‘Every Communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun,”’ said Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong in a speech on 6 November 1938. ‘Our principle is that the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party.’
On Tuesday, 3 September, Chairman Xi Jinping, accompanied by more than 20 heads of state, including autocratic Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un, celebrated Victory Day—the 80th anniversary of the official end of World War II.
Following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki on 9 August 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender to the Allied Forces on 14 August, which was received by the United States that same day. On the morning of Sunday, 2 September 1945, a small delegation of Japanese officials—including Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and Chief of Staff Yoshijirō Umezu—boarded the Battleship USS Missouri to formally sign Japan’s unconditional surrender. For the Chinese, it ended their brutal occupation by Japanese forces, which began in 1937. The following day, the Chinese government announced the establishment of the ‘Victory Day of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression’.
While the Chinese dictator had a massive, well-choreographed military parade that displayed its advanced weapons, such as the YJ-21 anti-ship missiles and DF-26D intermediate-range ballistic missiles with hypersonic technology, as well as various new unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), 3 September also marked the second stage of its 14-year civil war.
The Kuomintang (KMT)—sole ruling party of the country during its rule from 1927 to 1949—and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had been engaged in armed conflict since 1927. The warring parties had to halt the hostilities and temporarily unite with each other against Japan’s invasion of China in the Second Sino–Japanese War (1937–1945). Almost immediately after the Japanese surrender, the KMT and the CCP resumed their fighting for control of China.
On 28 August 1945, CCP Chairman Mao Zedong and his delegation flew from Yan’an to Chongqing at the invitation of KMT leader Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek for peace negotiations, which lasted nearly a month and a half and concluded on 10 October with the signing of the Double Tenth Agreement. Both sides agreed to jointly pursue peaceful state-building in China, including the formation of a political consultative conference, the democratization of the political system, the nationalization of the army, and the legalization of equal rights for political parties. However, the KMT requested the CCP to reduce its military and submit to the KMT, something it refused to do.
‘How in the world the reigning KMT—with more power, men, arms, and military aid—fell to the smaller CCP in just four years?’
Despite President Harry Truman investing over 1 billion dollars in military aid to the KMT between 1945 and 1948 in an effort to curb the spread of communism, the United States and the international community were stunned when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) established the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on 1 October 1949, while KMT forces retreated to Taiwan. The $64,000-question was how in the world the reigning KMT—with more power, men, arms, and military aid—fell to the smaller CCP in just four years?
During the Second Sino–Japanese War, the KMT’s nationalist armies bore the brunt of the fighting against Japan, while the CCP engaged in minor skirmishes and essentially took the time to recruit party members. Under KMT rule, the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) committed atrocities against civilians in occupied areas, like the Nanking Massacre from December 1937 to January 1938. They raped more than 20,000 Chinese women, with most of the victims being killed after the rape was completed, many with their bodies defiled with bamboo stakes or other items such as bayonets. Estimates of the number of Chinese civilians and prisoners of war whom the IJA murdered were over 300,000.
Meanwhile, the KMT allowed inflation to grow as the party printed more and more money to fund its military campaign. A significant portion of the Chinese populace eventually grew angry with Chiang Kai-shek, particularly due to his strategic policy of ‘trading space for time’—as seen in his controversial decision to deliberately flood the Yellow River in 1938 in an effort to slow the advance of the IJA. The result was the deaths of hundreds of thousands of its own civilians and the displacement of millions more in the process. Many were ready to believe that life under any other government would be preferable to what they had just endured, but they were still fighting a common Japanese enemy.
A key strategy of the CCP was the prioritization of rural areas. While the KMT focused on defending cities, the CCP centered its efforts in the countryside. While the city-based middle and upper-class KMT supporters suffered greatly from inflation and sieges, CCP peasants in the countryside were less adversely affected because they could grow their own food and rely on a barter system outside of currency to survive.
The KMT also had poor leadership under Chiang Kai-shek, who was frequently paralyzed by indecision, thus failing to strike the CCP when the opportunities presented themselves. KMT soldiers suffered from low morale because, unlike many CCP soldiers, they were fighting without a clear cause. The CCP, by contrast, was led by the charismatic Mao Zedong and benefited from the military strategy of General Lin Biao.
The Kai-shek regime was also stained by corruption. During the Second World War, Yan Xishan, the warlord of Shanxi, told German journalist Guenther Stein: ‘The reason why the Communists today have such powerful forces is that so many people are following them. And the reason why so many people are following them is that our administration, the administration of the National Government, is bad. We have to blame ourselves for the present situation with regard to the Communists.’
By the end of 1948, the CCP occupied one-third of China. It thus became clear that the KMT would lose the war. In January 1949, the KMT telegrammed Mao, calling for an end to the Civil War. That fall, Chiang Kai-shek and his KMT entourage left for the island of Taiwan, thus establishing the Republic of China, where he implemented a military dictatorship until his death in 1975.
‘This period, while marked by a moderate degree of economic advancement, was also tarnished by the suppression of political dissent and free speech’
This period, while marked by a moderate degree of economic advancement, was also tarnished by the suppression of political dissent and free speech, as he covertly employed former Japanese and Nazi officers to educate his army officers. His ruling nationalist Party, the Kuomintang, remained in power in Taiwan until the 2000s. In the end, Mao did not permit the gun to govern him, unlike Chiang Kai-shek. Instead, he ruled the weapon as he exterminated millions of his own people through his infamous Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) via hunger, forced labor, and mass killings—simultaneously wiping out China’s socio-cultural heritage.
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