20th century of china

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Civil War in China during 20th Century
Commencing of Conflicts in China
The Civil War in China saw the country experience the biggest unrest during the 20th century resulted in remarkable contributions both economically and politically to the Chinese government. Moreover, the Chinese Civil War led to a huge division in China in what is known as the two Chinas (Mainland China and Taiwan). Forces that were battling in China deteriorated the situation because they never believed in dialogue which could have brought the war to the end. This paper will discuss how the wrangles between the two groups resulted in a massacre, mass eviction, and most importantly the broad division in China; that was united before the war. This division and hostility still exist today between the two Chinas.
As a country, China faced myriad challenges that were mainly triggered by political unrest in the 20th century. The Chinese Civil War took long to end after commencing in April 1927. Conflicts between Chinese Nationalists and Chinese Communists led to the war outbreak. During this period, the Kuomintang (KMT) party was a known force that was very loyal to the ruling government. The KMT loyalty is seen through war engagement with the Communist Party of China (CPC). The CPC strongly opposed government ideologies which intimidated the KMT leading to war in China.
The Civil war in China continued intermittently until 1937 where the two parties, CPC and KMT, united to create the Second United Front that aimed at opposing inversion by the Japanese.

Later on, in 1946, the civil war was recommenced immediately after battling the Japanese. This fight was halted after four years when the PRC was formed and tasked to control mainland China (Kim 126). On the other hand, the ROC moved to Taiwan, Matsu, Penghu, and many other islands.
The Northern Expedition and the Shanghai Massacre
This was the first military campaign in China, and it took place from 1926 to 1928 targeting the Northern region of China. One of the chief aims of this expedition was to bring down the rule of local warlords because they believed by conquering them, China would be united. This period saw Chiang Kai-Shek taken as the leader of KMT; he went down in history as the leader who won the first round of this war. After the conflicts ended in 1928, China witnessed the collapse of the Beiyang government, and this resulted in the replacement of the Northeast flag which was later labeled as Chinese reunification. It is also vital to mention that, powerful influence from United KMT and CPC led to all the triumphs that were witnessed during the Northern Expedition.
Many leaders such as Chiang who was in charge of the KMT party met on April 7, 1927, to discuss communist actions that had been brought within their territories. These leaders resolved to throw the communists out of their party. Following this decision, fighting ensued on April 12th between the KMT and CPC in Shanghai which led to several members of CPC being arrested and executed by the KMT (Walter 341). This is what is known as the Shanghai Massacre in present day China. The expulsion of the disloyal members led to a broader division between the right and left wings of the KMT which saw Chiang being inaugurated as the right wings leader in a ceremony that was held in Nanjing.
As expected, this massacre further broadened the difference between Chiang and KMT’s left wing commander Wang Jingwei. The CPC was determined to capture cities such as Changsha, Shantou, Nanchang, and Guangzhou, and during this time, there were three capitals in China and the CPC’s only recognized capital was in Jiangxi province, whereas KMT’s left wing party had their capital in Wuhan. In the next ten years, the KMT’s right wing party was housed in Nanjing as their capital.
The Capture of Beijing and the Second Sino-Japanese War
There were clashes in Wuhan which led to the removal of the CPC from the government by the left wing of KMT. Chiang later removed the left-wing from power. In July 1928, the KMT, for a second time, recommended the battle against the warlords which led to Beijing being captured. In the subsequent years, approximately all parts of the East of China were governed by the central government of Nanjing. This government was recognized globally as the legitimate government of China.
The second Sino-Japanese War happened from 1937 to 1945 (Kim 131). Chiang was wary of joining forces with the CPC to battle the invasion of the Japanese; he believed that CPC was a massive threat. His ambition was to unite China by overthrowing the CPC and the warlord powers first. Furthermore, Chiang believed that his forces were not prepared to join the war and as a result, he wanted more time to properly organize his military for him to have the ability to launch effective attacks on the forces from the Japanese side (Walter 347). He, therefore, commanded his KMT Generals Zhang Xueliang and Yang Huncheng to conduct the mission of eliminating the CPC. Following this mission, Zhang got Cheng arrested and demanded him to call off the missions against the communists, and as a result, this led to reduced battles between KMT and CPC from 1936 to 1945.
The CPC had the won general support as a result of their efforts of engaging in guerrilla war in areas that had become Japanese strongholds. This made KMT suffer greatly in their struggles to defend China from assaults by Japanese offensive missions. In 1944, Operation Ichi-Go, which was the final offensive mission by Japanese, was launched. Operation Ichi-Go was anti-Chiang and KMT forces and aimed at weakening them. The CPC politically benefited from these attacks by the Japanese military. This was through Japanese imperialism criticisms on the political, economic and military chambers in China.
The Sino-Japanese War and the End of the Civil War in China
The aftermath of the Sino-Japanese war was felt from 1946 to 1950. This period was characterized by the Soviet Union delaying to leave Manchuria to make sure Mao Zedong, the CPC leader gained total rule over northern Manchuria. More fights ensued to gain total control of this region; Troops affiliated to Chiang were ordered to move to regions that had been liberated recently to stop military forces affiliated to the CPC from gaining Japan’s surrender. Also, the Soviet Union offered the CPC a lot of weapons that had been captured from Japanese forces as well as Soviet Union’s military supplies. Besides, they rewarded the CPC with North-eastern China.
Many reasons including corruption that had become a thorny issue in the party contributed to the defeat of KMT. Additionally, the CPC declared that the poor peasants would be allocated farmlands that had been repossessed from the warlords (Kim 125). This made CPC extremely popular with the people of China as the Civil War ended. No armistice was signed to officially end the civil war in China and on October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong announced that Beiping, present day Beijing would become the capital for RPC. This action made Chiang and his followers who were approximated to be two million to relocate to Taiwan (Kim 136). There were still tensions about political status in Taiwan since the PRC is still claiming that Taiwan lies squarely in their territory and still threatens ROC with military actions if Taiwan is declared independent.
Works Cited
Walter, Barbara F. “The critical barrier to civil war settlement.” International organization
51.03 (1997): 335-364.
Kim, Donggil. “THE CHINESE CIVIL WAR AND THE ETHNO-GENESIS OF THE
KOREAN MINORITY IN NORTHEAST CHINA.” The Chinese Historical Review
21.2 (2014): 121-142.