China in Power Politics, 1928-1937: from Disunity to Coalition

A. Reasons

1. Ever since the break with the CCP in 1927, Chiang Kai-shek had never forgotten the threats of Communism in China. His policy was one of exterminating all the Communists before defending China against Japanese aggression.
2. In 1931, after disloyal former warlords had successfully been defeated, Chiang could turn his full attention to the Communist problem.
3. Chiang realised that the Communists were quite successful in spreading social revolution in Central and South China. It was therefore both necessary and urgent for Chiang to destroy Communist bases as soon as possible.

B. Course

1. The 1st Extermination Campaign - In 1930-31, Chiang ordered about 100,000 of his KMT troops to attack the Communist Red Army, which consisted of only about 40,000 soldiers, in the Kiangsi border areas. Although the KMT side had more troops, the Communists wisely made good use of their guerrilla strategy. Mao Tse-tung and Chu Teh isolated units of the KMT army and attacked them one by one. A lot of KMT weapons and military equipment were captured by the Communists. This factor partly explained the successful establishment of the. Chinese Soviet Republic in Juichin in 1931.
2. The 2nd and 3rd Extermination Campaigns – In 1931, another campaign,was organized by the KMT to fight the Communists at the Juichin base. Although more KMT troops were sent, the attempt also ended in failure. Later, a third campaign was organized and Chiang personally took charge of it. He employed the best of the KMT troops. However, at this time, the Japanese army invaded Manchuria. Chiang was thus forced to cancel the expedition and turn to deal with Japan's aggression.
3. The 4th Extermination Campaign - In 1933, Chiang renewed the anti-Communist efforts. More than half a million KMT soldiers were put into action. However, when Japan again committed aggression by taking Jehol in North China, Chiang could do nothing except call off the extermination campaign again.
4. The 5th Extermination Campaign - This time, Chiang changed his military strategy. Following the suggestions of his German advisers, he sent about a million KMT troops to surround the Communist areas, build blockhouses around the regions, and establish an economic blockade. All communication routes and trade between the Communist bases and outside areas were shut off. As a result, the Communists found it increasingly difficult to use the old strategy of sudden attack and fast retreat. More disastrously, because of the KMT blockade, there arose problems like shortages of food. Since salt was short, diseases spread, and many Communist members were physically weak. By the summer of 1934, the size of the Communist-held territories was reduced to 15% of that in 1932. To avoid being totally destroyed, the Communists decided to abandon their bases in Kiangsi.

C. Effects

1. The CCP began the Long March (1934-35).
2. KMT control could be re-established in formerly Communist-held districts. But the cost that the KMT had to pay for the success was high:
   • Occupied with. the extermination campaigns, the KMT neglected and failed to deal with China's social and economic reforms. This was an important factor that accounted for the KMT's downfall in the end.
   • Japan's aggression in China was encouraged by the KMT's concentration on the destruction of the CCP. Many Chinese people disliked this KMT policy of fighting their own countrymen - the Communists. Social support that the KMT government enjoyed was declining.

A. Course
In late 1934, the Red Army and CCP members (altogether about 100,000 in number) broke through the KMT encirclement and started the Long March through South and West China. As the Communists escaped, they were chased by KMT forces. Marching by different routes, the Communists finally reached Shensi, after more than a year, in late 1935 There they established a new Soviet Republic in Yenan.

B. Achievements
Of the original 100,000 men, only about 5,000 completed the full length of the March alive. The Long March cover­ed 5,000-6,000 miles in 12 of China's provinces. In the course of the journey, the Communists had to cross 18 mountain ranges and 24 wild rivers. In short, as Edgar Snow (an American journalist in China in 1935, who was rather sympathetic to Communism) observes, the Long March was "one of the great triumphs of men against odds and men against nature". This view is shared by most historians.

C. Reasons for the successful completion of the Long March

1. The Communists marched along the mountainous borders of provinces like Hunan, Kwangtung and Kwangsi, since there was a traditional lack of cooperation between one province and its neighbour, the Communists could pass through the China's interior without being seriously attacked and blocked by provincial forces.
2. Many KMT officials in the provinces were former warlords who preferred to preserve their own power rather than to help Chiang Kai-shek in suppressing the Communists. Moreover, most of these former warlords defended only the cities, thus leaving the Communists to go by the undefended countryside.
3. The Communists were well-disciplined. They behaved well during the Long March. Thus village people just watched and remained neutral.

D. Effects of the Long March

1. Territorially, the Kiangsi Soviet base, which the CCP had for some years been working on, was lost, together with the land reforms and the primitive industrial factories for the manufacture of military weapons. The KMT simply destroyed all Communist-introduced social measures. Yet having arrived in Northern Shensi, the Communists could settle down to re-gain their lost strength. Yenan would soon become the centre of a great effort to re-build the Communist Movement. There, as will be seen, the Communists would have sufficient time and opportunity to establish a new base area to begin revolution again. Indeed, Northern Shensi would soon prove to be a springboard from which the Communist revolu­tion would spread throughout China.
2. Psychologically, the Long March had a far-reaching influence on the Chinese Communist Movement:
   • First, the successful completion of the Long March strengthened Mao Tse-tung's belief that men with a strong will and powerful revolutionary consciousness could conquer all material difficulties. Whereas Karl Marx (founder of Communism) believed that history was moved by economic forces, not human spirit, Mao Tse-tung added that strong-willed men could make history according to their ideals.
   • Secondly, the CCP members who completed the Long March were filled with a renewed sense of hope and a deepened sense of mission. They believed that they were the chosen few ( they lived while others had died) to carry on the revolution.
   • Thirdly, brotherhood among the top CCP leaders was strengthened, a factor that helped explain the success of Communism in China later.
   • Fourthly, Communist virtues such as unending struggle, unselfishness, heroic sacrifice and courage were born during the Long March. Indeed, the Long March left behind many heroic stories of revolutionary tradition for the spread of Communism in the future. Today, it is the Yenan spirit that is celebrated in China.
3. Politically, Mao Tse-tung once again rose to the top leadership during the Long March. When the Communists, on the journey, reached the town of Tsunyi in Kweichow, Mao and his followers tried to challenge the leadership of the Russian­supported "returned students". Mao criticized them for the wrong policies that they adopted in the Kiangsi base. In the end, Mao re-gained the top political power in a collective leadership. This had two effects.
   1. Mao and the new leaders decided to give the Long March a goal and a purpose - "Go North (to Shensi) to fight the Japanese". This patriotic act proved to win for the Communists much social support in the country. It partly explained the victory of Communism in 1949.
   2. Russian influence in the Chinese Communist Movement was finally and completely shaken off. Mao had achieved top party leadership in open disobedience to Stalin. The development of Chinese Communism thereafter was completely independent of foreign control.
4. Socially, when the Communists marched through China's interior, many of their members were left along the routes to promote the Communist Movement. They encouraged class struggle, recruited new members, held public meetings, stimulated armed peasant uprisings, and took food and clothing from the wealthy for distribution among the poor. In short, their activities prepared the way for the victory of Communism in 1949.
5. Militarily, the Communists had gained valuable military experience in the many battles fought with the KMT troops during the Long March.
6. On the side of the KMT, the troops under Chiang Kai-shek, while chasing after the Communists, succeeded for the first time since 1928 in establishing real control over the southwestern provinces like Szechwan (where former warlords remained powerful) as well as over the Northwest (where Muslim generals ruled as practically independent princes). Consequently, the territories under Chiang Kai-shek's hold were enlarged. To the KMT, the times seemed promising. But as Japan would soon invade China (after 1937), Chiang Kai-shek would again lose control over large parts of Chinese territory.