Contents
The KMT, 1928-1937
The CCP, 1927-1934
The KMT-CCP Struggle, 1930-1935
The Second KMT-CCP Coalition: the United Front against Japan, 1936-1937
Summary
© Philip YL Woo, 1980. Adapted by TK Chung
Wade-Giles Romanization used
China in Power Politics, 1928-1937: from Disunity to Coalition
The Second KMT-CCP Coalition : the United Front against Japan, 1936-1937
CAUSES AND BACKGROUND OF THE SECOND KMT-CCP COALITION
A. Strong Chinese nationalism and widespread demand for internal unity against foreign aggression in China
Against the growing Japanese aggression in China in the early 1930s, many Chinese nationalists advocated national resistance. This called for the establishment of internal unity first. Thus, the KMT's policy of destroying the Communists before fighting the Japanese was increasingly viewed with disapproval by many Chinese people, especially students and intellectuals. To them, such a KMT policy, which continued civil war in China, actually encouraged more Japanese aggression: Many patriotic Chinese were hopeful that the KMT and the CCP would unite to defend China. For example:
- The military revolt of the KMT's 19th Route Army in 1933 showed that the civil war was unpopular.
- There emerged a National Salvation Association in 1936, which was composed of famous lawyers and well-known intellectuals, advocating the same policy of a united front as the CCP's.
B. The CCP's exploitation of Chinese nationalism and advocacy for a united front against Japan
As early as 1932, the Communists had already declared war on Japan. A year later, they announced their willingness to cooperate with the KMT against Japan, on condition that:
- the peasants would receive KMT weapons to fight the Japanese,
- KMT attacks on Communist-held areas would immediately be stopped, and
- the KMT would give liberal rights to the people.
During the Long March (1934-35), the Communists advocated a "united front from below", calling upon all China to unite against both Japan and Chiang Kai-shek. By the time the Communists reached Shensi in late 1935, however, they changed the advocacy to a "united front from above", advocating a KMT-CCP coalition for national resistance against Japan. Through these declarations, the CCP hoped to:
- build up a good reputation for the Communists and to win social support for the Communist movement,
- seize the leadership of the national resistance movement from the hands of the KMT,
- make the KMT's anti‑Communist policy more and more unpopular, and
- force the KMT to fight against the Japanese instead of the Communists.
C. Soviet Russia's encouragement of KMT-CCP coalition
In the early 1930s, Soviet Russia called upon all Communists of the world to ally with their respective capitalist governments so as to defend the "fatherland of Socialism" (i.e. Soviet Russia herself) against German Nazism and Japanese Fascism. In particular, Chiang Kai-shek was considered by Soviet Russia to be the only leader in China who was capable of effective resistance to Japanese imperialism in East Asia. [Go Top]
THE SIAN INCIDENT AND THE SECOND KMT-CCP UNITED FRONT, 1936
A. Course
- In 1936, after the Communists had retreated to Northern Shensi, Chiang Kai-shek decided to carry out the 6th, and the last, extermination campaign against them. He sent the KMT's Northeastern Army under Chang Hsueh-liang, son of Chang Tsolin, on the mission. In doing so, Chiang Kai-shek expected that two purposes would be served at the same time:
- on the one hand, the Communists, already greatly weakened after the Long March, would be totally destroyed by Chang Hsueh-liang;
- on the other hand, the military power of Chang Hsueh-liang would be greatly reduced after fighting with the CCP.
- Chang Hsueh-liang was very anti-Japanese in attitude. This explained why he had responded favourably to the CCP's call for a united front against Japan. Thus when Chiang Kai-shek told him to fight against the Communists instead of the Japanese, Chang Hsueh- liang simply did not obey, saying that "Chinese do not fight Chinese". The Northeastern Army even traded with the Communists.
- To direct the extermination campaign himself, Chiang Kai-shek personally went to the headquarters of the Northeastern Army in Sian. He was there, however, arrested by Chang Hsueh-liang.
- Then Chou En-lai, representing the CCP, came over to Sian. He advised Chang Hsueh-liang to release Chiang Kai-shek if Chiang agreed to end the civil war and form a united front. The Communists realised that only Chiang could throw all the KMT forces into an all-out war with Japan. In the end, Chiang Kai-shek agreed to the deal and he was then set free.
- In the negotiations between the KMT and the CCP from 1936 to 1937, the following agreements were reached:
- The KMT agreed to cancel the official ban on the CCP.
- The CCP's right to govern the Yenan areas, which were renamed the Border District Administration, was recognized.
- The Communist Red Army, which was renamed the Eighth Route Army, was in theory included in the KMT's national troops. In practice, of course, it was still owned and controlled by the CCP alone as before.
- The KMT promised to introduce democratic reforms based on Sun Yatsen's Three Principles of the People, and the CCP agreed to give up armed uprisings and land confiscation in the countryside. [Go Top]
B. Effects of the Second United Front
- Stronger Chinese national unity - The armed struggle between the KMT and the CCP since 1927 was put to an end, at least for the time being. China was thus ready to resist Japan.
- Contribution to the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-45) - Both fearful of and angry at the formation of the anti-Japanese Second United Front between the KNIT and the CCP, Japan was more prepared to teach China a lesson. Thus after the China Incident of 1937, the Japanese government decided on war against China. As Communism was most feared in Japan, the Japanese militarists tried to conquer the KMT, on the ground that the KMT had allied with the CCP. and was therfore badly affected by the Communist evil.
- Weakening of the KMT - With the Second United Front, Chiang Kai-shek regained the leadership of China's nationalist movement to a limited extent. Yet, the KMT government was soon occupied with resisting Japan's aggression, was forced to retreat to Western China after 1937, and was then greatly weakened in the Second Sino-Japanese War (193745). Chiang had neither time nor opportunity to destroy the CCP, which grew in power quickly. All these factors contributed to the KMT's downfall in 1949.
- Spread of Communism - The Communists, however, benefited much from the Second United Front
- No longer hard-pressed by KMT extermination campaigns, the CCP could settle down in Shensi, strengthen its power, extend its influence to villages in North China, work out and test its guerrilla military strategy, organize the peasants, and practise social reforms - all of which were important factors contributing to the Communist victory in 1949.
- The KMT's agreement to cooperate with the CCP raised the national position and reputation of the Communist Movement in China. The Communist Movement became more popular and won more public sympathy, since the CCP was willing (at least on the surface) to place itself under the KMT in resisting Japan.
- Strengthening and politicizing of Chinese nationalism - On the whole, the Second United Front strengthened Chinese nationalism. In the May Fourth Intellectual Revolution in 1919, Chinese nationalism was basically cultural and quite passive. During the formation of the Second United Front in the early 1930s, however, Chinese nationalism became more and more political in nature and increasingly active. Instead of passively boycotting foreign goods (which Chinese people were fond of doing in the 1920s), patriotic students and intellectuals actively volunteered to join the war against Japan in and after 1937. Thousands of them even marched to join the Communists in Yenan for this common cause. [Go Top]