over.!"

The Devastating Results or the Japanese Invasion or China

The Japanese invasion of China was sparked by the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, in

mHsu, 604.

143 Ibid. 609.

 61

July of 1937. On the evening of July 7, 1937, there was an exchange of fire between the

Chinese and the Japanese on the Marco Polo Bridge. After the fire, a Japanese soldier

was said to be missing. The Japanese wished to enter the bordering city of Wanping and

requested permission to search for his missing man, however, permission was denied.

The next night, the Japanese attacked and occupied Wanping. ••s It has never be.en

determined who started the fire on the night of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident.

Observers opinions range from the Japanese, to the Chinese, and some even say that

Chinese Communists began the fire on the Japanese to initiate the war, which would later

prove to be beneficial to the Communists in terms of gaining control in China. Kao

Tsung-wu, the Chinese born, Japanese educated, Asian Bureau Chief of the Ministry of

Foreign Affairs, stated that he felt that neither the Japanese, nor the Chinese fired the first

shot in the Marco Polo Bridge Incident-that instead, it was Communist Chinese, "firing

146
from a b1ind spot," to initiate the war. That is one possible theory, although Kao

deplored the Communists, thus he probably would have liked nothing more than to

believe that the Communists were at fault for the Marco Polo Bridge Incident.

On December 13, 1937, the largest atrocity during the Chinese War was committed by

the Japanese military in Nanking. This was the day that Nanking fell to the Japanese, in a

bloody massacre. In a world where Hitler was about to commit genocide in Germany,

the Japanese military were ruthlessly ripping through Nanking, senselessly pulling

innocent Chinese civilians out of their homes and murdering them. Within weeks, a

conservative estimate of, 150,0CX} Chinese civilians were killed. Also during this time,

many Chinese women were also forced into sexual slavery. It was believed that between

1
44
Spence, 483.
1
0
Leung, 254.
 62

1932 and 1945 approximately 200,000 women and girls across Asia and Pacific Islands

147
were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Military. Why the Japanese

military used such brutal force to take-over Nanking is unknown. It is said that during

the 1930's many Japanese military leaders believed that Japan could conquer all of

mainland China in three months, thus when they did not, it may have sparked their rage

148
creating the tremendous animosity shown when they arrived in Nanking. An estimated

1,578,000 to 6,325,000 Chinese were killed during the Japanese invasion, the majority

consisting of civilians. 1-49

Japanese Reaction to their War Crimes

Up until 1995, the Japanese government denied Japan's brutal behavior during the

Sino-Japanese War and World War II. The brutality of the military was not taught in

textbooks, nor was a formal apology ever received for their actions. In August of 1995,

the Japanese Prime MinisterTomiichi Murayama, expressed regret over Japan's war

crimes. During his "heartfelt apology," Murayama stated that Japan had ''through its

colonial rule and invasion, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of

150
many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations." To many Chinese, this did not

seem an adequate apoJogy-it was too little, too late. The Japanese had went for fifty

years without issuing an apology or even acknowledging the atrocities that they had

1�
Boyle, 185.
147
Kate BcddaJI, "Lawmaker asks Congress to Call for Formal Japanese Apology for WWII.era Sex

Slaves," Agence France Pruse 25 July 2001. I.

143
Chang, 33-4.
14'
Ibid. 216.

tso Sheryl WuDunn, "Japanese Apology for War is Welcomed and Criticized," New York Times, 16 August

1995, 3.
 63

committed in Asia during the Sino-Japanese war and this was not acceptab1e for many

who had suffered at their hands. Still as late as 1995, many Japanese felt that an apology

was not necessary. A 55-ycar-old Japanese banker stated, ••I don't think we need to

apologize at an, because we have no evidence that those things occurred. I believe

politicians are apologizing without making solid investigation and without seeking the

truth."ISI This is coming from a man who was around eight years old during the

Massacre and who probably did not understand, nor in all probability hear about what

was going on. The Japanese government kept this and other war crimes they committed.

out of textbooks and schools, thus many Japanese were probably shocked to find out that

it was true. Many Japanese believed what they had done to the Chinese and felt that it

was time to issue an apology. A 58-year-old businessman, Kenichi Kobayashi said, "it

was a war of invasion and I believe an apology was right. We have done bad things to

152
the Asian people and I think we should have apologized earlier." Perhaps the Japanese

who felt that Japan did not owe China an apology were too shocked to believe that it was

true-or perhaps they were too proud. No further mention of the issue was mentioned

until another six years later, when apology was issued in 2001 by Premier Junichiro

Koizumi, who expressed his regret over the Japanese war crimes while visiting the World

153
War TI memorial outside of Beijing.

UL Ibid.
152
Ibid.
 64

The KMT and the CCP during the War

There had been an impending threat of Japanese invasion in China since 1931,

beginning with the Mukden Incident, September 18, 1931. During the Mukden Incident,

Japan was threatening to take over Manchuria, virtually unopposed by Chiang Kai-shek

and his military forces. Chiang seemed to feel that it was more important to keep the

Communists out of power than to lose Manchuria, which could later be recovered. to the

Japanese. By 1932 the Japanese had conquered and occupied Manchuria and replaced it

with the puppet state of Manchukuo. They put P'u-i, China's last emperor (who was only

a child at the time of his abdication in 1912) in the position of emperor and stated that

they were simply occupying Manchuria in order to protect the integrity of the territory.

In fact, Japan and Manchucuo signed the Japan-Manchukuo Protocol, recognizing the

independence of Manchukuo. In reality, however, the Commander-in-Chief to the

154
Kwantung Anny was put in charge of all affairs and P'u-i was powerless. The

Japanese, in fact, were using Manchukuo to their own advantage.

After 1931, tensions continued to build between China and Japan. By the Marco Polo

Bridge Incident of 1937, the Chinese had no choice but to fight the Japanese. On July 19,

155
1937 Chiang issued a statement saying that it was time to fight the Japanese. The

Second United Front was formed between July and August of 1937, as a result of the

Japanese invasion. The Communists issued a written decree, known as the Communist

Manifesto, stating their complete and utter compliance with the United Front. By 1939,

m ''Chinese Happy over Japanese Apology, but Jiang Blunt." Agtmee France Presse, 9 October 2001, I.
154
Leung, 246-7.
155
Hsu Long-hsuen and Chang Ming-kai, History o
fthe Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1945 (Taipei: Chung

WuPublishingCo, 1971), l.
 65

however, both parties had violated the agreements of the United Front by making

international alliances and by 1941 the Nationalists launched a full-scale attack on the

New Fourth Anny. In 1941, the United States became involved with China, attempting

to utiJize them to fight the Japanese and noticed that the civil war was standing in China's

way of fighting the Japanese military. Late into the war, the U.S. attempted to help

rectify the situation.

While in China to access the situation between General StiJlwel1 and Chiang, Hurley's

job was also to mediate relations between the KMI' and the CCP. Hurley flew to Yenan

to have a conference with Mao Tse-tung. Mao, who was impressed with Hurley's effort,

was agreeable to Hurley's requests that the two parties get along for the sake of China,

during the war. On November IO, 1944, Mao wrote a letter to President Roosevelt

stating that, "It has always been our desire to reach and agreement with President Chiang

Kai-shek which will promote the welfare of the Chinese people. Through the good

156
offices of General Hurley we have sudden seen hope of realization." While Immanuel

Hsu writes that Mao said this to show, "his appreciation of the American effort," it is

more likely that Mao was using this to gain the respect of the Americans, as well as the

157
Chinese people, as he had done with the Communist Manifesto. After the war, this

would benefit them, for the people had lost all faith in the Nationalist government and

were looking for a system of government that would put China back into order. Mao had

been using Communist propaganda to gain support since the Long March in 1934, where

the Communists were chased out of their base of Kiangsi, by the Nationalists, and

marched 6,000 miles to Shensi. This was done not only because they were driven out of

U6 Spence, 606.
157
Ibid.
 66

their base, but to instill self-esteem in the members of the Communist party and also to

gain prestige in the public eye.

In December of 1945, the United States made one final attempt to rectify the situation

between the KMT and the CCP in China. Hurley had resigned in November of 1945, due

to his inability to create peace between China's two opposing political forces. On

December 20, 1945, General George C. Marshall went into China to take over where

Hurley had left off. Initially, Marshall's mediation produced positive results. A cease-

fire agreement was announced on January 10, 1946, and between January 10 and January

30, the Political Consultative Conference was held to discuss issues such as reorganizing

158
the national government, and the establishment of a constitutional govemment. On

February 25, 1946, the Communist forces had agreed to integrate into a unified national

army, however, soon after these agreements were made, both parties broke the terms of

the egreement.P" Both parties attempted to gain control of Manchuria and by the end of

160
June 30, 1936, full-scale war had begun between the KMT and the CCP. On January

8, 1947, George C. Marshall aborted his mission to unify China and returned to the

United States.

The Communist Growth During the War

Mao Tse-tung used the period of the Japanese invasion to the Communist's advantage.

He was using this time to train the Communists vigorously and prepare for their growth.

The Communists had the advantage over the Nationalists-their base was located in

1"
Leung, 257-8.

ISt Ibid, 258.

 67

Yenan, thus they were inland and did not have to fight because the Japanese were

attacking the coastal regions of China first. The Communist party in China was also

growing since many Chinese were fleeing from the coast to the interior. By this time

Mao had constructed a secret policy to take power from the Nationalists while they were

at their most vulnerable. His plan was to utilize 100% of the Communist energies and

resources to ensure their success. He broke it down into 3 different parts. Mao planned

to use 70% towards recruitment of CCP members and for growth. 20% of the energies

were channeled towards trying to keep the Nationalist forces out in case they tried to

expand into the CCP's tenitory. Since the Japanese had not yet gotten to the interior of

the country where the CCP was stationed, Mao planned to use only 10% of the party's

power towards fighting the foreign invaders. In all probability, the Sino-Japanese War

was responsible for bringing the Communists to power in China. Had it not been for the

fact that Chiang Kai-shek had to use most of his time and military power to fight the

Japanese he could have worked on his original plan of making the KMf stronger. He

would have then, in all likelihood, been able to wipe out the CCP altogether-e-or at least

kept the KMT in power for several more decades.

The war also caused many other problems for China. For one. the Chinese spent over

161•
one million dol1ars on the costs of war by 1945 A dramatic increase in inflation

resulted in order to make up the loss. The Chinese people were also physical1y and

emotionally exhausted by the end of the war. Approximately 14 million soldiers had

been utilized in the war and over 1,300,000 of them were killed 162• There were estimated

1
60
Ibid.
161
Hsu, p. 612
162
Ibid., p.611
 68

to be over 10 million civilian casualties 163• Millions of dollars worth of property had

been destroyed. The people were not only still reeling from the effects of the foreign

invaders, but also from the internal strife between the KMT and the CCP that had plagued

them for so long. During this time with the civilians weary and the military weakened,

Mao chose to stage his civil war.

While China emerged as the victor of the Sino-Japanese war, the Chinese were still

defeated. There was mass devastation and loss of life throughout northern China. The

Nationalist army was exhausted from seven years of fighting. The economy was poor,

due to high inflation and the costs of war. The people were also very tired of Chiang

Kai-shek and the Nationalist government. Many Chinese did not approve of the way that

Chiang handled the war and felt that he should have dispatched troops in 1931 when

Japan occupied Manchuria. They had grown weary of the civil war. They were also

appalled at the treatment that they received by the Nationalist army after the war. Not

only did the army return to the Japanese occupied tenitories and treat the Chinese

civilians there with contempt, they also used the Japanese and ''their puppet Chinese

164
troops," to fight the Communists, after the Japanese invasion had ended. This was a

betrayal to the Chinese people, who had just gone through seven years of brutal war with

the Japanese. By 1949, after being defeated in three major battles by the Communist

army, Chiang Kai-shek and the KMT surrendered and moved the RepubJic of China to

Taiwan. A new, Communist government, the People's Republic of China, was put into

place in China on October 1, 1949. On January 21, 1949, Chiang Kai-shek resigned as

the president of the Republic of China-Mao Tse-tung had succeeded in bringing the

163
Chang, p.8

IM Fairbank, 1"h4 Great Chinese Revolutibn, 263.

 69

Communists to power. There was an attempted peace proposal made by the vice

president Li-Tsung-jen, who had taken over Chiang's place. He tried to offer to the

communists that the KMT would stay in the south if the CCP stayed in the north, but

Mao did not want part of China-he wanted all of it and he knew that he would succeed

in obtaining it. The KMT no longer was able to resist the CCP for they had become too

weak, thus the take over was inevitable. In December of 1949, Chiang Kai-shek retreated

to Taiwan, where he resumed his presidency. His control of Mainland China had been

lost to Mao Tse-tung and the CCP.

Summary

While the United States offered their assistance to China in 1941, it was obviously

done only because it would benefit the United States to have the Chinese help them fight.

The U.S. supplied China with a military advisor, much needed economic aid and offered

them a position in what became the Big Four, but never treated them on equal footing

with the other Big Three powers. Although the unequal treaties between the Unites

States and China were canceled, President Roosevelt held the Yalta Conference behind

Chiang Kai-shek's back and agreed to give the Russians back the territory of Manchuria;

a territory which had once belonged to China. While Joseph Stillwell was stationed in

China in order to give Chiang military advice, he was a stubborn man who publicly

insulted the President of China while in his own country. He wanted to see as many

Chinese troops fight the Japanese as possible, for the good of the United States, thus he

resented Chiang for holding some troops back and made his bitterness evident. When
 70

Stillwell was reca1led, the U.S. mediator, Patrick Hurley was sent to cease the fighting

between the KMT and the CCP, but failed. The Marshall Mission followed Hurley's

attempt, but George C. Marshall was also unsuccessful and the United States washed

their hands of China's internal problems. Relations between the two countries became

strained as a result. Although the United States had sent mediators to China with the best

intentions, it is possible that their former isolationist approach may have been the best

method to follow in the case of the Chinese civil war.

'The Japanese invasion of China caused tremendous chaos and turmoil within China.

The Chinese were in the middle of a civil war, thus their efforts were not completely

focused on fighting the Japanese. When Chiang did finally agree to fight the Japanese in

1937, he held back 400,000 of his best troops in case of a Communist attack. While it

may have looked as though he was paranoid and terribly stubborn at the time, Chiang

turned out to be correct in thinking that if the KMf was unprepared, the CCP could

defeat them. Chiang would have no way of knowing at the time, however, if communism

would cost China as many lives as would the Japanese military, thus he was potentia1ly

putting his people at risk. Mao was using the Japanese invasion to his advantage, for

while the Nationalist military was busy fighting the Japanese, the CCP was building in

size and strength. Mao was also using this time to gain public prestige. Not only did he

issue the Communist Manifesto in 1937, stating that the Communists were perfectly

willing to forget the Civil War during the Japanese invasion, but he was also very

cooperative with the American mediator, Hurley. While Mao appeared very sincere to

the public, he was just trying to gain their support. He knew that by appearing to desire

the end of the civil war, he would appear to be the more reasonable of the two, between
 71

Chiang and himself. By 1949, the people had seen enough of the Nationalist government

and were willing to accept the new Communist government with open arms.
 72

Conclusion

While a Nationalist fonn of government may have seemed to be idea1 to Dr. Sun and

Chiang, there was not enough structure in order to implement it properly. China had

been under Imperial rule for nearly 2000 years and then struggled through a twelve year

Warlord period. Most Chinese people had no contact with the West and others had very

limited contact. Western ideals were not popular nor had they been welcome up until that

time period. Trying to bring a Western form of government into a tradition-oriented

culture was not what was best for China at the time. While nationalism may have worked

if implemented properly, there were not many Chinese during the time that would have

been able to demonstrate the knowledge of the West, as well as the mi1itary expertise

necessary to do so.

In 1937, the KMT had a solid power base and following. The CCP was growing in

popularity but was sti11 relatively small in comparison. The Japanese invasion of China

was the turning point in this period of Chinese history. Had the Japanese invasion never

happened, Mao would probably not have had time to strengthen the CCP, for Chiang had

watched him closely before the war. Many factors contributed to Chiang's loss of power

including a poor economy, inflation, and low mora1 among the people, yet these were a11

direct results of the Japanese invasion. The lack of early intervention by the United

States, due to their isolationist policy or aid from any allied powers a1so added to China's

devastation. The United States got eventually got involved in the Sino-Japanese War

after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and it was beneficial to them. By becoming
 73

involved in the war on Chinese soil, more Chinese and less American soldiers were

fighting the Japanese.

After the fall of the monarchy in China, deciding on a new fonn of government

became a trial and error process for the Chinese people. Because they had lived in chaos

during the warlord era, they had high hopes for nationalism in China and were

discouraged when it seemed to cause more chaos. Mao's Communism seemed to

succeed in China because the government had complete control over the people, much as

they did while China was a monarchy. While Chiang planned to bring nationalism into

China, he had more concerns about keeping communism out, perhaps not only because

he felt it was the wrong choice for China, but perhaps because he knew that his

leadership was in jeopardy. This made the people lose faith in him and when Mao

defeated Chiang, they welcomed the new Communist government.

It is doubtful that the Communists would have taken power of China when they did

had the Japanese invasion not occurred. Throughout his presidency in China, Chiang

Kai-shek took great measures to ensure that the Communists would not overthrow the

government, yet he became powerless after the Japanese attacked in 1937. He was then

forced to focus his efforts on the war, giving the CCP the opportunity to grow. Chiang's

reasons for despising communism as he did may have grown into more of a struggle to

maintain power than to do what was best for China. It is also debatable whether or not

Mao Tse-tung was so vehemently opposed to nationalism and truly felt that communism

was right for China--perhaps he felt so strongly about it simply because it was his chance

to gain power through implementing a new political system in China. Whatever Mao's
 74

motivation was led him to success in 1949 and led to the introduction of communism in

China.
 75

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