1. What were the long term causes of tension and division in China?

Imperialist influence in China

Western imperialists had forced China to sign ‘unequal treaties’ that essential ceded control of certain areas to foreign powers, allowed them to trade at will and to station troops to protect their interests.  The treaties had also granted these foreign powers the right of ‘extraterritoriality’ which means that their citizens were not held to account by Chinese laws and could operate under their own governments’ rules and legislation.

Starter activity

In pairs identify the countries that owned railway interested in China by 1900.  Where in China are most of the railway interests?

Why do you think that the west and Japan wanted influence in China?

What does this foreign involvement suggest about the strengths and weaknesses of the Chinese central government?

The Warlords

Another problem for the central government in China were the Warlords.  These quasi-military leaders had their own private armies and were the de facto rulers of large regions of China.  The warlords ran the affairs of the territories under their control, would set and collect taxes and would often engage in small wars with other warlords for territory and booty.  The central government lacked the means to control the warlords.

Task One

Thinking skills

Below is a summary of the economic and political problems facing China at this time; you may want to get students to research some of these points these in more detail.

Task Two

ATL: Thinking Skills

2. How was the ruling Manchu dynasty overthrown in China?

At the 20th Century, there was widespread feeling in China that the ruling Manchu dynasty had to be overthrown, democracy introduced and a program of modernization implemented.  When the emperor died and was succeeded by a 2 year-old boy, Pu Yi, in 1908 the regime was further undermined.

The revolution began when the government lost control of the military; soldiers revolted and the uprising quickly spread. Several provinces then declared themselves independent of the central government in Beijing.  This revolution in October 1911, became known as the Double Tenth. A republic was declared. The underlying tensions and divisions within China that had led to this revolution were also key causes of the civil war that broke out 15 years later.  The Manchu dynasty had failed to address the weakness of its central government, the impact of imperialism, anti-foreign sentiment and ongoing economic problems.

In an attempted to seize the political initiative and to stabilize the situation, delegates from the newly ‘independent provinces’ met in In November 1911, in Nanjing. Delegates declared the Chinese Republic and Dr Sun Yixian, was chosen as China’s first president.   However, Sun had been in exile in the US during the revolution and had no clear military backing for his presidency.  To prevent a civil war from developing after the revolution Sun agreed for Yuan Shikai, leader of the northern army,  to be president in February 1912.  On 12 February 1912, Emperor Pu Yi abdicated. (For more detail on this see: 1. Rise of national identity in China (ATL) )

Task One

ATL:  Thinking skills

Task Two

ATL: research and communication skills

Task Three

Thinking and self-management skills

3. Why was the First United Front created?

By 1922 two political groups, the Communists inspired by the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, and the Nationalists under the GMD inspired by the ideas of Sun had developed in China. Both parties were united in the aim of unifying China under a strong central government.  Both parties understood that to do this they would have to take on the warlords.  With these common goals the GMD and the CCP entered into an alliance in 1922, the First United Front.

4. What were the short-term causes of the first phase of the Chinese Civil War?

Sun died in 1925 and General Jiang Jieshi, a committed Nationalist, took over leadership of the GMD. Jiang was an anti-Communist; however he initially did not break the alliance with the Communists, as he needed the CCPs support to break warlord control. In 1926 the First United Front launched the ‘Northern Expedition’ to crush the warlords of central
 and northern China. This was a great success; by 1927, the GMD and the Communists had captured Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Nanjing. The First United Front took Beijing in 1928;  the GMD announced that it was the legitimate government of China and the new capital and seat of government would be Nanjing.

Even though it had been successful in the Northern Expedition, the alliance between the GMD and CCP did not last.  The differences in ideology between the two parties now came to the fore as the defeat of the warlords meant China could be unified. Jiang had been concerned that the success of the Northern Expedition had been not only due to the promotion of Nationalist aims, it was also due to the Communist promise of land to the peasants which had given the United front local peasant support. Indeed, the CCP had also had strong support from the industrial workers; the communist, Zhou Enlai, had organized the workers rising in Shanghai.  Jiang decided that the GMD would not share power with the CCP. Jiang was more right wing than Sun, and was sympathetic to landlords and the middle classes. He was opposed to peasant attacks on landlords and land seizures that had occurred in areas under Communist control.

Jiang expelled all communists from the GMD. Then, in April 1927 he launched the ‘White Terror’ in Shanghai.  Jiang, using informants from the underworld of triads and gangsters, killed 5,000 communists. The GMD was ordered to carry out similar attacks in other cities, in what became known as the ‘purification movement’.  Estimates suggest around a quarter of a million people were killed. By the end of 1927 the CCP was almost destroyed.

The CCP decided that its only chance of survival was to flee to the mountains of Jiangxi. The GMD pursued them and was determined to wipe the CCP out. The first phase of the civil war had begun.

Task One

Thinking and communication skills

5. What was the impact of the Sino-Japanese War 1937 – 1945 on the CCP and the GMD?

The first phase of the civil war was interrupted by the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937.  To defeat the Japanese, incredibly, the GMD and CCP entered into another alliance, the Second United Front.  This alliance held until Japan was defeated in 1945.

7. What were the short-term causes of the second phase of the Chinese Civil War?

Another phase of civil war developed after 1945. This was because:

• The CCP was significantly strengthened, and the GMD was weakened after the long war with Japan.  However, both sides believed it was able to win control of China on the battlefield and did not want to find a compromise.
• The polarization of international relations due to the development of the Cold War meant that China’s second phase of civil war would not be a purely domestic struggle alone. The war between Nationalists and Communists was now part of the wider struggle between the Soviets and the US to create a new post-war balance of power in Asia.  However, both superpowers initially promoted the idea of a coalition government with representatives of both the GMD and the CCP.
• The US worked hard to achieve a diplomatic solution between the CCP and the GMD. US General Marshall proposed terms for a coalition government: form a temporary state council; unite both armies into a new national army; hold free elections for local government.
• Neither side wanted to share power.  As negotiations were supposed to be finalized in February 1946, the GMD and CCP were moving troops into Manchuria.
• There would not be a diplomatic solution for China – its fate would be decided on the battlefield.

Task One

ATL: Thinking and research skills.

Task Two

ATL: Thinking skills