The GMD’s attack on the CCP

Question 1

When was the white terror?

Answer 1

Also known as the Shanghai massacre, it occurred in April 1927.

Question 2

What occurred in the Shanghai massacre?

Answer 2

Backed by Shanghai’s industrialists and merchants, Chiang turned on the CCP and the trade unions. Using information from the Green Gang and the triads, Chiang’s troops dragged out 5,000 known communists and executed them.

Question 3

What anti-communist purges occurred in other cities in China?

Answer 3

In Hunan 250,000 were killed in total, with 3,000 suspected communists killed in one day in Changsha, the capital.

Question 4

What was the Autumn Harvest Uprising?

Answer 4

A CCP resistance to the white purges that occurred in August 1927, led by Mao in Hunan. It asserted the CCP’s independence from the United front, in defiance of Moscow, and firmly broke the two parties. Mao raised a force of only 3,000 and was unable to threaten the GMD forces in Changsha.

Question 5

What were the consequences of the Autumn Harvest uprising?

Answer 5

Mao’s failure to take any positions in pitched battles convinced him of the need to employ guerrilla tactics.
Also, the GMD had mostly succeeded in pushing the CCP to the brink of destruction, causing the remaining Communists to flee to Jiangxi.