China After World War II

China After World War II

Civil war is raging in China. Across the plains of Manchuria troops of

Chiang Kai-shek’s central government are battling for supremacy

against the military forces of the Chinese Stalinists. With the

generous aid of American imperialism, Chiang Kai-shek succeeded, in

May, in capturing the strategic town of Szepingkai. Next, the

Stalinists were ousted from Changchun, the Manchurian capital. The

fall of Kirin followed. At this writing (early June) Chiang’s forces

are being deployed for an assault on Harbin, the last important

Manchurian urban center in Stalinist hands. All these cities had been

invested by the Stalinists when they swept into Manchuria from North

China in the wake of withdrawing Soviet troops.

Chiang’s easy victories over the Stalinists are testimony to the

military superiority of his forces, thanks largely to the supply of

modern weapons and munitions furnished by the American imperialists,

who, moreover, placed ships and transport planes at Chiang’s disposal

for the deployment of his troops to Manchuria. The weapons of the

Chinese Stalinists, although augmented by arms seized from

surrendering Japanese troops, are no match for the war equipment at

Chiang’s disposal. This disparity of weapons compels the Stalinists to

withdraw from the cities to the wide open spaces, to avoid head-on

battles, and in general to adhere to the methods and tactics of

guerrilla warfare which they have been following for the past 18

years. More important, however, than this unfavorable relationship of

military forces is the fact that the Stalinists have no real political

base in the urban centers. Moreover, ...

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... Assembly, elected on the basis of free,

direct and universal suffrage, in order to raise the partial and local

struggles to an all-national level. The revolutionary demand for a

plenipotentiary National Assembly, combining both legislative and

executive functions, must be sharply counterposed to the plans of

Chiang Kai-shek to summon a hand-picked, and therefore fraudulent,

National Assembly. It must likewise be counterposed to the treachery

of the Stalinists in trying to form a coalition government with the

bourgeoisie.

By all these means the Trotskyists will succeed in winning to their

banner the best proletarian militants, the bravest peasant fighters,

the best among the radical intellectuals. Thus will they build the

revolutionary party that will lead the tormented people of China to

their socialist victory.