Communist China

35.1: Communist China

35.1.1: The Republic of China

Throughout its short existence, the Republic of China (1912-1949) experienced a nearly continuous power struggle. The eventual war between the nationalists and the communists ended with the Nationalist government retreating to Taiwan and the communists taking control of the mainland China and establishing the People’s Republic of China.

Learning Objective

Outline the successes and failures of the Republic of China during its decades in power.

Key Points

  • The Republic of China was a state in East Asia that existed from 1912 to 1949. It largely occupied the present-day territories of China, Taiwan, and, for some of its history, Mongolia. As an era of Chinese history, it was preceded by the last imperial dynasty of China and the Qing dynasty, and ended with the Chinese Civil War.
  • The Republican Era of China began with the outbreak of revolution on October 10, 1911, in Wuchang among discontented modernized army units whose anti-Qing plot was uncovered. This would become known as the Wuchang Uprising, celebrated as Double Tenth Day in Taiwan. It was preceded by numerous abortive uprisings and organized protests in China.
  • After a power struggle, on March 10, 1912, in Beijing, Yuan Shikai was sworn in as the second provisional president of the Republic of China. Yuan proceeded to abolish the national and provincial assemblies and declared himself emperor in late 1915, but his imperial ambitions were fiercely opposed by his subordinates. Faced with the prospect of rebellion, he abdicated in 1916 and died the same year. His death left a power vacuum in China and ushered in what would become known as the Warlord Era, during which much of the country was ruled by shifting coalitions of competing provincial military leaders.
  • During the Nanjing Decade of 1928-37, which followed the Warlord Era, the Nationalists under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek attempted to consolidate the divided society and reform the economy.  The KMT was criticized as instituting totalitarianism, but claimed it was attempting to establish a modern democratic society.
  • The bitter struggle between the KMT and the CPC continued, openly or clandestinely, through the 14-year-long Japanese occupation of various parts of the country (1931–1945). The two Chinese parties nominally formed a united front to oppose the Japanese in 1937, during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), which became part of World War II.
  • Following the defeat of Japan in 1945, the war between the Nationalist forces and the CPC resumed after failed attempts at reconciliation and a negotiated settlement. By 1949, the CPC had established control over most of the country. When the Nationalist government forces were defeated by CPC forces in mainland China in 1949, the Nationalist government retreated to Taiwan along with Chiang and most of the KMT leadership, and a large number of their supporters.

Key Terms

Nanjing Decade
An informal name for the decade from 1927 (or 1928) to 1937 in the Republic of China. The period began when Nationalist Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek took Nanjing from Zhili clique warlord Sun Chuanfang halfway through the Northern Expedition in 1927. Chiang declared it the national capital despite the left-wing Nationalist government in Wuhan.
Kuomintang
A major political party in the Republic of China, currently the second-largest in the country, often translated as the Nationalist Party of China or Chinese Nationalist Party. Its predecessor, the Revolutionary Alliance, was one of the major advocates of the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty and the establishment of a republic. The party was founded by Song Jiaoren and Sun Yat-sen shortly after the Xinhai Revolution of 1911.
Beiyang Government
The government of the Republic of China, in place in the capital city of Beijing from 1912 to 1928. It was internationally recognized as the legitimate Chinese government but lacked domestic legitimacy.
Northern Expedition
A 1926-1928 military campaign led by Chiang Kai-shek. Its main objective was to unify China, ending the rule of the Beiyang government and that of the local warlords. It led to the end of the Warlord Era, the reunification of China in 1928, and the establishment of the Nanjing government.
Warlord Era
In the history of the Republic of China, the period when the control of the country was divided among its military cliques in the mainland regions. The era lasted from the death of Yuan Shikai in 1916 until 1928.
Wuchang Uprising
The Chinese uprising that served as the catalyst to the Xinhai Revolution, ending the Qing Dynasty – and two millennia of imperial rule – and ushering in the Republic of China (ROC). It began with the dissatisfaction of the handling of a railway crisis, which escalated to an uprising in which the revolutionaries went up against Qing government officials.

The Republic of China was a state in East Asia that existed from 1912 to 1949. It largely occupied the present-day territories of China, Taiwan, and, for some of its history, Mongolia. As an era of Chinese history, it was preceded by the last imperial dynasty of China, the Qing dynasty, and ended with the Chinese Civil War. After the war, the losing Kuomintang retreated to the island of Taiwan to found the modern Republic of China, while the victorious Communist Party of China established the People’s Republic of China on the Mainland.

 

Early Republic

The Republican Era of China began with the outbreak of revolution on October 10, 1911, in Wuchang among discontented modernized army units whose anti-Qing plot had been uncovered. This would be known as the Wuchang Uprising, celebrated as Double Tenth Day in Taiwan. It was preceded by numerous abortive uprisings and organized protests in China. The revolt quickly spread to neighboring cities, and members of underground resistance movement Tongmenghui throughout the country rose in support of the Wuchang revolutionary forces. After a series of failures of the revolutionary forces, during the 41-day Battle of Yangxia 15 of 24 provinces declared their independence from the Qing empire. On January 1, 1912, delegates from the independent provinces elected Sun Yat-sen as the first provisional president of the Republic of China. The last emperor of China, Puyi, was forced to abdicate on February 12.

 

Although Sun was inaugurated in Nanjing as the first provisional president, power in Beijing already had passed to Yuan Shikai, who had effective control of the Beiyang Army, the most powerful military force in China at the time. To prevent civil war and possible foreign intervention from undermining the infant republic, Sun agreed to Yuan’s demand for China to be united under Yuan’s Beijing government. On March 10 in Beijing, Yuan Shikai was sworn in as the second provisional president of the Republic of China.

 

Although many political parties were vying for supremacy in the legislature, the revolutionists lacked an army, and Yuan soon revised the constitution and revealed dictatorial ambitions. In August 1912, the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) was founded by Song Jiaoren, one of Sun’s associates. It was an amalgamation of small political groups, including Sun’s Tongmenghui. In the national elections held in February 1913 for the new bicameral parliament, Song campaigned against the Yuan administration and the Kuomintang won a majority of seats.

 

Over the next few years, however, Yuan proceeded to abolish the national and provincial assemblies and declared himself emperor in late 1915, but his imperial ambitions were fiercely opposed by his subordinates. Faced with the prospect of rebellion, he abdicated in 1916 and died the same year. His death left a power vacuum in China and ushered in what would be known as the Warlord Era, during which much of the country was ruled by shifting coalitions of competing provincial military leaders.

Yuan Shikai (left) and Sun Yat-sen (right) with flags representing the early republic.

Yuan Shikai (left) and Sun Yat-sen (right) with flags representing the early republic.: The History of the Republic of China begins after the Qing dynasty in 1912, when the formation of the Republic of China as a constitutional republic put an end to 4,000 years of Imperial rule. The Qing dynasty ruled from 1644–1912. The Republic experienced many trials and tribulations after its founding, including domination by warlord generals and foreign powers.

The poster commemorates the permanent President of the Republic of China Yuan Shikai and the provisional President of the Republic Sun Yat-sen. The text on the poster reads, “Chinese Republic forever,” an unconventional English translation of “Long Live the Republic of China.”

The Warlord Era

Despite the fact that various warlords gained control of the government in Beijing during the Warlord Era, a new form of control or governance did not emerge at the time because other warlords did not acknowledge the transitory governments of the period. These military-dominated governments were collectively known as the Beiyang Government. The name derives from the Beiyang Army, which dominated its politics. Although the government and the state were nominally under civilian control with a constitution, the Beiyang generals were effectively in charge, with various factions vying for power. Although the Beiyang Government’s legitimacy was challenged domestically, it had international diplomatic recognition and access to the tax and customs revenue, and could apply for foreign financial loans.

In 1917, China declared war on Germany in the hope of recovering its lost province, then under Japanese control. On May 4, 1919, there were massive student demonstrations against the Beijing government and Japan. The political fervor, student activism, and iconoclastic and reformist intellectual currents set in motion by the protest developed into a national awakening known as the May Fourth Movement. The intellectual milieu in which this movement developed was known as the New Culture Movement. The student demonstrations of May 4, 1919, were the high point of the New Culture Movement and the terms are often used as synonyms. Chinese representatives refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles due to intense pressure from both the student protesters and public opinion.

The discrediting of liberal Western philosophy among leftist Chinese intellectuals led to radical lines of thought inspired by the Russian Revolution and supported by agents of the Comintern sent to China by Moscow. This created the seeds for the irreconcilable conflict between the left and right in China that would dominate Chinese history for the rest of the century.

In the 1920s, Sun Yat-sen established a revolutionary base in south China and set out to unite the fragmented nation. With assistance from the Soviet Union, he entered into an alliance with the fledgling Communist Party of China. After Sun’s death from cancer in 1925, one of his protégés, Chiang Kai-shek, seized control of the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party or KMT) and succeeded in bringing most of south and central China under its rule in a military campaign known as the Northern Expedition (1926–1927). Having defeated the warlords in south and central China by military force, Chiang was able to secure the nominal allegiance of the warlords in the North. In 1927, Chiang turned on the CPC and chased the CPC armies and its leaders from their bases in southern and eastern China. In 1934, driven from their mountain bases, the CPC forces embarked on the Long March across China’s most desolate terrain to the northwest, where they established a guerrilla base at Yan’an in Shaanxi Province. During the Long March, the communists reorganized under a new leader, Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung).

The Nanjing Decade

During the Nanjing Decade of 1928-37, the Nationalists attempted to consolidate the divided society and reform the economy. The KMT was criticized for instituting totalitarianism, but claimed it was attempting to establish a modern democratic society by creating the Academia Sinica (today’s national academy of Taiwan), the Central Bank of China, and other agencies. In 1932, China sent its first team to the Olympic Games. Laws were passed and campaigns mounted to promote the rights of women. Improved communication also allowed a focus on social problems, including those of the villages (for example the Rural Reconstruction Movement). Simultaneously, political freedom was considerably curtailed because of the Kuomintang’s one-party domination through “political tutelage” and violent shutting down of anti-government protests.

At the time, a series of massive wars also took place in western China, including the Kumul Rebellion, the Sino-Tibetan War, and the Soviet invasion of Xinjiang. Although the central government was nominally in control of the entire country, large areas remained under the semi-autonomous rule of local warlords, provincial military leaders, or warlord coalitions. Nationalist rule was strongest in the eastern regions around the capital Nanjing, but regional militarists retained considerable local authority.

 

The Fall of the Republic and Its Legacy: Taiwan

The bitter struggle between the KMT and the CPC continued, openly or clandestinely, through the 14-year-long Japanese occupation of various parts of the country (1931–1945). The two Chinese parties nominally formed a united front to oppose the Japanese in 1937 during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), which became part of World War II. Following the defeat of Japan in 1945, the war between the Nationalist forces and the CPC resumed after failed attempts at reconciliation and a negotiated settlement. By 1949, the CPC had established control over most of the country. When the Nationalist government forces were defeated by CPC forces in mainland China in 1949, they retreated to Taiwan along with Chiang and most of the KMT leadership and a large number of their supporters. The Nationalist government had taken effective control of Taiwan at the end of World War II as part of the overall Japanese surrender, when Japanese troops in Taiwan surrendered to Republic of China troops.

Until the early 1970s, the Republic of China was recognized as the sole legitimate government of China by the United Nations and most Western nations, refusing to recognize the People’s Republic of China. However, in 1971, Resolution 2758 was passed by the UN General Assembly and “the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek” (and thus the ROC) were expelled from the UN and replaced as “China” by the PRC. In 1979, the United States switched recognition from Taipei to Beijing. The KMT ruled Taiwan under martial law until the late 1980s, with the stated goals of vigilance against Communist infiltration and preparation to retake mainland China. Therefore, political dissent was not tolerated.

Since the 1990s, the ROC went from one-party rule to a multi-party system thanks to a series of democratic and governmental reforms implemented in Taiwan. The first election for provincial governors and municipality Mayors was in 1994. Taiwan held the first direct presidential election in 1996.

Attributions