The Fall of the Kuomintang to the Chinese Communist Party

In 1949 the Chinese Communist Party (CPP) beat the Kuomintang (KMT) in the Chinese Civil War becoming the reigning regime in China. The new communist leadership drastically changed China’s future. Today the CCP remains in power in China, shaping every aspect of Chinese society. Academics like Chalmers Johnson argue that the CCP’s ability to mobilize Chinese peasants ultimately led to the CCP’s victory. This paper will supplement Johnson’s argument by examining how KMT economic, military, and ideological missteps led to the CCP’s victory.

The Chinese Civil War started in 1927 when the KMT ended their partnership with the CCP during the Northern Expedition, an effort aimed at unifying all of China under one political rule. The war ended in 1949 when the leader of the CCP, Mao Zedong, established the People’s Republic of China in Beijing, and the leader of the KMT, Chiang Kai-shek, and his followers fled from the mainland to Taiwan. In addition to the ongoing civil war during this period, China was also invaded by the Japanese. The Japanese launched their first attack on China in 1931 with the Manchurian Incident, but did not unleash their full invasion until 1937. The Japanese were defeated in 1945. During the Japanese invasion the KMT and CCP oscillated between a united front against the Japanese and war with each other. The United Fronts lasted from 1922 to 1926 and 1937 to 1946. While the Civil War was a war between the KMT and CCP, the Japanese invasion directly affected the Chinese public’s support and lack of support for both political parties.

In Johnson’s book, Peasant Nationalism and Communist Power, Johnson does not discuss the finances of the CCP and whether or not it had any effect on its ability to win the Civil W...

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...r country, and winning, and, therefore, garnering mass support. Chiang Kai-shek was a much more passive military strategist. He looked towards international forces to come to the KMT’s aid. Due to this hesitancy, the Chinese public perceived them as weaker. The KMT army was, in fact, weaker. Eventually the aggressive military tactics of Mao Zedong crushed the KMT.

Finally, the ideological differences on mass mobilizations between the CCP and KMT played a huge role in the CCP’s success. The CCP’s communist ideology led to mass mobilization being a crucial element to their revolutionary plans. This meant that the CCP put an enormous amount of effort into winning over the masses. However, the KMT’s fractionalization and subsequent dismissal of mass mobilization policies negatively impacted their chance at victory. The sheer power of the masses led the CCP to victory.