China, Japan and Korea

Guomindang (GMD)

Chinese Nationalist party led by Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek). It ruled China from 1928, lost the mainland in 1949 and then governed Taiwan.

CCP

Chinese Communist Party, led by Mao Zedong. It won the civil war and founded the PRC in 1949.

People's Republic of China (PRC)

Official name of communist mainland China, established 1 Oct 1949 under Mao Zedong

Republic of China (ROC)

Official name of the government of China on Taiwan

Containment

Term coined by George Kennan for Western policy toward the USSR: keep it within its current borders in the hope that internal failure or evolution would end the threat

Great Powers

States held capable of shared responsibility for managing the international order by virtue of military and economic influence

New Democracy

Mao's 'sinified' Marxism-Leninism arguing socialism needed an alliance of classes (proletariat and peasantry), not just the proletariat

Why did the CCP grow during the war with Japan?

Guerrilla 'protracted war', nationalist credentials, efficient local government, moderated land reform, and a coherent ideology. Membership rose from 40,000 (1937) to 1.2 million (1945).

Why did the GMD weaken?

Lost its Yangtze power base, inflation, corruption, factionalism, forced conscription, and poor performance against Japan (collapse in the 1944 Ichigo offensive)

Lend-Lease

March 1941 Act letting the US president lend arms and supplies to governments whose defence was vital to US security

Why did the CCP win the Chinese Civil War?

Peasant support (land policy), liberal backing, discipline and incorruptibility, and the GMD's graft and economic chaos. Jiang also wrongly assumed full US support.

Marshall mission

Dec 1945: Truman sent General George Marshall to mediate between GMD and CCP; a cease-fire in Jan 1946 proved short-lived and civil war began in 1946.

Manchuria

Three north-eastern provinces of China; Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo 1932-45. Soviet withdrawal in April 1946 triggered the GMD airlift and the breakdown of the cease-fire.

Mao's 'lean to one side' (30 June 1949)

Declaration that in the Cold War China had no choice but to side with the socialist bloc

Sino-Soviet treaty of alliance

Signed 14 Feb 1950; a military agreement committing each to aid the other if attacked by Japan 'or any other state which should unite with Japan' (i.e. the US)

'Lost chance' thesis

1970s-80s argument (Tucker, Cohen, Hunt) that a more forthcoming US could have built working relations with the PRC. Chinese archives suggest CCP overtures were tactical and hostility to the US was deep.

Mandates

Former German and Ottoman colonial territories entrusted to Britain, France, Japan, Australia and South Africa under League of Nations supervision

Reverse course

US shift in occupied Japan (1947-49) from democratisation and demilitarisation toward economic recovery and eventual rearmament

Why did the US adopt the reverse course?

Disillusion with China, the need to restore Japan's place in Asian trade, and fear that economic paralysis would breed communism. Acheson called Germany and Japan the 'two great workshops of the world'.

Bretton Woods

1944 inter-Allied conference that created the IMF and World Bank; the system also included GATT and dollar-gold convertibility. It ended when the dollar was devalued in 1971.

How did Russia and China view Japan's rebuilding?

As the rebirth of Japanese militarism and a US 'cat's-paw', so it cemented Sino-Soviet ties.

38th parallel

Dividing line in Korea in 1945 between the US zone (south) and Soviet zone (north)

Republic of Korea (ROK)

Official name of South Korea; formed 1948 under Syngman Rhee

Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)

Official name of North Korea; formed 1948 under Kim Il-Sung

Why were Korea's rival regimes a civil war from the start?

Each government saw itself as the rightful ruler of all Korea and aimed to destroy the other.

Origins of the Korean War (1950)

Kim Il-Sung asked Stalin in Jan 1950 to approve a conventional attack; Stalin agreed on condition Mao concurred. The DPRK attacked on 25 June 1950.

Appeasement

Policy of removing sources of conflict through negotiation; since WWII it means the pejorative 'spineless pursuit of peace through concessions'. Truman invoked this lesson to defend the ROK.

Inchon and the 38th parallel decision

MacArthur's landing at Inchon (15 Sept 1950) routed the DPRK; the UN then chose to advance north of the 38th parallel (1 Oct), which triggered Chinese intervention.

Why did China intervene in Korea?

Mao saw US moves (Taiwan Straits, Indochina, Korea) as a possible three-front assault, and wanted to protect revolutionary credentials and show loyalty to the communist cause. Stalin urged intervention.

Korean War outcome

Armistice July 1953 with the border only marginally changed; war stayed limited because escalation might activate the Sino-Soviet alliance

Consequences of the Korean War for Asia

It deepened the PRC-US divide (about 20 years of hostility) and polarised Asia into alliance systems: US-Japan security treaty and ROK pact, ANZUS, SEATO (1954), Taiwan pact

SEATO

South-East Asia Treaty Organization (1954), organised by Australia, France, Britain, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand and the US. It proved of little use and was disbanded in 1977.

Neo-colonialism

The process whereby a colonial power grants formal independence but keeps de facto political and economic control

Neutralism

Policy of publicly dissociating a state from Great Power conflicts; first major advocate was Nehru for post-independence India

US policy flaw in Asia

It tied itself to conservative client elites that resisted land reform and mostly gave military not economic aid, leaving fertile ground for communism and raw-material dependence.

Root of Third World neutralism (Best ch. 10 conclusion)

Asian states saw the Sino-American confrontation as an attempt by the US to deny the legitimate aspirations of Asian nationalism.

Best's conclusion on Asia and the Cold War

The Cold War was driven both by superpower interests and by local events. The Chinese Revolution was as much radical nationalism as communism, and the West failed to come to terms with Asian nationalism.