Civil War

Question 1

end of second united front

Answer 1

• 4 January 1941 – Communists not
  completely transferred so KMT troops,
  artillery and aircraft launch a devastating
  attack on the CCP armies
• · 31 December 1940 – Deadline given for all
  Communist settlers to move north of the Yangxi
  river

Question 2

3rd United Front American mediation

Answer 2

• George Marshall sent
• talksthat produced an agreement
  between Communists and Nationalists
  to set up a joint committee to arrange a
  ceasefire in northern China, announced
  on 10 January 1946.
• his only gave the Communists
  breathing space to strengthen
  their hold in the Manchurian
  countryside. By May the two
  sides were again at war.”
• KMT Central Executive Committee moved inMarch to
  limit the scope of the accord by reserving powers for
  the central government, seeking to perpetuate
  presidential rule, and insisting on a veto power in the
  national assembly

Question 3

3rd UF American mediation failure

Answer 3

• 7 January 1947, Marshall went home
• ‘almost overwhelmingsuspicion’ between the
  Nationalists and the Communists, aggravated by
  KMT reactionaries and ‘dyed-in-the-wool
  Communists’.
• had been doomed from the start
  since neither side wantedpeace and
  harmony

Question 4

Reasons for CCP victory - ideology

Answer 4

• The mass of Chinese people, he added, ‘welcome
  the Reds asbeing the only visible hope of relief from
  crushing taxation, the abuses of the Army and Dai Li’s
  Gestapo.’ Patrick Hurley, US envoy
• “Conscription, a tragedy in government areas, was an honour in liberated areas.” Bianco
• · 1947 – Land Law begins land reform in CCP areas
• “Every time the KMT asked for guides, [the peasants] got in touch with us, and then were made our ambush…
• Send soldiers and revolutionaries behind enemy lines to covertly convert oppressed,

Question 5

Reasons for CCP victory - desertion

Answer 5

1945 CCP forces = 1.2 million
1949 CCP forces = 4 million

In the siege of Changchan alone, 13,000
officers and soldiers (10% of the total) defected,
including 16 colonels and 282 above captain –
within the first month

Question 6

Reasons for CCP victory - tactics

Answer 6

• didn’t hold onto land
• · March 1947 – Yan’an captured by KMT:
  “We will give Chiang Yan’an. He will give
  us China…It is after all only caves. Empty
  cities don’t matter. The aim is to destroy
  the enemy’s army.” Mao

Question 7

Reasons for CCP victory - resources

Answer 7

• Stalin ordered a huge quantity ofweapons and equipment
  taken from the Japanese to be given to the Chinese Red
  Army
• Soviet handover of between 700,000 and900,000 rifles, 14,000
  heavy and light machine guns, artillery, mortars, anti-aircraft
  weapons, boats and 700 vehicles, including tanks
• the PLAwas no peasant guerrilla army - Fenby

Question 8

Reasons for CCP victory - army discipline

Answer 8

THREE RULES 1. Obey orders in all actions 2. Don’t take a single needle or piece of thread from the
masses 3. Turn in everything captured
- EIGHT PRINCIPLES included pay for
everyting damages, don’t ill-treat captives,
don’t damage crops

Question 9

Reasons for CCP victory - Mao control

Answer 9

• · April-May 1947 – PLA launch
  spectacular offensives and crush the
  KMT forces
• following \strong point offensive’
  byu Chiang which re-took north-east
  for a time
• “It was that control that allowed him to overcome the doubts of many of his
  commanders and change from a defensive to an offensive strategy at a critical stage
  in the civil war” Lynch
• March-April 1947 – KMT armies become overstretched.

Question 10

Reasons for KMT failure - Chiang

Answer 10

• he has refused to undertake land reforms, has
  been unable to establish a firm currency and is
  leader of an incompetent and corrupt civil
  service and army.
• • the Chungking Government tried to keep
    local warlords in line and avoid upsetting the
    social order under the landlords in the village
• “He had no clear purpose other than to remain in power.” Han Suyin

Question 11

Reasons for KMT failure - Chiang acc to Fenby

Answer 11

• He interfered with commanders in the field, issuing contradictory
  orders and second-guessing them.
• , he prized loyaltyabove ability
• He allocated supplies with a political motivation, holdingback arms
  and food from generals he distrusted

Question 12

Reasons for KMT failure - army

Answer 12

-  8,000,000 men we lost 1938-44:
1,000,000 killed in battle; 7,000,000
killed by
starvation/disease/mistreatment, or lost
to desertions
- withoutany real allegiance to the regime
- But their army
remained plagued
byinefficiency,
regionalism and
corruption
- up to half of all new recruits
were reckoned to have
perishedor deserted
- · Officers held day jobs, sold equipment and supplies on the black market

Question 13

Reasons for KMT failure - peasants

Answer 13

• Chiang repeated a tactic he used against the
  Japanese, ordering the path of the Yellow River to
  be changed to split enemy forces on either side of
  the waterway
• flooding500 villages and displacing 400,000 people

Question 14

Chiang hero?

Answer 14

- “[The Nationalists were]
solving their problems, at
least on an experimental
level.” Gray 
- At the time, Chiang was generally regarded and the nation-builder of modern China, - Chang

Question 15

Chiang government reforms

Answer 15

• An Organic Law providedfor a National Political
  Consultative Council to ‘unite all the forces in the country
  and bring together all ideas and views to benefit the
  formulation of national policies’.
• body met in July 1938, 1 2 0 of its 200 seats
  wereallocated to the CCP, independents and
  smaller non-KMT groups
• The council’s powers were limited; it could proposeand criticize but not enforce decisions.