HIST 103 - Chinese Communist Revolution and Korean War

What was the state of China after fall of Qing Dynasty?

In 1911, Republic of China was created after the fall, nation was in fragile state

1912 - 1928 Beiyang Government 

• Military group

• International recognition

• Capital in Beijing

San Yat-sen

• Credited with overthrowing the Qing Dynasty and leader of the Kuomintang (KMT)

Three Principles of the KMT

Nationalism, Democracy and Livelihood

What happened in 1924 and what did it mean for the two leading Chinese parties?

• Chiang Kai-shek sent to Moscow for military and political study in 1924

• Forces CCP to cooperate with KMT

  • Mao joins KMT

• Cooperation across KMT and CCP during the Second Sino-Japanese War

What were the effects of communism in Northern China in 1939?

Progressive socioeconomic reforms materially benefit peasants → protected peasants’ interests, providing major institutions and land redistribution

1945 New phase of civil war w/ Japanese surrender

• Nationalists have many advantages

  • Control industrial areas and ports

  • Supported by US and USSR

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Advantages During Civil War

• CCP grows in membership during WW2

  • Nationalists weakened by Japanese war

  • Warlords often stole from peasants and war-weary pop.

• Nationalists seens as aggressors in civil war

• Successful guerilla war

  • Move into former Japanese occupied lands

• Offer land reform to peasants

  • Military and political strategy

What happened to the KMT in the 1949?

• Loses the Civil War, Chiang Kai-shek and KMT retreat to Taiwan

• CCP has no navy power to pursue them

What becomes of China after the defeat of KMT?

Communists assert authority and create centralized state

• Execute political opponents early in regime

• Control education and media

• Weaken religious authorities

• Attack Confucian hierarchical values and and power of extended family networks

1950 Treaty with USSR

• Signed by foreign minister, Zhou Enlai

• CCP cements its power

What does the Republic of China focus on?

• Emphasis on peasants, small-scale, labor-intensive workshops over heavy industry 

  • Collectivist state-commanded agriculture

• 5 year plan → nationalizes industry

• Abolishes private ownership

• Received soviet technical aid and training programs for Chinese students in USSR

1950 Agrarian Reform Act

• Eliminates landlords

• Redistributes country’s land to peasants

• Social revolution

What happens in 1950?

• Revolutionary China enters Korean War, backed by USSR

• Broader concern about US military intervention, trade embargo, obstruction of reunification w Taiwan

What are the 3 revolutions that occurred in China → 1949-1976

1. Civil war revolutionary reforms

2. Great Leap Forward 1958 - 1962

3. Cultural Revolution 1966 - 1976

The Great Leap Forward 1958-62

• Attempt to accelerate revolution

• Focus on rapid industrialization

  • Mao wants to overtake Britain in steel production within 15 yrs

• Purge of intellectuals

Consequence of the Great Leap Forward

Leads to massive famine

• Regional effects → Henan and Anhui provinces

• Overreported production

• Disruption of pests and ecosystems

• Flood on yellow river

• Moves farmers to industrial activities

38th parallel

• Americans and Soviets divide Korea by the 38th parallel

  • Soviets appoint malleable dictatorship → Kim Il Sung

  • Both reluctant to allow Koreans to self govern

Puppet Regimes

• Established this term as it was implied that North Korea was a government controlled by USSR and China

Korean Elections

• Decides Korea-wide elections

  • Soviet controlled North think Americans will interfere

    • Boycotts elections

  • Results of elections not very democratic → Rhee wins

• North also holds elections

Syngman Rhee

First President of Republic of Korea

• Americans support, more capitalist 

• Reluctant to enforce land reform → strengthens communists

Kim Il Sung

 President of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea 

• Communist leader w/ support of the Soviet Union

• Communist policies appealing to the ordinary people (peasants

The Korean War → main idea

War broke out after years of tension between North and South Korea

• North invades South with Soviet and Chinese support in 1950

• UN intervenes with US-forces in Inchon → giving them space to advance

• Chinese intervention, pushing back UN forces in 1951-1953

• Push-pull game leads to an Armistice of 1953 → demilitarized zone established

American interventionist foreign policy

Truman pushes for this agenda to contain the spread of communism and its aggression at the end of the Korean War