Why did the Communists win the Chinese Civil War?

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Why did the Communists win the Chinese Civil War?

By: Resa Ng 11JN                                                                                                        Mr. Caves

Why did the communists win the Civil War?

By Resa Ng

The last phase of the Chinese Civil War lasted from 1945 to 1949. At the time, the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) led by Mao Zedong, and the GMD (Guomindang) led by Chiang Kai Shek were vying for the power to lead the whole of China. At first the GMD had the advantage. They had the support of the United States, who provided advanced weapons, financial aid, and were officially recognized by the rest of the world as the real government of China. Furthermore, they had the support of the wealthy upper classes. However, the CCP had the support of the common people in China, due to their communist ideology, and because the commoners could identify with the CCP. In October 1949, the CCP won the war and Mao proclaimed the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.

The CCP has the support of the majority of the population: the peasants, while the GDP had the support of the only upper classes. The morale of the CCP army was high whole the GDP army members did not even want to be there. The ideology of the CCP was that of equality, which appealed to the peasants, while the GDP had a relatively autoritarian rule that focused on the comfort and security of the upper classes. Finally the CCP was lead by a middle class peasant whom other peasants identified with, and who knew how to move the masses while the GDP was lead by a man with a military background without much of a knack for diplomacy or politics. These points will be explored in detail.

        It will be argued that one of the main reasons why the Communists won the war was because of their approach to the peasantry. This essay will analyse 4 key factors that ended up being the key differences between the CCP and GDP: general support, morale of the army, ideology, and the leader’s ability in leading.

Peasant support for the communists was the most crucial element in their victory. The CCP gained support through two main approaches. The first was the land reform policies formulated. At 1947, the Chinese rural system was unjust in the extreme, later that year, the CCP redistributed wealth by introducing a major land reform in the rural areas, which focused on 90% of the population. Dealing with this problem, an instruction sent to leading the may fourth directive says,” If land is taken from the middle peasants, it should be returned or compensation paid to them. This is to absorb the middle peasants into the movement.” From this simple instruction , it shows that the CCP clearly understands what they need to do in order to gain support from the middle and lower classes. The second approach the CCP took was ordering the CCP army to be kind and courteous to the peasants, thus gaining support through communicating and caring for them. The Red army’s forms of conduct such as “Do not damage crops,” and “Pay fairly for what you buy” gives people an impression that they are friendly, approachable and a respectable defense force. It further shows that the CCP understands that the peasants are the leaders of the revolution, without the support of the higher class, the CCP aims to gain support through another source, which is the peasantry.

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In contrast to the CCP’s support network during the civil war, the GMD had a decrease in support because of the government’s inability to fulfill popular aspirations for peace, economic reconstruction, and some form of a responsive government. The corruption of the GMD was noted in 1948 by General Joseph Stilwell (American wartime liaison officer), he reported that what he saw of the GMD was “corruption, neglect, chaos, economy, taxes…hoarding, black market”. This reflected how foreigners saw the GDP government, it was inefficient and had shown their corruption through events such as Manchuria, the GDP were also called “ ...

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