Chinese Communist Revolution

Chinese Communist Revolution

Part of the Chinese Civil War and the Cold War
Left to right, top to bottom: 1935: Chinese Red Army soldiers in the Jiajin Mountains of Sichuan during the Long March 1949: the flag of the People's Republic of China is raised over Tiananmen Square for the first time 1946: Students at Sun Yat-sen University protest American interference
Date	1 August 1927 – 1 October 1949
Location	China
Outcome	Communist victory Proclamation of the People's Republic of China Retreat of the government of the Republic of China to Taiwan
Casualties
1–2 million dead[1]

Part of a series on the
Chinese Communist Revolution
Mao Zedong and leading revolutionaries proclaim the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949.
Outline of the Chinese Civil War
Origins Context Century of Humiliation 1911 Revolution Warlord Era Ideas Nationalism Anarchism Marxism Movements New Culture Movement May Fourth Movement Diligent Work-Frugal Study Movement
Early history First United Front Founding of the Communist Party Far Eastern Bureau of the Communist International Sun–Joffe Manifesto Left Kuomintang Peasant Movement Training Institute Canton Coup 28 Bolsheviks Labor organizing 1922 seamen's strike May Thirtieth Movement Canton–Hong Kong strike Northern Expedition Wuhan Government Hunan Report Hankou incident Nanjing Incident Shanghai Commune Break with the KMT
Civil War Aftermath of purge Nanchang Little Long March Autumn Harvest Guangzhou Internal Purges AB League Incident Futian incident Chinese Soviet Republic Jiangxi Soviet Chinese Red Army Long March Zunyi Conference Anti-Japanese resistance Xi'an Incident
Second United Front Second Sino-Japanese War New Fourth Army Eighth Route Army East River Column Hundred Regiments Offensive New Fourth Army Incident Communist base areas Yan'an Soviet Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region Yan'an Rectification Campaign Yan'an Forum Women's movement
Resumed Civil War Military conflict "Millet plus rifles" People's Liberation Army Operation Beleaguer Liaoshen campaign Huaihai campaign Pingjin campaign Retreat of the ROC to Taiwan Urban support for Communists China Democratic League Shen Chong case Jiaochangkou incident Yu Zisan Incident Revolutionary Committee of the KMT
Forming the People's Republic Government Central People's Government Writing the Constitution 1954 Constitution Reforms Land Reform New Marriage Law First five-year plan Three-anti and Five-anti Campaigns Suppression of counterrevolutionaries Foreign relations Sino-Soviet Cooperation Annexation of Tibet Intervention in Korea Intervention in Vietnam
Legacy Mao Zedong Thought Marxism–Leninism–Maoism National Day 100th Anniversary of the CCP
China portal Communism portal
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The Chinese Communist Revolution was a social revolution in China that began in 1927 and culminated with the proclamation of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. For the preceding century, termed the century of humiliation, China had faced escalating social, economic, and political problems as a result of Western and Japanese imperialism, and the decline of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912). Cyclical famines and an oppressive landlord system kept the large mass of rural peasantry poor and politically disenfranchised. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was formed by young urban intellectuals in 1921, inspired by European socialist ideas and the success of the Russian October Revolution in 1917. In the First United Front, the Communists initially allied themselves with the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) against the forces of local warlords and foreign imperialists, but the 1927 Shanghai massacre targeting Communists ordered by KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek marked the start of the Chinese Civil War between Nationalists and Communists that would ultimately last more than three decades.

Early Nationalist military dominance forced the CCP to abandon their strategy of appealing to the urban proletariat, instead basing themselves in the countryside as advocated by Mao Zedong. Mao rose to a position of leadership in the CCP during the Long March, which saw the party narrowly avoid complete destruction. With a Japanese invasion setting off the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Mao's Communists entered into the Second United Front with the KMT to repel their mutual enemy. The CCP made effective use of the situation to rebuild their movement around the Chinese peasantry. Following the Japanese surrender in 1945, China became an early hot spot in the Cold War. The United States continued to funnel large amounts of money and weapons to Chiang Kai-shek, but corruption and low morale fatally undermined the Nationalist National Revolutionary Army (NRA). On the other hand, the Soviet Union's decision to allow the Communists control of Japanese weapons and supplies left behind after the Soviet invasion of Manchuria proved decisive. The CCP was able to mobilize a massive army of peasants with their program of radical land reform and gradually began winning open battles against the KMT. In 1948 and 1949, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) won three major campaigns that forced the retreat of the government of the Republic of China to Taiwan. Mao formally proclaimed the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949.

The Communist victory had a major impact on the global balance of power: China became the largest socialist state by population, as well as a third force in the Cold War following the 1956 Sino-Soviet split. The People's Republic offered direct and indirect support to communist movements around the world, and inspired the growth of Maoist parties in a number of countries. Shock at the CCP's success and the emerging geopolitical domino theory postulating its spread across East Asia led the United States to stage successive military interventions in Korea and Southeast Asia. The CCP remains in government in mainland China, and is the second-largest political party in the world.^[2]