The Kuomintang
(National People's Party) was established in 1912 by Sun
Yat-sen and Song Jiaoren. When the party was suppressed in 1913
Sun Yat-sen and his military commander, Chiang
Kai-Shek, escaped
to Japan.
With the help of advisers
from the Soviet Union the Kuomintang gradually
increased its power in China. In 1924 it adopted the "Three Principles
of the People" (nationalism, democracy and social reform).
Sun
Yat-sen died on 12th March 1925. After a struggle with Wang Ching-Wei,
Chiang
Kai-Shek eventually
emerged as the leader of the Kuomintang. He now carried out a purge
that eliminated the communists from the organization. In 1928 the
reformed Koumintang captured Beijing and was able to establish a government
in Nanjing.
When the Japanese
Army invaded the heartland of China in 1937, Chiang was
forced to move his capital from Nanking to Chungking. He lost control
of the coastal regions and most of the major cities to Japan. In an
effort to beat the Japanese he agreed to collaborate with Mao
Zedong and
his communist army.
After the bombing of Pearl
Harbor, Chiang and his government received considerable financial
support from the United States. General
Joseph Stilwell, head of
American Army Forces in China, Burma and India (CBI), disagreed
with this policy, arguing that Chiang
Kai-Shek was
an inept leader and was ignorant of the fundamentals of modern warfare.
Stilwell was accused of being pro-communist and in October 1944 Stilwell
was recalled to the United States and was replaced by General Albert
Wedemeyer.
During the Second
World War the communist forces were well led by
Zhu De and Lin Biao.
As soon as the Japanese
surrendered, the communists began a war against the Nationalists.
The communists gradually gained control of the country and on 1st
October, 1949, Mao announced the establishment of People's Republic
of China. Chiang
Kai-Shek and
the remnants of his armed forces fled to Formosa (Taiwan).
(1)
Su
Kaiming, Modern China (1985)
In February 1923, Sun
Yat-sen returned to Guangzhou where he immediately set up a headquarters
of a new revolutionary government. Soviet Russia sent Michael Borodin
(1884-1951) and some military advisers to help him, and a provisional
central committee of the Kuomintang which included a number of Communists
was organized.
The Chinese Communist Party
held its Third National Congress in Guangzhou in June 1923, and the
question of forming a revolutionary united front with the Kuomintang
was discussed. The congress affirmed Sun Yat-sen's contribution to
the Chinese revolution and resolved to help him in reorganizing the
Kuomintang and establishing cooperation between the two parties.
The gap between Sun Yat-sen
and the West continued to widen. When he threatened in December to
seize the customs revenues in the port of Guangzhou, the powers staged
a naval demonstration to preserve the status quo. Thwarted, Sun angrily
stated, "We no longer look to the Western powers.
Our faces are turned toward Russia."
In January 1924, Sun Yat-sen
called the First National Congress of the reorganized Kuomintang in
Guangzhou. Among the Communists who attended were Li Dazhao, Mao Zedong
and Qu Qiubai (Chu Chiu-pai, 1899-1935). The congress adopted the
anti-imperialist, anti-feudal policy advanced by the Communists, agreed
to absorb individual Communists and Socialist Youth League members
into the Kuomintang, and decided to reorganize the Kuomintang into
a revolutionary alliance of workers, peasants, the petty-bourgeoisie
and national bourgeoisie. In this way, new blood was infused into
the ranks of the Kuomintang and Sun Yat-sen became the leader of a
revitalized revolutionary movement.
(2)
Qi
Wen, China (1979)
In 1923, the Chinese Communist
Party decided to establish a revolutionary united front. It helped
Sun Yat-sen reorganize the Kuomintang (the old Tong Meng Hui was reorganized
into the Kuomintang after the Revolution of 1911). With the formation
of the Kuomintang-Communist united front, the Chinese Communist Party
mobilized the masses on a broad scale, and the revolutionary situation
developed vigorously. It continued to rise after the death of Sun
Yat-sen in 1925. Organized and energized by the Party, the revolutionary
forces swept away the reactionary forces in Guangdong, and in 1926
the Northern Expeditionary War began. Supported by the masses, the
revolutionary army defeated the counter-revolutionary armies of the
Northern warlords and occupied central and south China. The worker-peasant
movement grew rapidly throughout the country.
Seeing that the warlord
regime they supported was tottering in the sweep of the revolutionary
tide, the imperialist forces hastily looked for new agents and finally
picked Chiang Kai-shek who had worked his way into the position of
Commander-in-Chief of the National Revolutionary Army". In April
1927, at a crucial moment in the forward advance of the Northern Expeditionary
War, Chiang staged, with the active support of the big bourgeoisie
and landlord class, a counter-revolutionary coup d'etat against the
Chinese Communist Party and the revolutionary people.
(3)
Zhong
Wenxian, Mao Zedong (1986)
In June 1923 Mao Zedong
attended the Third National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party,
which adopted the policy of cooperation with the Kuomintang, then
led by Dr Sun Yat-sen, for the purpose of forming a national anti-imperialist
and anti-feudal united front to include all democratic classes. The
congress also decided that all members of the Communist Party were
to join the Kuomintang as individuals. Elected a member of the Central
Executive Committee by the congress, Mao Zedong began to play a role
in the work of the central leadership. After the Kuomintang-Communist
cooperation was brought about, he was elected an alternate member
of the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang at its First
and Second National Congresses, held in January 1924 and January 1926.
(4)
Sun
Yat-sen, letter to the Kuomintang (1925)
For 40 years I have devoted
myself to the cause of the people's revolution with but one end in
view: the elevation of China to a position of freedom and equality
among the nations. My experience during these 40 years has convinced
me that to attain this goal we must bring about an awakening of our
own people and ally ourselves in common struggle with
those people of the world who treat us as equals.
(5)
Sun
Yat-sen, letter to Joseph Stalin and the
Soviet Communist Party (1925)
I leave behind me a party
which, as has always been my wish, will be bound up with you in the
historic work of the final liberation of China and other exploited
nations from the imperialist order. By the will of fate, I must leave
my work unfinished and hand it over to those who, remaining true to
the principles and teachings of the party, will show themselves to
be my true followers.
Taking leave of you, dear
comrades, I want to express the hope
that the day will come when the U.S.S.R. will welcome a friend and
ally in a mighty, free China, and that in the great struggle for the
liberation of the oppressed peoples of the world, both these allies
will go forward to victory hand in hand.
(6)
Mao
Zedong, interviewed by Edgar
Snow in Red Star Over China (1936)
In April the counter-revolutionary
movement had begun in Nanjing and Shanghai, and a general massacre
of organized workers had taken place under Chiang Kai-shek. The same
measures were carried out in Guangzhou. On May 21 the Xu Kexiang Uprising
occurred in Hunan. Scores of peasants and workers were killed by the
reactionaries. Shortly
afterward the 'Left' Kuomintang at Wuhan annulled its agreement with
the Communists and 'expelled' them from the Kuomintang and from a
Government which quickly ceased to exist.
Many Communist leaders
were now ordered by the Party to leave the country, go to Russia or
Shanghai or places of safety. I was ordered to go to Sichuan. I persuaded
Chen Duxiu to send me to Hunan instead, as secretary of the Provincial
Committee, but after ten days he ordered me hastily to return, accusing
me of organizing an uprising against Tang Shengzhi, then in command
at Wuhan. The affairs of the Party were now in a chaotic state. Nearly
everyone was opposed to. Chen Duxiu's leadership and his opportunist
line. The collapse of the entente at Wuhan soon afterward brought
about his downfall.
(7)
Su
Kaiming, Modern China (1985)
After setting up his military
headquarters at Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi Province, Chiang
Kai-shek considered himself strong enough to defy the authority of
the revolutionary Nationalist government at Wuhan, which was then
dominated by Kuomintang left-wingers (including Mme. Sun Yat-sen)
and Communists. In January 1927, he demanded that the government be
moved from Wuhan to Nanchang, where he was in complete control. In
reply, the central committee of the Kuomintang at Wuhan took away
his leading positions in the party, government and army in an attempt
to prevent him from seizing all power.
Bankers from Shanghai,
politicians representing various warlord governments and the agents
of foreign imperialists all converged on Nanchang to offer Chiang
their help. In secret talks he was promised a loan of 60,000,000 Chinese
dollars if he would break with the Communists and the Soviet Union
and suppress the peasants and workers. Chiang quickly agreed.
In the early hours of April
12, 1927, thousands of thugs from the underworld Green Gang came out
of the International Settlement disguised as workers to attack the
workers' armed militia. Pretending to oppose "internal dissension
among the workers", Chiang Kai-shek ordered his troops to disarm
the workers and occupy the headquarters of the General Trade Union,
where a spurious union composed of underworld figures was immediately
set up. Next day the Shanghai workers called a mass rally and demanded
the return of their weapons. Unaware that Chiang Kai-shek had turned
against the revolution, they went to the General Headquarters of the
Northern Expeditionary Army to present their petition, only to be
mowed down by machine-gun fire. The blood of hundreds of workers stained
the rain-washed streets of Shanghai red.
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