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The Chinese Civil War was the conflict in China between the Kuomintang (the Nationalist Party; KMT) led by Chiang Kai-Shek and the Communist Party of China (CPC) led by Mao Zedong.

Before the conflict, Communists and Kuomintang were allies under Sun Yat-sen's leadership. The alliance soon collapsed after the death of Sun Yat-sen.

First KMT-CPC United Front (1923-27)

Under an alliance brokered by the Comintern, between the Kuomintang and the fledgling Chinese Communist Party, Communists were allowed to join the KMT as individuals while remaining in the CCP. During this period, CCP membership expanded dramatically, but the party was left exposed to a purge by rightist elements in the KMT.

Northern Expedition (北伐战争) (1926 - 1928)

The Northern Expedition was a combined military and diplomatic campaign that achieved the nominal unification of China under KMT control. In July 1926, the National Revolutionary Army, commanded by Chiang Kai-shek, set out to defeat the warlords in northern China.

After the Northern Expedition the KMT began to expand the areas under their de facto control, first in the lower Yangtze macro-region and then to the north and south along the coast. While the KMT continuously struggled with the development of civil society and extending the reach of the state, they were largely successful in consolidating their rule in the most critical areas of eastern China during the late 1920s and early 1930s.

April Purge (1927)

In a sharp break from the left-leaning faction headquartered in Wuhan, Chiang Kai-shek, with the aid of the Shanghai underworld, arguing that communist activities were socially and economically disruptive, turned on Communists and unionists in Shanghai, arresting and executing hundreds on April 12, 1927. The purge widened the rift between Chiang and Wang Ching-wei's Wuhan government (a contest won by Chiang Kai-shek) and destroyed the urban base of the CPC. After another round of failed uprisings that autumn, surviving Communists were either forced underground or out into the countryside.

Chiang was expelled from the KMT for his actions and formed his own government in Nanjing. The remainder of Kuomintang broke up with communists in July 1927 and joined with Chiang in February 1928. The KMT resumed the campaign again warlords and captured Beijing in June 1928.

Agrarian Revolution (土地革命战争) (1927 - 1937)

Communist Party activists retreated to the countryside where they fomented a peasant rebellion (Nanchang Uprising on August 1, 1927) and established control over several areas in southern China. Attempts by the Nationalist armies to suppress the rebellion were unsuccessful but extremely damaging to the Communist forces.

A decision was made that the bulk of the Communist force called "Red Army" (红军) to go to northern China by means of Long March (Oct 1935 - Oct 1936). The Red Army later become part of People's Liberation Army. It was under this yearlong, 6000-mile retreat that Mao Zedong emerged as the top Communist leader.

KMT Encirclement Campaigns (1930-1934)

After Chiang Kai-shek had foiled the coup to oust him launched by Feng Yü-hsiang, Yen Hsi-shan, and Wang Ching-wei (1929-30), he immediately turned his attention to rooting out the remaining pockets of Communist activity. The first two campaigns failed and the third was aborted due to the Mukden Incident. The fourth campaign (1932-1933) achieved some early successes, but Chiang’s armies were badly mauled when they tried to penetrate into the heart of Mao’s Soviet Chinese Republic. Finally in late 1933 Chiang launched a fifth campaign orchestrated by his German advisors that involved the systematic encirclement of the Jiangxi Soviet region with fortified blockhouses. By the fall of 1934, the Communists faced the possibility of total annihilation. With the evacuation of the East China base areas, Chiang had achieved an important milestone in the consolidation of KMT rule in eastern China. It seemed that the time was now ripe to finish off the CPC, then turn against the remaining warlords, before finally retaking Manchuria from the Japanese.

Second Sino-Japanese War (抗日战争) (1937 - 1945)

During the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), Chiang Kai-Shek, who saw the Communists as a greater threat, refused to ally with the Communists to fight against Japanese. On December 12, 1936, Kuomintang Generals Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng kidnapped Chiang Kai-Shek and forced him to a truce with the Communists. The incident became known as the Xian Incident (西安事变). Both parties agreed to suspend fighting and form a Second United Front to focus their energies against the Japanese.

However, the alliance in name only. The level of actual cooperation and coordination between the CPC and KMT during the Second World War was minimal. In the midst of the Second KMT-CPC United Front, the Communists and the Kuomintang were still vying for territorial advantage in "Free China" (i.e. those areas not occupied by the Japanese or ruled by puppet governments). The situation came to a head in late 1940 and early 1941 when there were major clashes between the Red Army and KMT forces. In December 1940, Chiang Kai-shek demanded that the CPC’s New Fourth Army evacuate Anhui and Jiangsu Provinces. Under intense pressure, the New Fourth Army commanders complied, but they were ambushed by Nationalist troops and soundly defeated in January 1941. This clash, which would be known as the New Fourth Army Incident, weakened the CPC position in Central China and effectively ended any substantive cooperation between the Nationalists and the Communists and both sides concentrated on jockeying for position in the inevitable Civil War.

Post-war power struggle (1945-1947)

Under the terms of the Japanese surrender, Japanese troops were ordered to surrender to KMT troops and not the Nationalists.

With the sudden end of WWII in East Asia, Soviet forces flooded into the Manchurian Provinces to seize Japanese positions and to take the surrender of the 700,000 Japanese troops still stationed in the region. Later in the year Chiang Kai-shek came to the painful realization that he lacked the resources to prevent a CPC takeover of Manchuria following the scheduled Soviet departure, he therefore made a deal with the Russians to delay their withdrawal until he had moved enough of his best-trained men and modern materiel into the region. The Soviets spent the extra time systematically dismantling the entire Manchurian industrial plant and shipping it back to their war-ravaged motherland.

General George Marshall arrived in China with the hope of brokering a cease-fire between the KMT and the CPC, and of building a coalition government that would include all of the contending political/military groups in China. Unfortunately for Marshall, neither the Communists (represented by Zhou Enlai) nor Chiang Kai-shek’s representatives were willing to compromise on certain fundamental issues or relinquish the territories they had seized in the wake of the Japanese surrender. The truce fell apart in the spring of 1946, and although negotiations continued, Marshall was recalled in January 1947.

War of Liberation (解放战争) (1946 - 1949)

With the breakdown of peace talks, an all out war ensued. While the Soviet Union provided aid to the Communists, the United States assisted the Nationalists with supplies.

After numerous operational set-backs in Manchuria, especially in attempting to take the major cities, the Communists were ultimately able to seize the region and then focus on the war south of the Great Wall. And yet, even though the balance of power was shifting toward the CPC, there were still numerous opportunities for a negotiated settlement. Joseph Stalin attempted to restrain Mao on several occasions while he gauged American responses to developments in China. After the Huai-hai Campaign, it seemed that the Communists were going to pause on the northern bank of the Yangtze River. Only when it became clear that American and British support for negotiations was lacking, did Stalin give Mao the go-ahead to cross the river.

Ultimately, the Communist Party was victorious. This led to the establishment of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949 and the flight of the Kuomintang to Taiwan, where they continued to rule as the Republic of China.

See also: History of the Republic of China