Red Star over China (3 page)

IV.
First Communist-Nationalist Civil War (1927–37)

1927 Stalin victorious over Trotsky. In March, Mao Tse-tung publishes his Report
of an Investigation into the Peasant Movement in Hunan;
calls poor peasants “main force” of revolution, demands confiscation of landlords' land. Thesis rejected by Communist Party Central Committee. In April, Chiang Kai-shek leads anti-Communist coup, “beheads Party”; Communist membership reduced, by four-fifths, to 10,000. Ch'en Tu-hsiu deposed as CCP secretary. Party driven underground. Mao leads peasant uprising in Hunan (August); defeated, he flees to mountain stronghold, Chingkangshan. Nanchang Uprising also defeated. Retreat to countryside. Canton (Commune) Uprising fails. P'eng P'ai leads survivors to Hailufeng and sets up Hailufeng Soviet (1927). Sukarno forms Indonesian Nationalist Party.

1928 Chiang Kai-shek establishes nominal centralized control over China under National Government (a Kuomintang, one-party dictator
ship). Mao Tse-tung and Chu Teh join forces at Chingkangshan, Hunan, form first “Red Army” of China and local soviet. Paris Peace Pact signed by the great powers, renouncing war “as an instrument of national policy.”

1929 Mao Tse-tung and Chu Teh conquer rural territories around Juichin, Kiangsi, where a soviet government is proclaimed. Communist Politburo, dominated by Li Li-san, remains hidden in foreign-controlled Shanghai. Stock market crash in New York.

1930 Conflict between Mao's “rural soviet movement” and Politburo leader Li Li-san, who favors urban insurrections. Red Army led by Mao and P'eng Teh-huai captures Changsha, capital of Hunan, then withdraws. Second assault on Changsha a costly failure. Li Li-san discredited by Moscow. Chiang Kai-shek launches first major offensive against the Reds. Mao Tse-tung's wife and sister executed in Changsha. Gandhi leads nonviolent civil disobedience in India.

1931 Spain declares a Republic. Meeting underground in January, in Shanghai, Central Committee of CCP elects Wang Ming (Ch'en Shao-yu) general secretary and chief of Party. All-China Congress of Chinese Soviets, convened in deep hinterland at Juichin, elects Mao Tse-tung chairman of the first All-China Soviet Government, Chu Teh military commander. In September, Japan begins conquest of Manchuria; Chiang Kai-shek suspends his third “annihilation campaign” against Red Army. End of Great Famine (1929–31) in Northwest China; estimated dead, five to ten million. Wang Ming goes to Moscow. Po Ku heads Shanghai Politburo.

1932 Japan attacks Shanghai, defended by Nineteenth Route Army; unsupported by Chiang Kai-shek, it retreats to Fukien province. Chiang authorizes Tangku Truce, to end Sino-Japanese hostilities. He renews offensive against Kiangsi Soviet; Reds declare war on Japan. Police in Shanghai International Settlement help Chiang Kai-shek extirpate Red underground. Politburo chiefs Po Ku, Lo Fu, Liu Shao-ch'i, and Chou En-lai join Mao in Kiangsi Soviet. Roosevelt elected President of U.S.

1933 Nineteenth Route Army rebels and offers alliance to Reds, which is rejected. Chiang Kai-shek destroys Nineteenth R.A., begins a new campaign against Soviet China. Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany.

1934 Second All-China Soviet Congress re-elects Mao Tse-tung chairman, but Party leadership falls to “Twenty-eight Bolsheviks.” Red Army changes tactics and suffers decisive defeats. Main forces and party cadres retreat to West China.

1935 Politburo meets in Tsunyi, Kweichow, in January; elects Mao Tse-tung effective leader of the Party and army during Long March
to Northwest China. In July, Kiangsi Red forces reach Szechuan and join troops under Politburo member and Party co-founder Chang Kuo-t'ao, driven from soviet areas north of Yangtze River. In enlarged meeting of Politburo, Chang Kuo-t'ao disputes Mao's policy and leadership. Red forces divide; Mao leads southern forces into new base in Northwest China, after one year of almost continuous marching, totaling 6,000 miles. (Chang Kuo-t'ao follows him a year later.) Japan demands separation of two North China provinces, under “autonomous” regime. Japanese troops move into Chinese Inner Mongolia, set up bogus “independent” state. December 9 student rebellion in Peking touches off wave of anti-Japanese national patriotic activity. Italy seizes Ethiopa.

1936 Mao Tse-tung, interviewed by the author in Pao An, Shensi, tells his life story and his account of the revolution, and offers to end civil war to form a united front against Japan. Mao lectures to the Red Army University; his
On the Tactics of Fighting Japanese Imperialism
and
Strategic Problems in Chind's Revolutionary War
become doctrinal basis of new stage of united front against Japan. Spurning Communists' offer of a truce (first made on August 1, 1935), Chiang Kai-shek mobilizes for “final annihilation” of Reds in Northwest.

The Sian Incident, in December: Chiang Kai-shek “arrested” by his deputy commander-in-chief, Chang Hsueh-liang, exiled Man-churian leader. Marshal Chang insists that Chiang accept national united front against Japan. Following Chiang Kai-shek's release, and undeclared truce in civil war, Kuomintang opens negotiations with CCP and its “anti-Japanese government” based in Yenan, Shensi.

V.
“United Front” Against Japan: The Great Patriotic, or Anti-Japanese, War (1937–45)

1937 In July, Japan massively invades China. Agreement signed for joint Nationalist-Communist war of resistance against Japan. Chinese Soviet Government dissolved but continues as autonomous regional regime; Red Army becomes Eighth Route and New Fourth armies under Chiang's nominal command. Mao writes theoretical works,
On Contradiction
and On
Practice.
Italy leaves the League of Nations.

1938 Mao outlines Communists' wartime political and military ends and means in
On the New Stage, On the Protracted War,
and
Strategic Problems in the Anti-Japanese Guerrilla War.
Chang Kuo-t'ao, expelled from the CCP, enters Kuomintang areas. Mao becomes un
disputed leader of Party. Japanese armies overwhelm North China. Nationalists retreat to west. Communists organize partisans far behind Japanese lines. Nazi Germany annexes Austria and Czechoslovakia.

1939 Mao's
On the New Democracy
outlines class basis of united front, intimates future coalition government structure. Rapid expansion of Communist cadres and military forces. Hitler-Stalin pact. Germany attacks Poland. With outbreak of European war, China's struggle begins to merge with the Second World War. Yenan blockaded by Nationalist troops.

1940–41 Breakdown of practical cooperation between Communists and Nationalists follows Chiang Kai-shek's attack on New Fourth Army. Ch'en Yi becomes its commander. After Pearl Harbor, Kuomintang relies on American aid while Communists vigorously expand guerrilla areas.

1942 CCP “rectification” campaign centers on Wang Ming and Moscow-trained “dogmatists”; Mao's “native” leadership enhanced.

1943 Mao Tse-tung credited (by Liu Shao-ch'i) with having “created a Chinese or Asiatic form of Marxism.” Attraction of “New Democracy” proves widespread among peasants and intellectuals; Kuomintang morale and fighting capacity rapidly decline. Chou En-lai claims 800,000 Party members, a half-million troops and trained militia, in “liberated areas” exceeding 100 million population. Fascism collapses in Italy. By decree, Stalin abolishes the Comintern.

1944 U.S. Army “observers” arrive in Yenan, Communist “guerrilla” capital. Allied landing in Normandy. President Roosevelt re-elected.

1945 Seventh National Congress of CCP (April) claims Party membership of 1,200,000, with armed forces of 900,000. Germany defeated. Russia enters Far Eastern war; signs alliance with Chiang Kai-shek's government. Mao's report On
Coalition Government
becomes formal basis of Communist demands to end Kuomintang dictatorship. After V-E Day, Communist-led forces flood North China and Manchuria, competing with American-armed Nationalists. U.S. Ambassador Hurley flies Mao Tse-tung to Chungking to negotiate with Chiang Kai-shek. Yalta Pact promises Taiwan to China. Death of Roosevelt. Truman uses atomic bomb on Hiroshima. End of Second World War.

VI.
Second Communist-Nationalist Civil War (1946–49)

1946 Nationalists and Communists fail to agree on “coalition government”; in June the Second Civil War, called by the Communists
the War of Liberation, begins. Under Soviet Russian Occupation, Eastern Europe “goes Red.”

1947 Mao's
The Present Situation and Our Tasks
outlines strategic and tactical plans, calling for general offensive against Nationalists. Truman Doctrine proclaimed in Greece.

1948 Despite U.S. aid to Nationalists, their defeat in Manchuria is overwhelming. Yugoslavia is expelled from Cominform, postwar successor to the Comintern.

1949 As his armies disintegrate, Chiang Kai-shek flees to Taiwan. Over the rest of China the People's Liberation Army is victorious. In March, the Central Committee of the CCP, led by Mao, arrives in Peking. Atlantic Pact (NATO) proclaimed. U.S. “White Paper” blames Chiang's “reactionaries” for “loss of China.”

VII.
The Chinese People's Republic
(1949–)

1949 Based on Mao's
The People's Democratic Dictatorship,
a People's Political Consultative Conference is convened, in form representing workers, peasants, intellectuals, national bourgeoisie. Chinese People's Government organized, with Mao elected chairman. On October 1, Chinese People's Republic formally proclaimed in Peking. Mao announces foreign policy of “leaning to one side” (toward U.S.S.R.). Great Britain, Soviet Russia, Norway, The Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland recognize the new government; the United States withdraws its diplomats from China. Mao Tse-tung leaves for Moscow—his first trip abroad. U.S. Communist Party leaders convicted of advocating violent overthrow of the government.

1950 Mao concludes Sino-Soviet treaty of alliance; Stalin grants China $300,000,000 loan. Korean War breaks out (June) and Chinese “Volunteers” intervene (October). India proclaims independence.

1951–52 With Soviet aid, Chinese resistance in Korea continues. American forces, barred from carrying war into China by U.N. and Allied policies, hold positions at Thirty-eighth Parallel in Korea. First hydrogen bomb exploded (1952) by U.S.A.

1953 Stalin dies. Korean armistice signed. U.S. forms alliance with Chiang Kai-shek, making Taiwan U.S. protectorate. Peking announces First Five-Year Plan. Soviet grants support for 156 large-scale Chinese projects. Moscow agrees to liquidate Soviet-Chinese joint enterprises and withdraw all troops from China. Rosenbergs executed in the U.S.

1954 Khrushchev first visits Peking. Land reform (redistribution) completed. Agricultural cooperatives lay basis for collectivization (1957).
State establishes partnerships with remaining private enterprise, preliminary to complete nationalization (1957). Geneva Accords end French power in Indochina and recognize independence of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Under the influence of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, the Eisenhower administration takes “note” of Geneva Accords, but begins intervention in support of Ngo Dinh Diem.

1955 At Bandung Conference (twenty-nine Afro-Asian nations) China seeks broader anti-imperialist role against U.S. and allies. China's “foreign aid” program competes with that of U.S.S.R. Warsaw Pact signed by U.S.S.R. and East European satellites.

1956 Khrushchev denounces Stalin at Twentieth Congress of CPSU. He proclaims end of personality cult and beginning of collective leadership. “Hundred Flowers” period invites criticism of CCP from dissatisfied Chinese intellectuals. Hungarian revolt; Peking backs suppression. China publishes important Maoist thesis,
On the Historical Experience of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat,
acknowledging continued “contradictions” within and between socialist states.

1957 Mao's
On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People
defines limitations of criticism in relation to the Party; advances thesis of “unity-criticism-unity” as dialectical process to isolate “enemies of socialism” and peacefully resolve “nonantagonistic” conflicts of interest between the state, the Party, and “the people.” Russia agrees to supply sample atom bomb to China and help in nuclear weapons development. Sputnik launched. At November conference in Moscow, Mao discerns a “turning point”: the “East Wind is prevailing over the West Wind.” He contends socialist forces outbalance capitalist forces. Thesis disputed by Russians. Breakup of Sino-Soviet unity begins.

1958 China announces Second Five-Year Plan. Year of the “Great Leap Forward” and People's Communes. Peking's threat to liberate Taiwan provokes Sino-American crisis. Khrushchev withholds unconditional nuclear support for China, and Peking declines to place Chinese forces under Soviet military command. Sino-Soviet differences develop. First U.S. space satellite launched.

1959 During October anniversary celebrations Khrushchev again visits Peking, where he declares “imperialist war is not inevitable.” His advocacy of “peaceful coexistence” with “American imperialism” is sharply rejected by Chinese. China gets no A-bomb and Mao loses confidence in Khrushchev. Tibetan rebellion. Dalai Lama flees to India. During China's disputes with India and Indonesia, Khrushchev offers aid to the latter. He disparages Chinese people's communes. Castro takes power in Cuba. As U.S. increases armed intervention,
aimed to separate South Vietnam from the Republic, President Ho Chi Minh backs People's Liberation War in the South.

1960 In July, Moscow recalls all Soviet advisers from China, cancels more than 300 contracts, withdraws technical help. At Moscow international Party conference (November), Sino-Soviet “contradictions” intensify. Chinese openly identify Khrushchev as “revisionist.” Russians accuse Mao of seeking “world holocaust.” Massive crop failure and industrial dislocation in China. As Sino-Indian frontier incidents grow serious, Khrushchev plays neutral role, continues economic aid to India. John F. Kennedy elected U.S. President.