relationship

关于中国共产党和国民党的讨论~

Part I

Discuss the relationship between the CCP and the Guomindang between 1921 and 1945. How effective was their alliance? Why did it collapse? What were the consequences for China?

The CCP and the Guomindang have formed two alliances between 1921 and 1936. The first alliance was formed in 1924, under the spirit of the first national congress of Guomindang and the fourth national congress of CCP, the two parties decided to collaborate and carry on with the national revolution to put an end to the rule of Beiyang Warlords, namely Sun Chuanfang, Wu Peifu and Zhang Zuolin in east China. At that time, the alliance was carried out in the form of “Internal Collaboration”. The Communists Party members would join the Guomindang as independent individuals, while keeping their membership in the Communist Party. Major party leaders at that time such as Zhou Enlai were also Guomindang party members, Zhou was even appointed as one of the instructors of the political department of the Huangpu Military Academy. The National Revolutionary Army established by bipartisan efforts attacked Beiyang Warlords in 1926, starting the national revolution of China. The revolution proved to be a great victory over the warlords during 1926 and 1927, with the National Revolution Army fighting the war in main battlefields, while publicity officials of both parties went deep into countryside and introduced the spirit of revolution to local peasants, calling for the public uprise. In 1927, the NRA succeeded in occupying Shanghai, the largest city of China. The alliance proved to be a great success in both establishing armed forces and mobilizing the mass during the period and can be viewed as an effective effort. Unfortunately, due to the distrust of Chiang Kai-shek and his fear of communist thought spreading across China, he ordered the NRA to slaughter communist party members in Shanghai and other places, causing the collapse of the alliance.

The collapse of the first alliance resulted in the continuous split of China, since Chiang Kai-shek and Guomindang alone was unable to proceed with the revolution on its own. Although Zhang Xueliang agreed to be placed under the control of Nanjing Nationalist Government in 1928, the warlords of Guomindang still was able to remain autonomy in their territory to a large extent. China was still torn apart by multiple forces. Also, CCP began its 10-year-long armed rebellion against the Guomindang government, causing huge amounts of casualties, especially in underdeveloped areas such as Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong, etc. Not only so, the civil war gave the Japanese ample time to invade and consolidate its existence in China, bringing the 14-year-long disaster to China.

The second bi-party alliance was formed on the basis of fighting against Japanese invasion. The alliance was much less tighter than the previous one due to over 10 years of struggle between both parties. Both parties were suspicious towards each other and frictions often happened during the fitful combats against the Japanese. Nevertheless, the alliance was an effective one—the Guomindang forces were involved in main battlefields while the Communists carried on with its guerrilla combat in Japanese occupied areas, the majority of Japanese forces were dragged on the Chinese territory was unable to be extracted to fight against the Americans and Soviets. The bipartisan collaborative efforts, plus the assistance of western allies finally brought victory to China in 1945, but the civil war once again followed the footstep of victory due to the failure of the alliance in 1946.
The collapse of the second alliance led China to a large scale civil war with millions of casualties during the four years. The Guomindang was eventually defeated by the powerful than ever CCP and retrieved to Taiwan to maintain its regime. The collapse of this alliance determined the fate of China in the next decades, China joined Soviet Union’s socialist camp and became another influential “Red State” of Asia. The establishment of the new China ended the semi-colonial status of China that had been on for more than a century, getting China rid of the control of western powers.


Part II
1. Whampoa
Also known as the “Huangpu Military Academy”, established in 1924 by Dr. Sun Yat-sen and his followers of the national revolution in Guangzhou. It served as a recruit camp of the revolutionary forces (later the nationalist government army) during 1924 and 1949 in mainland China. Despite training soldiers, Whampoa also cultivated a number of famous generals of the Chinese army, both in Guomindang forces and CCP. The Academy was under the influence of Soviet military instructions during the first years, for the majority of its military instructors came from Soviet Union. After the collapse of the first alliance between Guomindang and CCP, the Whampoa shifted to the Academy of Army Officers of Nationalist government, and was relocated to Taiwan eventually after the defeat of second civil war.

2. Blueshirts
The Blueshirts was a pro-fascist assassination group established by Dai Li, Chiang Kai-shek’s top intelligence official during the 1930s. It started as a patriotic group formed by young servicemen and officials of the Guomindang, in aim to save the country from continuous war, corruption and Japanese invasion. The Blueshirts were very efficient in assassinating their enemies and collecting intelligence, but they were later turned to boast the “benefits” of dictatorship and the absolute subordination to the leader and became a bit fascist afterwards. Under the great pressure of other forces within the Guomindang, the Blueshirts was dismissed in 1938.

3. Jiangxi Soviet
The CCP established its first influential regime in Ruijin, Jiangxi in 1931. The official name was Chinese Soviet Republic, also known to many as Jiangxi Soviet for Jiangxi was the core area of its movement. The Soviet regime served as the stronghold against Guomindang ruling in China, but was forced to retreat in 1934 and was relocated to Yan’an in 1936. In 1937, the Jiangxi Soviet dissolved after CCP’s recognition of Guomindang government as the official government of China during the anti-Japanese invasion war.

4. Long March
In 1934, the leadership for the three-man military group ordered the Red Army to retreat due to the defeat in the fifth “anti-encirclement” battle. Nearly 80,000 Red Army soldiers retrieved from Jiangxi Soviet and went northwest into the Shaanxi Province. The Long March went on for more than 1 year, succeeding in preserving the core forces of the CCP at the heavy cost of more than 60,000 men. During the Long March, the CCP rebuild Mao Zedong’s leadership in Zunyi and abandoned the three-man leadership before, which turned the tide of battle.

5. Unit 731
Unit 731 was a notorious Japanese biochemical troop led by Dr. Shiro Ishii and was deployed in Harbin, China. During the second Sino-Japanese War, Unit 731 launched several chemical and biochemical attacks in northeast and other parts of China, killing thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians. Moreover, Unit 731 implemented biochemical weapon and germ experiment on Chinese POWs, which is against international treaty and basic humanity. However, when Japan was defeated, the head of Unit 731 was exempted from criminal charges due to the handover of experiment data to the United States.