266 ENDGAME AND AFTERMATH 1944–1955
Yellow (^) Sea
Ye
llo
w^
R
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Ya
ng
tz
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Huai
Xi
Brahm
aputra
Lake
Poyang
Songhua
Hainan
TIBET
Harbin
SH
A
N
D
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JI
A
NG
XI
S
H
A
A
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M A N C
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A B U R M A
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F R
I E N C H
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IW
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IL
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Lake
Dongting
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North^ C
hi
na
Plai
n
Da
Mou bie
ntains
Lanzhou
Xi’an
Hong Kong
Macau
Kunming
Guiyang
Guilin
Nanchang
Fuzhou
Taipei
Xiamen
Changsha
Nanjing
Wuhu
Xuzhou
Chenguanzhuang
Shuangduiji
Hankou
Chongqing
Chengdu
Guangzhou
Haikou
Hangzhou
Shenyang
Yingkou
Zhangjiakou
Yan’an
Xining
Changchun
Jinzhou
Tianjin
Jinan Qingdao
Xinbao’an
Kaifeng
Luoyang
Beijing
Shanghai
MAO ZEDONG
Mao Zedong (1893–1976) was
born into a well-off peasant
family in Hunan, south-west
China. He fought in the 1911
revolution, worked at the
university in Beijing as a
librarian, and became a
founder member of the
Chinese Communist Party
in 1921. Later he returned
to Hunan as a trade union
organizer. He believed that
the revolutionary movement
could win mass support
in China by radicalizing the
peasantry rather than the
urban industrial working class.
On September 9, 1945, a week after Japan’s surrender ended World
War II, Japanese forces in China (excluding those in Manchuria)
surrendered to the Chinese Nationalist Party, or Guomindang
(GMD), ending a merciless conflict that had lasted eight years
(see pp.220–221). However, lingering political rivalries left China
divided and would soon plunge the country into a bitter civil war.
The GMD government returned to power at its pre-war capital,
Nanjing, but its perceived weakness and corruption caused its
popularity to drop. Meanwhile, promises of land reform made by
Mao’s Chinese Communist Party (CCP) greatly appealed to the
Chinese peasantry. Mao and Chiang Kai-shek met in Chongqing in
an attempt to negotiate a peaceful way toward a united China, but
despite the intervention of the US, war broke out. The GMD forces
were numerically superior but had been weakened by years of war;
they faced the Communists, who, during the wartime occupation,
had supplemented their conventional army, which was renamed
the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
Three campaigns were crucial to the PLA’s victory: Liaoning-
Shenyang, which drove the GMD from Manchuria; Huaihai, which
destroyed the GMD stronghold of Xuzhou; and Pingjin, which led to
Mao entering Beijing (then Beiping) on January 21, 1949. The GMD’s
then-capital Nanjing fell in April, and in December the GMD fled to
Taiwan. One of the far-reaching effects of the war was the emergence
of Communist China as a great power in the modern world.
THE CHINESE
CIVIL WAR
After Japan’s defeat in 1945, the uneasy wartime alliance
between Chiang Kai-shek’s Chinese Nationalist Party
and Mao Zedong’s Chinese Communist Party fell apart.
The long battle for control of a unified China entered
its final phase.
THE GROWTH OF RED CHINA
Mao’s philosophy of war was self-preservation while destroying the
enemy’s will to fight. His use of guerrilla units in rural south China,
able to “suddenly concentrate, suddenly disperse,” was part of a
strategy that, over time, would win the Communists the initiative.
KEY
2
3
4
5
1
TIMELINE
(^194619491950)
6
7
1947 1948
By 1946
By Jun 1949
Major
railroads
By Jun 1948
By 1950
Under GMD
control by 1950
GMD victories
PLA victories
Communist guerrilla
operations 1945–49
△ Communist propaganda
In this CCP-issued poster, PLA soldier Dong Cunrui is shown
sacrificing his life and blowing up an enemy bunker during
the Chinese Civil War. The CCP often used the deaths
of actual soldiers to stir up support for their cause.
FROM NANJING TO SHANGHAI
JANUARY 1949–DECEMBER 1949
The PLA advanced to the north bank of the Yangtze,
and on January 20 the GMD government began
negotiations with Mao’s politburo. When talks broke
down, the PLA crossed the Yangtze; by April 23,
Nanjing had surrendered. In May the PLA entered
Hangzhou, Wuhu, and Shanghai, and advanced west
and south. By late 1949, most of China was under
Communist rule, and the GMD leaders fled to Taiwan.
7
PLA movements GMD government
aircraft movements
UNDER COMMUNIST CONTROL
US_266-267_Chinese_Civil_War.indd 266 22/03/19 11:48 AM