China Since 1920

Momin
Hashim
Khan

M1-C1
18651
 The Communist Revolution
From 1911 to 1945, China experienced a revolution, a struggle against warlords, a civil war between the Nationalists
led by Chiang Kai-Shek and the Communists led by Mao Zedong.

Launched by Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and founder of the People's
Republic of China (PRC), its stated goal was to preserve Chinese communism by purging remnants of
capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society, and to re-impose Mao Zedong Thought (known
outside China as Maoism.)

The communist party in China gained strength because Mao divided land that the Communists won
among local farmers in order to gain support of peasants not just bankers and business people. As the
Kuomintang led by Jiang Jie Shi, had shown itself to be callous and corrupt, many of the Nationalists
turned to the Communists, who had always behaved fairly and honestly.

Without the backing of the people, Jiang Jie Shi and his army was pushed further back, until they
retreated and fled to Taiwan (1949), and were protected by the American navy, under President Harry S.
Truman.

They still represented China in the UN, till 1970. In 1971, however the world recognized that the
government of the People’s Republic, really represented China.
 Think Tank

Who were the two leaders of China in the What do the CCP and PRC stand for?
Communist Revolution?

Answer Answer

CCP stands for

Mao Zedong (Communist) Chinese Communist Party

Jiang Jie Shi (Nationalist) PRC stands for People’s

Republic of China
 The Long March and the Japanese Invasion

The Long March was conducted during the civil war between the Chinese Communists and the Chinese
Nationalists. Utilizing stealth and cunning, the Chinese Communists maneuvered 85,000 troops through
fragile spots along the Nationalist encampments. The Nationalists did not know that main forces of the
Communists had escaped for several weeks. Thus, the Long March began on October 16, 1934. The
Communist forces traveled primarily at night, over 10,000 km, in an attempt to reach Shaanxi province.
Along the way, the force suffered starvation and enemy bombardments, crossed treacherous terrain
that included many mountain ranges and rivers, and endured harsh weather.

The communists suffered between 150000 and 170000 casualties and defections during the
Long March. The Communists were surrounded and looked as though they were on the brink of
defeat. Relocating, even at huge cost, allowed them to regroup.
 The Japanese Invasion
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of
China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Theater of the
Second World War. 

Seeking raw materials to fuel its growing industries, Japan invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria in
1931. By 1937 Japan controlled large sections of China, and war crimes against the Chinese became
commonplace. For much of the early 20th century, Japan had exercised effective control of Manchuria,
initially through the terms of the Twenty-one Demands (1915) and later through its support of Chinese
warlord Zhang Zuolin However, a serious conflict was developing, and the Chinese in Manchuria were
especially restive under the privileges held by the Japanese. Chinese citizens formed the vast majority of the
population, and the legal title of the region was held by China. Yet Japan controlled much of south
Manchuria through its railways and in other ways that compromised Chinese sovereignty.

Second Sino-Japanese War, (1937–45), conflict that broke out when China began a full-scale resistance to
the expansion of Japanese influence in its territory (which had begun in 1931).

Japan was triumphant, and this led to the commencing of World War II.
 People's Republic of China

In 1949, Mao Zedong declared that China was currently the Communist People's Republic of China.
There was a lot to be done particularly since the last 30 years had been spent in ceaseless fighting.
Horticulture was low, as it had grown minimal throughout the most recent hundreds of years, Chinese
ranchers still utilized basic hand apparatuses. Private terrains were taken over by the state and made
into aggregate ranches, along the Russian model.

Mao made desperate, and often disastrous attempts to enact some reforms and to introduce industry
into people’s homes. The USSR poured billions of dollars in aid, along with equipment, scientists and
engineers. But little progress was made. The quarrel with China, in 1960, diminished China’s industry,
but they still managed to make a nuclear bomb in 1963.
 The Cultural Revolution
The Great Cultural Revolution was a decade-long period of political and social chaos caused by Mao Zedong’s bid
to use the Chinese masses to reassert his control over the Communist Party.

Mao's choice to send off the "upset" in May 1966 is presently broadly deciphered as an endeavor to obliterate his
adversaries by releasing individuals on the party and encouraging them to sanitize its positions. To institute a few
changes, Mao Zedong shaped the Red Guards as a consistent suggestion to individuals. They assaulted anybody, who
they believed was secretly contriving against them, and was not after the lessons of Lenin, Marx and Mao. Every one
of them had a little book called the 'Red Book' which contained the teachings of Mao. They annihilated the images of
the old; customary culture and killed large number of authorities, instructors and warriors. They constrained
ordinarily that number go to function as workers in the field under cruel circumstances. They held their own courts
and attempted any individual who appeared to scrutinize their convictions.

The Cultural Revolution crippled the economy, ruined millions of lives and thrust China into 10 years of turmoil,
bloodshed, hunger and stagnation.
 The Nanjing Massacre

The Nanjing Massacre was the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic
of China, immediately after the Battle of Nanjing in the Second Sino-Japanese War, by the Imperial
Japanese Army. Beginning on December 13, 1937, the massacre lasted for six weeks.
 Quotes
Mao Zedong

“Everything under heaven is in utter

chaos; the situation is excellent.”

“Politics is war without blood, while war

is politics with blood.”

“An army of the people is invincible!”

Mao Zedong Chiang Kai-shek
The End