4.3 Why did the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) gain support up to 1945?

How was Japan able to further spread its influence in China?

-A series of agreements with local warlords willing to collaborate enabled Japan to enhance its influence over northern provinces, such as Chili, Shani and Shantung. -Chiang's government had effectively abandoned northern China. In July 1937, Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China, beginning the Second Sino-Japanese War.

the limitations of the Yenan Soviet

-All was not quite as it seemed in Yenan, however. -Restricted by their inability to speak Chinese, the foreign visitors had been allowed to see only what the CCP leadership wanted them to see. -That schools were being used as a vehicle for pro-CCP and anti-KMT propaganda went unnoticed. -The darker side of events in Yenan, such as the extreme force often used to take land away from wealthier peasants and landlords, was well hidden. So too were the measures taken by Mao to secure his own position as leader of the CCP.

public opinion on the Yenan Soviet

-At least 15 other foreigners visited Yenan in the period from 1936 to 1940, and all shared Snow's positive impression. -One of them, the Canadian surgeon Norman Bethune, assisted with the provision of healthcare by establishing mobile operating theatres. -In 1944, with the USA still involved in its war against Japan, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a number of diplomatic and military observers to Yenan. -Referred to as the Dixie Mission, their task was to evaluate the CCP's social, economic and military achievements in comparison with those of Chiang's Nationalist government. -As with earlier foreign visitors, these observers returned with glowing reports of the work undertaken by the CCP in Yenan.

Results of the Long March

-By 1936, with the Long March completed, the surviving members of the CCP had established a safe base in Shensi Province, relatively secure from KMT campaigns. Moreover, in theory if not always in practice, the Xi'an Incident had led to a truce between the CCP and the KMT, a truce that would enable the CCP to rebuild and establish its own claim to the political leadership of China. -In many ways, the Long March should be seen as a defeat for the CCP. It was, after all, a military retreat from KMT forces with little or no forward planning, a retreat that resulted in the loss of up to 90% of the CCP's Red Army.

Unpopularity of Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang: no progress made in achieving democratic constitution

-By 1937, no progress had been made towards establishing Sun Yat-sen's third stage of revolution - the adoption of a democratic constitution in China. -It became clear that, partly as a result of Chiang's increasing fascination with European fascism, the Nationalist government had no intention of relinquishing its power to any form of democracy.

The Rectification Movement

-By 1942, all members of the CCP were required to read and make comments on Mao's writings. -They were encouraged to criticise Mao's political views and CCP policies, and make suggestions for improvements. -Those who did so were arrested and accused of 'individualism', putting themselves above the needs of the CCP and the people of China. -Wang Ming, Mao's leading rival for leadership of the CCP, was publicly humiliated.

Impact of war with Japan 1937: the actual fighting

-By the end of 1937, the Nationalist government was forced to retreat from its headquarters in Nanking to a safer base in western China. -Unprotected, many Chinese cities fell victim to brutal treatment by the Japanese. -Some estimates suggest that as many as 300 000 people were massacred in Nanking alone. There is considerable evidence to suggest that Japanese troops were responsible for countless atrocities, including the use of chemical and biological warfare. - Practising a 'scorched earth' policy, the Japanese destroyed factories, crops and infrastructure as they continued their relentless progress, leaving millions of Chinese homeless and without food.

War with Japan after 1937: The Tanggu Truce May 1933

-Following its invasion of Manchuria in 1931, Japan had taken full control, renaming it Manchukuo. -Chiang's Nationalist government had formally recognised Japanese ownership of the area by signing the Tanggu Truce in May 1933. -This did not, however, prevent further Japanese raids into Chinese territory over the next four years. - In 1933, for example, Japanese forces attacked the Great Wall region near Peking. This led to the establishment of a demilitarised zone protecting Japan's puppet-state of Manchukuo from any attack by KMT forces.

The leadership of Mao Zedong

-Fully aware of the importance of propaganda, Mao transformed this defeat into a perceived victory for the CCP. - Under Mao's direction, the official CCP accounts of the Long March stress the courage and resilience of the Red Army soldiers, describing them as heroes and martyrs willing to die for the cause of Chinese nationalism. -Although it is not always easy to prove in the absence of reliable eye witness accounts, there seems little doubt that the hardships encountered by the marchers were exaggerated and distorted. This is certainly the case in one particular incident. -CCP histories claim that, in May 1935, the Red Army defeated a large and well-equipped KMT force at Luding Bridge over the Dadu River near the town of Yenan (Yan'an). -Reliable evidence suggests a rather different version of events - the bridge was guarded by a small group of warlord soldiers who simply ran away at first sight of the approaching Red Army.

Unpopularity of Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang: censorship and the new life movement

-In 1934, the government introduced censorship of the press, films and books. Civil liberties were curtailed and any criticism of Chiang or his government led to imprisonment or, as in the case Of two newspaper editors, death. -The KMT justified these. extreme measures by stating that the development of the individuals. -Chiang introduced what he called the "New Life Movement: Outwardly, an attempt to revive traditional Chinese values, such as morality, responsibility and honesty in the interests of China's future. REALITY OF THE NEW LIFE MOVEMENT: -the New Life Movement was to reinforce Chiang's own power by encouraging loyalty and obedience to a single leader. Increasingly militaristic in outlook, and determined to eradicate all potential opposition.

the end of the Rectification Movement

-In 1944, Mao brought the Rectification Movement to an end, claiming that the terror tactics associated with it had been the result of the excessive actions of local CCP officials rather than his official policy. -By then, however, it had served its purpose. -Mao had secured his position as undisputed leader of the CCP and removed potential opposition for his plans for a revolution in China instigated by the peasantry.

war with japan 1937: second united front

-In July 1937, Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China, beginning the Second Sino-Japanese War. Seven months earlier, following the Xi'an Incident, the Nationalist government and the CCP had formed the Second United Front, by which they agreed to collaborate in resisting Japanese aggression. -With the CCP's Red Army still isolated in Shensi Province, the initial resistance to Japan's invasion came from Chiang's Nationalist forces. -Chiang's armies were no match for well-prepared Japanese forces equipped with modern weaponry, such as tanks and aircraft. -Major cities along China's east coast quickly fell to a fast-moving army of almost half a million Japanese soldiers.

war with japan: destruction of dikes on the yellow river dam by chiang.

-In June 1938, desperate to prevent further Japanese inroads into western China, Chiang ordered the destruction of dikes on the Yellow River Dam. -The resulting floods served their purpose in delaying the Japanese advance. -However, they also resulted in the deaths of between 500 000 and one million Chinese, rendered millions more homeless and destroyed vast amounts of good farming land leading to a long-term problem of starvation. -Unable to progress further, Japan consolidated its control over the areas it had taken in the early stages of the war.

The establishment of the Yenan Soviet, land reform and Mao's Rectification Campaign (1941-44)

-In the Shensi Province, the CCP established the town of Yenan (Yan'an) as their headquarters. from 1936 to 1948. In the surrounding area, the CCP established the Yenan Soviet. Mao insisted that CCP members, including its leaders, live and work amongst the local peasant population, helping them to farm the land and generally treating them with respect.

outlining the differences between the new life movement and the CCP's approach

-Increasingly militaristic in outlook, and determined to eradicate all potential opposition, Chiang was attempting to ensure that the KMT's Nationalist government retained its position as the internationally recognised legitimate government of China. - Whereas Mao's CCP sought power by enlisting mass support through carefully devised propaganda, Chiang's KMT aimed to retain it through military power, censorship and the denial of civil liberties.

Mao's "New Democracy" (1940) & Maoism

-Mao spent much of his time in Yenan writing and developing his political ideas. In 1940 he wrote On New Democracy, in which he outlined plans for what he termed 'democratic dictatorship'. -He argued that, through revolution, the CCP should form a single-party government of China, with complete and uncontested control over its affairs. -At the same time, the CCP should listen and respond to the needs and desires of the Chinese population, and particularly the peasants who compromised by far the largest proportion.

Unpopularity of Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang: the Opium trade

-Outwardly, the government was committed to ending the opium trade in China; it carried out a number of raids on opium farms and arrested many opium traders. Rather than ending opium trading, however, this simply enabled the government to take control of, and gain increasing income from it - income that it desperately needed to fund its ongoing battles against the CCP and northern warlords.

Results of the Long March and The leadership of Mao Zedong

-Regardless of modern debates regarding the severity of the hardships encountered by those involved in the Long March, Mao's propaganda unquestionably served its purpose at the time. It earned the CCP the respect, and subsequently, the support of large sections of the Chinese population, particularly the peasants. -Mao was fully aware that the future growth of the CCP would depend largely on support from China's large peasant population. In his 'Eight Points For Attention', a list of rules laid down for the marchers, Mao had instructed his soldiers to avoid harming the peasants or their livelihood, even when the marchers were in dire need of food. -Mao claimed that the conclusion of the Long March marked the beginning of a new phase in the history of the CCP - a phase that would lead to the full unification of China under a communist government

The end of the second Sino-japanese war

-The KMT's perceived failures in defending the Chinese people from Japanese aggression after 1937 simply increased its growing unpopularity, and provided Mao's CCP with further propaganda opportunities. -Japanese troops were finally forced to withdraw from China in 1945 following Japan's defeat in the Second World War. -Devastated by years of unimaginable human suffering and economically exhausted, China was about to experience further hardship - a full-scale civil war between the rival factions of Chiang's KMT Nationalist government and Mao's CCP.

Maos leadership over the Red army

-The Long March also secured Mao's undisputed leadership of the Red Army. He was hailed as a great military leader, whose tactical brilliance had enabled the marchers to reach their objective against all odds. However, Mao was not yet guaranteed leadership over the CCP as a whole. In this, he faced rivals from two main factions within the CCP:

failures of the Rectification movement

-The Rectification Movement developed into a terror campaign under Kang Sheng, Mao's chief of security. -Those who disagreed with Mao's ideas were accused of being spies, arrested and tortured. -CCP members were encouraged to identify and expose anyone, who disagreed with CCP policies. -Many leading members of the CCP were removed from office, and at least 60 were forced to commit suicide. some historians claim that it was up to 10 000

Impact of war with Japan 1937: Political CCP exploitations of the Nationalist government weaknesses

-The inability of the Nationalist government to protect the Chinese people from Japanese aggression was keenly exploited by the CCP. -Although the CCP's Red Army carried out some guerrilla warfare campaigns against Japanese troops, in truth it had taken little part in the war. -Japan had no real interest in taking control of the isolated and mountainous regions where the CCP had its headquarters. - Moreover, CCP activity was largely focused on seizing areas which the Japanese were already vacating. -Nevertheless, CCP propaganda gave the impression that the Red Army had been considerably more successful than the National government's forces in defending China against the Japanese invasion. Claiming that its actions against the hated Japanese enemy were 'heroic' enabled the CCP to recruit more young men and women to its cause by appealing to their nationalistic sentiments. -The CCP portrayed itself as the true party of Chinese nationalism and as providing a viable alternative government of China.

Maos's propaganda on the Yenan Soviet

-Under Mao's direction, CCP propaganda portrayed the Yenan Soviet as providing an idyllic social and economic system, totally suited to the needs of the Chinese people. -This positive view of what the CCP was achieving in Yenan was shared by a number of foreign visitors who spent time in the area. -For example, Edgar Snow, an American journalist, spent four months in Yenan in 1936, interviewing Mao and studying life under CCP control at first hand. His book Red Star over China, published in 1937, was full of praise for the communists' accomplishments.

Impact of war with Japan after 1937: growing support for the CCP

-With communist propaganda highlighting the positive aspects of the Yenan Soviet, and the negative aspects well hidden from public view, support for the CCP appeared to increase. -In what Mao referred to as the 'Organisation Phase', CCP leaders were sent to other villages and rural areas to repeat the process that had led to the establishment of the Yenan Soviet. -Mao's intention was to gradually take control of the countryside, thereby isolating the towns and cities that were dominated by the KMT. -The CCP's appeal, however, was not entirely confined to rural areas. Some urban factory workers, angered by the KMT government's failure to implement reform of their living and working conditions, adopted CCP methods in seeking to establish worker cooperatives. -Similarly, some small businessmen, wearied by the heavy taxation burden imposed by the Nationalist government, were attracted to some aspects of the CCP's policies. T -he outbreak of full-scale war between China and Japan in 1937 was to strengthen the CCP's popularity still further.

The growing support for the CCP

-With the provision of health care and education, enhanced the CCP's popularity within the peasant community. -Local people were given advice on personal hygiene and access to traditional Chinese remedies and modern medicines. - Medical assistance was made available to women during pregnancy and childbirth, while operating theaters were established. -Schools were provided to ensure that local people gained basic literacy skills.

Unpopularity of Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang: public opinion declining

-it appeared that Chiang's government was concerned only with protecting the interests of the wealthy - the businessmen, bankers, factory owners and land owners. The CCP was attempting to gain popular support while KMT did nothing to explain and justify its policies to the people of China. -The Nationalist government was increasingly accused of being corrupt. This was true of its dealings with China's massive opium trade.

Maos opposition within the CCP:

1 those who believed in the ideas which had led to the May the Fourth Movement - their long-term aim was to establish a Western-style democracy in China 2 those who wanted China to experience a revolution similar to that which had occurred in Russia in 1917. -main one of whom was Wang Ming, became known as the '28 Bolsheviks'. They had all studied at the Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow, and were under instructions from the USSR to encourage a Chinese proletarian revolution - a revolution spearheaded by the working class. -Mao clearly wanted to instigate a revolution, but argued that copying the Russian experience was inappropriate given the situation in China. With only limited industrialisation, China lacked a large working class population.

Mao's Rectification Campaign

Mao's vision of a revolution instigated by the peasantry was not shared by many other members of the CCP's leadership group. - Wang Ming and the '28 Bolsheviks'", for example, still argued that China's revolution should begin with the urban working class. In order to confront this opposition to his plans, Mao began what he termed a 'Rectification Movement' in 1941.

land distributions under the CCP

Perhaps most significant in gaining local support for the CCP was its policy of land redistribution. In line with this policy, and organised by associations of peasants supported by Red Army soldiers, land was taken from landlords and distributed to poorer peasants who previously had either: • no land on which to farm, and had been forced to seek employment as landless labourers at low wages or • been forced to pay high rents for small plots of infertile land, incapable of producing sufficient food for them to feed their families.

Unpopularity of Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang

Support for Chiang's KMT Nationalist government had been declining amongst many sections of the Chinese population well before the outbreak of war against Japan in 1937. There were a number of reasons for this.

Unpopularity of Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang: failures to implement reforms

While Chiang's government did establish a number of social and economic reforms, these were largely ineffective and, indeed, often not fully implemented 1. some laws were passed banning child labour in textile factories, but were never enforced- conditions in factories and other industrial establishments remained poor. 2. The large peasant population saw no improvement in their living and working conditions, and the promised land redistribution never took place. Land ownership became increasingly confined to a group of relatively wealthy landlords- more than 60 million Chinese peasants were both landless and unemployed by 1934. 3. While peasants suffered terrible hardships as a result of droughts and bad harvests in the early 1930s, landowners and profiteering merchants charged high prices for wheat and rice stockpiled in the cities.

Maos policies and what issues they aimed to address

With this in mind, Mao instigated policies designed to address two key issues: 1. continuing the process of gaining support from China's peasant population - he stressed that the CCP should 'listen attentively to the voice of the masses' in an attempt to win over 'their hearts and minds'. 2. establishing himself as undisputed leader of the CCP.