China 1927–1949

China 1927–1949 is one of eight National Studies options in Section II. You answer one 25-mark extended response (one of two alternatives), about 1,000 words in roughly 45 minutes. The syllabus key features are: the quest for political stability and national unification; nationalism; communism; Maoism; Japanese imperialism; and the reasons for the Communist victory.

• Survey: the Nationalist decade 1927–1937 — political, economic and social issues, the Northern Expedition, and the achievements and limitations of the Guomindang.
• Focus of study: the rise of the CCP (Mao Zedong, CCP ideology, the rise of Maoism, the Long March, Yan'an); resistance to Japan (the impact of invasions from 1931, GMD and CCP strategies, the leadership of Mao and Chiang Kai-shek); the Communist triumph (the Civil War and the reasons for victory).

Names: the Guomindang (GMD) is also written Kuomintang (KMT); Chiang Kai-shek is Jiang Jieshi in pinyin. Use one form consistently.

After the 1911 revolution China fragmented under regional militarists (warlords). Sun Yat-sen's GMD, with Soviet help, formed the First United Front with the new CCP (founded 1921) in 1923–24. Sun's Three Principles of the People — nationalism, democracy and the people's livelihood — remained GMD ideology. After Sun's death (1925), Chiang Kai-shek, head of the Whampoa Military Academy, led the Northern Expedition (from July 1926).

• The break with the CCP: the Shanghai Massacre (12 April 1927) ended the First United Front; communists were purged across China.
• Nominal unification: Beijing was taken in June 1928 and the capital moved to Nanjing. Many warlords joined while keeping their armies; the Central Plains War (1930) was fought against Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan.
• Achievements: international recognition; tariff autonomy by 1930; the Central Bank (1928) and currency reform (1935); roads, railways, schools and universities; German-trained divisions; legal codes.
• Limitations: one-party rule (‘political tutelage’), repression and corruption; effective control mostly in the lower Yangzi; the 1930 land law (rent limit of 37.5%) was not enforced, so peasants (about 80% of the population) saw little change.
• The New Life Movement (1934) promoted Confucian virtues and discipline — moral reform rather than social reform.
• Japan: the Mukden Incident (September 1931) led to Manchukuo (1932); fighting in Shanghai (1932); the Tanggu Truce (1933). Chiang's policy was ‘first internal pacification, then external resistance’ — defeat the CCP first.

From the cities to the countryside

Mao's 1927 report on the Hunan peasant movement argued that peasants would be the main force of revolution. After the failed Autumn Harvest Uprising (1927), Mao and Zhu De built a base at Jinggangshan, then the Jiangxi Soviet (the Chinese Soviet Republic, proclaimed 1931 at Ruijin), with land redistribution and guerrilla war. In the early 1930s Moscow-trained leaders (the ‘28 Bolsheviks’) sidelined Mao.

The Long March, 1934–1935

Chiang's fifth Encirclement Campaign forced the Red Army out of Jiangxi in October 1934. About 86,000 set out; fewer than 10,000 reached northern Shaanxi in October 1935. At the Zunyi Conference (January 1935) Mao gained a leading military role. The march became a legend (the Luding Bridge), publicised abroad by Edgar Snow's _Red Star Over China_ (1937).

Yan'an and Maoism

From Yan'an (1937–47) the CCP developed Maoism (Mao Zedong Thought):

• Peasant revolution — Marxism adapted to China, where peasants, not industrial workers, were the main revolutionary class.
• The mass line — ‘from the masses, to the masses’: listen to peasants, then lead them.
• People's war — guerrilla warfare from rural base areas, encircling the cities from the countryside.
• Moderate reform during the war — rent and interest reduction rather than confiscation.
• Discipline — the army's rules of conduct, later codified as the Three Rules and Eight Points (pay for what you take, respect peasants).
• Rectification (1942–44) — study, criticism and self-criticism enforcing Mao's line; the 1945 Party Congress enshrined Mao Zedong Thought.

• The Xi'an Incident (December 1936): Zhang Xueliang detained Chiang, leading to the Second United Front.
• Full-scale war from the Marco Polo Bridge Incident (7 July 1937). Shanghai fell (November 1937); the Nanjing Massacre (December 1937 – early 1938) killed civilians and prisoners on a massive scale; the government moved to Wuhan and then Chongqing.

The New Fourth Army Incident (January 1941), when GMD forces attacked a communist army, ended real cooperation. Japan's brutal ‘Three Alls’ policy (kill all, burn all, loot all) drove many peasants towards the communists — the peasant nationalism thesis of Chalmers Johnson. Historians such as Rana Mitter stress that the GMD fought most of the major battles and was weakened by its long resistance.

• 1945–46: Japan surrendered (August 1945). The US Marshall mission failed to create a coalition; full war began in mid-1946. Soviet forces in Manchuria let the CCP obtain captured Japanese weapons.
• GMD weaknesses: hyperinflation (the gold yuan, August 1948, collapsed within months); corruption; repression of critics; poor strategy (overextending into Manchuria); low morale and defections.
• CCP strengths: land reform in its areas from 1946–47; discipline and organisation; skilled commanders (Lin Biao); mobile warfare.
• Decisive campaigns: Liaoshen (Manchuria, 1948), Huaihai (November 1948 – January 1949), Pingjin (Beiping surrendered January 1949); crossing the Yangzi (April 1949).
• 1 October 1949: Mao proclaimed the People's Republic of China; Chiang retreated to Taiwan.

Worked example (not a bank question). _‘Assess the significance of nationalism in the history of China between 1927 and 1949.’_

1. Thesis: nationalism was the common goal of both parties, and the party that convinced Chinese people it was the true defender of the nation won.
2. Paragraph 1: GMD nationalism — the Three Principles, the Northern Expedition, tariff autonomy.
3. Paragraph 2: Japanese imperialism and the failure of ‘internal pacification first’; the Xi'an Incident.
4. Paragraph 3: CCP nationalism — resistance behind Japanese lines and peasant nationalism.
5. Paragraph 4: limits — class struggle and land reform also mattered.
6. Conclusion: a clear judgement on significance.

Every paragraph should open with an argument, use precise evidence and link back to the question.

• Treating the Long March as a victory rather than a costly retreat with symbolic and political value.
• Saying Mao led the party from 1927 — he was sidelined in the early 1930s and rose from 1935.
• Claiming the CCP did most of the fighting against Japan; the GMD fought most of the big battles.
• Explaining 1949 only through battles, or only through GMD failure — link CCP strengths to GMD weaknesses.
• Accepting the official CCP narrative or Cold War ‘who lost China’ arguments without question.

• Section II is marked on a sustained, logical and cohesive response, detailed, accurate and relevant historical knowledge, historical terms and concepts and, where relevant, historical interpretations. Naming historians can strengthen an argument but is not required.
• Useful interpretations: Lloyd Eastman (the GMD's ‘abortive revolution’); Chalmers Johnson (peasant nationalism); Rana Mitter (the GMD's war of resistance); debates over whether the GMD lost or the CCP won.
• Key terms: warlordism, United Front, tutelage, Encirclement Campaigns, base area, mass line, guerrilla war, Rectification, land reform, hyperinflation.
• Prepare flexible paragraphs on the Nanjing decade, Mao and Maoism, the war with Japan and the Civil War.

• The core covers Japanese militarism and the Mukden Incident from Japan's side.
• Japan 1904–1937 explains Japanese imperialism in China up to 1937.
• The Cold War 1945–1991 shows the international consequences of 1949.