China to 1937
A. Introduction - China stands as an anomoly in this world,
on the one hand it is a poor, yet developing, nation which has a dominant Communist
party; on the other it is a major player on the world which exercises influence
beyond its present capabilites, it is also one of the fastest growing economies
in the world and the communist party has been in charge of a wide reaching marketization
campaign for over 15 years.
During the time of the modernization campaign, the CCP which previously had
advocated the most radical of communist policies has become a believer in the
efficiency and utility of the market as a means of distributing goods and services.
The change from the policies of Mao Zedong to those of Deng Xiaoping has been
a remarkable one in may respects, and we will be discussing the scope and breadth
of these changes over the next few weeks.
B. Pre-Revolutionary History
1. Ethnocentrism of the Chinese
(a) The Middle Kingdon (Zhongguo)
(b) The Emperor (Son of Heaven)
(c) Dynasties (Assimilation)
(d) Four Key points to Confucian Thought
(i) The primacy of family loyalty and the primacy of ancestral loyalty within
the family.
(ii) A hierarhcical view of society - five relationships emperor and subject,
father and son, husband and wife, elder and younger brother, friend and friend.
(iii) The ruler is obligated to treat his subjects fairly, if not, rebellion
is justified.
(iv) Power should be held by people who had been properly educated. In China
this took the form of examinations for entry into the bureaucracy. The exams
for the scholar gentry - a practice established during the Sung Dynasty (960-1279)
- were given and the candidates were expected to study and be able to comment
on Confucian classics. Largely rote learning. The importance placed on scholarship
within dynastic China is very apparent when one examines the social heirarchy
of that time - scholars, peasants, artisans, merchants. The scholar gentry represented
the most powerful elements within China, this followed the Asiatic tradition
of conferring economic power through office. As the dynasties developed there
was a tendancy for corruption among the officials, by the latter stages of the
Qing it was estimated that only 1/4 to 1/5 of the taxes levied ever actually
reached the centre. Not only did this place an onerous burden on the peasantry,
but it also deprived the centre of badly needed capital.
- Confucianism is more of a political and moral system rather than a religious
one.
- State control over life was very high due its responsibility for the dykes
and canals of China, vital to crop irrigation and transportation. Wittfogel
and Oriental Despotism - that China developed a stagnant and despotic government
due to the control that the Qing dynasty had over the water and the importance
of water to that society - a hydraulic society. In a hydraulic society "All
individuals base their behavior on the condition that the regulations of yesterday
are necessarily linked to the regulations of today and tomorrow. And that there
is structure and cohesion in the history of mankind". The rules remain
constant and the power of the state is supreme.
- Very much a male dominated society - footbinding and male heirs (ancient tradition
of baby washing which has been reborn under the one child policy)
(e) Foreign Relations Prior to 1842
- Tributary Basis
- The kowtow
- Not normal relations in the sense that we know them in the West. Hierarchically
ordered. There was not a Chinese civilization, there was simply civilization.
All others were barbarians.
(f) The Opium War - Treaty of Nanjing - Hong Kong; Shanghai, Guangzhou, Amoy,
Fuzhou, Ningbo
2. Dynastic Decline
- Major Characteristics of the Qing Dynasty: the elitist structure of political
authority; the political system gave supreme power to the emperor and the bureaucracy
was at the apex of the system; the legitimacy of political authority rested
in an ideology - confucianism.
- Decline of the Qing
Role of Foreign Contact
There is a great debate over the role that the foreign powers played in the
collapse of the Qing Dynasty. There are those that contend that in fact, foreign
contact aided the modernization process by the transfer of technology and that
the shock was necessary to disrupt a stagnant domestic economy. They continue
the argument by stating that the investment was lagely limited to Manchuria
and Shanghai and therefore did not touch the lives of the average Chinese.
While the economic impacts of imperialism was limited, the role that it played
in the political and cultural spheres was more profound.
- China gets carved up by foreign powers
- Zones of influence - Germany, Britain, France
- Large coastal cities have a heavy foreign presence
- Extraterritoriality
- Park in Shanghai - No Dogs or Chinese
-Russian expansion also impinged upon dynastic China - In 1860, under the Treaty
of Beijing, the Qing dynasty ceded to Russia - "all lands east of the Ussurri
and Sungari Rivers up to the Sea". The Chinese regard this as an unequal
treaty forced upon them by the Tsars at a moment of extreme weakness and have
disputed its legitimacy ever since. In fact, in 1964, Mao not only stated the
Chinese displeasure with the Treaty of Beijing, but went on to provide a grocery
list of Chinese territorial grievances against the Soviet Union. "About
a hundred years ago the area east of Lake Baikal became Russian territory, and
since then Vladivostock, Khaborovski, Kamchatka and other points have become
territories of the Soviet Union... We have not yet presented the bill for this
list". Impact of imperialism on China was very profound.
- Open Door Policy - John Hay - 1899. American opposition to further incursions
into China and further carving up of territory, supported by the Brits and was
therefore moderatley effective. This remained the basis of American policy toward
China for the next couple of decades.
- Missionaries - Buck and Luce
- Rice Christians
- American mission toward China was a civilizing one, China was seen as a younger
sibling to be taught modern ways. Funny in the sense that America has never
really judged China as a normal nation, it has vaccilated between fear and patronage.
- Dual images - sinister vs. Hard working
- relevance for f.p. in that if the former can be removed latter can be created
Internal Rebellions
- Series of Rebellions between 1830 and 1911. Virtually all provinces in China
experienced some sort of upheaval during that time. I mentioned the taxation
earlier, during Qing times the local officials were given a quota to remit to
the centre; however, they added unspecified sums to that to cover their own
salaries and local government and the tax burden on the peasantry proved onerous.
Another local factor was the population explosion that occured in China in the
first half of the 19th century, when the population grew from about 130 million
in 1700 to roughly 430 million by the middle part of the 19th century. This
occured without any sort of corresponding increase in the amount of arable land.
- This increase led to further competition for scarce resources, as well as
a reduction in the amount of money to pay the taxes. The local officials, by
and large, do not seem to have been overly sympathetic and these were the domestic
causes of the rebellions.
- Also mention that the Qing was indeed a foreign dynasty and this was a useful
factor in mobilizing the citizenry.
- While confucian society stressed order, it was also presented that rebellion
was justified if the government lost the mandate of heavan - if their actions
had incurred the wrath of heavan. Floods, droughts, inability to govern.
- Coupled with the foreign intrusions described earlier this led to a series
of revolts in China.
Taiping Rebellion (1850-64)
- The Taiping rebellion began in South China, led by a fellow who believed himself
to be the younger brother of Jesus Christ (Hong Xiu-quan). Three bases to the
rebellion: the peasantry desire for equality; a reaction against a foreign dynasty;
and a modernist movement that developed in response to the challenge presented
by the West in the Opium Wars.
- Moved North from South China and established a capital at nanjing, sought
to establish a new dynasty. However, as they moved north they failed to gain
the support of the peasantry. Attacked Shanghai and drew the wrath of the foreigners
(Charles “chinese” Gordon) also, by the mid 1850s the movement became
wrought with factional struggles and corruption and decadence began to surface.
Eventually Nanking fell in 1864 and tremendous bloodshed followed.
- Also during that time there were rebellions in Northern China (the White Lotus
societies), Western China (Moslems) and Urban Southern China (the triads). All
of these rebellions were geared against the foreign leadership of the Manchus.The
broad goals were similar but the narrow goals were diverse.
- After 1860, the Western governments supported the Manchus against these rebellions.
Although the time was full of insurrection, the Manchus crushed the four largest
rebellions (see above). To combat this rebellion, regional armies were used.
Mention the reluctance of the Manchus to create a national army. Initially the
funding came from the local gentry, in time it was largely raised from two main
sources - the creation of new taxes and placing the levying of local taxes under
the supervision of the military.
- The creation of the local armies later would come back to haunt the Manchus.
These local armies became dependant on the West for arms and training. Fine
unless they actually had to fight the West.
- Following the suppression of the rebellions, the key goal of the Manchu's
was to improve the agricultural economy. Abandoned land was reclaimed and the
number of deaths in the rebellions helped restore the population/agriculture
balance. While this did restore order and eliminated some of the imbalance between
land and population, it did not alter the fundamental fact that China could
not feed itself. It also expanded regional power bases and the cost of quelling
local rebellions left China weak and economically stagnant.
- War with Japan (1895) - particularily galling to the Chinese. They had considered
the Japanese to be their inferiors and were appalled at the shame of losing
a war to them. Loss of Taiwan. Also this called for large war indemnities. Which
the West loaned China the money to pay, thereby further constraining the finances
of the central government. Foreigners were also given increased access to China
- increase in the number of treaty ports to the eventual 97 by WWI and spheres
of influence.
Boxer Rebellion (1900)
- Boxer societies had sprund up in China through the 1890s. Most were peasants
(Chinese name for the movement translates into fists of righteous harmony).
Initially aimed at the Manchus but the Empress Dowager Cixi was able to turn
their anger against the European foreigners, as opposed to the Manchus, and
declared war on the foreign powers on June 20. In August, an international force
of 16,000 sacked and pillaged North China - home of the revolt - and crushed
the boxers. A huge war indemnity was levied on China ($335 Million) this further
strained the purse of the central government. After this, the foreign diplomatic
corp became the real government of China.
- Problems with the West and the internal rebellions left the Qing Dynasty in
disarray. At the end of the 19th century China was the "iron house without
windows, totally indestructable, with many people sleeping soundly inside, about
to be asphyxiated."
- Qing was more or less discredited in the eyes of the peasants, power had become
dispersed to the regions, foreign influence in China was extremely strong, and
the intelligentsia was seeking to find a way to reform China.
- Western Technology vs Western Culture
- Japan became a haven for Chinese seeking to learn how to modernize their country
and be able to withstand the pressures of the West.
- Whole panopoly of beliefs.
- Sun Yat-sen - 3 principles - nationalism, democracy (to come after 9 years
of preparation - 3 yrs of martial law, 6 years of military rule) and peoples
livilihoods (taxes based on prosperity engendered by the government). Founder
of the KMT, hero in both PRC and ROC). First President of the Republic (6 mos
deal with Yuan Shikai)
- Kang Youwei - First became known when, on his exam for the gentry, instead
of citing Confucian verse, he wrote a long treatise on the ails of China. Kang
was stronly in favor of retaining Chinese culture while assimilating foreign
technology (agriculture, foreign trade, industry, military). Self strengthening.
He also favored the continuation of Manchu rule as he did not believe that China
was ready for a full democracy.
The Period of the Warlords (1911-1927)
- The Qing government collapsed in 1911. A rebellion began in Wuhan and soon
spread to other provinces. Decentralization that began during the Taiping Rebellion
led to the creation of local fiefs, where the regional commanders (warlords)
jealously guarded their independence and sought further autonomy. The peasants
were rebelling due to the heavy tax burden, and the still unresolved issue of
land reform. The intellectuals favored change as this was seen as the only way
in which China could strengthen itself. In short, by this time the Qing Dynasty
had few supporters and was faced with opposition from virtually all of the social
movements in China.
- An army officer named Yuan Shikai (head of the First Peiyang Army) was called
in by the Manchus to restore order and to stop the rebellion. Instead he did
a deal with the regional warlords and became the head of government himself.
- However, the new government was also extremely weak. Yuan depended on the
support of the regional warlords for the retention of power. They would only
support him as long as they were allowed autonomy (while a strong central government
stifled intellectual development it could also control local abuses). Also,
they were not revolutionaries and were not interested in changing the status
quo. China in a virtual state of chaos. Yuan Shikai died in 1916, his attempt
to form a new dynasty had failed and the government became little more than
a shifting series of alliances between the regional rulers. The warlords numbered
in the huindreds and controlled territories of varying sizes, they also ranged
from conservative and reactionary to reformers. There was one general who became
a christian and baptized his troops with fire hoses.
- Within the armies of the warlords, personal ties, provinvial loyalty and the
prospect of gain were the main factors unifying the armies. When units would
either experience inadequate rewards or assume some independant power they would
either defect to another warlord or become independant entities and you had
the creation of new warlords (possibly allied to their former bosses but not
necessarily).
- Warlordism not only stifled the economy with its constant demand for money
and therefore new taxes, it also oppressed the peasants horribly. As I mentioned
earlier, while the centre might have been overly bureaucratized and an impediment
to development, it did serve to curb some of the worst abuses. The onset of
warlordism hastened the disintegration of China into regional fiefs. This was
not an entirely novel experience, previously as the dynasities in China had
collapsed there was usually a period of regional disintegration prior to the
consolidation of power by a new dynasty, however after each of these periods
the country would become reintegrated along cultural Confucian lines - this
did not happen in the twentieth century.
However, the one positive phenomenon of this period is that it indirectly encouraged
the growht of nationalism in China through its own poor example. An intellectual
revolution occured in China during the first part of the twentieth century.
While the latter part of the 19th century produced opposition to the Qing dynasty,
after 1911 the intellectuals of China began to see that the Manchus were not
solely responsible for China’s problems.
- Calls for change were all based on nationalism, remember the Chinese sense
of cultural pride and the effects of the previous couple of centuries of imperialism.
- Demands for change from the KMT & CCP.
1. The Guomindang (Formed by Sun Yat-sen in 1912) - Nationalist Party- party
organized along Leninist lines. After WWI, not only was Sun disillusioned with
the West, but the Soviets were the only people willing to assist him. Humiliations
by the West (Versailles) and the general idea that perhaps Western Democracy
was not such a good thing (experience of WW I) led to the new calls for change
coming from a very different angle. May 4th Movement.
Following the death of Yuan Shikai, the KMT took regional control of Canton.
In effect they became the local warlords - 1917. In that year the KMT formed
a military government in Canton. It bribed naval commanders to move the fleet
south and a number of the members of China’s feeble post-Manchu parliament
came south. They set up what they claimed to be the parliament of China in Canton.
Of course, this was really only a collection of intellectuals governing by military
means a small part of South China. Sun wanted to unify China under one rule
and set out on a northern expedition in 1921-22. This failed to go any distance
beyond the previous bounds, and at this point he was ready to deal with anyone.
The Soviets sent an agent named Mikhail Borodin to Canton to assist the efforts
of organization and payed for the establishment of the Whampoa miltary academy
in 1924. This occured during a period of alliance between the KMT and the CCP,
more on this in just a moment, and the Whampoa military academy proved to be
a training ground for many of China’s future leaders - both Communist
and Nationalist. For example, the commandant of the academy was Chiang Kai-shek,
who ruled China from 1927 to 1949 before fleeing to, and becoming the President
of Taiwan. Also, the chief political advisor was Zhou Enlai, later to become
the Premier of China from 1949 to his death in 1976. Now let us turn our attention
to the actions of the other major force in Chinese politics - the Chinese Communist
party.
The CCP - CCP was founded in July of 1921 at a meeting in Shanghai
attended by 12 Chinese and two representatives of the Comintern. This sprang
from a series of study groups led by Li Dazhao at Beijing University (China’s
Oxford) beginning in 1918. Li has been called the “father of Chinese Marxism”,
one of his students was Mao Zedong, who was working in the library at that time.
The Russian Revolution greatly excited China’s intellectuals, Li saw this
as being very relevant for China, if Russia could shake off the vestiges of
feudalism, why couldn’t China? Also, the fact that communism had come
to power in Russia, suddenly made it more relevant for the Chinese - prior to
the October Revolution, it had been assumed that revolution would occur in the
most industrially advanced countries (England, Germany). The bolshevik victory
changed all of these perceptions .
One of the things that Mao took from Li was a belief in the potential of the
peasantry as a force for revolution. Remember that under classical Marxism,
it was to be the industrial proletariat who were to be the leading lights in
the revolution - the belief was that they had seen the excesses of capitalism
at their worst and would therefore be the most likely to rebel. At that time,
China was largely rural, and industrial workers made up a minuscule percentage
of the population. Li contended that due to imperialism all of China had been
proletarianized and therefore ready for rebellion. Beyond the use of the peasants
as a revolutionary force, Mao also took a couple of other things from Li - nationalism
and voluntarism.
- While Li Dazhao and his acolyte stressed the role of the peasant in bringing
about the revolution, this was not the line of the Comintern at that time, which
stressed urban activism.
- United Front. Alliance between the KMT and the CCP was formalized with an
agreement between Sun and a representative of the Comintern Adolf Joffe. Led
to the establishment of the Whampoa Academy and the two forged an uneasy alliance.
Done at the behest of the Soviets who were providing assistance to each. For
Sun, this was an easy decision, he wanted to come to power and the Soviets were
the only foreign power to offer any real support and the CCP could only help
provide the footsoldiers of the movement.
While Sun and the Comintern supported the alliance, Li Dazhao and many of the
senior Communists did not. They did not see the need to ally with the less ideologically
committed members of the KMT. The KMT’s principle goal was to acquire
power and unify China under one rule, not introduce a dictatorship of the proletariat.
However, they supported the move out of a sense of communist discipline.
The Death of Sun Yat-sen - In 1925, Sun Yat-sen died of cancer.
While he had accomplished few of his aims, he was a vocal nationalist in a time
of serious difficulty for China. Also he had the good fortune to pass on before
the alliance between the nationalists and the Communists collapsed, this preserved
the what if question.
Sun’s death set off an interesting struggle for the leadership of the
KMT. Eventually, the former Commandant of the Whampoa Military Academy, Chiang
Kai-Shek emerged as the leader. He was not as keen on an alliance with the Communists,
and the United Front underwent increased difficulty.
- However, this did not prevent the CCP and the KMT from launching the Northern
Expedition (1926-28). This was aimed at unifying China under one government,
of course, the question was which government would prevail, difficulties from
the outset.
In the first stage of the march (to the Yangtze), the Communist served as the
advance troops, entering the cities and the countryside prior to the arrival
of the KMT armed forces and organized the peasants and the workers. Naturally
this terrified the landlords and the industiralists, and the conservative elements
of the KMT. This led many of their supporters to question the value of the alliance.
Difficulties and manouverings throughout.
- Shanghai Massacre (1927). At Shanghai in April of 1927, the KMT with the complicity
of the local police and the Chinese Criminal Gangs, turned on the communists
and massacred their cadres. This set off a pogrom against the Communists throughout
urban China, destroyed their effectiveness in urban China. The CCP leadership
fled to a rural area on the Jiangxi-Hunan border and set up a rural base. This
turn of events led to the death of much of the Communist leadership, among them
Li Dazhao, Li had been arrested in Beijing 6 days before the Shanhai Massacre
by a Manchurian warlord - he was executed by strangulation three weeks later
- Even after Shanghai and the massacre, the Russian advisors continued to advocate
urban revolution. This substantially from reality, the CCP found its urban bases
destroyed and most of its urban cadres had been murdered. Problems within the
CCP as the leadership, until at least the mid 1930s consisted of Chinese who
had been trained in Moscow and therefore could be considered reliable by Stalin.
- continued support for CPSU, Stalin and Trotsky
Republic of China (1927-1937)
- following Shanghai the northern expedition consisted mainly of coopting local
warlords. What began as a revolution became little more than the coopting of
warlords with the odd battles. The warlords sought to expand their own forces,
ostensibly to control the communists, but in reality to preserve their autonomy.
- KMT installed at Nanjing. Beset by factionalism, the rapid expansion of membership
following the Northern expedition destroyed the Leninist model of organization.
Those who joined the party largely did so out of a desire for personal gain.
- Never really came to grips with the problems of the countryside. Rural farm
prices were depressed from 31-35. Recession in urban China, severly hurt the
precarious existence of the peasantry. While the Nanjing Decade (27-37) brought
about some changes in urban China, the rural areas were largely left to their
own devices. The KMT believed that the Gentry was the key to rural stability
and was very reluctant to disrupt this supposed stability.
- Corruption within the government
- Question of whether the KMT would have been successful but for the war with
Japan will have to go unanswered.
The CCP
- Jiangxi Soviet (28-34). Area where much of the CCP leadership fled. Already
had Mao (who became the chief political advisor and Zhu De, who became the military
commander)
- KMT uses German advisors and surround Jiangxi, Communists left with the choice
of attempting to breakout of the encirclement or to simply fight to the last
man at Jiangxi. Not much of a choice, they decided to break out and attempt
to link up with other forces in Northern China. .
- The Long March Jianxi-Yenan - 6,000 miles (New York-Rio). Extremely difficult
journey, only a fraction of those who began the trek lived to see its completion.
Of an initial force numbering roughly 100,000 only about 12,000 survived (numbers
and estimates vary). Explain the difficulties and hardships of the journey.
-Results - Human Will, Mao & Peasants (1934-36)
- Cunyi Conference (1935)
- Repudiation of Soviet Elements
- Mao in 1936, we are certainly not undertaking this struggle to turn China
over to the Soviet Union after our victory.
- Soviets lose ability to discipline the Chinese
5. WWII and the Civil War
- Japanese occupation of Manchuria - 1931-32. Established the puppet state of
Manchukuo in 1932. Used Pu Yi, the last emperor, as the puppet ruler of the
state.
- One of the factors that broke the League of Nations
- Japanese aggression in Manchuria displaced Chang Hsueh-liang (the young marshall).
He and his troops moved into Northern China. In 1935, Chiang ordered the young
Marshall to attack the Communists at their base in Northern China. He balked
at the assignment, arguing that it would be folly to fight other Chinese while
the Japanese occupied his homeland. In December of 1936, Chiang Kai-shek came
north to announce plans for a new offensive against the CCP using the troops
of the Young Marshall. The Young Marshall and his men then kidnapped Chiang
and presented a series of demands, the jist of which was that the KMT and the
CCP form a United Front to oppose the Japanese. Some of the Manchurian troops
wanted to execute Chiang, believing that with him out of the way, then the CCP
and the KMT could then form an alliance to oppose Japanese aggression. However,
a delegation of Communists lead by Zhou Enlai then arrived in Xian and argued
that the Soviets wanted to see Chiang alive to lead China. Chiang eventually
agreed to the formation of the United Front and went back to Nanjing accompanied
by the young Marshall. The young marshall was then arrested and lived the next
40 odd years under house arrest (mention that they took him to Taiwan).
- Ramifications
- Second United Front - Marked By Mistrust - Uneasy alliance
- Actions of the Russians
WWII and the Civil War
On July 7, 1937 the Japanese attacked Chinese forces at the Marco Polo bridge
10 miles outside of Beijing. Beginning of the Pacific War. Japanese then moved
toward Shanghai and Nanjing (rape of Nanjing - 300,000 killed) and the KMT moved
its headquarters to Chongqing, where they existed for the second world war.
They detroyed roads, bridges and rail lines for a distance of 100 miles around
Chongqing.
- CCP becomes national party of China
- False KMT in Nanjing
- Chiang's reluctance to engage the Japanese
- Disease of the skin rather than the soul. Alliance was tenuous at best, armed
clashes occured sporadically from 1941 on throughout the war.
- The Japanese controlled all of China’s industrial areas as well as its
richest farmland. However, the Japanese control was largely limited to the cities
and the rural areas of Eastern China. They were unable to occupy all of China,
despite the use of the most brutal means imaginable and the expense of $1 million
per day in terms of costs. Led to some of Mao’s confidence following the
creation of the PRC.
- Three China’s - Japanese controlled areas in Eastern China controlled
by Nanjing; GMD in Western China - Chongqing; CCP in Northern China - Yan’an.
Nanjing
- Japanese controlled Eastern China. Proving to be more expensive than anticipated.
Used puppet government headed by the former financial advisor to the Young Marshall.
Used the same flag and currency as the former government. Confusion to the peasants
and the commoners. Association with the GMD and Chiang.
Chongqing
- Site where the nationalists fled following the fall of Eastern China. Again
the belief was that this would be the best place to wait out the Japanese. Isolated
from the rest of China and a very poor place to serve as the springboard for
military operations.
- Intended to preserve as much as possible, entire factories were carried to
Chongqing using primative means of transportation - essentially this was coolie
labor.
Yan’an
- Communists ensconsed at Yan’an in Shaanxi province. Realizing that they
could not hope to succeed against a foe that was better equipped in terms of
materials and weapons.
- Theory of Contradictions. In the 1930s, Mao developed his theory of contradictions,
this would serve as the basis for its foreign policy from the 1930s through
the 1980s. This involved three main principles:
1. Identify the major threat and not allow China to become involved in conflicts
of less than vital interest.
2. Whenever possible, avoid international isolation or outright confrontation
with one or both superpowers
3. Lean toward the less threatening power, but never in an irrevocable manner.
- Initially applied for the formation of the second united front with the KMT
in 1936, the Japanese were the more threatening of the two, but this may also
be used to explain the Sino-Soviet alliance of 1950, Sino-American rapprochement
of 1972, and the shift away from the United States beginning in about 1981.
- In 1937,following the Japanese assualts on China, the CCP and the GMD came
to an agreement that promised cooperation in four key areas: to work to accomplish
Sun Yat-sen’s three principles - nationalism, democracy and people’s
livilihoods; the CCP was to give up the idea of armed rebellion, the forming
of soviets and the confiscation of landlords holdings; to abolish the current
autonomous government of the Shaanxi Soviet (Yan’an); and to reiterate
that the 30,000 troops of the former Red Army would be under the command of
the GMD.
- While these points may seem to be tremendous compromises by the CCP, Chiang
called this “a triumph of national sentiments over every other consideration”,
it is important to view this agreement in context. Firstly, the ideas of Sun
Yat-sen were so vague as to allow for multiple interpretations as to what was
actually meant by nationalism, democracy and people’s livilihoods. Secondly,
the autonomy of the Shaanxi Soviet, while formerly under joint control, was
preserved due to the fragmented nature of power in China. While the GMD might
have claimed formal control, the reality in China was somewhat different. Mao
and his cohorts were certainly not willing to surrender actual power to Chiang,
the nationalist government was at the best of times a coalition of regional
leaders, and the Japanese invasion only intensified this regionalism. Thirdly,
the army acted with a great deal of autonomy, it was certainly not willing to
undertake suicide missions against the Japanese, their strategy was to pursue
a war of attrition against the Japanese which would minimize their own casualties
while stretching Japanese resources. Finally, while the CCP agreed not to confiscate
the property of the landowners in districts under their control, they did raise
reduce the rent of the peasants and introduce a graded taxation system that
made it prohibitavely expensive for the landowners to retain their holdings.
This allowed many of the formerly poor peasants to increase the size of their
holdings.
- This idea of indirect land redistribution greatly increased the popularity
of the CCP among the peasantry. They saw the CCP as a means of redressing traditional
inequities and saw a movement that was able to bring about some degree of positive
change to their lives.
- Not only was the CCP able to mobilize support among the peasantry, but through
the second world war, they increasingly became popular among the Chinese intelligentsia
as the only movement that was willing to contest the Japanese. The GMD was largely
isolated in Chongqing and reluctant to risk its best troops to fight a battle
that Chiang believed would be decided elswhere. This led the Chinese intellectuals
to question the nationalism of the GMD. They asked the question of why was Chiang
willing to allow the Japanese occupation to go largely untested while preserving
his best troops. Of course, the propaganda of the CCP played on this issue.
Mao and nationalism. The founding of the “Resist Japan University”
at Yan’an, which would be the base for training cadres and refining party
views. Number of party members swelled from 40,000 in 1937 to 800,000 by 1941.
Discipline was maintained by rectification campaigns, for example the 1942 rectification
campaign, singled a number of people out for attack, who were criticized for
their positions, asked to make self criticisms and demoted to more menial jobs.
This movement also happened to remove the last remaining members of the Moscow
clique and remove any potential challenges to Mao’s leadership within
the party. The important factor is that the CCP unlike the GMD of a decade earlier,
were able to maintain unity and discipline even during a period where its membership
was expanding dramatically.
The Military Strategy of the CCP
While the armies of the CCP were formally under the command of the GMD, in practical
terms they answered to the high command of the CCP. A veteran of the Jiangxi
Soviet and the Long March named Zhu De was the commander in chief and his deputy
commander was a man named Peng Dehuai (Mention the relevance of Peng during
the Great Leap Forward and its aftermath).
Direct conflict would be folly and suicidal. Mao and the three principles of
guerilla warfare - When the enemy advances, we retreat; When the enemy halts,
we harass; when the enemy retreats, we pursue. Assumption was that the CCP would
choose the time and place of engagements, to strike at the enemy at its weakest
points. This concept sought to take advantage of China’s strengths, a
large population and a vast terrain, while minimizing its weaknesses, such as
the limited sophistication of its weaponry.
- Guerilla War and fishes in the ocean. The CCP had a number of local full time
armed forces based in their own communities. The local forces were supplemented
by a militia of men and women aged 16-45 who held down regular jobs, but were
essential in providing intelligence and offering logistical support and shelter
to the regular forces. They were the ocean in which the guerillas would swim.
- The CCP also took great pains to ensure the discipline of its troops. The
armies were expected to pay for the food that they took, did not loot the possessions
of the locals and did not molest the women. This provides an interesting contrast
to the behavior and the attitudes of previous and other Chinese armies. The
peasants had become accustomed to armies where conscription occured at the point
of the bayonet (the troops were often led to the front tied by rope), the armies
simply took whatever food they needed, the possessions of the peasants were
considered common property, and the women were considered to be fair game for
the troops. This gets to the lack of military discipline and purpose to the
other Chinese armies - to be conscripted was considered to be the equivalent
of a death sentence, which led to massive desertions at the first opportunity
and the attitudes of the officers were usually shaped by a desire for personal
enrichment. Number of draftees that died before seeing conflict
in the war 1.4 million, approximately 1 in 10 of all men drafted. Corruption
was rife throughout the war, commanders would not report deaths or desertions
so that they could still collect the pay and food for the departed. Units of
inflated strength, never any certainty about what was the size of the force
that would be opposing the Japanese.
- Both sides were largely isolated during the war. Yan’an was virtually
cut off from the outside world. Chongqing fared a little better, but when the
Japanese invaded and occupied Burma in 1942, its last line of contact with the
outside had been severed. The only way in was to fly over the hump - an air
route from India to Chongqing over the himalayas.
Foreign Attitudes
American
- Throughout the second world war, the United States supported the nationalist
government of Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang had conducted a very effective public
relations campaign in the United States - his wife Soong Mei-ling, had attended
university in the United States. She was a christian and Chiang was converted,
further enhanced his image in the eyes of the United States
- Massive Aid provided to a corrupt government. Amount in the billions under
lend lease (the lend lease agreement as approved by the US Congress in 1941
made military supplies availible to other allied powers with the stipulation
that they need not be paid for if they were used in the common cause against
the enemy).
- Opposition of Stilwell, Chiang’s American military advisor, and the
foreign service people. Dixie Mission under David Barrett.
- American Air Power - Initially under the flying tigers and Claire Chennault.
- Patrick Hurley
The Soviet Union - Provided limited assistance to the CCP or the GMD, after
1941 this was further constrained by the neutrality pact it had signed with
Japan and by the needs of its own defense following the invasion by Germany.
- The Pacific Theatre of the Second War was not decided in China, where it began,
but rather through the series of American victories in the South Pacific and
the eventual bombing of the home islands. The part played by China in the Second
World War was virtually limited to keeping numbers of Japanese troops occupied
(1.25 million in China proper and 900,000 in Manchuria), and unable to participate
in other areas. However, the Second World War had great ramifications for the
GMD and the CCP and played a very important role in the eventual victory of
the CCP in the coming civil war.
Ramifications
1. The GMD loses its base and becomes discredited. Victories of the Japanese
in Urban Eastern China. Use of the Flag and Currency.
2. The CCP greatly expands its strength, membership rises from 40,000 in 1937
to 1.2 million in 1945. Army now consists of 900,000 soldiers. Controlled much
of Northern China - population base of 100 million. Yet, they were able to maintain
their discipline and unity. Also, for the first time the peasants saw a Chinese
army that was not based on expropriating their belongings.
3. Attitudes of the Americans and the Soviets. Limited assistance given to the
Communists, despite the entreaties of the state department persons in China,
co-operation with the Communists was limited and the US clearly focused its
aid on the GMD. Sense of independence for the CCP, gains it had achieved were
entirely based on its own merit.
In fact, the American’s were under orders from Washington to help the
GMD in any way possible short of intervening on their behalf in a civil war
and spent the two months following the surrender transporting 110,000 of Chiang’s
troops to Eastern China to accept the surrender of the Japanese, who were under
orders not to surrender to the Communists. The led to continued clashes between
the Japanese and the CCP even after the war had ended, as the Japanese waited
for the GMD troops to arrive. The CCP were under orders from Zhu De to force
the Japanese to surrender directly to them whenever possible, after this the
Communists would take the responsibility of maintaining local law and order.
About the only place where the communists took control without bloodshed was
Manchuria, where the Soviet troops allowed Lin Biao’s CCP troops to acquire
an enormous cache of weapons and ammunition. This stands as about the only real
assistance the Soviets provided the CCP prior to 1950.
The Chinese Civil war began in earnest following the end of the Second World
War. Chiang’s belief that this would prove to be the real war for China
- the Japanese as the disease of the skin and the Communists as the disease
of the soul - would prove to be correct. However, the events of the Second World
War would prove to go a long way in determining the outcome of the Civil War.
The Chinese Civil War (1945-49)
- After taking control of the cities of Eastern ChinaThe GMD continued to use
those who had been puppet administrators of the Japanese during the Second World
War. Outraged the locals.
- Marshall mission arrives in December of 1945 - attempt to mediate between
the nationalists and the communists was doomed to failure from the outset, neither
side was willing to compromise with the other, both had lost too much during
the earlier battles to actually reach any sort of agreement. From the perspective
of the nationalists, the war that Chiang had prepared for since the 1920s could
not be avoided. The Communists greatly increased their strength during the Second
World War and were no longer interested in compromise, with the elimination
of the Japanese, the GMD were now the principle contradiction.
- Both sides agreed to a series of ceasefires and then promptly ignored these
agreements. The American envoys, Hurley among them, actually compared the two
sides to the Democrats and the Republicans, presumably capable of reaching compromises.
This ignored the fact that each believed that the other was determined to see
it eliminated if it achieved any sort of power. Ignored one of the preconditions
for democracy and stable politics, that each side percieves that a loss of power
would not destroy their chances for future gain - ie that losing an election
would not mean the loss of life.
- In early January of 1947, Marshall announced that his mission had been a failure,
and the American liason groups trying to mediate in the conflict were disbanded
later in the month.
The Nationalists
- Beset by corruption and questionable fiscal policies. Inflation was rampant
in the urban areas and the use of former collaboraters questioned the blurry
lines between the GMD and the Japanese.
- Defecit spending and the printing of more money to cover the deficits. Inflation
was a terrible problem, for example the value of the currency depreciated 3,000
% percent between 1945 and 1947. Another example, and one more relevant for
the peasants - the cost of a bag of rice appreciated 10 fold in six months in
1948. This inflation, as is the case with all inflation hit the poorest people
the hardest, those without the ability to protect their investments.
The Communists
Following the Second World War, the Communists changed their ideas of land reform
from increased taxes and rent reduction to the outright taking of land and redistributing
it to those who had toiled on it, the peasants. This was justified by claims
that the land had either formerly owned by Manchus during the Qing dynasty,
or by wartime traitors, or had been seized wrongly from peasants who had been
unable to make loan payments.
- Violence inherent in this process. The general pattern was that the CCP would
hold mass meetings in the communities to inspire the poorer peasants to attack
the landlords.
- Cycle of violence - goods redistributed violently, then if the tide of battle
changed, the landlords would return with nationalist troops and seek vengance
on the peasants and especially on their leaders.
- The Communists as their strength grew began to shift from a guerilla to a
convential strategy, using Japanese weapons acquired in Manchuria with the complicity
of the Soviets and captured nationalist weapons, they began to form large units.
- This strategy shift first began in Manchuria, then was applied to the rest
of the country by 1948. Communists racked up victory after victory during this
time and drove the nationalists out of North China by the end of 1948. Along
the way, they were bringing new peasants into the army and even reeducating
and using captured and surrendered GMD soldiers. (Mention the importance of
reeducation).
- Poor morale of the nationalist troops.
- Communists swept through south China in 1949 and proclaimed the new “people’s
republic of China” on October 1 of that year.
- Chiang and the nationalists fled to Taiwan, over 1 million of his troops and
their families came with him. Including the previously dormant parliament -
this would make up the Taiwanese legislature for the next 40 years. They also
looted China taking most of its valuable art works and large stores of bullion.
- Both the GMD and the CCP claimed to be the legitimate government of China,
set the stage for the conflict that runs to the present time. Taiwan as simply
a rebellious province.
Reasons For the Communists Success
1. Events of WWII
- GMD discredited, rise of nationalism associated with the CCP and the loss
of GMD strongholds
2. Incompetence of the GMD
- Corruption, Inflation, Rural China
3. Strength of CCP
- Military leaders - Zhu De, Lin Biao, Deng Xiaoping, Peng Dehuai
- Rural reforms
- Ability to maintain discipline
- Sense of purpose
Foreign Attitudes
- Role of the Soviets and the Americans during the civil war.
- Stalin was urging compromise - create a divided China with the CCP controlling
the area north of the Yangtze, the GMD the area south. Ostensibly because the
CCP was not strong enough to take all of China. Also, did the Soviets really
want a strong and united China on its southern borders?
- Did deals with the GMD up to the end.
- The US
- China White Paper
- China hands blamed for the loss of China
- McCarthyism
- CCP achieves power on its own merits - limited Soviet assistance.
- Victory of the CCP occured primarily as a result of nationalism. One should
not overlook the effects of imperialism on China, this coupled with the belief
that they have been wronged leads to a particularily virulent strain of nationalism.