Chinese Communist Revolution – Detailed Lecture Notes

Copyright Notice

Opening legal disclaimer: material reproduced under Australian National University licence, referring to Section 113P of the Australian Copyright Act 1968.
Students warned not to further reproduce or distribute.

Comparative Lens: Communist Revolutions in Asia

Soviet‐imposed success: North Korea.
Vietnamese support: Laos.
Large parties that failed: Malayan Communist Party, Indonesian Communist Party (once 3rd largest worldwide, now extinct).
Central analytic question for China: Why did the CCP succeed when others did not?

Popular Explanations vs. Lecture Argument

CCP’s own narrative: victory through Maoist guerrilla warfare.
Lecturer/Andrew Walder: guerrilla tactics kept CCP alive but did not win the war.
- Final success owed to:
  • Conventional battles (esp. in Manchuria).
  • Urban mobilisation in industrial Northeast.
  • Large-scale mass mobilisation in countryside.
Mass-mobilisation ethos carries into PRC economic & political campaigns (Great Leap Forward steel drive, Xi Jinping’s current mobilisation style).

Four Sub-Periods after CCP Founding (Republican Era)

“Great Revolution” / 1st United Front (1921-1927)
Nanjing Decade (1927-1937).
War of Resistance / 2nd United Front (1937-1945).
Civil War leading to 1949.

First United Front & Soviet Investment

1921: CCP founded; 13 delegates, ≈ 50 members; venue now tourist site in Shanghai (near Xintiandi).
Early CCP leaders (Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu) even skipped the Congress – convened only because Comintern required it.
Early membership split: domestic intellectuals vs. work-study students in Europe (e.g., Deng Xiaoping in France).
French Concession police discovery forced move to Jiaxing boat to finish Congress.

What Is Communism? Key Tenets Explained

Ownership: abolition of private ownership of means of production; personal possessions allowed (gray zones: car vs. truck).
Distribution: quote from Marx $\text{“From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”}$
Ideal of unlimited productivity -> abundance.
Real-world partial analogues: Australian Medicare, social insurance schemes.

Chinese Intellectual & Cultural Resonances

Ancient “Well-Field” system (井田制): shared central plot, egalitarian ideal (likely mythical).
Kang Youwei, Datong Shu (Book of Grand Unity): no private property, admired by young Mao.
Western analogue: Henry George (land value tax) → influenced Sun Yat-sen’s Three Principles, explains persistent high land tax in Taiwan.

Disillusionment with the West after WWI & May Fourth

Versailles & Shandong decision shattered faith in Wilsonian self-determination.
Turn toward nationalism & communism.
1918-19 Work-Study wave to France: promise of jobs after Chinese Labour Corps; war ended, jobs gone → students (Deng Xiaoping) forced into harsh factory work → radicalisation, joining young Communists.

Russian Revolution & Soviet Courtship

1917 events understood vaguely as workers/soldiers Soviets (even Li Dazhao imagined near-anarchism).
Karakhan Manifesto (1919): promised to renounce czarist privileges; huge symbolic boon.
Comintern line: CCP should enter KMT as a bloc to reshape it (Bolshevik model).

Whampoa Military Academy & Soviet Advice

Founded Guangzhou suburb, funded/armed by USSR.
Goal: ideological, party-loyal officers vs. personalistic warlords.
Chiang Kai-shek as commandant; Soviet advisor Blücher ("Galen") military, Borodin political.

Sun Yat-sen’s Revised Three Principles (1924)

Nationalism now = anti-imperialism (targeting British, French, U.S., Japanese privileges).
Logic: defeat warlords who served foreign powers.

Northern Expedition & KMT–CCP Split

Revolutionary Army better trained/equipped; warlords weak.
Peasant uprisings (Hubei/Hunan) alienated KMT officer-landlord class → 1927 purge, Shanghai massacre; CCP nearly destroyed.

Nanjing Decade (1927-37) – KMT View

Nominal unification but real power only Zhejiang–Jiangsu core.
Warlord autonomy persists; grassroots cadre base gutted by 1927 purge.
Economic strides: light-industry boom, especially textiles in Yangzi Delta (by 1935 Chinese cloth competitive vs. Japanese).
German advisers, re-armament; Nazi ideology admired by some KMT figures.
Growing Japanese threat: $1931$ Mukden → Manchukuo puppet state; 1937 full invasion.

CCP Strategic Pivot to Peasants

Urban workers tiny minority: $\le 3\text{ million of }400\text{ million}$ population.
Mao’s 1923 Hunan observations + Peng Pai’s Guangdong peasant bases inspired rural focus.
Created 13 Soviets; largest = Jiangxi Central Soviet.

Jiangxi Soviet (1931-34)

Radical land reform: execution/expulsion of landlords, equal plots to peasants.
Imported Soviet institutions – secret police (State Political Directorate), slogans: “Guard the red regime, punish class enemy.”
Cultural Revolution-era museum aesthetics testify to legacy.

Why Landlords Targeted?

University enrolment data (James Lee et al.): urban businessmen, professionals, officials far wealthier than rural landlords, but peasants knew only landlords, not capitalists/foreigners; land inequality easiest mobilisation frame.

Encirclement Campaigns & the Long March

KMT German-trained army’s 5th campaign tightened blockhouses; Jiangxi resources exhausted (whole counties conscripted).
Oct 1934–Oct 1935: Long March from Jiangxi → Guizhou (Zunyi Meeting rehabilitates Mao) → northern Shaanxi; 80{,}000 \to <10{,}000 survivors (≈ $95\%$ loss).
Search for Soviet aid via Mongolia/Xinjiang failed; still, base established at Yan’an.

Xi’an Incident (Dec 1936)

Warlord Zhang Xueliang (Manchurian troops) kidnaps Chiang Kai-shek; motive: form anti-Japanese United Front, seek USSR help.
Zhou Enlai negotiates; Chiang released, Zhang house-arrested for life; CCP saved from annihilation.

Second United Front & War of Resistance (1937-45)

1937 Marco Polo Bridge – total war.
KMT retreats to Wuhan then Chongqing; power in southwest.
1940s stalemate; CCP exploits Japanese/KMT vacuum in North China plains.

Administrative Subcontracting Legacy

Japanese garrison cities/railways; CCP operates in rural “gaps.”
Communication obstacles (costly telegraph with four-digit Chinese codes, scarce radios) → high decentralisation; local commanders granted autonomy (“山头” mountaintops).
Seeds of PRC’s later “centralised yet locally discretionary” governance.

Expansion Metrics

1937 CCP: < $10{,}000$ troops, tiny Shaanxi base.
1945 CCP: $1\text{ M}$ regulars + $3\text{ M}$ militia, $1\text{ M km}^2$ territory, > $1\text{ M}$ party members.

Yan’an Rectification Movement (1941-44)

Purpose:
1. Purge Moscow-loyal “dogmatists” (Wang Ming).
2. Ideological unification under Mao.
Methods: study groups, forced self-criticism, interrogation of “spies,” literary propaganda.
Rise of key allies:
• Liu Shaoqi (later PRC Chairman).
• Gao Gang (Shenyang base baron).

Seventh Party Congress (Apr 1945)

Delegates from Shandong needed 6 months to reach Yan’an; shows logistical limits.
Mao Zedong Thought enshrined as sole guiding ideology; Mao uncontested leader.

1945–46 KMT–CCP Negotiations & Breakdown

USSR model (as in E-Europe): push for coalition government; Stalin urges Mao to Chongqing.
U.S. Ambassador Patrick Hurley mediates Chiang–Mao talks; surface smiles, mutual distrust.
Both sides re-arm; neither wants genuine power-sharing.

Race for Manchuria

August 1945: Mao orders Lin Biao et al. to seize Northeast ahead of KMT (walked there lacking winter gear).
Soviet Red Army occupies region, hands Japanese weapons to CCP despite Allied agreement.
Strategic value: heavy industry, rails, Sov-NK rear bases (Dalian lease).
Sets stage for conventional battles that decide Civil War.

Broader Significance & Contemporary Echoes

Mass-mobilisation faith persists: GLF, Cultural Revolution, Xi era campaign style.
Administrative decentralisation within party hierarchy still shapes centre-local relations.
Rural land politics → continuous sensitivity about property rights, taxation, and “common prosperity.”