China Becoming Communist
The Communist movement in China, starting with the founding of the CCP in 1921, was led by a man named Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong was, obviously, favoring the side of Communism and during this revolution his opponents were the Nationalist group led by Sun Yat-Sen and later Jiang Jieshi. Early on, Jiang Jieshi launched a large attack against the Communists and they were forced to retreat. This was the start of the Long March. The Long March was a mass retreat by the Communists after the sudden Nationalist attack. They were forced to hide out and the journey was nearly 6,000 miles long and lasted for more than a year! Jiang Jieshi and his men continued to go after Mao Zedong and the Communists, but Mao was able to evade their grasp and begin planning attacks. Fighting continued for quite some time, then it settled down for a bit, but it quickly rose up again in 1946.
In March 1946, the Soviet Red Army continued to delay pulling it’s troops out of Manchuria. Generaly Malinovsky had secretly been telling Chinese Communist forces to move in behind the Soviet forces. Stalin wanted Mao to have stable control of at least the norther part of Manchuria before he moved all the Soviet troops out. It was this prolonged withdrawal that led to a full-scale war in the Northeast. The fighting continued. On July 20th, 1946, Jiang Jieshi launched a large assault on Communist territory. Using some 1.6 million troops, this invasion marked the final phase of the Chinese Civil War. The CCP knew they were weak compared to the Nationalists, so they used a special “passive-defense” strategy. Another tactic they used was to wear out the Nationalist armies as much as they possibly could. This strategy seemed to be working for them. After about a year the power balance seemed to tilt in favor of the Communists. They had wiped out 1.12 million Nationalist troops and the Communist strength grew to around 2 million men! However, the fighting still continued on. The Pingjin Campaign, otherwise know as the Battle of Pingjin to the Nationalist Government, was one of the three campaigns launched by the Chinese Communist armies. The campaign launched on November 29th and ended on January 31st, 1949. This campaign, as well as the Huaihai Campaign and the Liaoshen Campaign, saw an end to Nationalist dominance in Northern China. The Communists launched a series of small attacks on the Nationalists and caught them off guard. The Nationalists tried their best to rearrange the defenses of their cities, but the result was not too pretty. Luckily for the Nationalists, they had undercover agents who successfully invaded the residence of Lin Biao, an important Chinese Communist military leader. Though they did not kill Lin Biao, they managed to assassinate his bodyguard. This small victory was nothing compared the everything the Communists were achieving however. After everything that had happened, the Nationalists found themselves in a truly hopeless position and the Chinese Civil War ended with a Communist victory.
Once Mao Zedong had taken over China he put into place the Agrarian Reform Law of 1950. This law confiscated the property of rural landlords and then redistributed it to the peasants. This reform also liberated productive forces, increased the productivity of agriculture, and laid the basis for the industrialization of China. A few years later in 1958, Mao Zedong began the Great Leap Forward. The Great Leap Forward was Mao’s attempt to modernize China’s economy, that way by 188 China’s economy would rival America’s. It was a plan to develop agriculture and industry, since Mao believed both had to grow to allow the other to flourish. The only way industry could prosper was if the workers were well fed and the agricultural workers needed industry to produce the tools needed for modernization. For this to work, Mao reformed China into a series of communes, which were basically facilities shared by a great number of people splitting possessions and responsibilities.
China today, however, is both different and similar to what it used to be. The country is very overpopulated with a grand total of 1,344,130,000 people living there. Their government is a Totalitarian Dictatorship, which is of,relating to, being, or imposing a form of government in which political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life, the individual is subordinated to the state, and opposing political and cultural expression is suppressed. Aside from this, China’s economy has grown strong, but it is still not quite as strong as the U.S. economy.
In March 1946, the Soviet Red Army continued to delay pulling it’s troops out of Manchuria. Generaly Malinovsky had secretly been telling Chinese Communist forces to move in behind the Soviet forces. Stalin wanted Mao to have stable control of at least the norther part of Manchuria before he moved all the Soviet troops out. It was this prolonged withdrawal that led to a full-scale war in the Northeast. The fighting continued. On July 20th, 1946, Jiang Jieshi launched a large assault on Communist territory. Using some 1.6 million troops, this invasion marked the final phase of the Chinese Civil War. The CCP knew they were weak compared to the Nationalists, so they used a special “passive-defense” strategy. Another tactic they used was to wear out the Nationalist armies as much as they possibly could. This strategy seemed to be working for them. After about a year the power balance seemed to tilt in favor of the Communists. They had wiped out 1.12 million Nationalist troops and the Communist strength grew to around 2 million men! However, the fighting still continued on. The Pingjin Campaign, otherwise know as the Battle of Pingjin to the Nationalist Government, was one of the three campaigns launched by the Chinese Communist armies. The campaign launched on November 29th and ended on January 31st, 1949. This campaign, as well as the Huaihai Campaign and the Liaoshen Campaign, saw an end to Nationalist dominance in Northern China. The Communists launched a series of small attacks on the Nationalists and caught them off guard. The Nationalists tried their best to rearrange the defenses of their cities, but the result was not too pretty. Luckily for the Nationalists, they had undercover agents who successfully invaded the residence of Lin Biao, an important Chinese Communist military leader. Though they did not kill Lin Biao, they managed to assassinate his bodyguard. This small victory was nothing compared the everything the Communists were achieving however. After everything that had happened, the Nationalists found themselves in a truly hopeless position and the Chinese Civil War ended with a Communist victory.
Once Mao Zedong had taken over China he put into place the Agrarian Reform Law of 1950. This law confiscated the property of rural landlords and then redistributed it to the peasants. This reform also liberated productive forces, increased the productivity of agriculture, and laid the basis for the industrialization of China. A few years later in 1958, Mao Zedong began the Great Leap Forward. The Great Leap Forward was Mao’s attempt to modernize China’s economy, that way by 188 China’s economy would rival America’s. It was a plan to develop agriculture and industry, since Mao believed both had to grow to allow the other to flourish. The only way industry could prosper was if the workers were well fed and the agricultural workers needed industry to produce the tools needed for modernization. For this to work, Mao reformed China into a series of communes, which were basically facilities shared by a great number of people splitting possessions and responsibilities.
China today, however, is both different and similar to what it used to be. The country is very overpopulated with a grand total of 1,344,130,000 people living there. Their government is a Totalitarian Dictatorship, which is of,relating to, being, or imposing a form of government in which political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life, the individual is subordinated to the state, and opposing political and cultural expression is suppressed. Aside from this, China’s economy has grown strong, but it is still not quite as strong as the U.S. economy.