The Birth Of Red China

October 1st this year marked the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. In Tian'anmen Square six decades ago, Chairman Mao Zedong declared the establishment of the People's Republic of China. In front of a crowd of over half a million people, Mao said that "The 475 million people of China have now stood up.”

Mao's words were apparently a response to Napoleon who said that “When China wakes up, the world will tremble”. The birth of the People's Republic, however, brought stability and order to a country that had been ravaged by war and internal conflict for over a half a century. Since the fall of Emperor Pu Yi from the throne in 1911, the Chinese had had to bear the rule of warlords, a civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists, and - worst of all – Japanese occupation during World War II.

The Nationalist-Communist Rivalry

The civil war eventually won by the Communists begun already in 1927 when military leader Chiang Kai-shek took over the Nationalist party – Kuomintang - and established a new government in Nanjing. At this point the alliance between Kuomintang and the Communists against the warlords that had begun in the early 1920s came to an end. It took 10 years of bitter fighting before the two sides joined forces again. In the face of Japanese aggression, Chiang was forced to form an alliance with Mao, who by that time had become the leader of the Communist Party of China.

When the Japanese surrendered, the rivalry between the Nationalists and the Communists soon resumed. In the post-World War situation the United States wanted China to become a stabilizing power in Asia. A military truce between the Kuomintang government and the Communists was arranged but no further results were reached in the negotiations brokered by the Americans. In 1946, the truce broke down, erupting into a full scale civil war.

The continuation of the civil war meant that there would be no immediate relief to China's economic and political chaos. The Japanese occupation had already left China in bad shape: the country's industry was ruined and hyperinflation rendered money useless. In a bid to gain popular support the Kuomintang government adopted a new, liberalized constitution and held elections for the National Assembly. In 1948, Chiang Kai-shek was elected by the National Assembly as President of China.

The Rise of Red China

However, by that time the tide had turned in favour of the Communists. They had gained control of the northern part of China and started to win major battles against the Nationalists. The Nationalist army held the cities but in many cases the surrounding countryside had come under Communist control. During the last year of the civil war, the Nationalists suffered over 1.5 million casualties; and by mid-1949 the Nationalist army simply disintegrated.

Having gained control of Nanjing, the Communists soon transferred the capital to Beijing in Northern China. In October 1949, when Mao declared the establishment of People Republic, the Communist didn't yet control the whole of China. But only two months later Chiang Kai-shek and two million Nationalists were forced to flee to the island of Taiwan.

Promise Of A Change

PLA troops roll into Beijing. (Image: Wikipedia)The end of civil war came as a surprise to the world because the assumption after World War II was that Chiang Kai-shek would continue to hold power in China. China had fought on the Allies' side in the war and became one of the founders of the United Nations. Yet the Communists took control of China in only four years. In a world divided by the Cold War, this meant that China would from then on be considered a part of the Socialist bloc.

Why did the Communist win and the Kuomintang lose? The main reason is that the Chinese were longing for peace and stability after decades of war and internal conflict. Despite their progressive visions, the Kuomintang government had failed to deliver reforms needed to transform China into a modern power. Corruption was widespread within the government and they lacked the means to resurrect a spiraling economy.

Meanwhile, the Chinese Communists were able convince their compatriots that they could lead the way out of political and economic chaos. They had won the support of peasants, who at that time made up 90 percent of the population, by promising land reform. At the end of the civil war, most of the urban population and the Chinese middle class were also ready to welcome the Communists and the change for the better that they promised.