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Chinese Civil War

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Chinese Civil War



 
 
The Chinese Civil War or , which lasted from April 1927 to May 1950, was a civil war
Civil war

A civil war is a war between organized groups to take control of a nation or region, or to change government policies. It is high-intensity conflict, often involving Regular Army, that is sustained, organized and large-scale....
 in China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
 between the Kuomintang
Kuomintang

The Kuomintang of China , also often translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party, is the founding and the ruling party of the Republic of China ....
 (KMT or Chinese Nationalist Party) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The war began in 1927, amidst the Northern Expedition. The war represented an ideological
Ideology

An ideology is a set of aims and ideas, especially in politics. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to all members of this society....
 split between the Western-supported Nationalist KMT, and the Soviet-supported Communist CCP.

The civil war carried on intermittently until the looming Second Sino-Japanese War
Second Sino-Japanese War

The Second Sino-Japanese War was the largest Asian war in the twentieth century. From 1937 to 1941, it was fought between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan....
 interrupted it, resulting in an organized and temporary Chinese resistance to the Japanese
Second United Front (China)

The Second United Front was the alliance between the Kuomintang and Chinese Communist Party during the Second Sino-Japanese War or World War II, which suspended the Chinese Civil War from 1937 to 1946....
 invasion.






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The Chinese Civil War or , which lasted from April 1927 to May 1950, was a civil war
Civil war

A civil war is a war between organized groups to take control of a nation or region, or to change government policies. It is high-intensity conflict, often involving Regular Army, that is sustained, organized and large-scale....
 in China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
 between the Kuomintang
Kuomintang

The Kuomintang of China , also often translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party, is the founding and the ruling party of the Republic of China ....
 (KMT or Chinese Nationalist Party) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The war began in 1927, amidst the Northern Expedition. The war represented an ideological
Ideology

An ideology is a set of aims and ideas, especially in politics. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to all members of this society....
 split between the Western-supported Nationalist KMT, and the Soviet-supported Communist CCP.

The civil war carried on intermittently until the looming Second Sino-Japanese War
Second Sino-Japanese War

The Second Sino-Japanese War was the largest Asian war in the twentieth century. From 1937 to 1941, it was fought between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan....
 interrupted it, resulting in an organized and temporary Chinese resistance to the Japanese
Second United Front (China)

The Second United Front was the alliance between the Kuomintang and Chinese Communist Party during the Second Sino-Japanese War or World War II, which suspended the Chinese Civil War from 1937 to 1946....
 invasion. The Japanese assault and occupation of Eastern China was an opportunistic attack made possible by China's internal turmoil. Japan's campaign was defeated in 1945, marking the end of World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
, and China's full-scale civil war resumed in 1946. Hostilities ended after 4 years in 1950, with an cessation of major hostilities, with the newly founded the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China

The People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the List of countries by population in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately a fifth of the world's population....
 controlling mainland China
Mainland China

Mainland China, Continental China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China , excluding Hong Kong and Macau, which run on One Country, Two Systems....
 (including Hainan Island
Hainan

Hainan is the smallest Provinces of China of the People's Republic of China. Although the province comprises some two hundred islands scattered among three archipelagos off the southern coast, all but three percent of its land mass is on Hainan Island , from which the province takes its name....
) and the jurisdiction of Republic of China
Republic of China

The Republic of China , also known as Nationalist China is a country in East Asia that has evolved from a single-party state with full global recognition into a multi-party democratic state with Political status of Taiwan....
 being restricted to Taiwan
Taiwan

Taiwan is an island in East Asia. "Taiwan" is also commonly used to refer to the country governed by the Republic of China and to the ROC itself, which governs the island of Taiwan, Orchid Island and Green Island, Taiwan in the Pacific Ocean off the Taiwan coast, the Penghu islands in the Taiwan Strait, and Kinmen and the Matsu Islands...
, Penghu, and the several outlying Fujianese islands
List of islands of the Republic of China

This is a list of islands under the Republic of China administration . All of these islands are claimed by the People's Republic of China....
. To this day, as no armistice
Armistice

An armistice is a situation in a war where the warring parties agree to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, but may be just a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace....
 or peace treaty
Peace treaty

A peace treaty is an agreement between two hostile parties, usually countries or governments, that formally ends an armed conflict. It is different from an armistice, which is an agreement to cease hostilities, or a surrender , in which an army agrees to give up arms....
 has ever been signed, there are controversies as to whether the Civil War has legally ended, although the two sides have close economic ties.

Background

The Qing Dynasty
Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty , also known as the Manchu Dynasty, followed the Ming Dynasty in History of China, and was the last ruling Chinese Dynasties of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 ....
, the last of the ruling Chinese dynasties, collapsed in 1911. China was left under the control of several major and lesser warlords in the Warlord era
Warlord era

The Warlord era is the period in the history of the Republic of China, from 1916 to the late-1930s, when the country was divided among Warlord, a division that continued until the fall of the Nationalist government in the mainland China regions of Sichuan, Shanxi, Qinghai, Ningxia, Guangdong, Guangxi, Gansu, Yunnan, and Xinjiang....
. To defeat these warlords, who had seized control of much of Northern China
Northern China

Northern China or North China may mean:* North China* North China Plain* Northern and southern China - rough geographic regions in China...
, the anti-monarchist and national unificationist Kuomintang
Kuomintang

The Kuomintang of China , also often translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party, is the founding and the ruling party of the Republic of China ....
 party and the president of the Republic of China
President of the Republic of China

The President of the Republic of China is the head of state of the Republic of China . The Republic of China was founded in 1911 governing the whole of China....
, Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen

Sun Yat-sen , also known as Sun Yixian, Sun Wen, Sun Itchisen/Sun Itchiyama and Sun Zhongshan , was a China revolutionary and Politician leader often referred to as the Father of the Nation....
, sought the help of foreign powers. Sun Yat-sen's efforts to obtain aid from the Western democracies were ignored, however, and in 1921 he turned to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
. For political expediency, the Soviet leadership initiated a dual policy of support for both Sun and the newly established Communist Party of China
Communist Party of China

The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and the ruling party of the People's Republic of China and the world's largest political party....
, which would eventually found the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China

The People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the List of countries by population in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately a fifth of the world's population....
. The Soviets hoped for Communist consolidation, but were prepared for either side to emerge victorious. Thus the struggle for power in China began between the KMT and the CPC.

In 1923, a joint statement by Sun and Soviet representative Adolph Joffe
Adolph Joffe

File:Adolf Abramovich Ioffe.jpgAdolph Abramovich Joffe was a Communist revolutionary, a Bolshevik politician and a Soviet diplomat of Karaite Judaism descent....
 in Shanghai
Shanghai

Shanghai is the List of cities in the People's Republic of China by population in China and one of the List of metropolitan areas by population in the world, with over 20 million people....
 pledged Soviet assistance for China's unification. The Sun-Joffe Manifesto was a declaration for cooperation among the Comintern
Comintern

The 'Comintern' was an international Communism organization founded in Moscow in March 1919. The International intended to fight "by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie and for the creation of an international Soviet republic as a transition stage to the complete abolition of the Sta...
, KMT and the Communist Party of China
Communist Party of China

The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and the ruling party of the People's Republic of China and the world's largest political party....
. Comintern
Comintern

The 'Comintern' was an international Communism organization founded in Moscow in March 1919. The International intended to fight "by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie and for the creation of an international Soviet republic as a transition stage to the complete abolition of the Sta...
 agent Mikhail Borodin
Mikhail Borodin

Mikhail Markovich Borodin was the alias of Mikhail Gruzenberg, a Comintern agent.Borodin was born in Yanovich, located in modern Belarus....
 arrived in China in 1923 to aid in the reorganization and consolidation of the KMT along the lines of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Communist Party of the Soviet Union

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest Communist Party in the world....
. The CPC joined the KMT to form the First United Front
First United Front (China)

File:Naval Jack of the Republic of China.svgFile:Flag of the Chinese Communist Party.svgThe First United Front of the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party was formed in 1923 as an alliance to end Warlord era....
.

In 1923, Sun Yat-sen sent Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek

Chiang Kai-shek , Order of the Bath , served as Generalissimo of the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China from 1928 to 1948. He was sometimes referred to simply as "the Generalissimo"....
, one of Sun's lieutenants from his Tongmeng Hui days, for several months' military and political study in Moscow
Moscow

Moscow is the capital and the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia of the Russian Federation. It is also the largest European cities and metropolitan areas, with the Moscow metropolitan area ranking among the largest urban areas in the world....
. By 1924, Chiang became the head of the Whampoa Military Academy
Whampoa Military Academy

The Nationalist Party of China Army Officer Academy , commonly known as the Whampoa Military Academy , was a military academy in the Republic of China that produced many prestigious commanders who fought in many of China's conflicts in the 20th century, notably the Northern Expedition , the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civ...
, and rose to prominence as Sun's successor as head of the KMT.

The Soviets provided much of the studying material, organization, and equipment including munitions for the academy. The Soviets also provided education in many of the techniques for mass mobilization. With this aid Sun Yat-sen was able to raise a dedicated "army of the party," with which he hoped to defeat the warlords militarily. CPC members were also present in the academy, and many of them became instructors, including Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai

Zhou Enlai was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976. Zhou was instrumental in the Communist Party of China rise to power, and subsequently in the construction of the Economy of the People's Republic of China and restructuring of Chinese society....
 who was made a political instructor of the academy.

Communist members were allowed to join the KMT on an individual basis. The CCP itself was still small at the time, having a membership of 300 in 1922 and only 1,500 by 1925. The KMT in 1923 had 50,000 members.

Northern Expedition (1926–1928) and KMT-CPC split

Just months after Sun Yat Sen's death in 1925, Chiang-Kai-Shek, as commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army
National Revolutionary Army

The National Revolutionary Army was the National Army of the Kuomintang from 1925 until 1947, as well as the National Army of the Republic of China during the KMT's period of Single-party state beginning in 1928....
, set out on the Northern Expedition. By 1926, however, the KMT had divided into left and right wing factions. The Communist bloc within it was also growing. In the March 1926 Zhongshan Warship Incident
Zhongshan Warship Incident

The Zhongshan Warship Incident, or March 20th Incident, on March 20, 1926, involved a suspected plot by Captain Li Zhilong of the warship Chung Shan to kidnap Chiang Kai-shek....
, after thwarting an alleged kidnapping attempt against him, Chiang imposed restrictions on CPC members' participation in the top KMT leadership and emerged as the pre-eminent KMT leader.

In early 1927; the KMT-CPC rivalry led to a split in the revolutionary ranks. The CCP and the left wing of the KMT had decided to move the seat of the KMT government from Guangzhou
Guangzhou

'Guangzhou' is the Capital and a sub-provincial city of Guangdong Province of China in the northern and southern China part of the People's Republic of China....
 to Wuhan
Wuhan

is the capital of Hubei province, and is the most populous city in central People's Republic of China. It lies at the east of Jianghan Plain, and the intersection of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and Han River ....
, where Communist influence was strong. But Chiang and Li Zongren
Li Zongren

Li Zongren or Li Tsung-jen , courtesy name Delin , was prominent Guangxi warlord and Kuomintang military commander during the Second Sino-Japanese War and Chinese Civil War....
, whose armies defeated warlord Sun Chuanfang
Sun Chuanfang

Sun Chuanfang aka the "Nanking Warlord" or leader of the "League of Five Provinces" was a Zhili clique warlord and protege of the "Jade Marshal" Wu Peifu ....
, moved eastward toward Jiangxi
Jiangxi

is a southern province of China of the People's Republic of China, spanning from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south....
. The leftists rejected Chiang's demand and Chiang denounced the leftists for betraying Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People
Three Principles of the People

The Three Principles of the People, also translated as Three People's Principles, or collectively San-min Doctrine, is a political philosophy developed by Sun Yat-sen as part of a philosophy to make China a free, prosperous, and powerful nation....
 by taking orders from the Soviet Union. According to Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong was a China military and politics dictator. Mao led the Communist Party of China to victory against the Kuomintang in the Chinese Civil War, and was the leader of the People?s Republic of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976....
, Chiang's tolerance of the CCP in the KMT camp decreased as his power increased.

On April 7, Chiang and several other KMT leaders held a meeting arguing that communist activities were socially and economically disruptive, and must be undone for the national revolution to proceed. As a result of this, on April 12, Chiang turned on the CCP in Shanghai. The incident purged the KMT leftists by arresting and executing hundreds of CPC members. The incident was called April 12 Incident or Shanghai Massacre by the CPC. The massacre widened the rift between Chiang and Wang Jingwei
Wang Jingwei

Wang Jingwei , alternate name Wang Zhaoming , was a Chinese politician. He was initially known as a member of the left wing of the Kuomintang , but he was staunchly anti-Communist, and his politics veered sharply to the right later in his career....
's Wuhan. Attempts were made by CPC to take cities such as Nanchang
Nanchang

Nanchang is the capital of Jiangxi Province in southeastern China. Nanchang is famous for its scenic lakes, mountains, rich history and cultural sites.In June 2006, Nanchang is appraised as World Top Ten Dynamic Cities by US News Weekly....
, Changsha
Changsha

Changsha is the capital city of Hunan, a province of south-central China, located on the lower reaches of Xiang river, a branch of the Yangtze River....
, Shantou
Shantou

Shantou is a city of 4,971,000 permanent inhabitants in coastal Eastern Guangdong, China, occupying an area of 2,064 sq. km. With it and the immediately surrounding cities of Jieyang and Chaozhou, the metropolitan region - known as Chaoshan - covers an area of 10,404 sq.km....
, and Guangzhou. An armed rural insurrection, known as the Autumn Harvest Uprising
Autumn Harvest Uprising

The Autumn Harvest Uprising was an insurrection that took place in Hunan province and Jiangxi province, China on September 7, 1927, led by Mao Zedong, who established a short-lived Hunan Soviet....
 was staged by peasants, minors and CPC members in Hunan
Hunan

is a province of China of People's Republic of China, located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting . Hunan is sometimes called wikt:? for short, after the Xiang River which runs through the province....
 Province led by Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong was a China military and politics dictator. Mao led the Communist Party of China to victory against the Kuomintang in the Chinese Civil War, and was the leader of the People?s Republic of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976....
. The uprising was unsuccessful. There were now three capitals in China: the internationally recognized republic capital in Beijing
Beijing

is a metropolis in northern China and the Capital of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the four municipality of China, which are equivalent to province in China's Political divisions of China....
, the CPC and left-wing KMT at Wuhan
Wuhan

is the capital of Hubei province, and is the most populous city in central People's Republic of China. It lies at the east of Jianghan Plain, and the intersection of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and Han River ....
, and the right-wing KMT regime at Nanjing
Nanjing

is the capital city of China's Jiangsu province of China, and a city with a prominent place in Chinese history and Chinese culture. Nanjing served as the capital of China during several historical periods and is listed as one of the Historical capitals of China....
, which would remain the KMT capital for the next decade.

The CPC had been expelled from Wuhan by their left-wing KMT allies, who in turn were toppled by Chiang Kai-shek. The KMT resumed the campaign against warlords
Warlord era

The Warlord era is the period in the history of the Republic of China, from 1916 to the late-1930s, when the country was divided among Warlord, a division that continued until the fall of the Nationalist government in the mainland China regions of Sichuan, Shanxi, Qinghai, Ningxia, Guangdong, Guangxi, Gansu, Yunnan, and Xinjiang....
 and captured Beijing in June 1928. Afterwards most of eastern China
East China

East China is a geographical and a loosely-defined cultural region that covers the eastern coastal area of China.Although an intangible and loosely defined concept, for administrative and governmental purposes, the region is defined by the government of the People's Republic of China to include the Provinces of China of Anhui, parts of...
 was under the Nanjing central government's control, and the Nanjing government received prompt international recognition as the sole legitimate government of China. The KMT government announced in conformity with Sun Yat-sen, the formula for the three stages of revolution: military unification, political tutelage, and constitutional democracy.

CPC vs KMT and the Long March (1927–1937)

During the 1920s, Communist Party of China activists retreated underground or to the countryside where they fomented a military revolt, beginning the Nanchang Uprising
Nanchang Uprising

The Nanchang Uprising was the first major Kuomintang-Communist Party of China engagement of the Chinese Civil War, in order to counter the April 12 Incident by right-wing elements in the Kuomintang....
 on August 1, 1927. They combined the force with remnants of peasant
Peasant

A peasant is an agriculture worker who subsists by working a small plot of ground. The word is derived from 15th century French language pa?sant meaning one from the pays, or rural, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district ....
 rebels, and established control over several areas in southern China. The Guangzhou commune was able to control Guangzhou for three days and a "soviet" was established. KMT armies continued to suppress the rebellions. This marked the beginning of the ten year's struggle, known in mainland China
Mainland China

Mainland China, Continental China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China , excluding Hong Kong and Macau, which run on One Country, Two Systems....
 as the "Ten Year's Civil War" . It lasted until the Xi'an Incident
Xi'an Incident

The Xi'an Incident of December 1936 is an important episode of History of China, taking place in the city of Xi'an during the Chinese Civil War between the ruling Kuomintang and the rebel Chinese Communist Party and just before the Second Sino-Japanese War....
 when Chiang Kai-shek was forced to form the Second United Front
Second United Front (China)

The Second United Front was the alliance between the Kuomintang and Chinese Communist Party during the Second Sino-Japanese War or World War II, which suspended the Chinese Civil War from 1937 to 1946....
 against the invading Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
ese.

Long March
In 1930 the Central Plains War
Central Plains War

Central Plains War was a civil war within the factionalised Kuomintang that broke out in 1930. It was fought between the forces of Chiang Kai-shek and the coalition of three military commanders who had previously allied with Chiang: Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang, and Li Zongren....
 broke out as an internal conflict of the KMT. It was launched by Feng Yuxiang
Feng Yuxiang

Feng Yuxiang was a warlord during history of the Republic of China.As the son of an officer in the Qing Dynasty Qing_Dynasty#Transition_and_modernization, Feng spent his youth immersed in the military life....
, Yan Xishan
Yan Xishan

File:Yen Hsi-shan.JPGYen Hsi-shan, was a China warlord who served in the politics of the Republic of China....
, and Wang Jingwei
Wang Jingwei

Wang Jingwei , alternate name Wang Zhaoming , was a Chinese politician. He was initially known as a member of the left wing of the Kuomintang , but he was staunchly anti-Communist, and his politics veered sharply to the right later in his career....
. The attention was turned to root out remaining pockets of Communist activity in a series of encirclement campaigns
Encirclement Campaigns

Encirclement Campaigns is a term used to describe several different campaigns launched by forces of the Kuomintang against forces of the Communist Party of China during the Chinese Civil War....
. There were a total of five campaigns. The first
First Encirclement Campaign

The First Encirclement Campaign is an abbreviated name used for several different campaigns launched by the Nationalist Government with the goal of destroying the developing Chinese Red Army and its communist bases in several separate locations in China during the early stage of Chinese Civil War between the late 1920s to mid 1930s, and these...
 and second
Second Encirclement Campaign

The Second Encirclement Campaign is an abbreviated name used for several different campaigns launched by the Nationalist Government with the goal of destroying the developing Chinese Red Army and its communist bases in several separate locations in China during the early stage of Chinese Civil War between the late 1920s to mid 1930s, and thes...
 campaigns failed and the third
Third Encirclement Campaign

The Third Encirclement Campaigns is an abbreviated name used for several different campaigns launched by the Nationalist Government with the goal of destroying the developing Chinese Red Army and its communist bases in several separate locations in China during the early stage of Chinese Civil War between late 1920's to mid 1930's, and these...
 was aborted due to the Mukden Incident
Mukden Incident

On September 18, 1931, near Mukden in southern Manchuria, a section of railroad owned by Empire of Japan's South Manchuria Railway was dynamited. The Imperial Japanese Army, accusing China dissidents of the act, responded with the invasion of Manchuria, leading to the establishment of Manchukuo the following year....
. The fourth campaign
Fourth Encirclement Campaign

The Fourth Encirclement Campaign is an abbreviated name used for several different campaigns launched by the Nationalist Government with the goal of destroying the developing Chinese Red Army and its communist bases in several separate locations in China during the early stage of Chinese Civil War between late 1920's to mid 1930's, and these...
 (1932-1933) achieved some early successes, but Chiang’s armies were badly mauled when they tried to penetrate into the heart of Mao’s Soviet Chinese Republic. During these campaigns, the KMT columns struck swiftly into Communist areas, but were easily engulfed by the vast countryside and were not able to consolidate their foothold.

Finally, in late 1933, Chiang launched a fifth campaign that involved the systematic encirclement of the Jiangxi Soviet
Jiangxi Soviet

The Chinese Soviet Republic , also translated as the Soviet Republic of China or the China Soviet Republic, and often referred to in historical literature as the Jiangxi Soviet , was a state established in November 1931 by the future Communist Party of China leader Mao Zedong, legendary general Zhu De and others....
 region with fortified blockhouse
Blockhouse

In military science, a blockhouse is a small, isolated fort in the form of a single building. It is intended to serve as a defensive strongpoint against any enemy which does not possess siege equipment or, in modern times, artillery....
s. Unlike in previous campaigns in which they penetrated deeply in a single strike, this time the KMT troops patiently built blockhouses, each separated by five or so miles to surround the Communist areas and cut off their supplies and food source.

In October 1934, the CPC took advantage of gaps in the ring of blockhouses (manned by the troops of a warlord ally of Chiang Kai-shek's, rather than the KMT themselves) to escape Jiangxi
Jiangxi

is a southern province of China of the People's Republic of China, spanning from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south....
. The warlord armies were reluctant to challenge Communist forces for fear of wasting their own men, and did not pursue the CPC with much fervor. In addition, the main KMT forces were preoccupied with annihilating Zhang Guotao
Zhang Guotao

Zhang Guotao was a founding member and leader of the Chinese Communist Party during the late 1920s and 1930s. He wrote several memoirs on the CCP that provide valuable information on its early history....
's army, which was much larger than Mao's. The massive military retreat of Communist forces lasted a year and covered 12,500 km (25,000 Li
Li (unit)

The li is a Chinese units of measurement of distance, which has varied considerably over time but now has a standardized length of 500 meters or half a kilometer ....
), and was known as the famous Long March. The march ended when the CPC reached the interior of Shaanxi
Shaanxi

is a north-central political divisions of China of the People's Republic of China, and includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River as well as the Qinling Mountains across the southern part of the province....
. Zhang Guotao
Zhang Guotao

Zhang Guotao was a founding member and leader of the Chinese Communist Party during the late 1920s and 1930s. He wrote several memoirs on the CCP that provide valuable information on its early history....
's army, which took a different route through northwest China, was largely destroyed by the forces of Chiang Kai-shek and his Chinese Muslim
Hui

Hui may refer to:...
 ally, the Ma clique
Ma clique

The Ma clique was a family of warlords who ruled the Chinese provinces of Qinghai, Gansu and Ningxia from the 1910's until 1949. The three most prominent warlords were Ma Bufang, Ma Hongkui, and Ma Hongbin, collectively known as the Xibei San Ma ; other prominent Ma's included Ma Qi, Ma Lin , and Ma Zhongying....
. Along the way, the Communist army confiscated property and weapons from local warlords and landlords, while recruiting peasants and the poor, solidifying its appeal to the masses. Of the 90,000-100,000 people who began the Long March from the Soviet Chinese Republic, only around 7,000-8,000 made it to Shaanxi. The remnants of Zhang's forces eventually joined Mao in Shaanxi, but with his army destroyed, Zhang, even as a founding member of the CPC, was never able to challenge Mao's authority. Essentially, the great retreat made Mao the undisputed leader of the Communist Party of China.

Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945)


During the Japanese invasion and occupation of Manchuria, Chiang Kai-shek, who saw the CPC as a greater threat, refused to ally with the CPC to fight against the Japanese. On December 12, 1936, KMT Generals Zhang Xueliang
Zhang Xueliang

Zhang Xueliang or Chang Hs?eh-liang , nicknamed the "Young Marshal" , became the effective ruler of Manchuria and much of North China after the assassination of his father Zhang Zuolin by the Japanese on 4 June 1928....
 and Yang Hucheng
Yang Hucheng

Yang Hucheng was a China warlord during the Warlord Era of History of the Republic of China and Kuomintang general during the Chinese Civil War....
 kidnapped Chiang Kai-shek and forced him to a truce with the CPC. The incident became known as the Xi'an Incident
Xi'an Incident

The Xi'an Incident of December 1936 is an important episode of History of China, taking place in the city of Xi'an during the Chinese Civil War between the ruling Kuomintang and the rebel Chinese Communist Party and just before the Second Sino-Japanese War....
. Both parties suspended fighting to form a Second United Front
Second United Front (China)

The Second United Front was the alliance between the Kuomintang and Chinese Communist Party during the Second Sino-Japanese War or World War II, which suspended the Chinese Civil War from 1937 to 1946....
 to focus their energies and fighting against the Japanese. In 1937, Japanese airplanes bombed Chinese cities and well-equipped troops overran north and coastal China.

The alliance of CPC and KMT Second united front was in name only. The CPC hardly ever engaged the Japanese in major battles but proved efficient in guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare

Guerrilla warfare is the Irregular warfare warfare and combat with which a small group of combatants use mobile Military tactics to combat a larger and less mobile formal army....
. The level of actual cooperation and coordination between the CPC and KMT during World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
 was minimal. In the midst of the Second United Front, the CPC and the KMT were still vying for territorial advantage in "Free China
Free China (Second Sino-Japanese War)

The term Free China, in the context of the Second Sino-Japanese War, refers to those areas of China not under the control of the Imperial Japanese Army or any of its puppet governments, such as Manchukuo, the Mengjiang government in Suiyuan and Chahar , or the Provisional Government of the Republic of China in Beiping....
" (i.e. areas not occupied by the Japanese or ruled by Japanese puppet governments
Manchukuo

Manchukuo was a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia. The region was the Qing Dynasty's historical homeland, created by former Qing Dynasty officials with help from Imperial Japan in 1932....
). The situation came to a head in late 1940 and early 1941 when there were major clashes between the Communist and KMT forces. In December 1940, Chiang Kai-shek demanded that the CPC’s New Fourth Army
New Fourth Army

The New Fourth Army was a unit of the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China established in 1937. In contrast to most of the National Revolutionary Army, it was controlled by the Communist Party of China and not by the ruling Kuomintang....
 evacuate Anhui
Anhui

Anhui is a province of China of the People's Republic of China. Located in eastern China across the basins of the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River, it borders Jiangsu to the east, Zhejiang to the southeast, Jiangxi to the south, Hubei to the southwest, Henan to the northwest, and Shandong for a tiny section in the north....
 and Jiangsu
Jiangsu

is a Province of China of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning , and su, for the city of Suzhou....
 Provinces. Under intense pressure, the New Fourth Army commanders complied. In 1941 the New Fourth Army Incident
New Fourth Army Incident

The New Fourth Army Incident , also known as the Anhui Incident , occurred during the Second Sino-Japanese War, during which the Chinese Civil War was in theory suspended, uniting the Chinese Communist Partys and Kuomintangs against the Japanese....
 led to several thousand deaths in the CPC. It also ended the Second united front formed earlier to fight the Japanese. In general, developments in the Second Sino-Japanese War
Second Sino-Japanese War

The Second Sino-Japanese War was the largest Asian war in the twentieth century. From 1937 to 1941, it was fought between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan....
 were to the advantage of the CPC. The KMT's resistance to the Japanese proved costly to Chiang Kai-shek. In 1944 the last major offensive, Operation Ichigo was launched by the Japanese against the KMT.

Immediate post-war clashes (1945–1946)

Atomic bombs were dropped
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuclear warfares near the end of World War II against the Empire of Japan by the United States at the executive order of President of the United States Harry S....
 on Hiroshima
Hiroshima

The Japanese city of is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chugoku region of western Honshu, the largest of Japan's islands....
 and Nagasaki in 1945. Under the terms of the Japanese unconditional surrender
Unconditional surrender

Unconditional surrender is a surrender without conditions, except for those provided by international law. Announcing that only unconditional surrender is acceptable puts psychological pressure on a weaker adversary....
 dictated by the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, Japanese troops were ordered to surrender to KMT troops and not to the CPC present in some of the occupied areas. In Manchuria
Manchuria

Manchuria is a historical name given to a vast geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria either falls entirely within People's Republic of China, or is divided between China and Russia....
 the Japanese surrendered to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
. However the KMT had no forces in Manchuria. Chiang Kai-Shek ordered the Japanese troops to remain at their post to receive the Kuomintang and not surrender their arms to the communists.

The first post-war peace negotiation was attended by both Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong in Chongqing
Chongqing

Chongqing is the largest and most populous of the People's Republic of China's four provinces of China-level municipality of China, and the only one in the less densely populated western region of China....
 from August 28, 1945 to Oct 10, 1945. Both sides stressed the importance of a peaceful reconstruction, but the conference did not produce any concrete result. Battles between the two sides continued even as the peace negotiation was in progress, until the agreement was reached in January 1946. However, large campaigns and full scale confrontations between the CPC and Chiang's own troops were temporarily avoided.

In the last month of World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
 in East Asia
East Asia

East Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either Geography or cultural terms. Geography and geopolitically, it covers about 12,000,000 km?, or about 28 percent of the Asian continent, about 15 percent bigger than the area of Europe, though some categorize Tibet, Xinjiang, and Mongolia as Central Asia....
, Soviet forces launched the mammoth Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation to attack the Japanese in Manchuria and along the Chinese-Mongolian border. This operation destroyed the fighting capability of the Kwantung Army
Kwantung Army

The , also known as the Guandong Army , was an army group of the Imperial Japanese Army in the early twentieth century. It became the largest and most prestigious command in the IJA....
 and left the USSR in occupation of all of Manchuria by the end of the war. Consequently, the 700,000 Japanese troops stationed in the region surrendered. Later in the year, Chiang Kai-shek realized that he lacked the resources to prevent a CPC takeover of Manchuria following the scheduled Soviet departure. He therefore made a deal with the Russians to delay their withdrawal until he had moved enough of his best-trained men and modern material into the region. KMT troops were then airlift
Airlift

Airlift may refer to:*Airlift, in logistics, the act of transporting people or cargo from point to point using aircraft*Airlift , in nautical archaeology, a suction device for moving sand and silt underwater...
ed by the United States to occupy key cities in North China
North China

Northern China or North China is a geographical region of China. The heartland of North China is the North China Plain.It is defined by the People's Republic of China to include the Municipality of China of Beijing and Tianjin, the Provinces of China of Hebei and Shanxi, and Inner Mongolia....
, while the countryside was already dominated by the CPC. The Soviets spent the extra time systematically dismantling the extensive Manchurian industrial base (worth up to 2 billion dollars) and shipping it back to their war-ravaged country.

The truce fell apart in June 1946, when full scale war between CPC and KMT broke out on June 26. China then entered a state of civil war
Civil war

A civil war is a war between organized groups to take control of a nation or region, or to change government policies. It is high-intensity conflict, often involving Regular Army, that is sustained, organized and large-scale....
 that lasted more than three years.

Fighting on mainland China (1946–1950)

Pla Enters Peking
With the breakdown of talks, an all out war resumed. This stage is referred to in Communist media and historiography as the "War of Liberation" . The United States assisted the KMT with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of new surplus military supplies and generous loans of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of military equipment. They airlifted many KMT troops from central China to the Northeast (once called Manchuria). President Truman was very clear about what he described as "using the Japanese to hold off the Communists". In his memoirs he writes "It was perfectly clear to us that if we told the Japanese to lay down their arms immediately and march to the seaboard, the entire country would be taken over by the Communists. We therefore had to take the unusual step of using the enemy as a garrison until we could airlift Chinese National troops to South China and send Marines
United States Marine Corps

The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing Military power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to rapidly deliver Marine Air-Ground Task Force....
 to guard the seaports". Over 50,000 Marines were sent to guard strategic sites.

General Marshall
George Marshall

George Catlett Marshall was an United States Military of the United States leader, Chief of Staff of the United States Army, United States Secretary of State, and the third United States Secretary of Defense....
 himself stated that he knew of no evidence that the CPC were being supplied by the Soviet Union. The CPC did benefit indirectly from the elimination of the Japanese Kwantung Army
Kwantung Army

The , also known as the Guandong Army , was an army group of the Imperial Japanese Army in the early twentieth century. It became the largest and most prestigious command in the IJA....
 but the Soviets did not provide direct support to the CPC during this period as they expected either a power-sharing arrangement or a KMT victory. The CPC were able to capture a number of weapons abandoned by the Japanese and KMT including some tanks but it was not until large numbers of well trained KMT troops joined the communist force that the CPC were finally able to master the hardware. Anti-Japanese Koreans also played an important role, with 30-40,000 Korean troops participating in the war on the Communist side. Koreans are also credited with repairing Manchurian railroads and bridges which were used by Mao.

In March 1947 the KMT seized the CPC capital of Yenan. By late 1948 the CPC eventually captured the northern cities of Shenyang
Shenyang

Shenyang , or Mukden , is a sub-provincial city and capital city of Liaoning Provinces of China in Northeast China.Along with its nearby cities, Shenyang is an important industrial center in China, and the transportation and commercial centre of China's northeastern region....
 and Changchun
Changchun

Changchun is the capital and largest city of Jilin Provinces of China, located in the northeast of the People's Republic of China, in the centre of the Songliao Plain....
. The economy between the years 1946-1949 witnessed the growth of enterprises offering welfare
Welfare

Welfare may refer to:* Well being, quality of lifestyle** Animal welfare, the quality of life of animals, and concerns thereabout* Welfare, a film directed by Frederick Wiseman...
 services to sustain workers standard of living
Standard of living

The standard of living refers to the quality and quantity of goods and services available to people, and the way these goods and services are distributed within a population....
 during the hyperinflation
Hyperinflation

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-00104, Inflation, Tapezieren mit Geldscheinen.jpgIn economics, hyperinflation is inflation that is very high or "out of control", a condition in which prices increase rapidly as a currency loses its value....
 crisis that afflicted the KMT. The KMT position was bleak. Chiang Kai Shek attempted to eliminate the CPC in the North by using troops belonging to northern warlords who had sided with Chiang during the Civil War and then switched sides to join the Japanese during the invasion. This strategy backfired; the peasants remembered the CPC as the enemies of the Japanese and Chiang's usage of troops who had assisted the hated invaders further eroded any base of popular support which Chiang might have hoped for. Although the KMT had an advantage in their numbers and weapons, and benefited from considerable international support, their low morale hindered their ability to fight. Furthermore, though they administered a larger and more populous territory, their corruption effectively stifled any civilian support.

The CPC were ultimately able to seize the Northeast after struggling through numerous set-backs while trying to take the cities, with the decisive Liaoshen Campaign
Liaoshen Campaign

Liaoshen Campaign , literally the abbreviation of Liaoning-Shenyang Campaign, was part of the three major campaigns launched by the People's Liberation Army during the late stage of the Chinese Civil War....
. The capture of large KMT formations provided them with the tanks, heavy artillery, and other combined-arms assets needed to prosecute offensive operations south of the Great Wall. By April 1948 the city of Luoyang
Luoyang

Luoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of China, People's Republic of China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast....
 fell, cutting the KMT army off from Xi'an
Xi'an

Xi'an , is the Capital of the Shaanxi Provinces of China in the People's Republic of China and a sub-provincial city. As one of the oldest cities in Chinese history, Xi'an is one of the Historical capitals of China because it has been the capital of some of the most important Dynasties in Chinese history in Chinese history, including the Zh...
. Following a fierce battle, the CPC captured Jinan
Jinan

Jinan is a sub-provincial city and the capital of Shandong Provinces of China, People's Republic of China. The area of present-day Jinan has played an important role in the history of the region from the earliest beginnings of civilization and has evolved into an important administrative, economic, and transportation hub....
 and Shandong province on September 28, 1948. The Huaihai Campaign
Huaihai Campaign

Huaihai Campaign or Battle of Hsupeng was a military action during 1948 and 1949 that was the determining battle of the Chinese Civil War....
 of late 1948 and early 1949 secured east-central China for the CPC. The outcome of these encounters were decisive for the military outcome of the civil war. The Beiping-Tianjin Campaign
Pingjin Campaign

Pingjin Campaign , known as the Battle of Pingjin to the Kuomintang, was part of the three major campaigns launched by the People's Liberation Army during the late stage of the Chinese Civil War....
 resulted in the Communist conquest of northern China lasting 64 days from November 21, 1948 to January 31, 1949. The People's Liberation Army suffered heavy casualties from securing Zhangjiakou
Zhangjiakou

Zhangjiakou is a prefecture-level city in Hebei Province of North China. It has a population of 4.3 million, and covers 36,947 square kilometers....
, Tianjin
Tianjin

is the third largest city of the People's Republic of China in terms of urban population. Administratively it is one of the four municipality that have Political divisions of China status, reporting directly to the central government....
 along with its port and garrison at Dagu
Dagu

Dagu may refer to::*Dagu Forts, by the Hai River estuary, in Tanggu District, Tianjin, China*A large Chinese drum played with sticks*A genre of shuochang , which is usually accompanied by a small drum and sometimes also other string instruments...
, and Beiping. The CPC brought 890,000 troops from the Northeast to oppose some 600,000 KMT troops. There were 40,000 CPC casualties at Zhangjiakou
Zhangjiakou

Zhangjiakou is a prefecture-level city in Hebei Province of North China. It has a population of 4.3 million, and covers 36,947 square kilometers....
 alone. They in turned killed, wounded or captured some 520,000 KMT during the campaign.

On April 21, Communist forces crossed the Yangtze River
Yangtze River

The Yangtze River, or Chang Jiang , is the longest river in China and Asia, and the List of rivers by length in the world, after the Nile in Africa and the Amazon River in South America....
, capturing Nanjing, capital of the KMT's Republic of China
Republic of China

The Republic of China , also known as Nationalist China is a country in East Asia that has evolved from a single-party state with full global recognition into a multi-party democratic state with Political status of Taiwan....
. In most cases, the surrounding countryside and small towns had come under Communist influence long before the cities. By late 1949, the People's Liberation Army was pursuing remnants of KMT forces southwards in southern China.

CPC establish People's Republic of China / KMT retreat to Taiwan

Prcfounding
On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China

The People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the List of countries by population in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately a fifth of the world's population....
 with its capital at Beiping (Peiping), which was renamed Beijing (Peking). Chiang Kai-shek and approximately 2 million Nationalist Chinese retreated from mainland China
Mainland China

Mainland China, Continental China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China , excluding Hong Kong and Macau, which run on One Country, Two Systems....
 to the island of Taiwan
Taiwan

Taiwan is an island in East Asia. "Taiwan" is also commonly used to refer to the country governed by the Republic of China and to the ROC itself, which governs the island of Taiwan, Orchid Island and Green Island, Taiwan in the Pacific Ocean off the Taiwan coast, the Penghu islands in the Taiwan Strait, and Kinmen and the Matsu Islands...
. There remained only isolated pockets of resistance, notably in Sichuan (ending soon after the fall of Chengdu
Chengdu

Chengdu , located in southwest People's Republic of China, is the capital of Sichuan provinces of China and a sub-provincial city. Chengdu is also one of the most important economic centers and transportation and communication hubs in Southwestern China....
 on December 10, 1949) and in the far south.

A PRC attempt to take the ROC controlled island of Kinmen
Kinmen

Kinmen , located at , is a small archipelago of several islands administered by the Republic of China government: Greater Kinmen , Lesser Kinmen , and some islets....
 was thwarted in the Battle of Kuningtou
Battle of Kuningtou

The Battle of Kuningtou or Battle of Jinmen was a battle fought over Kinmen in the Taiwan Strait during the Chinese Civil War in 1949. The failure of the Communist Party of China to take the island left it in the hands of the Kuomintang and crushed their chances of taking Taiwan to defeat the Nationalists completely in the war....
 halting the PLA advance towards Taiwan. In December 1949, Chiang proclaimed Taipei
Taipei

Taipei has been the de facto capital of the Republic of China, commonly known as Taiwan, since the Chinese Civil War in 1949, and the capital of Taiwan since Japanese rule that began in 1895....
, Taiwan, the temporary capital of the Republic of China
Republic of China

The Republic of China , also known as Nationalist China is a country in East Asia that has evolved from a single-party state with full global recognition into a multi-party democratic state with Political status of Taiwan....
 and continued to assert his government as the sole legitimate authority in China.

Communists' other amphibious operations of 1950 were more successful: they led to the Communist conquest of Hainan Island
Landing Operation on Hainan Island

Landing Operation on Hainan Island ), also known as Hainan Island Campaign or Hainan Campaign for short, was a series of battles fought between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China during Chinese Civil War in the post World War II era, and resulted in the communist victory....
 in April 1950, capture of Wanshan Islands
Wanshan Archipelago Campaign

Wanshan Qundao Campaign was a campaign fought between the communist and the Kuomintang forces during the Chinese Civil War for the control of Wanshan Archipelago , and resulted in communist victory....
 off the Guangdong
Guangdong

Guangdong is a political divisions of China on the southern coast of People's Republic of China. The province is also known by an alternative English language name, the Canton Province....
 coast (May-August 1950) and of Zhoushan Island
Zhoushan Island

Zhoushan Island is the principal island of the namesake archipelago Zhoushan Islands, governed by Zhoushan City, Zhejiang Province, the People's Republic of China....
 off Zhejiang
Zhejiang

Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of China of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital....
 (May 1950).

Relationship between the two sides since 1950

Most observers expected Chiang's government to eventually fall in response to a Communist invasion of Taiwan, and the United States initially showed no interest in supporting Chiang's government in its final stand. Things changed radically with the onset of the Korean War
Korean War

The Korean War refers to a period of military conflict between North Korea and South Korea regimes, with major hostilities lasting from June 25, 1950 until the armistice signed on July 27, 1953....
 in June 1950. At this point, allowing a total Communist victory over Chiang became politically impossible in the United States, and President Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States . As the List of Vice Presidents of the United States Vice President of the United States, he succeeded Franklin D....
 ordered the U.S. 7th Fleet into the Taiwan strait
Taiwan Strait

The Taiwan Strait or Formosa Strait is a 180-km-wide strait between mainland China and Taiwan. The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to East China Sea to the northeast....
s to prevent the ROC and PRC from attacking each other.

In June 1949, the ROC declared a "closure" of all mainland China ports and its navy attempted to intercept all foreign ships. The closure covered from a point north of the mouth of Min river in Fujian province to the mouth of the Liao river
Liao River

File:Liaorivermap.pngThe Liao He is the principal river in southern Manchuria . The province of Liaoning and the Liaodong Peninsula derive their name from the river....
 in Manchuria. Since mainland China's railroad network was underdeveloped, north-south trade depended heavily on sea lanes. ROC naval activity also caused severe hardship for mainland China fishermen.

After losing mainland China, a group of approximately 12,000 KMT soldiers escaped to Burma and continued launching guerrilla attacks into south China. Their leader, General Li Mi, was paid a salary by the ROC government and given the nominal title of Governor of Yunnan
Yunnan

is a political divisions of China of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately 394,000 square kilometers ....
. Initially, the United States supported these remnants and the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency

The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the Federal government of the United States. It is the successor of the Office of Strategic Services formed during World War II to coordinate espionage activities between the branches of the US military services....
 provided them with aid. After the Burmese government appealed to the United Nations
United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, Social change, human rights and achieving world peace....
 in 1953, the U.S. began pressuring the ROC to withdraw its loyalists. By the end of 1954, nearly 6,000 soldiers had left Burma and Li Mi declared his army disbanded. However, thousands remained, and the ROC continued to supply and command them, even secretly supplying reinforcements at times.

After the ROC complained to the United Nations
United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, Social change, human rights and achieving world peace....
 against the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
 supporting the PRC, the UN General Assembly Resolution 505
UN General Assembly Resolution 505

The 'UN General Assembly Resolution 505' is titled Threats to the political independence and territorial integrity of Republic of China and to the peace of the Far East, resulting from Soviet Union violations of the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance of August 14, 1945 and from Soviet violations of the Charter of the United Nations...
 was adopted on February 1, 1952 to condemn the Soviet Union.

Though viewed as a military liability by the United States, the ROC viewed its remaining islands in Fujian as vital for any future campaign to defeat the PRC and retake mainland China. On September 3, 1954, the First Taiwan Strait crisis
First Taiwan Strait Crisis

The First Taiwan Strait Crisis was a short armed conflict that took place between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China governments....
 began when the PLA
People's Liberation Army

The People's Liberation Army is the unified military organization of all land, sea, and air forces of the People's Republic of China. The PLA was established on August 1, 1927 ? celebrated annually as "PLA Day" ? as the military arm of the Communist Party of China....
 started shelling Quemoy and threatened to take the Dachen Islands. On January 20, 1955, the PLA
People's Liberation Army

The People's Liberation Army is the unified military organization of all land, sea, and air forces of the People's Republic of China. The PLA was established on August 1, 1927 ? celebrated annually as "PLA Day" ? as the military arm of the Communist Party of China....
 took nearby Yijiangshan Island
Yijiangshan Island

The Yijiangshan Islands are two small islands eight miles from the Tachen group, located between Shanghai and Keelung in the Taiwan Strait.On January 20, 1955 it was captured by the People's Liberation Army from Republic of China Nationalist forces in the Battle of Yijiangshan even as the U.S....
, with the entire ROC garrison of 720 troops killed or wounded defending the island. On January 24 of the same year, the United States Congress
United States Congress

The United States Congress is the Bicameralism legislature of the Federal government of the United States of the United States of America, consisting of two houses, the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives....
 passed the Formosa Resolution authorizing the President to defend the ROC's offshore islands. The First Taiwan Straits crisis ended in March 1955 when the PLA ceased its bombardment. The crisis was brought to a close during the Bandung conference
Asian-African Conference

The first large-scale Asian-African or Afro-Asian Conference?also known as the Bandung Conference?was a meeting of Asian and African states, most of which were newly independent, which took place between April 18 and April 24, 1955 in Bandung, Indonesia....
.

The Second Taiwan Strait Crisis
Second Taiwan Strait Crisis

The Second Taiwan Strait Crisis, also called the 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis, was a conflict that took place between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China governments in which the PRC shelled the islands of Matsu Islands and Quemoy in the Taiwan Strait in an attempt to seize them from the Republic of China....
 began on August 23, 1958 with air and naval engagements between the PRC and the ROC military forces, leading to intense artillery bombardment of Quemoy (by the PRC) and Amoy
Xiamen

Xiamen, also known as Amoy , is a coastal sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian province of China, People's Republic of China. It looks out to the Taiwan Strait and borders Quanzhou to the north and Zhangzhou to the south....
 (by the ROC), and ended on November of the same year. PLA patrol boats blockaded the islands from ROC supply ships. Though the United States rejected Chiang Kai-shek's proposal to bomb mainland China artillery batteries, it quickly moved to supply fighter jets and anti-aircraft missiles to the ROC. It also provided amphibious assault
Amphibious warfare

Amphibious warfare is the utilization of naval firepower, logistics and strategy to project military power ashore. In previous eras it stood as the primary method of delivering troops to non-contiguous enemy-held terrain....
 ships to land supply, as a sunken ROC naval vessel was blocking the harbor. On September 7, the United States escorted a convoy of ROC supply ships and the PRC refrained from firing. On October 25, the PRC announced an "even-day ceasefire" — the PLA would only shell Quemoy on odd-numbered days.

Despite the end of the hostilities, the two sides have never signed any agreement or treaty to officially end the war.

Since the late 1980s, there has been growing economic exchanges on both sides while the Taiwan strait
Taiwan Strait

The Taiwan Strait or Formosa Strait is a 180-km-wide strait between mainland China and Taiwan. The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to East China Sea to the northeast....
s remain a dangerous flash point. The Third Taiwan Strait Crisis
Third Taiwan Strait Crisis

The Third Taiwan Strait Crisis, also called the 1995-1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis or the 1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis, was the effect of a series of missile tests conducted by the People's Republic of China in the waters surrounding Taiwan including the Taiwan Strait from July 21, 1995 to March 23, 1996....
 in 1995–96 escalated tensions between both sides when the PRC tested a series of missiles not far from Taiwan.

Beginning in the early 21st century, there has been a significant warming of economic and cultural relations between the KMT and the Communist Party of China
Communist Party of China

The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and the ruling party of the People's Republic of China and the world's largest political party....
  with high level exchanges such as the 2005 Pan-blue visit
2005 Pan-Blue visits to mainland China

The 2005 Pan-Blue visits to mainland China, also known as the Third United Front of China , were a series of groundbreaking visits by delegations of the Kuomintang to mainland China....
. But despite the improved relations between the two sides, direct talks between the presidents on both sides have not yet occurred due to the refusal of the PRC to recognize the sovereignty and existence of the ROC.

Commanders during the Civil War


Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang)

  • Chiang Kai-shek
    Chiang Kai-shek

    Chiang Kai-shek , Order of the Bath , served as Generalissimo of the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China from 1928 to 1948. He was sometimes referred to simply as "the Generalissimo"....
     (Commander-In-Chief)


  • Chen Cheng
    Chen Cheng

    Chen Cheng , China political and military leader, was one of the main Kuomintang commanders during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War....
  • Fu Tso-yi
  • Li Tsung-jen
  • Liu Chih
    Liu Chih

    Liu Chih was a Kuomintang military and political leader in the Republic of China...
  • Sun Li-jen
    Sun Li-jen

    Sun Li-jen was a Kuomintang General officer, best known for his leadership in the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War. His achievements earned him the laudatory nickname "Erwin Rommel of the East"....
  • Tu Yü-ming
  • Wang Ching-wei (During the Second Sino-Japanese War, he betrayed Chiang and joined the Japanese Forces) (Wang is in no way a military leader, however. He was a politician, and died in 1944, before the final phase of the Civil War)
  • Wang Sheng (One of the last commanders to leave Sichuan for Taiwan)
  • Xue Yue
    Xue Yue

    Xue Yue was one of Nationalist China's best generals. Nicknamed by General Claire Chennault of Flying Tigers fame as the Patton of Asia....


Communist Party of China

  • Mao Zedong
    Mao Zedong

    Mao Zedong was a China military and politics dictator. Mao led the Communist Party of China to victory against the Kuomintang in the Chinese Civil War, and was the leader of the People?s Republic of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976....
     (Commander-in-chief)
  • Zhu De
    Zhu De

    Zhu D? was a Communist Party of China military leader and statesman. He is regarded as the founder of the Chinese Red Army and the tactician who engineered the revolution from which emerged the People's Republic of China....
  • Zhou Enlai
    Zhou Enlai

    Zhou Enlai was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976. Zhou was instrumental in the Communist Party of China rise to power, and subsequently in the construction of the Economy of the People's Republic of China and restructuring of Chinese society....
  • Lin Biao
    Lin Biao

    Lin Biao , born as Lin Yurong was a Communist Party of China military leader who was instrumental in the communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, especially in Northeastern China, and was the General who led the People's Liberation Army into Beijing in 1949....
  • Peng Dehuai
    Peng Dehuai

    Peng Dehuai was a prominent military leader of the Communist Party of China, and China's Defence Minister from 1954 to 1959. Peng was an important commander during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese civil war and was also the commander-in-chief of People's Volunteer Army in the Korean War....
  • Chen Yi
    Chen Yi (communist)

    Chen Yi or Chen I was a Communist Party of China military commander and politician....
  • Liu Bocheng
    Liu Bocheng

    Liu Bocheng was a Communist Party of China military commander and Marshal of the People's Liberation Army.Liu Bocheng is known as one of the "Three and A Half" Strategists of China in modern history....
  • Nie Rongzhen
    Nie Rongzhen

    Nie Rongzhen was a prominent Communist Party of China military leader, and one of ten Yuan Shuai in the People's Liberation Army of China....


Warlords

  • Zhang Zuolin
    Zhang Zuolin

    Zhang Zu?l?n , nicknamed the "Old Marshal" , "Rain Marshal" ....
     (Killed in a train bombing by the Japanese, his son Zhang Xueliang took over his lands)
  • Zhang Xueliang
    Zhang Xueliang

    Zhang Xueliang or Chang Hs?eh-liang , nicknamed the "Young Marshal" , became the effective ruler of Manchuria and much of North China after the assassination of his father Zhang Zuolin by the Japanese on 4 June 1928....
     (Son of Zhang Zuolin, in the Xian Incident, he and Yang Hu Cheng forced Chiang Kaishek to end his war against the Communists and ally with them against the Japanese. He was then jailed by Chiang until 1989.)
  • Feng Yuxiang
    Feng Yuxiang

    Feng Yuxiang was a warlord during history of the Republic of China.As the son of an officer in the Qing Dynasty Qing_Dynasty#Transition_and_modernization, Feng spent his youth immersed in the military life....
     (Changed his support to KMT in 1925, then fought them in 1930 Central Plains War
    Central Plains War

    Central Plains War was a civil war within the factionalised Kuomintang that broke out in 1930. It was fought between the forces of Chiang Kai-shek and the coalition of three military commanders who had previously allied with Chiang: Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang, and Li Zongren....
     and lost. Organized the Chahar People's Anti-Japanese Army
    Chahar People's Anti-Japanese Army

    The Chahar People's Anti-Japanese Army consisted mostly of former Northwestern Army units under Feng Yuxiang, troops from Fang Zhenwu's Resisting Japan and Saving China Army, remnants of the provincial forces from Jehol, Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies and local forces from Chahar and Suiyuan....
     in cooperation with north China Communists and changed again to CPC in 1945 and visited the USSR).
  • Yen Hsi-shan (Ruled Shanxi
    Shanxi

    is a political divisions of China in the North China of the People's Republic of China. Its one-character abbreviation is Jin , after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring and Autumn Period....
     Province until 1948)
  • Ma clique
    Ma clique

    The Ma clique was a family of warlords who ruled the Chinese provinces of Qinghai, Gansu and Ningxia from the 1910's until 1949. The three most prominent warlords were Ma Bufang, Ma Hongkui, and Ma Hongbin, collectively known as the Xibei San Ma ; other prominent Ma's included Ma Qi, Ma Lin , and Ma Zhongying....
  • Chen Jitang
    Chen Jitang

    Chen Jitang , also spelled Chen Chi-tang, was born in Fangchenggang, Guangxi, China. He joined the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance in 1908 and began serving in the Guangdong Army in 1920, rising from battalion to brigade commander....


List of Chinese Civil War weapons


Handguns

  • Mauser C96
    Mauser C96

    The Mauser C96 , also known as the Mauser Broomhandle, is a semi-automatic pistol that was originally manufactured by Germany arms manufacturer Mauser from 1896 to 1937 Unlicenced copies of the gun were also manufactured in Spain and China in the first half of the 20th century....
    , Nationalist, warlords, Communists
  • Browning Hi-Power
    Browning Hi-Power

    The Browning Hi-Power is a single action, 9x19mm Parabellum semi-automatic firearm pistol. It is based on ideas conceived and patented in 1922 by American firearms inventor John Browning, and later patented by Fabrique Nationale de Herstal of Herstal, Belgium....
    , Nationalist, Communists
  • Luger P08, Nationalist
  • Nambu Type 14
    Nambu pistol

    was a semi-automatic pistol used by the Imperial Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy during the World War I and World War II. The pistol had two variations, the Type A , and the Type 14 8 mm Nambu Pistol ....
    , Nationalist, Communists
  • Type 26, Nationalist, Communists
  • Nambu Type 94
    Type 94 8 mm Pistol

    The Type 94 8 mm Pistol was a small and light-weight semi-automatic pistol, produced in large numbers by Japan prior to and during the Second World War....
    , Nationalist, Communists
  • Nagant M1895
    Nagant M1895

    The Nagant M1895 Revolver was a seven-shot, gas-seal revolver designed and produced by Belgian industrialist Nagant for Tsarist Russia. The Nagant M1895 was chambered for a proprietary cartridge, 7.62x38R, and featured an unusual "gas-seal" system in which the cylinder moved forward when the gun was cocked to close the gap between the cylinde...
    , Communists
  • Tokarev TT-30/TT-33
    TT-33

    The TT-30 is a Russian semi-automatic pistol developed by Fedor Tokarev as a service pistol for the Military of the Soviet Union to replace the Nagant M1895 revolvers in use since Russian Empire....
    , Communists
  • Colt M1911/A1 (U.S Lend Lease), Nationalist


Rifles

  • Lee-Enfield
    Lee-Enfield

    The Lee-Enfield bolt-action, magazine-fed, repeating rifle was the main firearm used by the military forces of the British Empire/Commonwealth of Nations during the first half of the 20th century....
    , Nationalist, warlords, Communists
  • Chiang Kai-Shek rifle
    Chiang Kai-shek rifle

    The Type Zhongzheng rifle , also known as the Chiang Kai-shek Rifle and Type 24 after the Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, was a Chinese-made copy of the German Gewehr 98, the forerunner of the Karabiner 98k....
    , Nationalist, warlords, Communists
  • ZH-29 rifle, Nationalist
  • Hanyang 88
    Hanyang 88

    The Type 88, sometimes known as "Hanyang 88", was a Chinese rifle that was issued to the regular Nationalist Revolutionary Army during Second Sino-Japanese War....
    ,Nationalist, warlords, Communists
  • Gewehr 98
    Gewehr 98

    The Gewehr 98 was the standard German infantry rifle from 1898 to 1935, when it was replaced by the Karabiner 98k....
    , Nationalist, warlords, Communists
  • Mauser Karabiner 98 kurz
    Karabiner 98k

    The Karabiner 98 Kurz was a bolt-action rifle adopted as the standard infantry rifle in 1935 by the German Wehrmacht, and was one of the final developments in the long line of Mauser military rifles....
    , Nationalist, warlords, Communists
  • Type 38 Rifle
    Type 38 rifle

    The Type 38 rifle Arisaka is a bolt-action rifle. For a time it was the standard rifle of the Japanese infantry. It was known also as the Type 38 Year Meiji Carbine in Japan....
    , Nationalist, Communists
  • Type 2 Rifle, Nationalist, Communists
  • Type 38 Cavalry Rifle
    Type 38 Cavalry Rifle

    The Japanese Type 38 cavalry rifle was a short barreled version of the bolt-action Type 38 rifle, it was used by the Imperial Japanese Army cavalry, engineers and artillery troops during World War II....
    , Nationalist, Communists
  • Type 99 Rifle
    Type 99 Rifle

    The Type 99 Rifle was a bolt-action rifle of the Arisaka design used by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II....
    , Nationalist, Communists
  • Type 97 Sniper Rifle
    Type 97 Sniper Rifle

    is a Japanese bolt-action rifle, based on the Type 38 Rifle. Following the standard practice of the time, it was adapted from an existing infantry rifle....
    , Nationalist, Communists
  • Type 44 Cavalry Rifle
    Type 44 Cavalry Rifle

    The Type 44 Cavalry Rifleis a Japanese bolt-action rifle. This rifle is also often referred to as a Type 44 Carbine....
    , Nationalist, Communists
  • Mosin-Nagant M1891/30, M1938, M1944
    Mosin-Nagant

    The Mosin-Nagant is a bolt-action, internal magazine fed, military rifle that was used by the armed forces of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and various Eastern bloc nations....
    , Communists
  • Tokarev SVT-38, SVT-40
    SVT40

    The Samozaryadnaya Vintovka Tokareva, Obrazets 1940 goda is a Soviet Union semi-automatic rifle battle rifle, which saw widespread service during and after World War II....
     , Communists
  • M1 Garand
    M1 Garand

    The M1 Garand was the first semi-automatic rifle to be generally issued to the infantry of any nation. In 1936, it officially replaced the bolt-action M1903 Springfield as the standard service rifle of the United States Armed Forces and was subsequently replaced by the selective-fire M14 rifle in 1957....
     (U.S Lend Lease), Nationalist
  • M1 Carbine
    M1 Carbine

    The M1 Carbine is a lightweight Semi-automatic firearm carbine that became a standard firearm in the Military of the United States during World War II and the Korean War, and was produced in several variants....
     (U.S Lend Lease), Nationalist
  • M1903 Springfield (U.S Lend Lease), Nationalist
  • M1941 Johnson rifle (U.S Lend Lease), Nationalist
  • M1917 Enfield rifle
    M1917 Enfield rifle

    The M1917 Enfield, the "American Enfield" , formally named "United States Rifle, cal .30, Model of 1917" was an United States modification and production of the .303 British Pattern 14 Rifle rifle developed and manufactured during the period 1917-1918....
     (U.S Lend Lease), Nationalist
  • Mondragón F-08
    Mondragón (rifle)

    Mondrag?n was a Mexican automatic rifle.The Mondrag?n was the worlds first automatic rifle and was designed by General Manuel Mondrag?n. He began work in 1882 and patented the weapon in 1887....
    , Nationalist, Communists


Submachine Guns

  • MP18
    MP18

    The MP18.1 manufactured by Theodor Bergmann Waffenbau Abteilung was the first practical submachine gun used in combat. It was introduced in service in 1918 by the German Army during World War I as the primary weapon of the Stosstruppen, assault groups specialized in trench warfare....
     (Chinese copy), Nationalist,warlords,Communists
  • swiss sig model 1930, warlords
  • Thompson M1928, M1928A1, M1, M1A1
    Thompson submachine gun

    The Thompson submachine gun is an United States submachine gun that became infamous during the Prohibition in the United States era. It was a common sight of the time, being used by both law enforcement officers and criminals....
    (U.S Lend Lease, later local produced Chinese copies), Nationalist
  • PPD-40
    PPD-40

    The PPD is a submachine gun originally designed in 1934. The PPD had a conventional wooden stock, fired from an open bolt, and was capable of selective fire....
    , Communists
  • PPSh-41
    PPSh-41

    The PPSh-41 submachine gun was one of the most mass produced weapons of its type of World War II. It was designed by Georgi Shpagin as an inexpensive alternative to the PPD-40, which was expensive and time consuming to build....
    , Communists
  • PPS-43, Communists
  • M3/A1 'Grease Gun'
    M3 submachine gun

    The M3 was an United States .45 ACP-caliber submachine gun that entered US Army service on December 12, 1942 as the United States Submachine Gun, Cal....
     (U.S Lend Lease), Nationalist
  • M50 Reising submachine gun (U.S Lend Lease), Nationalist
  • Sten
    Sten

    The Sten was a family of United Kingdom 9x19mm Parabellum submachine guns used extensively by Commonwealth of Nations forces throughout World War II and the Korean War....
    , Nationalist, Communists


Machine Guns

  • ZB vz.26
    ZB vz.26

    The ZB vz. 26 was a Czechoslovak light machine gun developed in the 1920s, which went on to enter service with several countries. It would see its major use during World War II, and spawned the related ZB vz....
     (purchashed in large quantity from former Czechoslovakia
    Czechoslovakia

    Czechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe that existed from October 1918 until 1992 . On January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia dissolution of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia....
    )
    , Nationalist, warlords, Communists
  • MG 34
    MG 34

    The Maschinengewehr 34, or MG34, was a Nazi Germany machine gun that was first produced and accepted for service in 1934, and first issued to units in 1935....
     (Chinese copy), Nationalist, warlords, Communists
  • Type 11 Light Machine Gun
    Type 11 Light Machine Gun

    The was a light machine gun used by the Imperial Japanese Army in the interwar period and in World War II. ...
    , Nationalist, Communists
  • Type 96 Light Machine Gun
    Type 96 Light Machine Gun

    The was a light machine gun used by the Imperial Japanese Army in the interwar period and in World War II. ...
    , Nationalist, Communists
  • Type 97 Light Machine Gun
    Type 97 Light Machine Gun

    The was the standard machine gun used on tanks and armored vehicles of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, and also as a light machine gun by infantry forces....
    , Nationalist, Communists
  • Type 99 Light Machine Gun
    Type 99 Light Machine Gun

    The was a light machine gun used by the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. ...
    , Nationalist, Communists
  • M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle (U.S Lend Lease), Nationalist
  • FN BAR, Nationalist
  • Bren light machine gun, Nationalist
  • Lahti-Saloranta M/26
    Lahti-Saloranta M/26

    The Lahti-Saloranta M-26 is a light machine gun which was designed by Aimo Lahti and Arvo Saloranta in 1926. The weapon was able to fire in both full automatic and semi-automatic modes....
    ,Nationalist
  • DP-28 Light Machine Gun
    Degtyarev light machine gun

    The ?????? ??????? ????????a ???????? or DP was a light machine gun used by the Soviet Union starting in 1928. It fired the 7.62x54mmR cartridge and was cheap and easy to manufacture - early models had fewer than 80 parts and could be built by unskilled labour....
    , Communists
  • Browning M1919 Medium Machine Gun (U.S Lend Lease), Nationalist


Heavy Machine Guns

  • Chinese Type 24 Heavy Machine Gun (Chinese copy of Maxim Gun
    Maxim gun

    The Maxim gun was the first self-powered machine gun, invented by the American-born United Kingdom Sir Hiram Maxim in 1884....
    ),Nationalist,warlords, Communists
  • Browning M1917A1 Heavy Machine Gun (U.S Lend Lease), Nationalist
  • Browning M2 Heavy Machine Gun (U.S Lend Lease), Nationalist
  • Type 92 Heavy Machine Gun
    Type 92 Heavy Machine Gun

    entered service in 1932 and was the standard Japanese heavy machine gun used during World War II. It was used extensively by the Imperial Japanese Army and Collaborationist Chinese Army....
    , Nationalist, Communists
  • Type 1 Heavy Machine Gun
    Type 1 Heavy Machine Gun

    was the standard heavy machine gun in the IJA during the Second World War starting from 1941. It was sometimes used as a light anti-aircraft gun during the war in the Pacific....
    , Nationalist, Communists
  • Type 3 Heavy Machine Gun
    Type 3 Heavy Machine Gun

    was a Japanese air-cooled heavy machine gun, based on the design of the Hotchkiss M1914. It used an ammo strip for loading rounds. Its tripod could be used as an anti-aircraft mounting, and special anti-aircraft sights were provided....
    , Nationalist, Communists
  • Type 4 Heavy Machine Gun, Nationalist, Communists
  • DShK 1938 Heavy Machine Gun
    DShK

    The DShK 1938 is a Soviet Union heavy Anti-aircraft warfare machine gun firing 12.7x108mm Soviet cartridges. The weapon was also used as a heavy infantry machine gun, in which case it was frequently deployed with a two-wheeled mounting and a single-sheet armour-plate shield....
    , Communists
  • Maxim PM1910 Medium Machine Gun
    Russian M1910 Maxim

    The Pulemyot Maxima na stanke Sokolova /Maxim's machine gun on Sokolov's mount/ was a heavy machine gun used by the Military history of Imperial Russia during World War I and the Red Army during World War II....
    , Communists
  • SG-43 Goryunov, Communists


Anti-Tank Weapons

  • PaK 36
    PaK 36

    The PaK 36 was a Germany anti-tank gun that fired a 3.7cm calibre shell. It was developed in 1936 by Rheinmetall and first appeared in combat that year during the Spanish Civil War....
    ,Nationalist
  • PTRD-41 Bolt-action Anti-Tank Rifle
    PTRD

    The PTRD-41 was an anti-tank rifle produced and used from early 1941 by the Soviet Red Army during World War II. It was a single-shot weapon that fired 14.5x114mm tungsten core rounds....
    , Communists
  • PTRS-41 Semi-Automatic Anti-Tank Rifle
    PTRS-41

    The PTRS-41 is the semi-automatic firearm cousin of the PTRD anti-tank rifle....
    , Communists
  • Rocket Launcher, M1/A1 "Bazooka"
    Bazooka

    A bazooka is one of a series of anti-armor and anti-bunker, man-portable rocket launchers that became famous during World War II. Technically named as the M9 Anti-tank Rocket Launcher, it was also called "stovepipe" and used to deliver high explosives into machine gun nests and hardened bunkers in all WWII theaters....
     (U.S Lend Lease), Nationalist


Grenades

  • Model 24 grenade
    Model 24 grenade

    The Model 24 Stielhandgranate was the standard hand grenade of the German Army from the end of World War I until the end of World War II. The very distinctive appearance led to its being called a "stick grenade", or a "potato masher" in British Army slang, and is today one of the most easily recognized infantry weapons of the 20th centur...
     (Chinese copies) Communists, warlords, Nationalist
  • F1 Fragmentation Hand Grenade
    F1 grenade

    File:POMZ.JPEGThe Soviet Union F-1 hand grenade, nicknamed the limonka is an anti-personnel fragmentation, or 'defensive' grenade. It contains a 60 gram explosive charge ....
    , Communists
  • RGD-33 Fragmentation Hand Grenade
    RGD-33 Grenade

    The Soviet Union RGD-33 was an anti-personnel fragmentation stick grenade developed in 1933 from the Model 1914 grenade used during World War I....
    , Communists
  • Mk.2 Fragmentation Hand Grenade
    Mk 2 grenade

    The Mk 2 grenade is a fragmentation Hand grenade#Fragmentation grenades used by the Military of the United States during World War II and in later conflicts including the Vietnam War....
     (U.S Lend Lease), Nationalist


Misc

  • Dadao
    Dadao

    The dadao one of the varieties of dao or Chinese saber, is also known as the Chinese great sword. Based on agricultural knives, dadao have broad blades generally between two and three feet long, long hilts meant for "hand and a half" or two-handed use, and generally a weight-forward balance....
    , Communists


See also

  • List of Battles of Chinese Civil War
    List of Chinese battles

    The following is a list of China wars and battles, organized by date. The list is not exhaustive....
  • History of China
    History of China

    China civilization originated in various city-states along the Yellow River valley in the Neolithic era. The written history of China begins with the Shang Dynasty ....
  • History of the Republic of China
    History of the Republic of China

    The history of the Republic of China begins after the Qing Dynasty in 1912, when the formation of the Republic of China ended over two thousand years of Imperial rule....
  • History of the People's Republic of China
    History of the People's Republic of China

    The history of the People's Republic of China details the history of mainland China since October 1, 1949, when, after a near complete victory by the Communist Party of China in the Chinese Civil War, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China from atop Tiananmen ....
  • National Revolutionary Army
    National Revolutionary Army

    The National Revolutionary Army was the National Army of the Kuomintang from 1925 until 1947, as well as the National Army of the Republic of China during the KMT's period of Single-party state beginning in 1928....
  • People's Liberation Army
    People's Liberation Army

    The People's Liberation Army is the unified military organization of all land, sea, and air forces of the People's Republic of China. The PLA was established on August 1, 1927 ? celebrated annually as "PLA Day" ? as the military arm of the Communist Party of China....
  • Whampoa Military Academy
    Whampoa Military Academy

    The Nationalist Party of China Army Officer Academy , commonly known as the Whampoa Military Academy , was a military academy in the Republic of China that produced many prestigious commanders who fought in many of China's conflicts in the 20th century, notably the Northern Expedition , the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civ...
  • Military of the Republic of China
    Military of the Republic of China

    The Republic of China maintains a large and technologically advanced armed forces establishment, which accounted for 16.8% of the central budget in the fiscal year of 2003....
  • Military of the People's Republic of China
  • Warlord era
    Warlord era

    The Warlord era is the period in the history of the Republic of China, from 1916 to the late-1930s, when the country was divided among Warlord, a division that continued until the fall of the Nationalist government in the mainland China regions of Sichuan, Shanxi, Qinghai, Ningxia, Guangdong, Guangxi, Gansu, Yunnan, and Xinjiang....
  • Central Plains War
    Central Plains War

    Central Plains War was a civil war within the factionalised Kuomintang that broke out in 1930. It was fought between the forces of Chiang Kai-shek and the coalition of three military commanders who had previously allied with Chiang: Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang, and Li Zongren....
  • Political status of Taiwan
    Political status of Taiwan

    The controversy regarding the political status of Taiwan hinges on whether Taiwan, including Penghu, should remain effectively independent as territory of the Republic of China , become Chinese reunification with the territories now governed by the People's Republic of China , or formally declare independence and become the Republic of Taiwa...
  • Man's Fate
    Man's Fate

    La Condition humaine, or Man's Fate is a 1933 novel written by Andr? Malraux about the April 12 Incident that took place in Shanghai in 1927, and the existential quandaries facing a diverse group of people associated with the revolution...


External links

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