IB/Group 3/History/Route 2/Causes, Practices, and Effects of Wars/The Chinese Civil War (1927-37 and 1946-49)/Summary

Strengths of the CCP

 * Soviet troops in Manchuria gave PLA forces training
 * Supported by peasantry who feared revenge
 * Used propaganda to win support
 * Had a good reputation at controlling the struggle against the Japanese
 * Mao’s personality cult, inspired confidence
 * Carried out guerrilla warfare and began conventional warfare in 1948
 * Were able to capture transport links to isolate GMD forces in cities

The USA

 * The Americans had economic and strategic interests in China, and they had supported the GMD from the first phase of the civil war.
 * USA provided Jiang with almost $3 billion in aid and large supplies of arms throughout WWII.
 * At the beginning of the second stage of the civil war, the Americans transported GMD forces by sea and air to the north of China, and US troops occupied Tianjin and Beijing to hold them until the GMD were ready.
 * Some historians believe that more military commitment from USA may have 'saved' China from communism.
 * Americans were held responsible by Jiang for pressurizing him to agree to truces at critical times during his war on the CCP.
 * Americans' mere presence gave Mao excellent anti-GMD propaganda.

For China

 * After civil war, CCP consolidated its control in China
 * CCP pursued key ideas they had initiated in Yanan
 * One of key legacies of Chinese Civil War is continued authoritarian rule by CCP
 * China remains a single-party state in which individual rights and freedoms are suppressed
 * In 1989, when young protesters on streets of Tienanmen Square, Beijing, were forcibly dispersed with guns and tanks, the battles of the war were used to justify the actions of the state

For Asia

 * Mao's victory led to globalization of the Cold War, which spread from its seedbed in Europe to Asia
 * Asia was now a region in which the superpowers would struggle for control and influence
 * Communist victory inspired insurgencies in Indonesia, Malaya, Indochina, and Thailand
 * Communist victory also led to the first 'hot war' of the Cold War-- the Korean War (1950-1953)

For the USSR

 * Although CCP's victory should have been viewed as a victory for the spread of communism and for the USSR, Stalin feared Mao as a rival for the leadership of the communist world, and he had not wanted the Cold War to spread to Asia
 * Jiang's GMD would have recognized disputed border territory along frontiers in Manchuria and Xinjiang as Soviet
 * Fundamentally, Stalin did not view Maoism as 'genuinely revolutionary' and did not agree with Mao's 'hybrid' ideology, which was a mix of traditional Chinese culture and Marxism
 * Mao became convinced that Stalin planned to create a divided and weak China, which would leave the USSR dominant in Asia
 * Mao saw Stalin's policies as rooted in self-interest rather than true revolutionary doctrine
 * Nevertheless, once CCP had won the civil war, Mao visited Moscow in 1950. This produced the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Alliance: the first treaty between the USSR and China
 * USSR and Soviet press praised Mao and the new People's Republic of China (PRC), excited about their victory. To the US, the USSR-China alliance was 'Moscow making puppets out of the Chinese'
 * Such good relations between USSR and China prompted a change in the construction of China: traditional buildings were pulled down for Soviet-style constructions and Soviet scientific technology was prioritized over Chinese technology
 * Sino-Soviet relations chilled again during the Korean War, however
 * Soviets gave material assistance to the one million Chinese troops engaged in battle, but despite this support for PRC intervention in the Korean War, Mao bitterly complained when the Soviets demanded that the Chinese pay for all weapons and materials they supplied
 * After death of Stalin, Sino-Soviet relations worsened dramatically

China's relations with the USA and the West

 * Mao's victory led to much anxiety in the US, and seemed at the time to shift the balance of power in the Cold War in the USSR's favor.
 * Many saw the Communists' victory as inevitable; nevertheless, as the Cold War intensified and McCarthyism took hold in the USA, state officials were accused of having 'lost' China.
 * Stalin was now seen as having been the mastermind behind Mao's CCP.
 * USA failed to understand the different types of communism or that there was increasing tension and hostility between Mao and Stalin.
 * USA also refused to recognize the PRC as a legitimate state.
 * USA backed Jiang Jieshi and the Chinese nationalists, who had fled at the end of the civil war to the island of Taiwan.
 * Mao's victory was a key reason for the passing of a vast new military budget to fund the struggle against the spread of communism, and also led USA into Korean War and conflict over Taiwan
 * However, by end of 1960s there was a radical change by Americans and communist Chinese in their policies and strategies towards each other... this period of dialogue became known as 'ping pong diplomacy'.