Communist Victory in China: Popular Support Dynamics

‘Winning popular support was the main reason why the Communists were able to establish the People’s Republic of China in 1949.’ Discuss this view. The CCP was a powerful force among the peasants seemingly standing for democracy, freedom and individual liberty. Whenever the Communists secured an area during the civil war, Mao’s cadres organised village ‘struggle meetings’. Peasants and labourers, who owned little or no land, met to force wealthy landlords to confess their bad treatment of the poor. The cadres then cancelled all debts owed to the landlords and distributed their land and other property to the poor peasants and labourers. What they received became their own private property and they knew if the Nationalists won, they would lose everything. Therefore, they increasingly supported Mao Zedong who destroyed the traditional landlord power structure in the villages and replaced it with new peasant leadership under the control of the CCP. Their support for the People’s Liberation Army played a crucial role in the victory. It was unified under a tightly controlled central command. In 1945 the USSR turned over all of its captured Japanese weapons to the CCP who also received Manchuria from the Soviets. Mao appointed loyal generals including Lin Biao and Zhu De whose tactics contributed greatly to the Communist success. The ordinary soldiers in the army were treated with respect. Large numbers of well-trained KMT deserted and joined the Communists who took full advantage of their skills. In June 1947, the Communists successfully defeated the KMT New First Army; they now had tanks and heavy artillery at their disposal. In 1948 they launched an attack south of the Great Wall that cut off Nationalist troops from their supply bases in Xi’an. They then secured the Southeast Central section of China and by the end of January 1949 most of China was in the hands of the Communists. The shortcomings of the Nationalists also helped to secure a Communist victory. Chiang Kai-shek experienced difficulties leading China through the Second World War; the government and party he presided over consisted of different factions which he struggled to reunite. His government was weak and failed to save millions from being murdered by the Japanese. Civil war between the Nationalists and Communists erupted again in 1946 following the end of the war with Japan and the failure of a truce between the two sides. Chiang’s troops often turned and fled rather than face the enemy. His army also had a reputation for arrogance and cowardice and was accused of looting and stealing. He lost support in the cities because of heavy taxes, inflation, unemployment and food shortages. Economic discontent led to strikes and there were protests demanding an end to the civil war and the creation of a government that included the Communists. The Nationalists responded with repression including censorship, mass arrests and assassinations. The Nationalists supported business and the landlords; they ignored the suffering of the peasants.However, the United States still hoped to maintain Nationalist China as an
ally to stop the advance of communism even though they were aware of the
corruption of Chiang’s administration. They increased their aid to the
Nationalists, supplying aircraft and sending teams to Taiwan to train their
troops but US public opinion was firmly against fighting a war in China. The
United States limited their commitment in the area. Thus, the weakness of
the Nationalists and the limited commitment of the United States to their
cause placed the Communists in a strong position. The People’s Republic of
China was proclaimed on 1 October 1949