Guiding questions:

What were the long term causes of tension and division in China?

How was the ruling Manchu dynasty overthrown in China?

Why was the First United Front created?

How did the First United Front attempt to unify China?

What were the short-term causes of the first phase of the Chinese Civil War?

What was the impact of the Sino-Japanese War 1937 – 1945 on the CCP and the GMD?

What were the short-term causes of the second phase of the Chinese Civil War?

1. What were the long term causes of tension and division in China?

Imperialist influence in China

Western imperialists had forced China to sign ‘unequal treaties’ that essential ceded control of certain areas to
foreign powers, allowed them to trade at will and to station troops to protect their interests. The treaties had also
granted these foreign powers the right of ‘extraterritoriality’ which means that their citizens were not held to account
by Chinese laws and could operate under their own governments’ rules and legislation.

Identify the countries that owned railway interested in China by 1900. Where in China are most of the railway
interests?

Why do you think that the west and Japan wanted influence in China?

What does this foreign involvement suggest about the strengths and weaknesses of the Chinese central
government?
The Warlords

Another problem for the central government in China were the Warlords. These quasi-military leaders had their own
private armies and were the de facto rulers of large regions of China. The warlords ran the affairs of the territories
under their control, would set and collect taxes and would often engage in small wars with other warlords for territory
and booty. The central government lacked the means to control the warlords.

In pairs look at the map below. Discuss the reasons why the warlords may have been able to establish control of
large areas of China, and discuss what the central government could do to redress the regional power of these men.

Below is a summary of the economic and political problems facing China at this time; you may want to get students
to research some of these points these in more detail.
Click on the eye or download the PDF to see the economic problems and political tensions facing China by 1911

Create an infographic that clearly develops the links between economic problems, social unrest, political tensions
and the impact of foreign influence in China up to 1911.

Long term economic and political problems in China activity

2. How was the ruling Manchu dynasty overthrown in China?

At the 20th Century, there was widespread feeling in China that the ruling Manchu dynasty had to be
overthrown, democracy introduced and a program of modernization implemented. When the emperor died
and was succeeded by a 2 year-old boy, Pu Yi, in 1908 the regime was further undermined.

The revolution began when the government lost control of the military; soldiers revolted and the uprising
quickly spread. Several provinces then declared themselves independent of the central government in
Beijing. This revolution in October 1911, became known as the Double Tenth. A republic was declared. The
underlying tensions and divisions within China that had led to this revolution were also key causes of the
civil war that broke out 15 years later. The Manchu dynasty had failed to address the weakness of its central
government, the impact of imperialism, anti-foreign sentiment and ongoing economic problems.

In an attempted to seize the political initiative and to stabilize the situation, delegates from the newly
‘independent provinces’ met in In November 1911, in Nanjing. Delegates declared the Chinese Republic and
Dr Sun Yixian, was chosen as China’s first president. However, Sun had been in exile in the US during the
revolution and had no clear military backing for his presidency. To prevent a civil war from developing after
the revolution Sun agreed for Yuan Shikai, leader of the northern army, to be president in February 1912.
On 12 February 1912, Emperor Pu Yi abdicated.

What kind of problems do you think the new Chinese Republic would face? Discuss this question In pairs.

You should include the following in your discussion:

3. Why was the First United Front created?

By 1922 two political groups, the Communists inspired by the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, and the
Nationalists under the GMD inspired by the ideas of Sun had developed in China. Both parties were united
in the aim of unifying China under a strong central government. Both parties understood that to do this they
would have to take on the warlords. With these common goals the GMD and the CCP entered into an
alliance in 1922, the First United Front.

In pairs write a ‘foreign correspondent’s’ report on the political situation in China in 1922. Your audience can
be any country outside of China.

You should include in your article the following:

●​ A banner headline that encapsulates the political issues facing China in 1922
●​ A brief overview of the political events from the double tenth revolution in 1911 up to the
establishment of the First United Front
●​ the ideas and influence of the different political forces in China at this time, May Fourth, Warlords,
Guomindang and the Chinese Communist Party.
●​ An assessment of the scale of the political problems in China and the extent to which the First
United Front will be able to redress these divisions and tensions.
 Foreign correspondent's report on state of China by 1911

4. What were the short-term causes of the first phase of the Chinese Civil War?

Sun died in 1925 and General Jiang Jieshi, a committed Nationalist, took over leadership of the GMD. Jiang
was an anti-Communist; however he initially did not break the alliance with the Communists, as he needed
the CCPs support to break warlord control. In 1926 the First United Front launched the ‘Northern Expedition’
to crush the warlords of central and northern China. This was a great success; by 1927, the GMD and the
Communists had captured Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Nanjing. The First United Front took Beijing in 1928;
the GMD announced that it was the legitimate government of China and the new capital and seat of
government would be Nanjing.

Even though it had been successful in the Northern Expedition, the alliance between the GMD and CCP did
not last. The differences in ideology between the two parties now came to the fore as the defeat of the
warlords meant China could be unified. Jiang had been concerned that the success of the Northern
Expedition had been not only due to the promotion of Nationalist aims, it was also due to the Communist
promise of land to the peasants which had given the United front local peasant support. Indeed, the CCP
had also had strong support from the industrial workers; the communist, Zhou Enlai, had organized the
workers rising in Shanghai. Jiang decided that the GMD would not share power with the CCP. Jiang was
more right wing than Sun, and was sympathetic to landlords and the middle classes. He was opposed to
peasant attacks on landlords and land seizures that had occurred in areas under Communist control.

Jiang expelled all communists from the GMD. Then, in April 1927 he launched the ‘White Terror’ in
Shanghai. Jiang, using informants from the underworld of triads and gangsters, killed 5,000 communists.
The GMD was ordered to carry out similar attacks in other cities, in what became known as the ‘purification
movement’. Estimates suggest around a quarter of a million people were killed. By the end of 1927 the CCP
was almost destroyed.

The CCP decided that its only chance of survival was to flee to the mountains of Jiangxi. The GMD pursued
them and was determined to wipe the CCP out. The first phase of the civil war had begun.

For more detail on the White Terror and the extermination campaigns carried out by the GMD against the
CCP along with the Long March as the CCP fled for safety, refer to the information and ATL on the Paper 3
topic of China and Korea: 3. Rise of Communism in China (ATL)

5. What was the impact of the Sino-Japanese War 1937 – 1945 on the CCP and
the GMD?

The first phase of the civil war was interrupted by the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937. To defeat
the Japanese, incredibly, the GMD and CCP entered into another alliance, the Second United Front. This
alliance held until Japan was defeated in 1945.

Task One

ATL – Research skills

Divide into groups of four. You will be researching the course of the Sino-Japanese War 1937-45.

Pair A Research the CCP during the war

Pair B ​ Research the GMD during the war

Each pair should gather evidence on the following themes:

●​ How did the CCP or GMD fight the Japanese?

●​ How did the CCP or GMD manage the economies of the territories under its control?
●​ How far did the CCP or GMD gain political support in the areas under its control?
Feedback your research to your group. Compare and contrast the impact of the Sino-Japanese war,
1937-45 on the military, political and economic strengths of the CCP and the GMD.

7. What were the short-term causes of the second phase of the Chinese Civil
War?

Another phase of civil war developed after 1945. This was because:

●​ The CCP was significantly strengthened, and the GMD was weakened after the long war with Japan.
However, both sides believed it was able to win control of China on the battlefield and did not want to find a
compromise.
●​ The polarization of international relations due to the development of the Cold War meant that China’s
second phase of civil war would not be a purely domestic struggle alone. The war between Nationalists and
Communists was now part of the wider struggle between the Soviets and the US to create a new post-war
balance of power in Asia. However, both superpowers initially promoted the idea of a coalition government
with representatives of both the GMD and the CCP.
●​ The US worked hard to achieve a diplomatic solution between the CCP and the GMD. US General
Marshall proposed terms for a coalition government: form a temporary state council; unite both armies into a
new national army; hold free elections for local government.
●​ Neither side wanted to share power. As negotiations were supposed to be finalized in February
1946, the GMD and CCP were moving troops into Manchuria.
●​ There would not be a diplomatic solution for China – its fate would be decided on the battlefield.

Task One

ATL: Thinking and research skills.

In pairs research the period of US led negotiation between 1944 and February 1946. You should attempt to
find evidence of the following:

●​ US aims, investment and proposals

●​ Soviet aims, investment and proposals
●​ GMD engagement in negotiations and evidence of preparing for renewed civil war
●​ CCP engagement in negotiations and evidence of preparing for renewed civil war

After you have research the period of negotiations, discuss with your partner the extent to which it would
have been possible to find a diplomatic solution for China after the Second World War. What were the key
obstacles in the peace process?

Task Two

ATL: Thinking skills

The historian James Sheridan, in China in Disintegration (Free Press, 1977 p.269) argues that:
‘It is absurd to speak of an historical event as “inevitable”, but the Communist–Guomindang civil war almost
demands that adjective. It is difficult in retrospect to see how it could have been avoided. An abyss of
profound hostility and distrust, and the scars of brutal conflict, separated the two parties, to say nothing of
their utterly different social philosophies’

In pairs discuss the extent to which you agree with Sheridan’s view of the situation in China in 1945.