Lesson 3: Revolutionary Chaos in China

Lesson Focus

Explore how China's Nationalist and Communist parties allied against imperialists, but their rivalry soon plunged the nation into civil war, setting the stage for revolution.

People to Know

Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Zedong

Learning Objectives

• Trace the shifting alliance between the Nationalists and Communists, from early cooperation to the outbreak of civil war.
• Analyze the characteristics of the “New China” Chiang Kai-shek attempted to build, including his social and economic policies.

To drive out imperialists and warlords, Sun Yat-sen’s Nationalist Party and the new Chinese Communist Party (CCP) formed an alliance in 1923.

They launched the Northern Expedition in 1926, successfully taking control of southern China and major ports.

This cooperation, however, masked deep suspicions between the two groups. Pay special attention to how this fragile alliance eventually set the stage for a brutal civil war once their common goals were partially achieved.

Following the previous summary, tensions rose after Sun Yat-sen's death, and his successor, Chiang Kai-shek, secretly planned to eliminate his rivals.

In April 1927, he ordered the Shanghai Massacre, killing thousands of Communists and their supporters.

As a result, the Nationalist-Communist alliance ceased to exist. The Communists were forced into hiding, and Chiang established a new Chinese republic at Nanjing, determined to destroy the CCP.

Forced into hiding, a young Mao Zedong built a Communist base in Jiangxi Province, relying on peasant support and guerrilla tactics.

In 1934, Chiang's army surrounded the base, forcing Mao’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to begin The Long March—a brutal 6,000-mile retreat.

Note that while the army suffered massive losses, the survivors reached safety in northern China, and Mao Zedong emerged as the sole leader of the CCP.

While fighting the Communists, Chiang Kai-shek tried to build a new China by introducing modern Western ideas into a conservative culture.

He launched the New Life Movement to promote traditional Confucian virtues like duty and honor, while also building new roads and factories.

However, the movement largely failed because Confucian ideas had been discredited by China’s recent decline, and the government faced overwhelming problems like Japanese aggression and the Great Depression.

Because Chiang’s government drew support from the urban elite and wealthy landowners, it failed to help the vast peasant population.

It suppressed opposition, censored free expression, and refused to push for a redistribution of wealth that would benefit the poor.

This created a deep class divide. While cities modernized, the rural majority remained impoverished and alienated, which undermined Chiang's authority and fueled support for the Communists who promised radical change.