Chapter 0: Introduction to modern Chinese History
*Author's note: As far as I know, everything in this chapter corresponds to IRL history. If you're interested, feel free read the provided supplementary links to learn about what happened immediately prior to the AAR's start date. I'm writing this because I'll be referring to some of the events here later.
While the major focus of this work will be the time period after January 1, 1936, the situation at that date was determined by a series of events that occurred beforehand. To understand the Communist Party of China and why the Chinese People supported it, one must be aware of the culture of the
Qing Empire. The Qing Empire was comprised of a ruling ethnic Manchu class dominating a majority ethnic Han population. As a direct result of the Qing rulers' corruption and inefficient government, many Han peasants and workers lived in a feudal-style culture centuries after most civilized nations had abandoned such cultural systems. As a result of contact with European peoples and becoming aware of their own situation, the Han people in the late 1800's rose up against both domestic and foreign domination in a series of revolutions, such as the
Boxer Rebellion.
The beginning of the end of Imperial China (a concept that had existed for at least 3,712 years) was the
Wuchang Uprising. What at first began as a railroad workers' strike eventually culminated in the destruction of the Qing Empire and creation of the Republic of China by
Sun Yatsen, the Father of Modern China. Shortly after its creation, the RoC dissolved into competing warlord states, all centered around each of China's provinces due to the Qing practice of allowing provincial governors to raise and control local armies. During this time period, each state competed with each other to gain control of the city of Beijing, the control of which resulted in international recognition and access to foreign loans. In order to bring an end to the
Warlord Era, Sun Yatsen's Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) joined forces with the Communist Party of China, forming the
First United Front in 1926, which created the National Revolutionary Army (NRA). Sun Yatsen's main reason to ally with the CPC was to gain material aid from the Soviet Union, who was opposed to the
Beiyang government based in Bejing.
However, the NRA quickly split into KMT and CPC factions. The KMT needed to utilize the popular support of the CPC to increase the size of the NRA in order to quickly unify the country as well as gain support from the USSR, while the CPC used its newfound status to spread Marxist ideas amongst the general population not only by educating KMT soldiers of the benefits of Communism over Nationalism, but by using the NRA's mobility to spread Communist ideals to a wide array of peasant workers. The final split came as a result of
Chiang Kai-shek's appointment as the leader of the
First Northern Expedition. While Chiang questioned Sun Yatsen's alliance with the CPC, at first he couldn't afford to alienate the USSR, which supplied Sun Yatsen's KMT party with large amounts of aid due to its alliance with the CPC. All of that changed after Sun Yat-sen's death in 1925, shortly after the First Northern Expedition began.
NRA troops marching through foreign concessions in Hankou, now part of Wuhan
The "Unification of China" after the First Northern Expedition wasn't a true unification of the country.
Sheng Shicai, governor of Xinjiang, while being the KMT's appointed governor of the province, ruled his territory as though he were an independent nation, and was a full-fledged member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Yunnan Clique led by
Long Yun,
Sichuan Clique led by
Liu Xiang, Guangxi Clique led by
Bai Chongxi, the Guandong Clique led by
Hu Hanmin (a founder of the KMT and allied to Wang Jingwei), the Shanxi Clique led by KMT member
Yan Xishan, and the Ma Clique led by the KMT members
Ma Bufang,
Ma Hongkui, and
Ma Hongbin, who controlled the provinces of Qinghai, Gansu and Ningxia, respectively, were led by individuals who supported and followed orders from Chiang Kai-shek's Nanjing-based government only on paper. In effect, the provinces of Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Shanxi, Yunnan, Sichuan, Eastern Xikang, Guangxi, and Guangdong were autonomous regions of the RoC. Tibet, Mongolia, and Tannu Uriankhai (Tannu Tuva) had broken away from the Qing Empire earlier and had either achieved international recognition (Mongolia, Tannu Tuva) or were operating as truly autonomous provinces of the RoC (Tibet, which never received international recognition as an independent state, but wasn't subject to the central government). In addition, the provinces of
Suiyuan,
Chahar, and
Hebei were under the influence of Japan. After the
Mukden Incident, which saw the loss of Manchuria to Japan in the form of
Manchukuo and creation of the
East Hebei Autonomous Region as a result of the
Tenggu Truce, the RoC lost all Chinese territories east of Beiping.
The previously obscure Chiang, who was currently the leader of the NRA, harbored many right-leaning tendencies, and was in direct opposition to KMT co-founder
Wang Jingwei. After the
Zhongshan Warship Incident, Chiang became the leader of the KMT party and created an ideological split in the party between his right-wing followers and Wang Jingwei's left-wing supporters, as well as increased tensions between the KMT and CPC. Due to the "success" of the First United Front, Chiang Kai-shek gained enormous influence within the KMT and began to unilaterally persecute Chinese communists in 1927, since they and Wang Jingwei's KMT faction (the CPC and Jingwei's faction received mutual support from each other until this point) represented a direct threat to his leadership.
Chiang's KMT troops rounding up CPC members in Shanghai for execution
The resulting bloodshed was a complete massacre, and the CPC lost its ability to operate as anything more than a fringe party. As a result of the anti-communist purges, the CPC survivors conducted what is now known as the
Long March; the term for the collective regrouping of communist survivors across China to the city of Yan'an in northern Shaanxi province.
A rare color photo of Chairman Mao during the Long March
The most important result of the Long March is Mao Zedong's rise to power, as his supporter group arrived in Yan'an mostly intact, and comprised the majority of the CPC's surviving members, making Mao the leading figure of the Communist Party of China. This also marked an important split between Mao's strategy of
People's War, which encouraged fomenting revolution through the farmers, and the former CPC chairman and co-founder of the CPC
Chen Duxiu's strategy of fomenting revolution through the urban factory workers. After the conclusion of the Long March, Chen Duxiu was expelled from the party he founded, and Mao Zedong became the chairman of the CPC.
A CPC leader addresses the survivors of the Long March in Yan'an
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There are several acronyms I will use throughout the AAR, so here's a quick reference:
CPC - Chinese Communist Party
PLA - People's Liberation Army (army of the CPC)
KMT - Kuomintang
NRA - National Revolutionary Army (army of the KMT)
Also, certain Pinyin letters are pronounced differently than most languages that use the Latin alphabet would pronounce them. Here's a very simplified quick guide on how to pronounce some of the letters that are pronounced differently. This quick guide doesn't do the language justice, as there are many subtleties in the difference between pronouncing Ch, Zh, and Q, but I'm not going to go into such detail into the language here in an AAR.
G - "k" when at the front of a syllable, "g" if at the end
Q - "ch"
Zh - "tch"
Z - "ts", just like a German Z
C - "s"
X - "sh"
D - "t"
B - "p"
So, Guangxi is pronounced something closer to "kwong-she" than whatever you'd initially think it would sound like.
