How China Became Communist

In 1921 Chinese youth founded the Chinese Communist Party in the French district of Shanghai. The early president of the party, Sun Yat-sen, and his wife based the new party on the example of Russia’s Communist revolution. They attempted to work with the existing government of Chiang Kai-shek to help the existing government embrace communism. When they became a more powerful influence than the government, the government tried to destroy the organization. They then were ordered by their allies in Moscow to create urban insurrection. One group of communists followed Moscow’s orders and the other followed Mao, who advocated a rebellion of peasants. Mao continued to use his famous slogan of "Correct leadership can only be developed on the principle of from the masses, to the masses." Utterly sure of himself, Mao then called the First All-China Congress of the Soviets on November 7, 1931, to be held in his capital city of Juichin. The Bolshevik members of the Chinese Politburo agreed to this congress but only with the intention of chastising Mao.

Mao Zedong - Founder of Communist China (http://museums.cnd.org/China89/images/figures/mao.jpg)

Mao disagreed with the Communist congress and wanted guerilla groups to be used by the communists rather than a unified army. Chiang Kai-shek began a series of campaigns against Mao and during the fighting in 1934, he managed to oust the leaders of the party and became the Chairman of the CCP Central Committee, Chairman of the Politburo, Chairman of the Secretariat, and Chairman of the Military Commission over the next year. Japan invaded China in 1937 and after 16 months had taken over much of China. The government still maintained control of western China and used their army to halt the Japanese advance and tie up half of Japan's military in China.

As World War II ended, Mao realized that the government had been weakened by the war and the people were eager for peace. After Japan left, there was a mad scramble for territory by the Communists and the Nationalist government. The United States tried to help them mediate their differences, but in 1946-1949 China desintigrated into civil war. The communists let the nationalists win for a time and then hit their spread out troops hard, killing 1.5 million soldiers and forcing the disintigration of the nationalist army. Mao declared victory and the nationalists retreated to Taiwan where they fortified the island against attack.

When this happened in 1949, Mao declared the foundation of the People's Republic of China and moved the capital to Beijing, but some countries like the United States did not recognize this government of China until much later (the U.S. recognized the People's Republic in 1979).

(http://www.free-photos.org/photos/chinaflag.jpg)

http://www.empereur.com/DOC/Politics_in_the_People_CH.html

http://www.wsu.edu:8001/~dee/MODCHINA/COMM.HTM