Mao, the elected leader of the Communist party believed that the peasants should spearhead the revolutionary movement in China and was not shared by most of the Communist party leaders. Mao and his followers settled in Kiangsi and named it “Kiangsi Soviet,” it was a mountainous area full of peasants.
Mao’s decision to use the peasants contradicted the Communist tradition of industrial workers. He treated the peasants very well by giving them land of landowners and they were provided education.
This was a significant effect because it would be more likely the peasants would spread Communist ideas and eventually they would agree with Mao’s party. So in the long term this would help the Communist party.
The Communists were situated in the capital called Jiangxi and the Nationalists discovered that they were there and tried to destroy Jiangxi 4 times but failed on each occasion, and then they decided to blockade all around the capital that left Mao with some options which are the following:
-Stand and Fight
-Surrender to the GMD
-Break out Jiangxi and head out to the countryside.
-Arrange a truce with the GMD
-Unite with the neighbouring provenance of Fujaan, which was rebelling.
-Try to break the blockade in some other way, such as by sending messages for help to other CCP bases.
Mao decided to break out of Jiangxi and head for the countryside, this was then known as the Long March as they fought their way past the Blockade and after a year of fighting they ended up in Shanxi where they were seen as heroes from many people but the Nationalist saw them as cowards retreating from their capital. The Communist however thought that this was a victory as they were propagandizing and telling people on their way.
I think this was an important cause but it was an indirect approach because it took a while for the people to gain support for the Communists.
Chiang Kai-Shek was full of contradictions. He relied on Western support, but he did not like Europeans. He claimed to be the defender of Chinas independence but he made little effort to drive the Japanese out of China. He gave great commercial advantages to Western businessmen, the very men he did not like. He was very proud. He was the son of a small landowner. He was bigoted of any resistance to him, and increasingly used murder as his concluding argument. Chiang’s pride made him sneering of all humble birth, the immense majority of Chinese. He hardly ever wrote about the peasants. The General had an army 4 times that of the Red army, with a correspondingly greater fire power in artillery, machine guns and rifles.
Moreover he had an air force, railways, gunshots and motor transport while the Red army owned nothing.
In 1942 Japan bombed Pearl Harbour and America provided funds for The Nationalists in their struggle against Japan, to pay for ammunition and artillery as China was neighbours with Japan. Instead of Chiang dealing with the occupation of Japan he decided to take the money for himself and thought fighting the Communist was a bigger objective rather than the Japanese. This was a big mistake and in the short term was benefiting the Communists.
The Communist fought against the Japanese having owning basic artillery. This made the people think that the Communist were loyal t o their country and in 1949 Communist went in power and Chiang and his army fled to the offshore island of Taiwan.
In conclusion, the Communist triumph in 1949 came as a revelation to many people, especially to Chiang’s copious admirers abroad. On paper at least, he had all the advantages when the Civil war started; it seemed impossible that his army of three million men and his military air force of nearly a thousand planes could fail to defeat an ill-equipped peasant army of less than a million. Even though the Communists were supported by a further two million part-time militiamen, the odds seemed to be stacked against them.
In fact, the reasons for the Nationalist defeat are not hard to find. The Communists were particularly strong in the countryside where they had extended their authority and control throughout the years of the Japanese occupation. When the Japanese withdrew in 1945 the Communists controlled an area with 150 million inhabitants. The towns and cities, which were therefore like islands, isolated in a Communist controlled sea. When the civil war started they were picked off one by one.
All of these reasons in the above lead to the most important reason for Chiang’s defeat. This was his loss of support in the towns and cities. The Communist went through struggles but they all led to step by step victory. That’s why the Communists gained power of China in 1949.
Presented by Soreen Hussain
