🏢 The cities
The Guomindang held the cities, but its soldiers were cut off from each other and had to be supplied by air and rail.
The Triumph of Mao and the CCP, 1934-49 » The Civil War, 1946-49, and the Battle of Huai-Hai
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: Paper 2 Section B, Breadth study B4, Key topic 2
- How the Civil War restarted in 1946 and why the Guomindang advanced at first
- The struggle for Manchuria and the fall of its great cities
- The Battle of Huai-Hai (1948-49) and the fall of the great cities of the north and south
- The People's Republic declared on 1 October 1949 and Chiang's retreat to Taiwan
🔒 Unlock Full Course Content
Sign up to access the complete lesson and track your progress!
Unlock This CourseWar restarts, 1946
When Japan surrendered in August 1945, China had two rival armies. One belonged to Chiang Kai-shek's Guomindang (the Nationalist government). The other was the communist army (the Red Army, made up of the Eighth Route and New Fourth Armies) of Mao Zedong's CCP (the Chinese Communist Party). In 1947 the communist armies were renamed the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
At first both leaders talked. Mao flew to Chongqing for talks with Chiang in August 1945, and the American general George Marshall tried to arrange a lasting peace. A ceasefire in January 1946 did not last. By mid-1946 full-scale civil war had begun.
On paper the Guomindang looked far stronger. It had roughly four million soldiers to the CCP's one million or so, more and better weapons, help from the USA, and it held most of the big cities. Many observers expected Chiang to win.
Key terms:
- Manchuria: the large north-eastern region of China, rich in coal, iron and factories left by the Japanese.
- People's Liberation Army (PLA): the name given to the communist Red Army from 1947.
- Siege: surrounding a town or city so that nothing can get in or out, to force it to surrender.
- People's Republic of China: the communist state declared by Mao in 1949.
Early Guomindang advances
In 1946 and 1947 the Guomindang attacked on many fronts and took town after town. Its biggest prize came in March 1947, when its armies captured Yan'an, the communist base since 1937. Mao and his leaders left before it fell and kept moving, so the CCP leadership was not destroyed.
The struggle for Manchuria
Manchuria was the key battleground. The Soviet army had entered it in August 1945. When it withdrew in 1946, the CCP moved in and got hold of large stocks of Japanese weapons. The Guomindang, helped by American ships and planes, moved troops in and took the main cities, including Changchun and Shenyang. But the communists held the countryside around them.
🌾 The countryside
The PLA, led in Manchuria by Lin Biao, controlled the villages and cut the railways, so the cities were isolated.
In 1948 the PLA turned the tables. It laid siege to Changchun from May. Jinzhou fell on 15 October, and the starving city of Changchun fell on 19 October. Shenyang fell on 2 November. By the end of 1948 all of Manchuria was in communist hands. The Guomindang lost nearly half a million soldiers there, and the PLA took over a huge amount of its American-supplied equipment.
The Battle of Huai-Hai, 1948-49
The decisive fight came further south. The Battle of Huai-Hai was fought from 6 November 1948 to 10 January 1949 around Xuzhou, a railway junction on the plains of eastern China. It took its name from the Huai River and the Haizhou railway line. Both sides put in several hundred thousand men. The PLA surrounded the Guomindang armies one after another and cut them off from supplies. Millions of peasants helped the PLA, carrying food and ammunition to the front, many of them pushing wheelbarrows.
The result was a disaster for Chiang. His best-equipped armies were destroyed or captured, and over half a million men were lost. The way was now open to Nanjing, the capital, and the Yangtze River.
Why it mattered
Huai-Hai broke the Guomindang's strongest forces. After it, Chiang no longer had an army able to stop the PLA. Many historians see it as the battle that decided the Civil War.
The fall of the great cities
- Tianjin fell on 15 January 1949.
- Chiang Kai-shek stepped down as president on 21 January 1949, though he kept real influence behind the scenes.
- Beijing (then called Beiping) was handed over without a fight on 31 January 1949, after its Guomindang general, Fu Zuoyi, agreed to surrender.
- Nanjing, the Guomindang capital, fell on 23 April 1949 after the PLA crossed the Yangtze.
- Shanghai, China's largest city, fell on 27 May 1949.
By now many Guomindang soldiers were giving up or changing sides, and there were few big battles left to fight.
The People's Republic and Taiwan
On 1 October 1949, from the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Beijing, Mao declared the People's Republic of China. Beijing became its capital and Zhou Enlai became its prime minister.
Chiang Kai-shek and what was left of his government and army escaped across the sea to the island of Taiwan, where his government was based from December 1949. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and officials went with him, and he took much of China's gold reserves and art treasures. The Guomindang carried on its government there, calling itself the Republic of China. Mainland China was now under communist rule.
Change and continuity
In 1900 China was ruled by an emperor and weakened by foreign powers. By 1949 a communist government ruled almost the whole mainland, with one party in charge of a united country for the first time in decades. Yet the Civil War was only the latest chapter in a long period of conflict that had begun long before, with the fall of the Qing and the years of the warlords. What changed in 1949 was that one side had finally won.
Common mistakes
- Thinking the communists were stronger at the start. In 1946 the Guomindang had far more soldiers and weapons. The CCP became stronger during the war.
- Mixing up the Civil War (1946-49) with the earlier war against Japan (1937-45).
- Saying the People's Republic was declared when Nanjing or Shanghai fell. It was declared on 1 October 1949.
- Explaining why the CCP won. That is the next lesson. Here, say what happened and when.
Exam-style question
Explain TWO ways in which the position of the CCP in 1946 was different from its position in 1949. [6 marks]
Remember: in 1946 the CCP was a rebel party with about a million soldiers, holding mainly the countryside of the north.
Model answer
One difference was military strength. In 1946 the CCP's Red Army had roughly one million soldiers, against about four million Guomindang troops, and was short of modern weapons. By early 1949 the renamed People's Liberation Army had destroyed Chiang's best armies in Manchuria and at Huai-Hai and was using the American-supplied weapons it had captured, so it was now the stronger force.
A second difference was the territory and power the CCP held. In 1946 it controlled mostly countryside in the north, while the Guomindang held the big cities such as Shenyang and Nanjing. By 1949 it held Beijing, Nanjing and Shanghai, and on 1 October 1949 Mao declared the People's Republic of China, so the CCP had changed from a rebel party into the government of mainland China.
What lifts this to the top level: each way compares BOTH dates directly and uses precise facts, such as numbers, places and dates, for 1946 and for 1949.
Exam tip
In a "similar" or "different" question, write two short paragraphs and give each one a fact about both periods, joined by a word such as "whereas" or "but by 1949". A paragraph that describes only one period cannot score well.