Account for the final success of the Communists over the Guomindang despite efforts by the Americans to intervene.

The unification of the Communists and the Guomindang against the common enemy, Japan, in 1937 was not strong enough to prevent civil war between the two leading political parties. No one would have predicted the victory of the Communists due to the many advantages the Guomindang had over them. The United States desperately did not want the Communists to seize control of China, thus it assisted the Guomindang in several ways in order to help them gain control over the Communists. Firstly, it provided them with military equipment and weapons. For instance, the United States Air Force organized an airlift using highly sophisticated C-54 planes in order to fly the finest Guomindang troops to key Chinese cities such as Nanjing, Shanghai, and Beijing. By gaining access to these cities, the Guomindang was able to control almost half the cities in Manchuria as well as other cities. The Guomindang were also assisted financially, for they had received 200 million dollars from the U.S. Also, the large American equipped Guomindang army was highly trained by the U.S. In addition to U.S. interference, the Guomindang had a larger army than the Communists, and it held all the big cities and main railways, while the Communists were a weak force that controlled only country side areas. Thus it came as a surprise to many, that the Communists emerged victorious.

Although the Guomindang were advancing, to the extent that they captured the Communist capital of Yanan, they lacked something the communists had-Lin Bao as a leader. The Communist party (later known as the People’s Liberation Army), approached new methods of warfare. They began to focus their attention to guerilla warfare, an alternative that seemed attractive in comparison to their previous techniques. Guerilla warfare consisted of night raids against Guomindang bases, destructing railway lines, ambushing patrols, and other types of unconventional forms of attack. By using such methods, the PLA were able to control much of central and northern China, forcing the Guomindang to go on the defensive. As the Communists acquired more land, its members grew, due to the extensive amount of peasants who began to join the Communists, due to the attractiveness of Communist policies concerning land and loans.

The economic conditions in the Guomindang held cities began to worsen greatly, for rapid inflation was destroying the purchasing power of the consumer. Not only did consumption decrease, but so did labor, due to the amount of strikes held. In addition, many turned to robbery as an alternative to the high prices. As a result of the bad conditions within Guomindang held cities, many began to turn to the Communists. The Guomindang’s grasp on its people began to loosen and it had to turn to its Blue Shirts to keep the order. But there was no use; the Guomindang itself was growing weaker as a political party.

In 1947, the United States recognized the weakness and coming collapse of the Guomindang, thus it cut off all aid, weakening the Guomindang position even further. At this point the PLA was large enough to abandon its guerilla tactics and turned to attacking tactics. In 1948, the Guomindangs and the PLA had the ultimate face off at the Battle of Huai-Hai, which led to the loss of more than half a million Guomindang troops and equipment. This defeat allowed the PLA to move freely, which led them to capture Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Finally, in October 1949, the Communists proclaimed the existence of a new, different China-the People’s Republic of China.

Samar Al Ansari
12 IB