The Chinese resistance stiffened after July 7, 1937, when a
clash occurred between Chinese and Japanese troops outside
Beijing (then renamed Beiping )
near the Marco Polo Bridge. This
skirmish not only marked the beginning of open, though
undeclared, war between China and Japan but also hastened the
formal announcement of the second Guomindang-CCP united front
against Japan. The collaboration took place with salutary effects
for the beleaguered CCP. The distrust between the two parties,
however, was scarcely veiled. The uneasy alliance began to break
down after late 1938, despite Japan's steady territorial gains in
northern China, the coastal regions, and the rich Chang Jiang
(
)
Valley in central China. After 1940, conflicts between the
Nationalists and Communists became more frequent in the areas not
under Japanese control. The Communists expanded their influence
wherever opportunities presented themselves through mass
organizations, administrative reforms, and the land- and
tax-reform measures favoring the peasants--while the Nationalists
attempted to neutralize the spread of Communist influence.
At Yan'an () and elsewhere in the
"liberated areas," Mao was able
to adapt Marxism-Leninism to Chinese conditions. He taught party
cadres to lead the masses by living and working with them, eating
their food, and thinking their thoughts. The Red Army fostered an
image of conducting guerrilla warfare in defense of the people.
Communist troops adapted to changing wartime conditions and
became a seasoned fighting force. Mao also began preparing for
the establishment of a new China. In 1940 he outlined the program
of the Chinese Communists for an eventual seizure of power. His
teachings became the central tenets of the CCP doctrine that came
to be formalized as Mao Zedong Thought. With skillful
organizational and propaganda work, the Communists increased
party membership from 100,000 in 1937 to 1.2 million by 1945.
In 1945 China emerged from the war nominally a great military power but actually a nation economically prostrate and on the verge of all-out civil war. The economy deteriorated, sapped by the military demands of foreign war and internal strife, by spiraling inflation, and by Nationalist profiteering, speculation, and hoarding. Starvation came in the wake of the war, and millions were rendered homeless by floods and the unsettled conditions in many parts of the country. The situation was further complicated by an Allied agreement at the Yalta Conference in February 1945 that brought Soviet troops into Manchuria to hasten the termination of war against Japan. Although the Chinese had not been present at Yalta, they had been consulted; they had agreed to have the Soviets enter the war in the belief that the Soviet Union would deal only with the Nationalist government. After the war, the Soviet Union, as part of the Yalta agreement's allowing a Soviet sphere of influence in Manchuria, dismantled and removed more than half the industrial equipment left there by the Japanese. The Soviet presence in northeast China enabled the Communists to move in long enough to arm themselves with the equipment surrendered by the withdrawing Japanese army. The problems of rehabilitating the formerly Japanese-occupied areas and of reconstructing the nation from the ravages of a protracted war were staggering, to say the least.
Return to Civil War
During World War II, the United States emerged as a major actor
in Chinese affairs. As an ally it embarked in late 1941 on a
program of massive military and financial aid to the hard-pressed
Nationalist government. In January 1943 the United States and
Britain led the way in revising their treaties with China,
bringing to an end a century of unequal treaty relations. Within
a few months, a new agreement was signed between the United
States and China for the stationing of American troops in China
for the common war effort against Japan. In December 1943 the
Chinese exclusion acts of the 1880s and subsequent laws enacted
by the United States Congress to restrict Chinese immigration
into the United States were repealed.
The wartime policy of the United States was initially to help China become a strong ally and a stabilizing force in postwar East Asia. As the conflict between the Nationalists and the Communists intensified, however, the United States sought unsuccessfully to reconcile the rival forces for a more effective anti-Japanese war effort. Toward the end of the war, United States Marines were used to hold Beiping and Tianjin against a possible Soviet incursion, and logistic support was given to Nationalist forces in north and northeast China.
Through the mediatory influence of the United States a military truce was arranged in January 1946, but battles between Nationalists and Communists soon resumed. Realizing that American efforts short of large-scale armed intervention could not stop the war, the United States withdrew the American mission, headed by General George C. Marshall, in early 1947. The civil war, in which the United States aided the Nationalists with massive economic loans but no military support, became more widespread. Battles raged not only for territories but also for the allegiance of cross sections of the population.
Belatedly, the Nationalist government sought to enlist popular
support through internal reforms. The effort was in vain,
however, because of the rampant corruption in government and the
accompanying political and economic chaos. By late 1948 the
Nationalist position was bleak. The demoralized and undisciplined
Nationalist troops proved no match for the People's Liberation
Army (PLA or ). The Communists were
well established in the north and
northeast. Although the Nationalists had an advantage in numbers
of men and weapons, controlled a much larger territory and
population than their adversaries, and enjoyed considerable
international support, they were exhausted by the long war with
Japan and the attendant internal responsibilities. In January
1949 Beiping was taken by the Communists without a fight, and its
name changed back to Beijing. Between April and November, major
cities passed from Guomindang to Communist control with minimal
resistance. In most cases the surrounding countryside and small
towns had come under Communist influence long before the cities.
After Chiang Kai-shek and a few hundred thousand Nationalist
troops fled from the mainland to the island of Taiwan, there
remained only isolated pockets of resistance. In December 1949
Chiang proclaimed Taipei (
),
Taiwan (
), the temporary capital of China.