How Was The Chinese Communist Victory During The Chinese Civil War A Major Turning Point In Modern Chinese History?

Institution

How Was The Chinese Communist Victory During The Chinese Civil War A Major Turning Point In Modern Chinese History?

Abstract 

The Chinese Civil War ended in 1949 when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) came to power. The lengthy struggle between Kuomintang Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Gongchandang Communist Party for the control of China was motivated by ideological differences. The war was responsible for many deaths and destruction, but it ushered in a new era in China. When the war ended, Mao Zedong became a symbol of revolutionary success and inspired many revolutions across the globe. The Communist Party victory was also a turning point for China; it ended the KMT militant form of leadership in China and led to the official formation of the People’s the Republic of China. There were other notable positive consequences such as improved economic development and social progress. This paper explores in detail the effects of the Chinese Communist Party victory.

Introduction 

The Chinese Civil War can be traced back to the 1920s. The collapse of the monarchy left a power vacuum in China, and when KMT’s Yuan Shikai died in 1916 without appointing a successor, the country was divided into different regions by the warlords (Kim, 2010). Additionally, there was increasing dissatisfaction with the Kuomintang-led government, many were experiencing poor living standards, and they were warming up to the communist ideas spread by CCP. CCP and KMT had fundamental ideological differences towards the direction of the nation. CCP wanted to establish a communist society where everyone would be treated equally. CCP was against imperialism by the foreigners just like KMT, but it was against KMT’s desire for a democratic and capitalist society (Cheng, 2005). The two parties had their struggles, but to managed to keep the peace until 1946 when a full-scale war broke out. KMT launched an attack against the communist territory under the leadership of Chiang Kai-Shek. What followed was a three-year of intense military campaigns between CCP and KMT until the end of 1949 when Mao Zedong took control of Beijing and proclaimed it the People’s Republic of China capital. On the other hand, Chiang Kai-Shek moved to the island of Taiwan with almost two million KMT loyalists. The communist victory was catalyzed by internal and external factors that weakened KMT, for instance, the Japanese attack, corruption among KMT officials, and lack of public support. The Communist victory in 1949 became a major turning point, PRC was officially founded as a new society with a host of positive socio-economic and political changes for the Chinese people, but Mao Zedong's communist government had catastrophic shortfalls that cannot be ignored. 

Mao Zedong 

The communist victory cannot be discussed without analyzing the role of Mao Zedong. Mao was a communist revolutionary from a young age; he joined a Marxist study group while studying at the Beijing University. At the study group, he encountered radical Marxists who believed that the foreigners were responsible for China’s problem (peasant poverty). A few years later, Mao joined the communist party (Cheng, 2005).

Mao joined the CCP underground activities as early as the 1920s and advocated for the armed rebellion against the Nationalist KMT government. He quickly rose through ranks because of his dedication to the cause.

According to Dirlik (2012), Mao Zedong can be understood from two perspectives in the post-revolutionary China, and the two views shaped China’s history for good. Mao can be described as a national icon responsible for national liberation and consolidation. When the Qing Dynasty collapsed, China was divided by the warlords within KMT. Imperial powers also manipulated KMT leadership at the expense of the Chinese citizens. When Mao took over the reins of leadership, he facilitated the socialist transformation of the new nation. The first perspective of Mao has been popularized by the media and TV programs that portray Mao as the courageous leader responsible for the national revolution that formed the foundation of today’s society. On the other hand, Mao is also responsible for the controversial Cultural Revolution. The Cultural Revolution was responsible for over 1.5 million deaths, massive imprisonments, torture, and seizure of property.

The Cultural Revolution was Mao’s attack on the system of government that he created in 1949. Mao felt that he was losing control of the leadership, and the top officials were deviating from communist ideals. The Cultural Revolution pushed China into another unnecessary lengthy crisis. Thus many Chinese citizens lost faith in the socialist government altogether.

How Chinese Communist Victory was a Turning Point 

The CCP victory was a turning point for China; various economic, social, and political changes were adopted to better the society. It is worth noting that the CCP victory in 1949 was not just a turning point for PRC, rather it was deemed as one of the most significant events of the 20th century. CCP’s successful liberation of China became a motivation for anti-imperialists movement across the globe, especially in Africa and South America. After the victory, Mao formed the new society, the People’s Republic of China to replace the old KMT-led Republic of China. When CCP took over, immediate changes were made such as changing the name of PRC’s capital from Beiping to Beijing (Kim, 2010).

I. Economic Changes 

As early as the 1950, there were improvements in the economic aspects of the society. CCP managed to attract massive support because of its socialist agenda. Mao wanted to create a society whereby the majority of the Chinese people, who were poor peasants, would be in control. During the revolutionary war, the Red Army attacked landlords and moneylenders who were taking advantage of the poor peasants. In the new PRC society, there were slight changes aimed at improving the livelihood of the peasants. Land was redistributed in a more efficient manner, and the government took active measures to control inflation and unemployment.

CCP had ambitious plans for the Chinese society. CCP wanted to turn China into an industrial power capable of competing with other global powers from the West. The elimination of landlords and thrifty business people was a move aimed at raising capital. It also came up with a ruling class of officials, factory managers, and army chiefs to implement the development agenda (Bjorge, 2011).

When CCP took over, its first priority was to stabilize the economic institutions poorly managed by the KMT government. The CCP government introduced stricter economic polices to control the inflation. A new currency, renminbi was introduced. Mao’s government confiscated all the property of the KMT supporters who had fled the country as well all foreign assets in China. The confiscated foreign assets offered capital for economic development. Additionally, the CCP government nationalized banks, electricity supply, and the transport sector in an effort to provide the basic amenities to all Chinese citizens.

The landlords who were exploiting the peasants in the past were sentenced to death, while good landlords were spared. CCP exploited peasants through creation of the policy that required peasant landowners to join mutual aid teams made up of up to ten peasant farmers. In a mutual aid team, the peasants would share labor and machinery to improve their productivity. CCP did not force peasants to join the mutual aid teams, but those who refused to join were not given tools and government support. Collaborative agriculture proved to be successful; in the mid-1950s, the poor peasants were empowered.

Further economic development was made possible when China under CCP began accepting machinery, technical experts, and foreign investment from Soviet Russia and other friendly western nations. After CCP’s victory, China enjoyed close relations with Russia, hence it benefited from the Russian advanced technology and military equipment. The relationship with Russia was crucial in the implementation of the Five Year Plan developed in 1953, the plan aim at improving production of steel and iron in China. It also focused on improving infrastructure, electrification, and transportation network across China to foster economic growth.

CCP’s impressive economic recovery plan came at a cost because the country lacked the resources needed to achieve CCP’s ambitions (Berg & Wolff). Mao came up with the concept of voluntarism to help the country replace the missing capital and labor. Peasants were put together in “people’s communes” with up to 30,000 people. They were made to work long hours in an effort to meet the unrealistic targets set by the local officials. The peasants working long hours in the farms were denied food by the officials, and millions of Chinese people died of hunger and the Chinese society was once again embroiled in chaos in the 1960s (Berg & Wolff, 2011). Since the economy was controlled by the government, through the leadership of local corrupt officials, many traders engaged in black trade and families also engaged in illegal activities to supplement their income.

II. Social Changes 

Apart from the land reforms, the CCP government introduced other social reforms. The emancipation of women is described as one of the greatest social reforms under Mao’s leadership. Before 1949, Chinese women faced a lot of discriminatory practices, particularly arranged marriages and footbinding. Footbinding was an ancient misogynistic tradition in China that made it impossible for women to walk properly and engage in daily activities. Arranged marriages were also common, and fathers would arrange for their young daughters to be married just to secure dowry.

In the early 20th century, only few women were lucky enough to receive formal education while families invested in male-child education. Without any form of education, women were left at the mercy of their husbands who took advantage of them. Women took care of the households and offered labor in the agricultural fields, yet the husbands were in control of the income. In 1922, only 2.5% of the university population was women (Dirlik, 2012).

Under the leadership of Mao, arranged marriage was outlawed as early as in the 1930s in Jiangxi. Divorce was also made easy such that Chinese women could easily get out of oppressive marriages. Mao’s government made more positive strides towards women empowerment when he came up with the policy that at least one quarter of elected representatives must be women. A comprehensive legal framework was created to address women’s issues. Though rural areas still practiced discriminative behaviors towards women, women had the law on their side.

Another significant social reform is the improvement in education. Before 1949, education was very expensive thus it was available to the rich members of the society. Only 20% of the children attended primary school in 1949, and the shortage of educated people affected development adversely. While the CCP government did not make educational reform a priority, it came up with policies to improve the attendance and to change the curriculum. In 1970, the primary school attendance had reached 96% (Dirlik, 2012).

The social reforms introduced by the CCP government changed the life of Chinese people for good, and in some ways for the worse. With women being empowered, women were among the labor exploited in the “people’s communes.” Women were overworked, and millions of them lost their lives during the Great Famine in 1958-1962 (Berg & Wolff, 2011). The education reforms improved the literacy levels, but it did not change the education system in a significant manner. The education system was still divided, and only the rich could access the best education from the key schools.

III. Political Changes 

The communist victory and the establishment of the CCP-led government were accompanied by political changes and implications that shaped China for good. The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee (CPPCC) was created in 1949 to create an agenda for social, economic, and political change in the society. The agenda became the foundation of CCP’s leadership; it offered the framework for economic, social, and political development. The agenda put its emphasis on the need to establish a society that respected freedom of speech, assembly, association and religious belief. It also emphasized on economic land reform, and free education for all Chinese children. The agenda had a lot of positive plans for the new society, though CCP disregarded some of them. The freedom of speech, association, and religious belief was limited during Mao’s rule. Additionally, the education and land reform did not achieve the expected outcome as the poorly planned land reform led to the deaths of approximately 50 million Chinese (Berg & Wolff, 2011).

The communist victory in 1949 also shaped China’s international relations greatly (Wilkinson, 2010). The CCP victory came as a great shock to the U.S. and other western nations with vested interests in China. The civil war propaganda had portrayed KMT’s Chiang Kai-Shek as the heroic leader of China, and with the support of the U.S., it was believed that Chiang Kai Shek would prevail. After winning the war, Mao left little doubt his desire to align with the USSR because the Chinese civil war borrowed from Russia’s Leninism (Dirlik, 2012). The US failed to acknowledge the People’s Republic of China and continue to acknowledge Taiwan as the true government of China. The US- China relations were destroyed further when the US prevented the People’s Republic from gaining a seat in the United Nations. The lack of diplomatic relations between the two nations continued until 1979 during Carter’s presidency, before then each nation engaged in practices meant to undermine the other. The diplomatic relations resumed when the U.S. realized that the People’s Republic was a formidable government that could not be removed. Instead, they partnered in 1979 to check the growing Soviet influence. The peaceful relation between China and US was short-lived because the American Congress came up with the Taiwan Relations Act, which was a deal breaker for China. The Chinese leader in 1979, Deng Xiaoping saw America’s action as contradictory, and the Chinese-American relations became negative once again.

Conclusion 

The communist victory in 1949 shaped China’s history for good. China remains a communist nation today, with some semblance of Mao’s post-revolutionary government. The contributions of Mao and the communist victory are still treasured, and they are seen as the foundation of today’s society. The communist victory had significant positive and negative implication. China ailing economy was developed through agricultural reforms and investment in the industrial sector. Politically, China was united under the new political system that unified the entire society. Socially, the new communist government improved literacy, women’s rights, and health care.

The Communist government under Mao had its shortfalls too. Mao became a radical communist, and he wanted to make China a pure communist society. Mao’s extremism led to the Great Famine and the Cultural Revolution that claimed millions of lives. Mao’s leadership showed that socialism is not always in the best interest of the people. Since then, Chinese leaders have become more liberal to avoid making the same mistakes as Mao.

References

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Bjorge, G. J. (2011). Chinese Civil War (modern). The Encyclopedia of War .

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Wilkinson, M. F. (2010). American Military Misconduct in Shanghai and the Chinese Civil War: The Case of Zang Dayaozi. Journal of American-East Asian Relations , 17 (2), 146-173.