Chinese Civil War
People's Liberation Army attacking government defensive positions in Shangtang
Date Encirclement Campaigns; April 1927 – December 1936 Intermittent clashes; January 1941 – July 1945 Full-scale war; March 1946 – May 1950 Cross-strait shellings and insurgency operations in Western China; 1950–1979 War declared over by the ROC in 1991[1] Location China Status Communist military victory in mainland China People's Republic of China established on mainland China Government of the Republic of China relocated to Taipei No armistice or peace treaty signed[2][3]
Belligerents
Nationalist Party of China Republic of China After 1949:  Republic of China on Taiwan	Communist Party of China Soviet China After 1949:  People's Republic of China
Commanders and leaders
Chiang Kai-shek Bai Chongxi Chen Cheng Li Zongren Yan Xishan He Yingqin	/ Mao Zedong / Zhu De / Peng Dehuai / Lin Biao / He Long
Strength
4,300,000 (July 1945)[4] 3,650,000 (June 1948) 1,490,000 (June 1949)	1,200,000 (July 1945)[4] 2,800,000 (June 1948) 4,000,000 (June 1949)
Casualties and losses
1928–1936: ~2,000,000 Military Casualties 1945–1949: ~1-3 million dead [5]

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The Chinese Civil War (1927–1950) was a civil war fought between the Kuomintang (KMT), the governing party of the Republic of China, and the Communist Party of China (CPC),^[6] for the control of China which eventually led to China's division into two Chinas, Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan and People's Republic of China (PRC) in Mainland. The war began in April 1927, amidst the Northern Expedition,^[7] and essentially ended when major active battles ceased in 1949–1950. However there is debate on whether the war has officially ended. The conflict continues in the form of military threats and political and economic pressure, particularly over the political status of Taiwan. The continued tension is described in cross-Strait relations. The Chinese Civil War is the third largest war ever fought in history, behind World War I and World War II.

The war represented an ideological split between the Nationalist KMT, and the Communist CPC. In mainland China today, the last three years of the war (1947–1949) are more commonly known as the War of Liberation, or alternatively the Third Internal Revolutionary War (第三次国内革命战争). In Taiwan, the war was also known as the Counter-insurgency War against Communists (戡亂戰爭) before 1991 or commonly the Nationalist-Communist Civil War (國共內戰) in both sides.

The civil war continued intermittently until the Second Sino-Japanese War led the two parties to form a Second United Front. Japan's campaign was defeated in 1945, marking the end of World War II, and China's full-scale civil war resumed in 1946. After four more years, 1950 saw the cessation of major military hostilities—with the newly founded People's Republic of China controlling mainland China (including Hainan Island, a sub-division region of Guangdong Province at the time until 1988), and the Republic of China's jurisdiction being restricted to Taiwan, Penghu, Quemoy, Matsu and several outlying islands. It is observed that the Yan'an Rectification Movement that remolded the Chinese Communist Party, the June 1946 ceasefire called by United States special envoy George Marshall that disrupted Nationalist China's efforts to defeat the Communists in Northeast China, the worsening social and economic problems in Nationalist controlled areas, the handover of the captured artillery from Kanto Army to the People's Liberation Army by the Soviet troop (as footnoted in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 505), and the inconsistent American aid to the Nationalists all contributed to the downfall of the Republic of China in Mainland China in less than 5 years.

To this day, since no armistice or peace treaty has ever been signed, the PRC still actively claims Taiwan as part of its territory and continues military threats against Taiwan, the ROC also has a mutual claim on mainland China, and both continue the fight over diplomatic recognition, there is debate on whether the Civil War has legally ended.^[8] The war of weapons has given way to a war of words. Today, the war (such as it is) occurs on the political and economic fronts in the form of cross-Strait relations. The People's Republic threatens the ROC with a military invasion if the ROC officially declares independence for Taiwan by changing its name to and gaining international recognition as the Republic of Taiwan. Today, the de facto separate states on the two sides of the Taiwan strait have close economic ties.^[9]

Background[link]

The Qing Dynasty, the last of the ruling Chinese dynasties, collapsed in 1911.^[9] China was left under the control of several major and lesser warlords in the Warlord era. To defeat these warlords, who had seized control of much of Northern China, the anti-monarchist and national unificationist Kuomintang party and its leader Sun Yat-sen, sought the help of foreign powers.

Sun Yat-sen's efforts to obtain aid from the Western democracies were ignored, however, and in 1921 he turned to the Soviet Union. For political expediency, the Soviet leadership initiated a dual policy of support for both Sun and the newly established Communist Party of China, which would eventually found the People's Republic of China. Thus the struggle for power in China began between the KMT and the CPC.

In 1923, a joint statement by Sun and Soviet representative Adolph Joffe in Shanghai pledged Soviet assistance for China's unification.^[10] The Sun-Joffe Manifesto was a declaration for cooperation among the Comintern, KMT and the Communist Party of China.^[10] Comintern agent Mikhail Borodin arrived in China in 1923 to aid in the reorganization and consolidation of the KMT along the lines of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The CPC joined the KMT to form the First United Front.^[4]

In 1923, Sun Yat-sen sent Chiang Kai-shek, one of Sun's lieutenants from his Tongmeng Hui days, for several months' military and political study in Moscow.^[11] By 1924, Chiang became the head of the Whampoa Military Academy, and rose to prominence as Sun's successor as head of the KMT.^[11]

The Soviets provided much of the studying material, organization, and equipment including munitions for the academy.^[11] The Soviets also provided education in many of the techniques for mass mobilization. With this aid Sun Yat-sen was able to raise a dedicated "army of the party," with which he hoped to defeat the warlords militarily. CPC members were also present in the academy, and many of them became instructors, including Zhou Enlai who was made a political instructor of the academy.^[12]

Communist members were allowed to join the KMT on an individual basis.^[10] The CPC itself was still small at the time, having a membership of 300 in 1922 and only 1,500 by 1925.^[13] The KMT in 1923 had 50,000 members.^[13]

Northern Expedition (1926–1928) and KMT-CPC split[link]

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, Commander-in-Chief of the National Revolutionary Army, emerged from the Northern Expedition as the leader of China.

In early 1927; the KMT-CPC rivalry led to a split in the revolutionary ranks. The CPC and the left wing of the KMT had decided to move the seat of the KMT government from Guangzhou to Wuhan, where communist influence was strong.^[13] But Chiang and Li Zongren, whose armies defeated warlord Sun Chuanfang, moved eastward toward Jiangxi. The leftists rejected Chiang's demand and Chiang denounced the leftists for betraying Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People by taking orders from the Soviet Union. According to Mao Zedong, Chiang's tolerance of the CPC in the KMT camp decreased as his power increased.^[14]

On April 7, Chiang and several other KMT leaders held a meeting arguing that communist activities were socially and economically disruptive, and must be undone for the national revolution to proceed. As a result of this, on April 12, Chiang turned on the CPC in Shanghai. The KMT was purged of leftists by the arrest and execution of hundreds of CPC members.^[15] It was directed by General Bai Chongxi. This was called the April 12 Incident or Shanghai Massacre by the CPC.^[16]

The massacre widened the rift between Chiang and Wang Jingwei's Wuhan. Attempts were made by CPC to take cities such as Nanchang, Changsha, Shantou, and Guangzhou. An armed rural insurrection, known as the Autumn Harvest Uprising was staged by peasants, miners and CPC members in Hunan Province led by Mao Zedong.^[17] The uprising was unsuccessful.^[17] There were now three capitals in China: the internationally recognized republic capital in Beijing,^[18] the CPC and left-wing KMT at Wuhan,^[19] and the right-wing KMT regime at Nanjing, which would remain the KMT capital for the next decade.^[18]

The CPC had been expelled from Wuhan by their left-wing KMT allies, who in turn were toppled by Chiang Kai-shek. The KMT resumed the campaign against warlords and captured Beijing in June 1928.^[20] Afterwards most of eastern China was under the Nanjing central government's control, and the Nanjing government received prompt international recognition as the sole legitimate government of China. The KMT government announced in conformity with Sun Yat-sen, the formula for the three stages of revolution: military unification, political tutelage, and constitutional democracy.^[21]

Encirclement Campaigns and the Long March (1927–1937)[link]

During the 1920s, Communist Party of China activists retreated underground or to the countryside where they fomented a military revolt, beginning the Nanchang Uprising on August 1, 1927.^[22] They combined the force with remnants of peasant rebels, and established control over several areas in southern China.^[22] The Guangzhou commune was able to control Guangzhou for three days and a "soviet" was established.^[22] KMT armies continued to suppress the rebellions.^[22] This marked the beginning of the ten year's struggle, known in mainland China as the "Ten Year's Civil War" (Traditional Chinese: 十年內戰 Simplified Chinese:十年内战 Pinyin:Shínían Nèizhàn). It lasted until the Xi'an Incident when Chiang Kai-shek was forced to form the Second United Front against the invading Japanese.

A Communist leader addressing Long March survivors.

In 1930 the Central Plains War broke out as an internal conflict of the KMT. It was launched by Feng Yuxiang, Yan Xishan, and Wang Jingwei. The attention was turned to root out remaining pockets of Communist activity in a series of encirclement campaigns. There were a total of five campaigns.^[23] The first and second campaigns failed and the third was aborted due to the Mukden Incident. The fourth campaign (1932–1933) achieved some early successes, but Chiang’s armies were badly mauled when they tried to penetrate into the heart of Mao’s Soviet Chinese Republic. During these campaigns, the KMT columns struck swiftly into Communist areas, but were easily engulfed by the vast countryside and were not able to consolidate their foothold.

Finally, in late 1934, Chiang launched a fifth campaign that involved the systematic encirclement of the Jiangxi Soviet region with fortified blockhouses.^[24] Unlike in previous campaigns in which they penetrated deeply in a single strike, this time the KMT troops patiently built blockhouses, each separated by five or so miles to surround the Communist areas and cut off their supplies and food source.^[24]

In October 1934, the CPC took advantage of gaps in the ring of blockhouses (manned by the troops of a warlord ally of Chiang Kai-shek's, rather than the KMT themselves) to escape Jiangxi. The warlord armies were reluctant to challenge Communist forces for fear of wasting their own men, and did not pursue the CPC with much fervor. In addition, the main KMT forces were preoccupied with annihilating Zhang Guotao's army, which was much larger than Mao's. The massive military retreat of Communist forces lasted a year and covered what Mao estimated as 12,500 km (25,000 Li), and was known as the famous Long March.^[25]

The march ended when the CPC reached the interior of Shaanxi. Zhang Guotao's army, which took a different route through northwest China, was largely destroyed by the forces of Chiang Kai-shek and his Chinese Muslim ally, the Ma clique. Along the way, the Communist army confiscated property and weapons from local warlords and landlords, while recruiting peasants and the poor, solidifying its appeal to the masses. Of the 90,000-100,000 people who began the Long March from the Soviet Chinese Republic, only around 7,000-8,000 made it to Shaanxi.^[26] The remnants of Zhang's forces eventually joined Mao in Shaanxi, but with his army destroyed, Zhang, even as a founding member of the CPC, was never able to challenge Mao's authority. Essentially, the great retreat made Mao the undisputed leader of the Communist Party of China.

The Kuomintang used Khampa soldiers to battle the Communist Red Army as it advanced, and to undermine local warlords who often refused to fight Communist forces to conserve their own strength. 300 "Khampa bandits" were enlisted into the Kuomintang's Consolatory Commission military in Sichuan, where they were part of the effort of the central government of China to penetrated and destabilize the local Han warlords such as Liu Wenhui. The Chinese government sought to exercise full control over frontier areas against the warlords. Liu had refused to battle the Communists to conserve his army. The Consoltary Commission forces were used to battle the Communist Red Army, but were defeated when their religious leader was captured by Communist forces.^[27]

Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945)[link]

The government of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek was severely weakened in power by the Second Sino-Japanese War.

During the Japanese invasion and occupation of Manchuria, Chiang Kai-shek, who saw the CPC as a greater threat, refused to ally with the CPC to fight against the Japanese Imperial Army. Chiang preferred to unite China by eliminating the warlords and CPC forces first. Chiang believed that he was still too weak to launch an offensive to chase out Japan and that China needed time for a military build-up. Only after unification would it be possible for the KMT to mobilize a war against Japan. So he would rather ignore the discontent and anger among Chinese people at his policy of compromise with the Japanese, and urged Zhang and Yang to carry out suppression of the CPC efficiently.ref "On December 12, 1936, KMT Generals Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng kidnapped Chiang Kai-shek and forced him to a truce with the CPC. The incident became known as the Xi'an Incident.^[28] Both parties suspended fighting to form a Second United Front to focus their energies and fighting against the Japanese.^[28] In 1937, Japanese launched its full scale invasion of China and its well-equipped troops overran KMT defenders in north and coastal China.

The alliance of CPC and KMT was in name only.^[29] Unlike the KMT troops, CPC shunned conventional warfare and instead engaged in guerrilla warfare against the Japanese. The level of actual cooperation and coordination between the CPC and KMT during World War II was at best minimal.^[29] In the midst of the Second United Front, the CPC and the KMT were still vying for territorial advantage in "Free China" (i.e. areas not occupied by the Japanese or ruled by Japanese puppet governments such as Manchukuo and the Reorganized National Government of China).^[29]

The situation came to a head in late 1940 and early 1941 when there were major clashes between the Communist and KMT forces. In December 1940, Chiang Kai-shek demanded that the CPC’s New Fourth Army evacuate Anhui and Jiangsu Provinces. Under intense pressure, the New Fourth Army commanders complied. In 1941 the New Fourth Army Incident led to several thousand deaths in the CPC.^[30] It also ended the Second united front formed earlier to fight the Japanese.^[30]

In general, developments in the Second Sino-Japanese War were to the advantage of the CPC, as their guerilla war effort had won them popular support within the Japanese-occupied areas while the KMT's burden to defend China against main Japanese assaults due to its status as the legal government of China proved costly to Chiang Kai-shek and his troops. In 1944 Japan launched its last major offensive, Operation Ichigo, against the KMT that severely weakened Chiang Kai-shek's forces.^[31]

Immediate post-war clashes (1945–1946)[link]

From left to right: US diplomat Patrick J. Hurley, Chiang Ching-kuo, Chiang Kai-shek, Chang Ch'ün, Wang Shi Jie (王世杰), Mao Zedong

Under the terms of the Japanese unconditional surrender dictated by the United States, Japanese troops were ordered to surrender to KMT troops and not to the CPC present in some of the occupied areas.^[32] In Manchuria, however, where the KMT had no forces, the Japanese surrendered to the Soviet Union. Chiang Kai-Shek ordered the Japanese troops to remain at their post to receive the Kuomintang and not surrender their arms to the communists.^[32]

The first post-war peace negotiation was attended by both Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong in Chongqing from August 28, 1945 to October 10, 1945.^[33] Both sides stressed the importance of a peaceful reconstruction, but the conference did not produce any concrete result.^[33] Battles between the two sides continued even as the peace negotiation was in progress, until the agreement was reached in January 1946. However, large campaigns and full scale confrontations between the CPC and Chiang's own troops were temporarily avoided.

In the last month of World War II in East Asia, Soviet forces launched the mammoth Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation to attack the Japanese in Manchuria and along the Chinese-Mongolian border.^[34] This operation destroyed the fighting capability of the Kwantung Army and left the USSR in occupation of all of Manchuria by the end of the war. Consequently, the 700,000 Japanese troops stationed in the region surrendered. Later in the year, Chiang Kai-shek realized that he lacked the resources to prevent a CPC takeover of Manchuria following the scheduled Soviet departure. He therefore made a deal with the Russians to delay their withdrawal until he had moved enough of his best-trained men and modern material into the region. KMT troops were then airlifted by the United States to occupy key cities in North China, while the countryside was already dominated by the CPC. The Soviets spent the extra time systematically dismantling the extensive Manchurian industrial base (worth up to 2 billion dollars) and shipping it back to their war-ravaged country.^[35]

The truce fell apart in June 1946, when full scale war between CPC and KMT broke out on June 26. China then entered a state of civil war that lasted more than three years.^[36]

Fighting in mainland China (1946–1950)[link]

Background and disposition of forces[link]

By the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the balance of power in China's civil war had shifted in favor of the Communists. Their main force grew to 1.2 million troops, with a Militia of 2 million. Their "Liberated Zone" contained 19 base areas, including 1/4 of the country's territory and 1/3 of its population; this included many important towns and cities. Moreover, the Soviet Union turned over all of their captured Japanese weapons and a substantial amount of their own supplies to the Communists, who received Northeastern China from the Soviets as well.^[37]

In March 1946, despite repeated requests from Chiang, the Soviet Red Army under the command of general Malinovsky continued to delay pulling out of Manchuria while he secretly told the CPC forces to move in behind them, because Stalin wanted Mao to have firm control of at least the northern part of Manchuria before the complete withdrawal of the Soviets,^[38] which led to full-scale war for the control of the Northeast. These favourable conditions also facilitated many changes inside the Communist leaders: the more hard-line and firmer force finally gained the upper hand and defeated the opportunists.^[37]

Although General Marshall stated that he knew of no evidence that the CPC were being supplied by the Soviet Union,^[39] the CPC were able to capture a large number of weapons abandoned by the Japanese, including some tanks but it was not until large numbers of well trained KMT troops surrendered and joined the communist forces that the CPC were finally able to master the hardware.^[40] But despite the disadvantage in military hardware, the CPC's ultimate trump card was its land reform policy. The CPC continued to make the irresistible promise in the countryside to the massive number of landless and starving Chinese peasants that by fighting for the CPC they would be able to take farmland from their landlords.^[41] This strategy enabled the CPC to access an almost unlimited supply of manpower to use in combat as well as provide logistic support, despite suffering heavy casualties throughout many civil war campaigns. For example, during the Huaihai Campaign alone the CPC were able to mobilize 5,430,000 peasants to fight against the KMT forces.^[42]

After the war with the Japanese ended, Chiang Kai-shek quickly moved KMT troops to newly liberated areas to prevent Communist forces from receiving the Japanese surrender.^[37] The United States airlifted many KMT troops from central China to the Northeast (Manchuria). President Truman was very clear about what he described as "using the Japanese to hold off the Communists". In his memoirs he writes:

Using the pretext of "receiving the Japanese surrender", business interests within the KMT government occupied most of the banks, factories and commercial properties, which had previously been seized by the Japanese Imperial Army.^[37] They also recruited troops at a brutal pace from the civilian population and hoarded supplies, preparing for a resumption of war with the Communists. These hasty and harsh preparations caused great hardship for the residents of cities such as Shanghai, where the unemployment rate rose dramatically to 37.5%.^[37]

The United States strongly supported the Kuomintang forces. Over 50,000 Marines were sent to guard strategic sites, and 100,000 US troops were sent to Shandong. The US equipped and trained over 500,000 KMT troops, and transported KMT forces to occupy newly liberated zones, as well as to contain Communist controlled areas.^[37] American aid included substantial amounts of both new and surplus military supplies; additionally, loans worth hundreds of millions of dollars were made to the KMT.^[44] Within less than 2 years after the Sino-Japanese War, the KMT had received 4.43 billion dollars from the US - most of which was military aid.^[37]

Outbreak of War[link]

With the breakdown of talks, all-out war resumed. This stage is referred to in mainland China and Communist historiography as the "War of Liberation" (Chinese: 解放战争; pinyin: Jiěfàng Zhànzhēng). On 20 July 1946, Chiang Kai-shek launched a large-scale assault on Communist territory with 113 brigades (1.6 million troops).;^[37] this marked the final phase of the Chinese Civil War.

Knowing their disadvantages in manpower and equipment, the CPC executed a "passive defense" strategy. They avoided the strong points of the KMT army, and were prepared to abandon territory in order to preserve their forces. In most cases, the surrounding countryside and small towns had come under Communist influence long before the cities. They also attempted to wear out the KMT forces as much as possible. This tactic seemed to be successful; after a year, the power balance became more favorable to the CPC. They wiped out 1.12 million KMT troops, while their strength grew to about 2 million men.^[37]

The PLA enters Beijing in the Pingjin Campaign and control the later capital of PRC

In March 1947, the KMT achieved a symbolic victory by seizing the CPC capital of Yan'an.^[45] Soon after, the Communists counterattacked; on 30 June 1947, CPC troops crossed the Huanghe river and moved to Dabie Mountains area, restored and developed the Central Plain. Concurrently, Communist forces in Northeastern China, North China and East China began to counter attack as well.^[37]

By late 1948 the CPC eventually captured the northern cities of Shenyang and Changchun and seized control of the Northeast after struggling through numerous set-backs while trying to take the cities, with the decisive Liaoshen Campaign.^[46] The New First Army, regarded as the best KMT army, had to surrender after the CPC conducted a deadly 6-month siege of Changchun that resulted in more than 150,000 civilian deaths from starvation.^[47]

The capture of large KMT formations provided them with the tanks, heavy artillery, and other combined-arms assets needed to prosecute offensive operations south of the Great Wall. By April 1948 the city of Luoyang fell, cutting the KMT army off from Xi'an.^[48] Following a fierce battle, the CPC captured Jinan and Shandong province on September 24, 1948. The Huaihai Campaign of late 1948 and early 1949 secured east-central China for the CPC.^[46] The outcome of these encounters were decisive for the military outcome of the civil war.^[46]

The Pingjin Campaign resulted in the Communist conquest of northern China lasting 64 days from November 21, 1948, to January 31, 1949.^[49] The People's Liberation Army suffered heavy casualties from securing Zhangjiakou, Tianjin along with its port and garrison at Dagu and Beiping.^[49] The CPC brought 890,000 troops from the Northeast to oppose some 600,000 KMT troops.^[48] There were 40,000 CPC casualties at Zhangjiakou alone. They in turn killed, wounded or captured some 520,000 KMT during the campaign.^[49]

Monument in memory of the crossing of the Yangtze in Nanjing

After the three decisive Liaoshen, Huaihai and Pingjin campaigns, the CPC wiped out 144 regular and 29 non-regular KMT divisions, including 1.54 million veteran KMT troops. This effectively smashed the backbone of the KMT army.^[37]

On 21 April, Communist forces crossed the Yangtze River. On 23 April and they captured the KMT's capital, Nanjing.^[25] The KMT government retreated to Canton (Guangzhou) until October 15, Chongqing until November 25, and then Chengdu before retreating to Taiwan on December 10. By late 1949, the People's Liberation Army was pursuing remnants of KMT forces southwards in southern China, and only Tibet was left.

In addition, the Ili Rebellion was a Soviet backed revolt by the Second East Turkestan Republic against the KMT from 1944-1949 as the Mongolians in the People's Republic were in a border dispute with the Republic of China. A Chinese Muslim Hui cavalry regiment, the 14th Tungan Cavalry regiment, was sent by the Chinese government to attack Mongol and Soviet positions along the border during the Pei-ta-shan Incident.^[50][51]

Several last-ditch attempts by the Kuomintang to use Khampa soldiers against the Communists in southwest China were set up. The Kuomintang formulated a plan where 3 Khampa divisions would be assisted by the Panchen Lama to oppose the Communists.^[52] Kuomintang intelligence reported that some Tibetan tusi chiefs and the Khampa Su Yonghe controlled 80,000 troops in Sichuan, Qinghai, and Tibet. They hoped to use them against the Communist army.^[53]

Establishment of the People's Republic and the Kuomintang retreat to Taiwan[link]

Mao Zedong proclaiming the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949.

On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China with its capital at Beiping, which was renamed Beijing. Chiang Kai-shek and approximately 2 million Nationalist Chinese retreated from mainland China to the island of Taiwan.^[54] There remained only isolated pockets of resistance, notably in Sichuan (ending soon after the fall of Chengdu on December 10, 1949) and in the far south.

A PRC attempt to take the ROC controlled island of Quemoy was thwarted in the Battle of Kuningtou halting the PLA advance towards Taiwan.^[55] In December 1949, Chiang proclaimed Taipei, Taiwan, the temporary capital of the Republic of China and continued to assert his government as the sole legitimate authority in China.

The Communists' other amphibious operations of 1950 were more successful: they led to the Communist conquest of Hainan Island in April 1950, capture of Wanshan Islands off the Guangdong coast (May–August 1950) and of Zhoushan Island off Zhejiang (May 1950).^[56]

Relationship between the two sides since 1950[link]

Most observers expected Chiang's government to eventually fall in response to a Communist invasion of Taiwan, and the United States initially showed no interest in supporting Chiang's government in its final stand. Things changed radically with the onset of the Korean War in June 1950. At this point, allowing a total Communist victory over Chiang became politically impossible in the United States, and President Harry S Truman ordered the United States Seventh Fleet into the Taiwan Strait to prevent the ROC and PRC from attacking each other.^[57]

In June 1949, the ROC declared a "closure" of all mainland China ports and its navy attempted to intercept all foreign ships. The closure covered from a point north of the mouth of Min river in Fujian province to the mouth of the Liao river in Manchuria.^[58] Since mainland China's railroad network was underdeveloped, north-south trade depended heavily on sea lanes. ROC naval activity also caused severe hardship for mainland China fishermen.

"Forget not that you're in Jǔ" - a rock in Quemoy Island with Chiang Kai-shek's admonition to ROC fighters not to retreat, and to retake the mainland

After losing mainland China, a group of approximately 12,000 KMT soldiers escaped to Burma and continued launching guerrilla attacks into south China during the Kuomintang Islamic Insurgency in China (1950–1958). Their leader, General Li Mi, was paid a salary by the ROC government and given the nominal title of Governor of Yunnan. Initially, the United States supported these remnants and the Central Intelligence Agency provided them with aid. After the Burmese government appealed to the United Nations in 1953, the U.S. began pressuring the ROC to withdraw its loyalists. By the end of 1954, nearly 6,000 soldiers had left Burma and Li Mi declared his army disbanded. However, thousands remained, and the ROC continued to supply and command them, even secretly supplying reinforcements at times.

After the ROC complained to the United Nations against the Soviet Union supporting the PRC, the UN General Assembly Resolution 505 was adopted on February 1, 1952 to condemn the Soviet Union.

Though viewed as a military liability by the United States, the ROC viewed its remaining islands in Fujian as vital for any future campaign to defeat the PRC and retake mainland China. On September 3, 1954, the First Taiwan Strait crisis began when the PLA started shelling Quemoy and threatened to take the Dachen Islands.^[58] On January 20, 1955, the PLA took nearby Yijiangshan Island, with the entire ROC garrison of 720 troops killed or wounded defending the island. On January 24 of the same year, the United States Congress passed the Formosa Resolution authorizing the President to defend the ROC's offshore islands.^[58] The First Taiwan Straits crisis ended in March 1955 when the PLA ceased its bombardment. The crisis was brought to a close during the Bandung conference.^[58]

The Second Taiwan Strait Crisis began on August 23, 1958 with air and naval engagements between the PRC and the ROC military forces, leading to intense artillery bombardment of Quemoy (by the PRC) and Amoy (by the ROC), and ended on November of the same year.^[58] PLA patrol boats blockaded the islands from ROC supply ships. Though the United States rejected Chiang Kai-shek's proposal to bomb mainland China artillery batteries, it quickly moved to supply fighter jets and anti-aircraft missiles to the ROC. It also provided amphibious assault ships to land supplies, as a sunken ROC naval vessel was blocking the harbor. On September 7, the United States escorted a convoy of ROC supply ships and the PRC refrained from firing.

Despite the end of the hostilities, the two sides have never signed any agreement or treaty to officially end the war.

By 1984, PRC and ROC had public contacts with each other and cross-straits trade and investment has been growing ever since. Although the Taiwan straits remain a potential flash point, regular direct air links were established in 2009.^[9]

The Third Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1995–96 escalated tensions between both sides when the PRC tested a series of missiles not far from Taiwan although, arguably, Beijing ran the test to shift the vote in favor of the KMT, already facing a challenge from the opposition Democratic Progressive Party which did not agree with the "One China Policy" shared by the CPC and KMT.^[59]

With the election in 2000 of the Democratic Progressive Party candidate Chen Shui-bian, a party other than the KMT gained the presidency for the first time in Taiwan. The new president did not share the Chinese nationalist ideology of the KMT and CPC. This led to tension between the two sides although trade and other ties such as the 2005 Pan-Blue visit continued to increase.

Since the election of President Ma Ying-Jeou (KMT) in 2008, significant warming of relations has resumed between Taipei and Beijing with high level exchanges between the ruling parties of both states such as the Chen-Chiang summit series.

Commanders during the Civil War[link]

Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang)[link]

• Chiang Kai-shek (Commander-in-chief)
• Tsou Hong Da (Chief Commander of Navy)
• Wang Yaowu
• Chen Cheng
• Yee Kuang Han
• Fu Zuoyi
• Li Zongren
• Liu Chih
• Sun Li-jen
• Du Yuming
• Wang Sheng
• Xue Yue
• Bai Chongxi

Chinese Communist Party[link]

• Mao Zedong (Commander-in-chief)
• Zhu De
• Zhou Enlai
• Lin Biao
• Peng Dehuai
• Chen Yi
• Liu Bocheng
• Nie Rongzhen

Warlords[link]

• Zhang Zuolin (also known as Ch'ang Tso-Lin), killed in a train bombing by the Japanese, his son Zhang Xueliang took over his lands.
• Zhang Xueliang, son of Zhang Zuolin, in the Xian Incident, he and Yang Hu Cheng forced Chiang Kai-shek to end his war against the Communists and ally with them against the Japanese. He was then jailed by Chiang until 1989.
• Feng Yuxiang, changed his support to KMT in 1925, then fought them in 1930 Central Plains War and lost. Organized the Chahar People's Anti-Japanese Army in cooperation with north China Communists and changed again to CPC in 1945 and visited the USSR.
• Yan Xishan, ruled Shanxi Province until 1948.
• Ma clique, a family of warlords who ruled Qinghai, Gansu and Ningxia from the 1910s until 1949.
• Chen Jitang governed the province of Guangdong where he made significant contributions in terms of modernization and education. He later became part of Chiang's Nationalist Government and finished his life as the "Strategic Adviser of the President" in Taiwan, where he died in 1954.

List of Chinese Civil War weapons[link]

Handguns

• Mauser C96 (Chinese copy), Nationalists, warlords, Communists
• Browning Hi-Power, Nationalists, Communists
• Luger P08, Nationalists
• Nambu Type 14, Nationalists, Communists
• Type 26, Nationalists, Communists
• Nambu Type 94, Nationalists, Communists
• Nagant M1895, Communists
• Tokarev TT-30/TT-33, Communists
• Colt M1911/A1 (U.S Lend Lease), Nationalists

Rifles

• Type 24 rifle, Nationalists, warlords, Communists
• ZH-29 rifle, Nationalists
• Hanyang Type 88, Nationalists, warlords, Communists
• Gewehr 98, Nationalists, warlords, Communists
• Mauser Karabiner 98 kurz, Nationalists
• vz. 24, Nationalists, Communists
• Type 38 Rifle, Nationalists, Communists
• Type 2 Rifle, Nationalists, Communists
• Type 38 Cavalry Rifle, Nationalists, Communists
• Type 99 Rifle, Nationalists, Communists
• Type 97 Sniper Rifle, Nationalists, Communists
• Type 44 Cavalry Rifle, Nationalists, Communists
• Mosin-Nagant M1891/30, M1938, M1944, Communists
• Tokarev SVT-38, SVT-40, Communists
• M1 Garand (U.S Lend Lease), Nationalists
• M1 Carbine (U.S Lend Lease), Nationalists
• M1903 Springfield (U.S Lend Lease), Nationalists
• M1941 Johnson rifle (U.S Lend Lease), Nationalists
• M1917 Enfield rifle (U.S Lend Lease), Nationalists
• Mondragón F-08, Nationalist, Communists
• Lee-Enfield SMLE Rifle No.4 Mk.1, Nationalists

Submachine Guns

• MP18 (Chinese copy), Nationalists, warlords, Communists
• SIG MKMS, warlords
• Thompson M1928, M1928A1, M1, M1A1 (U.S Lend Lease, later local produced Chinese copies), Nationalists
• PPSh-41, Communists
• PPS-43, Communists
• M3/A1 'Grease Gun' (U.S Lend Lease), Nationalists, Communists
• M50 Reising submachine gun (U.S Lend Lease), Nationalists
• Sten, Nationalists, Communists
• Type 100 submachine gun, Nationalists, Communists

Machine Guns

• ZB vz.26 (purchashed in large quantity from Czechoslovakia), Nationalists, warlords, Communists
• Madsen machine gun (Multi-caliber), warlords, Nationalists, Communists
• MG 34, Nationalists, warlords, Communists
• Type 11 Light Machine Gun, Nationalists, Communists
• Type 96 Light Machine Gun, Nationalists, Communists
• Type 97 Light Machine Gun, Nationalists, Communists
• Type 99 Light Machine Gun, Nationalists, Communists
• M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle (U.S Lend Lease), Nationalists
• FN BAR, Nationalists
• Bren light machine gun, Nationalists
• Lahti-Saloranta M/26, Nationalists
• DP-28 Light Machine Gun, Communists
• Browning M1919 Medium Machine Gun (U.S Lend Lease), Nationalists

Heavy Machine Guns

• Chinese Type 24 Heavy Machine Gun (Chinese copy of MG 08), Nationalists, warlords, Communists
• MG08,Nationalists,Warlords,Communists
• Browning M1917A1 Heavy Machine Gun (Chinese copy), Nationalists
• Browning M2 Heavy Machine Gun (U.S Lend Lease), Nationalists
• Type 92 Heavy Machine Gun, Nationalists, Communists
• Type 1 Heavy Machine Gun, Nationalists, Communists
• Type 3 Heavy Machine Gun, Nationalists, Communists
• DShK 1938 Heavy Machine Gun, Communists
• Maxim PM1910 Machine Gun, Communists
• SG-43 Goryunov, Communists

Anti-Tank Weapons

• PaK 36, Nationalists, Communists
• PTRD-41 Bolt-action Anti-Tank Rifle, Communists
• PTRS-41 Semi-Automatic Anti-Tank Rifle, Communists
• Rocket Launcher, M1/A1 "Bazooka" (U.S Lend Lease), Nationalists
• ZiS-2, Communists
• ZiS-3, Communists

Grenades

• Model 24 grenade (Chinese copies) Communists, warlords, Nationalists
• F1 Fragmentation Hand Grenade, Communists
• RGD-33 Fragmentation Hand Grenade, Communists
• Mk.2 Fragmentation Hand Grenade (U.S Lend Lease), Nationalists

Misc

• Dadao, Nationalists, Communists

Notes[link]