China 1927 to 1937: Nationalist China and the Communist Survival Flashcards
to understand the factors which led to the CCP's survival by 1937
What were the ‘white purges’ of 1927?
Attacks and killings by the GMD of known and suspected Communists in cities across China.- beginning with the White Terror in Shanghai in April 1927
What effect did the ‘White Terror’ and purges of 1927 have on the GMD?
It split the GMD in two: the left-wing GMD led by Wang Jingwei, based in Wuhan and Chiang’s party based in Nanjing. It also ended their alliance with the USSR.
How did Chiang Kaishek reunite the GMD after the White Terror?
With far more money at his disposal than Wang Jingwei, Chiang Kaishek used the GMD-sympathetic warlord, Li Zongren, to defeat Wang and reunite the GMD under Chiang’s command.
How did Russia react to the White Terror of 1927?
At first they ordered the CCP to maintain the United Front with the Nationalists. By September 1927 they had accepted the alliance was over. They ordered the CCP to organise uprisings against the Nationalists in Nanchang and Guangzhou.
How did the CCP try to respond to the Nationalists’ ‘White Terror’?
Through a series of (failed) armed uprisings, most notably the Autumn Harvest Rising led by Mao Zedong in August 1927.
Where was the Autumn Harvest Rising of 1927 mainly based?
Around Changsha, capital of Hunan province
Where did the Nationalists establish their government in 1928?
Nanjing
Why did the GMD argue that Sun Yatsen’s Three principles could NOT be put into effect in 1928?
Using Sun’s own writings, they argued that China was in an intermediate stage during which the people needed to be educated into political values and knowledge
What reforms did the Nationalists make in 1928?
They modernised the civil service, creating special administrative departments; they introduced measures to improve the quality and availability of education; they brought Chinese banks under central control of the Bank of China; a National Resources Commission was set up to develop industry and foreign trade; the opium trade was brought under government control; schemes were introduced to improve urban transport and communications
How did the Nationalists deal with foreign concessions from 1928?
They tried to enforce Chinese laws within the foreign concessions and increased custom duties for foreign companies.
Why could the Nationalists not deal more strongly with foreigners in China?
There were many foreign troops; many urban Chinese depended on the foreign companies and legations for employment; the Nationalists relied on the foreign support in trying to improve the economy; the GMD in particular relied on German advisers in trying to modernise their army and police force. This was even more so after Japan’s occupation of Manchuria in 1931.
What was the New Life Movement, launched in 1934?
It was a programme of moral improvement which placed loyalty to the GMD and to Confucian values above all. It was an attempt to put forward a positive alternative to Communism and Western capitalism.
How did the GMD undermine its own New Life Movement?
Through its corruption, its alliance with gangs such as the Green Gang and its reliance on Western commercial and financial interests to raise money for the party.
What were the structural weaknesses of the Nationalists?
It was largely drawn from the merchant and commercial classes of China’s ports and major cities. It therefore had little sympathy for peasants or interest in improving conditions in the countryside. In addition, the GMD, ultimately, only had control over perhaps one third of China and two thirds of its population.
What measure had the GMD promised with regard to the rural economy but failed to produce?
The ending of landlord exploitation of the peasants; extending property rights to peasants; protecting peasants from exorbitant rents; guaranteeing fair prices for agricultural produce
How was the GMD’s secret police organised?
The Bureau of Investigation and Statistics was organised along the same lines as the German Gestapo. Led by Dai Li, their main task was to root out suspected Communists.
Who were the Blue Shirts?
A secret police within the GMD whose aim was save the GMD and China by moving the GMD to a fascist ideology. Dai Li came to lead them.
How large were the Blue Shirts by the mid-1930s?
By the mid-1930s there were around 1800 agents.
How did Mao’s ideas develop during the Jiangxi Soviet?
He became committed to rural revolution, as opposed to the Comintern idea of proletariat revolution; he also developed his ideas of guerrilla warfare and dependence on the peasantry; he came to see the huge potential of the peasants to be a revolutionary force
Why did the Nationalist fail to carry through its declared aim of land reform in the 1930s?
The GMD needed the support of rural elites who were opposed to land reform; warlords still exerted considerable control over a number of provinces; after 1931 the Japanese occupied Manchuria and, after 1937, other parts of China.
How did Chiang’s preoccupation with crushing the CCP add to the GMD’s poor record in power in the 1930s?
It diverted resources and energy away from talking China’s social and economic problems; it also ensured the GMD was reliant on warlords, foreign capitalists and rural elites – i.e. the very groups causing the problems
Who did Chiang Kaishek marry in 1927, as his third wife?
Soong Meiling
What significance did Soong Meiling have?
She headed the new Life Movement; she was an effective advocate for the Nationalists in Chinese and American high society. She toured the US several times, raising money, addressing the Congress and consolidating the US support for the GMD. She even appeared three times on the cover of Time magazine.
