The Chinese Revolution between 1900 and 1949 - Essay Example

The Chinese revolution between 1900 and1949 Name Class Professor name School City/state Date Introduction Kuomintang of china was one of the oldest political popular parties in china from 1910 and to date it has remained to be among the top political parties in Taiwan. It ruled china from 1928 to 1949 with its leader being Sun Yat-sen. Kuomintang had its headquarters in Taipei in Taiwan. The party’s main principles were free, prosperous, and powerful nation, these principles was strongly advocated by Sun Yat-sen. The party over the years, fought to revolutionize and form a stable republic of china. It also resisted the Japanese aggression, assisted in the writing and constitution making process of china after the Second World War II. The party was also behind the modernization, development, civilization as well as the general well beings of the people of China. It made sure that the headquarters of Taiwan become a model province of Republic of China and is therefore attributed for its contributions to the nation and society building during the revolution. However, it was not a smooth ride for the party, considering the resistance and upheavals that existed as a result of other forces from the west and warlords. Kuomintang therefore had to reorganize many times in order to remain competitive. It is today the ruling party in Taiwan and holds majority of the legislative seats. Chinese communist party (CPP) on the other hand, is the ruling political party in China; the party brings together the state, military and media. CCP was formed in 1921 in Shanghai China with its members being intellections and urban workers who had been influenced by western ideologies of anarchism and maxism. CCP acquired its ideologies, funding, guidance and even education and training from Soviet advisors in contrast with the Government which was receiving its aid from the American allies. By that time, the Kuomingtang was the Chinese nationalist party and the nation had several elements of warlords and unequal treaties which formed the basis for invasion of foreign powers who wanted to take advantage of the Chinese unstable state to pursue their own interests. Consequently, the two parties joined hands in 1922, under the First United Front umbrella where Kuomintang absorbed CCP. The unity’s agenda was to eliminate the elements of warlords and unify the people of china to support Kuomintang amry’s Northern Expedition which succeeded in achieving Kuomintang’s objectives. However, the coming together of these two parties was to achieve common objective of eliminating elements of war and resistance. Ideally the two parties were different and each had stood a competitive age. None wanted to be left behind. As a result, Kuomintang split with CCP and Kuomintang leader anti-communist chiang Kai-Shek led the group which later purge and many CCP members were killed others fled to the countryside and established semi-autonomous “Soviet base areas” that existed between 1927 and 1935. CCP also formed military groups compost of Chinese workers and peasants and moved its headquarters from shanghai to rural Jiangxi soviet base which was headed by Zhu De and Mao Zedong1. While the CCP was reorganizing and establishing its base, Kuomintang on the other hand, was launching a series of military campaigns against CCP controlled base areas that eventually led to the long march of 1934 and 1935 that ended in rural village of Yenan in Shaanxi province. During the conflicts arising from Kuomintang launch, soviet advisors lost their influence on CCP. Therefore, CCP reorganized from being led by urban workers and intellectuals to being led by peasants and soldiers who really assisted them from gaining support of many rural peasants hence land reforms and better relations among the poor and the armies of CCP. Japanese invasion that took place in 1937 to 1945 was a turnaround in Chinese political revolution. It positioned china for another set of things in history. The temporary stability that had been achieved earlier was bound to fail. The invasion led to the second united front with the ruling party being Kuomintang. While the Government of Kuomintang was concentrating in fighting and driving away the Japanese troops, the CCP took advantage to expand its power and influence even to the urban areas. It membership grew to about 1.2 million and the Red Army went up to one million which was attributed to negotiations among the peasants, small capitalist, and the people in rural villages. By the time Japanese troops gave up the fight, the civil war resumed between CCP and KMT in 1946. CCP had reposition itself and had had enjoyed substantial support from the ground. Consequently, in 1949, the rival party CCP defeated Kuomintang in a long civil war that resulted in and took over the mainland of china in 1950, Kuomintang moved to Taiwan and it has remained to be the ruling party in Taiwan to date. In 1927, there was a civil war in china which was fought between forces loyal to CCP and Kuomintang. The war ended in 1950 and it resulted in the formation of 2 states, the Republic of china centered in Taiwan and peoples republic of china centered at mainland, the two parties claim to be the real government of China2. I believe Chinese Communist Party managed to defeat Kuomintang because they were more organized and acceptable by many Chinese unlike Kuomintang. During the Second World War the CCP and Kuomintang came together to fight Japanese invasion. But immediately after the Second World War, a fight broke out between Kuomintang and CCP due to their different ideologies that had been ranging on since 1920’s. The CCP army defeated the Kuomintang army and that led to the CCP leader’s declaring the formation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 19493. The formation of PRC brings to an end the upheavals that have been ranging in China since 1920’s. The communist and national army came together between 1926 and 1927 to fight the war lords that were against the formation of one strong centered government. There was an increase in support of communism by Chinese during the 2nd world war4. The United States intelligence in China found that Nationalist Controlled areas were going through dictatorial suppression. Undemocratic policies enticed together with corruption within the system made the Republic of China government become susceptible to communism risk. The CCP on the other hand experienced success in their work following their land reforms that assisted the poor get land from Japanese invaders. After the Japanese pulled out from the China territory it set the stage for the recurrence of civil war. Since the Nationalist Government was somehow democratic, United States continued funding it so as to prevent communism from taking over china. Nationalist leader Kai-shek met with the communist leader Mao for talks aimed at establishing one government. The leaders agreed on democracy, equality of all political parties and one military5. General George Marshall tried to broker the deal but it went soar and in 1947 the two factions started to fight one another following the mistrust that has existed between the two factions over a long period of time. The Chinese communist army was well established in the north and north east and they took advantage of the Nationalist exhaustiveness following the long war between them and Japanese6. In 1949, communist took over Beijing without a fight and other cities were taken over by communist with little resistance from the Nationalist and nationalist was forced to retreat to Taiwan. I believe Chinese Communist Party managed to defeat Kuomintang because they were more organized and acceptable by many Chinese unlike Kuomintang. There were many reasons why however as to why Kuomintang failed. Chinese Communist Party managed to defeat and destroyed Kuomintang because of the following reasons; First is the collaboration between the two parties was purely one marriage of convenience. Both parties needed each other to fight their common enemy the first were the war lords and secondly the Japanese troops but both had no trust on each other. KMT was seeking the support of lower class and military aid while CCP on the other hand, was seeking for a power base and political dynasty7. While on the other hand, CCP was planning to acquire, influence and mobilize the strong holders of KMT by importing and recruiting more members, Kuomintang was busy fighting the common enemy. The difference and disconnect in the objectives among them therefore is what led to the break up and eventually the defeat and destruction of the Kuomintang. Albeit the unity in the 1920s Kuomintang had passed resolutions to limit the CCP’s memberships in the committees which excluded them from major dictatorial decision which were being made at the expense of CCP for example, the assassination of Liao Chung Kai that essentially led to subsequent mistrust and paranoia among the two parties. Such actions included communist being expelled from committees. This mistrust, attacks and kidnappings continued on CCP majority cities in and in 1926 conflicts led to eventual break up. Secondly, the disorganization and split within Kuomintang leaders was another reason. For instance, there were factions and different leaders had influence and power in within. The struggle for internal power, influence and other elements of resistance from within could not be over-ruled out; those divisions were led by people like Wang Jing-Wei and Hu Han-Man. Some of the factions were sympathizers of CCP and for that reason, it led to double membership for some members and so the collaboration to fight Japanese troops was just a mere catalyst to the existing problems. There were already disagreements and fights existing. Moreover, CCP in its quest to expand and gain influence retained its headquarters and committees that advanced its activities while others were out to enroll more members and destabilize the decision makers of Kuomintang which worked against the Kuomintang8. Thirdly, corruption was within the party was the order of the day and was a major contributor to the defeat. The Kuomintang was hit by corruption and fiscal incompetence, money printing without considering the state of the economy and this led to the Yuan loosing value to several millions to a dollar9. Its army was reduced to beggars since they were not being paid. Even with this crisis, their leader Kai-Shek was living a comfortable live with its family members and those surrounding the leader fought over the aid that was received from foreign countries mainly United States. America diplomats after investigation found that the military equipments that were send to support Kuomintang was sold through black market, there was famine in 1946, United States send food and it was also sold through black market. In addition, the support from United States started to diminish considerably and later on it stopped. The money that was being send from United states and it allies like UK did not make Kuomintang army strong but it made it more corrupt this lead United states to start reducing its funding and later halting it altogether. In 1947, the Americans realized they were not going to stop the civil war hence they decided to withdraw its mission that was headed by George Marshall4. Furthermore, the policy by the CCP promised poor people farmland from the large farm holders. Landlordism was also another issue that was majorly in the hands of CCP. The poor people during that time were around 90 percent of the total population, this enabled CCP to recruit an army of more than one million. The government had failed to address the issue pertinent to the citizenry and peasant farmers were living in absolute suffering, poverty and misery where they were required to pay up to 60% of their earnings as rental plus land tax and surtax. Kuomintang focused so much on industrialization to the expense of economic and livelihoods of the poor people. All this was very ironical to the ideology of “Three people’s principles” which was a pillar to the KMT’s Government10. KMT government was also eager and over confident of war victory losing the focus on the poor people. Subsequently, the CCP enjoyed massive support, constant communication; amicable solutions to problems and familiarity from the peasants since they were employed as part of the army and people become members. The army and the peasants identified themselves with the CCP and that led to a negative picture to the ruling Government. The failure of the Government to address issues of Taxation, revenue and landlord policy led to incredible hatred. The money that was used during the war run into millions and thousands which meant that after the second war the government of Kuomintang could not sustain the war and especially the war against the CCP who by then had acquired enough support, influence and the military organization that was very stable and elaborate enough to defeat Kuomintang. The Chinese government was running into billions of debt and deficit spending. A part from the corruption experienced the money printing business and foreign loans consequently led to sky rocketing prices and hyper inflation. The industries and other territories which had cost the Kuomintang government fell vacant. The positioning of CCP was therefore very strategic. They quickly moved in and occupied the left territories by Kuomintang government and arms left by the Japanese troops. Also the KMT soldiers were demoralized and weary to fight constantly after many years of civil war either from their opponents CCP or the Japanese troops11. Some soldiers had already died others suffered due to the fact they were not paid any money and some ended up being beggars. The Government army had been over stretched to its limits yet no one could offer incentives to encourage them. This meant that no soldiers would want or would be willing to go back to war. Finally, the fact that soviets lost its influence on the communists after the Second United Front made the CCP independent and focused on its plans and strategists within without the influence of other forces. However, the Soviets decided to support the CCP where after the defeat of Japanese in Second World War, the Soviet Union took over the Japanese captured weapons and gave it to CCP and allowed them to take control over Manchuria and other areas the Soviet Union army occupy during the Second World War12. After Russia army took over the northern China cities, they gave it to CCP army together with the industries that were built on the cities; this boosted the CCP arsenal strength. Conclusion In conclusion, Chinese Communist Party managed to defeat Kuomintang because they were more organized and acceptable by many Chinese unlike Kuomintang who over time was blamed for all the problems the citizenry went through. Different ideologies between Kuomintang and CPP led to the civil war in china. These can be summarized in two, first are the strategies that CCP put into place and secondly failures on the part of Kuomintang. The expansion of the military base and the recruitment of more members into CCP by Moa led to increased trust and mutual benefits both to the CCP and the citizenry and as a result, support from the peasant increased tremendously and the people who had been languishing in poverty and suffering sought assistance and hence this become an added advantage to CCP13. On the other hand, Kuomintang was supported by US and its allies to stop communist from taking over china while the communist was supported mainly by the peasants since their policies assisted them to get land from Japanese. People stopped trusting Kuomintang. This is because of corruption by the leaders; all foreign money that was meant to support the army was siphoned by Kai-shek inner circle hence rendering the army demoralized and weary to start another war. The printing of money and the debts as well as loan had gone up considerably hence the high prices and eventual inflation which therefore increased the suffering of the poor people who entirely blamed the Kuomintang government. In 1949, communist took over Beijing without a fight and other cities were taken over by communist with little resistance from the Nationalist and nationalist was forced to retreat to Taiwan14. Therefore KMT fell due to its leaders over confidence and pride that its economic power and influence would not fail them. Neglect of citizenry’s sufferings didn’t help me either. Foreign influences including American when it failed to offer more aid and the Japanese invasion were the main reasons for the failure15. Bibliography Jonathan Fenby, (2005), Chiang Kai Shek: China's Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost. London: Carroll & Graf Publishers Edgar Snow (2008), Red Star over China - the Rise of the Red Army, Beijing: read books Uradyn Erden Bulag, (2002), Dilemmas the Mongols at China's edge: history and the politics of national unity, New York: Rowman & Littlefield. Douglas Kerr, (2009), Critical Zone 3: A Forum of Chinese and Western Knowledge, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press Diana Lary, (1974), Region and nation: the Kwangsi clique in Chinese politics, 1925-1937. London: Cambridge University Press. Hans J. 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Van de Ven, (2003), War and nationalism in China, 1925-1945, Psychology Press Westad, Odd, (2003), Decisive Encounters: The Chinese Civil War, 1946-1950, London: Stanford University Press. p. 305 Lynch, Michael, (2010), The Chinese Civil War 1945-49. Melbourne: Osprey Publishing, p. 91 Read More