Communist-controlled China (1927–1949)
The Chinese Communist Party had sphere of influence within the Republic of China from 1927 to 1949 during the Chinese Civil War, collectively called revolutionary base areas. They were also known as the Soviet Zone from 1927 to 1937 during the early stages of the Chinese Civil War, the Anti-Japanese Base Areas during the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the Liberated Zone during the final Stages of the Civil War from 1946 until the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
There were six soviet areas from 1927 to 1933: the Jinggang Mountains, the Central Soviet in Eastern Jiangxi on the border of Fujian, the Eyuwan Soviet, Xiangexi, and Xianggan. The first soviet was the Hailufeng Soviet created in 1927. The Central Soviet was the main base of the CCP where its leader Mao Zedong issued a directive on 1 September 1931 for the Central Soviet to mass mobilize the region as a base area. As problems occurred over being able to control territories outside the Central Soviet, by 1933 a full transfer of CCP forces to the Central Soviet was achieved. In 1931, the disconnected areas controlled by the CCP were declared the Chinese Soviet Republic.
Somewhat separately from the Chinese Soviets, there was a pro-Soviet Union protectorate ruled by Sheng Shicai following the Soviet invasion of Xinjiang. Sheng switched between alliance and hostility to the CCP in the east.
Upon the intervention of the Soviet Union against Japan in World War II in 1945, USSR forces invaded the Japanese client state of Manchukuo. Mao Zedong in April and May 1945 had planned to mobilize 150,000 to 250,000 soldiers from across China to work with forces of the Soviet Union in capturing Manchuria. After the end of the war, the CCP controlled one-third of the territory of China. From 1945 to 1949, in the Chinese Communist Revolution, the CCP captured all Chinese territory except for Taiwan and several islands off the coast of Fujian, and established the People's Republic of China that exists today.
History
In late 1929, the Fourth Army organized the Gucheng Uprising and the establishment of Soviet administrations, peasant organizations, and militias.Having defeated three encirclement campaigns by the Kuomintang forces, in 1931 the CCP linked the Western Fujian and Southern Jiangxi base areas. In 1931, the CCP decided to consolidate its isolated base areas into a single state, the Chinese Soviet Republic. In November 1931, the CSR was proclaimed in Ruijin, Jiangxi.
With Mao Zedong as both head of state and head of government, the Jiangxi Soviet gradually expanded, reaching a peak of more than 30,000 square kilometres and a population that numbered more than three million, covering considerable parts of two provinces. Furthermore, its economy was doing better than most areas that were under the control of the Chinese warlords. In addition to the militia and guerilla, its regular Chinese Red Army alone already numbered more than 140,000 by the early 1930s, and they were better armed than most Chinese warlords' armies at the time. For example, not only did the Chinese Red Army already have modern communication means such as telephones, telegraphs and radios which most Chinese warlords' armies still lacked, it was already regularly transmitting wireless messages in codes and breaking nationalist codes. Only Chiang Kai-shek's army could match this formidable communist force.
The Nationalist government, led by Chiang Kai-shek, felt threatened by the Soviet republic and led other Chinese warlords to have the National Revolutionary Army besiege the Soviet Republic repeatedly, launching what Chiang and his fellow nationalists called encirclement campaigns at the time, while the communists called their counterattacks "counter encirclement campaigns". Chiang Kai-shek's first, second and third encirclement campaigns were defeated by the Chinese Red Army led by Mao. However, after the third counter encirclement campaign, Mao was removed from the leadership and replaced by the Chinese communists returning from the Soviet Union such as Wang Ming, and the command of the Chinese Red Army was handled by a three-man committee that included Wang Ming's associates Otto Braun, the Comintern military advisor, Bo Gu, and Zhou Enlai. The Jiangxi Soviet thus began its inevitable rapid downfall under their policy of extreme leftism and incompetent military command, though the new leadership could not immediately rid itself of Mao's influence which prevailed during the fourth encirclement campaign, and thus saved the communists temporarily. However, as a result of the complete dominance the new communist leadership achieved after the fourth counter encirclement campaign, the Red Army was nearly halved, with most its equipment lost during Chiang's fifth encirclement campaign, started in 1933 and orchestrated by his German advisors, that involved the systematic encirclement of the Jiangxi Soviet region with fortified blockhouses. This method proved to be very effective. In an effort to break the blockade, the Red Army under the orders of the three man committee besieged the forts many times but suffered heavy casualties with little success, resulting in the Jiangxi Soviet shrinking significantly in size due to the Chinese Red Army's disastrous manpower and material losses.
On 10 October 1934, the three-man committee communist leadership formally issued the order of the general retreat, and on 16 October 1934, the Chinese Red Army begun what was later known as the Long March, fully abandoning the Jiangxi Soviet. 17 days after the main communist force had already left its base, the nationalists were finally aware that the enemy had escaped after reaching the empty city of Ruijin on 5 November 1934. Contrary to the common erroneous belief, the original destination was He Long's communist base in Hubei, and the final destination Yan'an was not decided on until much later during the Long March, well after the rise of Mao Zedong. To avoid panic, the goal was kept a secret from most people, including Mao Zedong, and the public was told that only a portion of the Chinese Red Army would be engaged in mobile warfare to defeat nationalist forces, and thus this part of the army would be renamed as the "Field Army".
By the fall of 1934, the communists faced total annihilation. This situation had already convinced Mao Zedong and his supporters to believe that the communists should abandon their bases in the Jiangxi Soviet republic. However, the communist leadership stubbornly refused to accept the inevitable failure and still daydreamed of defeating the victorious nationalist forces. The three man committee devised a plan of diversions, and then a regroup after a temporary retreat. Once the regroup was complete, a counterattack would be launched in conjunction with the earlier diversion forces, driving the enemy out of the Jiangxi Soviet.
The first movements of the retreating diversion were undertaken by Fang Zhimin. Fang Zhimin and his deputy, Xun Weizhou, were first to break through Kuomintang lines in June, followed by Xiao Ke in August. These movements surprised the Kuomintang, who were numerically superior to the communists at the time and did not expect an attack on their fortified perimeter. However, things did not turn out as the communists had hoped: Fang Zhimin's force was crushed after its initial success, and with Xun Weizhou killed in action, nearly every commander in this force was wounded and captured alive, including Fang Zhimin himself, and all were executed later by the nationalists. The only exception was Su Yu, who managed to escape. Xiao Ke fared no better: although his force initially managed to break through and then reached He Long's communist base in Hubei, but even with their combined forces, they were unable to challenge the far superior nationalist force besieging the Jiangxi Soviet, never to return until the establishment of the People's Republic of China 15 years later.
Shortly after the Marco Polo Bridge incident in 1937, the Eighth Route Army advanced into the Japanese rear in North China, establishing the Taihang resistance base area.
On 6 January 1941, the KMT prohibited domestic and foreign aid from entering the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and attempted to encircle it. In March 1941, the region repelled the KMT's attack.
From 1942-1944, the CCP instituted the Yan'an Rectification Movement, which sought to eliminate ideological differences among the cadres and intellectuals and to mold them into socialist new men. Following this campaign, the CCP's ideology consolidated around Mao Zedong's thought. The concept of the mass line developed through the movement.
Economy
The Chinese Soviet Republic was funded by taxes on grain, rice, and opium. It also received voluntary contributions from its core political constituency, the peasantry. During the period 1931 to 1934, the CSR issued three series of government bonds to further finance its operations. The CCP also fostered and taxed opium production and dealing to raise funds, selling to Japanese-occupied and KMT-controlled provinces. In some areas, 40 percent of the CCP's revenue was derived from opium sales.On 1 April 1938, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Trade Bureau merged with Guanghua Book store into the Guanghua Store. This body handled the border region's foreign and domestic trade.
In February 1943, the CCP issued its Decision of the Central Committee Concerning the Present Direction of Women's Work in Anti-Japanese Base Areas. The Decision contended that efforts to mobilize women had been lacking in "mass perspective" and it was necessary to organize women in cooperative groups to effectively mobilize their labor power. Establishing small cooperative weaving groups outside the home was a significant emphasis.
Bank and currency
The 1st National Congress of the CSR tasked Mao Zemin with leading the creation of a national bank. On 1 February 1932, the Chinese Soviet Republic National Bank was established, with Mao Zemin as president. The CSR Central Mint issued three kinds of currency, including the paper bill, the copper coin, and the silver dollar. In 1935, the bank moved with the Central Red Army to Shaanxi and later that year it merged with the Shaanxi-Gansu-Shanxi Bank to form the Northwest Branch of the National Bank of the Chinese Soviet Republic, and then in July 1937 renamed the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Bank.In addition to currency, "red certificates" such as grain coupons, meal tickets, fodder tickets, and firewood tickets were sometimes used.
In an effort to sabotage the economy, Japanese forces forged local currency and Nationalist government currency and circulated them in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border region. The Border Region Bank established currency comparison offices in each county and district to oppose the Japanese counterfeit effort.