Student Essay on Reasons for Communist Victory in 1949 in the Chinese Civil War

The civil war in China began in 1926 when the GMD tookever, led by General Chiang Kai Shek. Purges began and in 1934, the CCP in China was close to total annihilation (wikipedia). But yet by 1949, the CCP led by Mao, who was formally a librarian, has taken the whole of china. At this time, most of China's population were peasant farmers in the countryside. The reasons the CCP won can be put into three main categories - International affairs and interests, social and ideological differences and military. Underlining and being the heart of all these reasons were because the CCP had support of the majority in China - the peasants and the poor.

The Sino Japanese war caused the GMD to lose power but served as a chance to rise for CCP. Beginning In 1937, the Japanese started to invade china and took the military and economic strongholds of the GMD - the cities. They retreated to their wartime capital Chueng King, where they defended and decided to hold until the Japanese would be defeated by the USA. This left the GMD powerless politically and economically paralyzed. (China text) The Chinese people looked upon their leader to fight the foreign invaders but yet the GMD failed to fulfill the people's hopes and were thought of as cowardly. (China text)

On the other hand, the CCP took this opportunity to take on the Japanese. They fought courageously, though poorly equipped with mostly improvised weapons (china text). The Chinese saw this as patriotic and supported them with food, shelter and men.

In China, the majority of the populations were poor peasants. Chiang's support came mostly from the rich because under his rule, their exploitation and corruption can continue. Although he had policies and campaigns to try educate the people he didn't take any actions to try improving their living standards. The Government officials were corrupt, manipulating the currency (china text) so they could profit and abusing their power in excuse to take money from the people. The poor in the city, and the peasants did not live well under the rule of GMD, and they were desperate for change.

Mao understood the importance of the masses, and because Mao started out only to be a librarian, he understood what the poor wanted. He did many things for the peasants and the poor - He had land reforms where rich landlords were driven off their land, which was then distributed amongst the poor farmers.(china book) He set up public schools and medical treatment. Mao recognized that it is the peasants who were the source of food. He sent officials to work alongside peasants so that they would better appreciate their difficulties.

Mao once said "women hold up half the sky." He understood the importance of the role women play in society and that half of the population were women. He helped them by giving them rights they never used to have, abolishing "feet-binding" and giving them a right to work. But most of all, Mao lived with and as a peasant and humbled himself as one of them. (hand-out) These gave the peasants a sense of equality, dignity, respect and democracy that they have never experienced.

The two sides GMD and CCP had very different military tactics, sort of army and fighting style. The main difference between the two sides can be seen during civil war battles. Because the CCP were poorly equipped, they chose to fight with guerilla tactics and refrained from head on confrontation. The CCP's army consisted mainly of volunteers that had high morale because they believed in what they were fighting for - a better life. The GMD on the other hand had conscripts; (china text) forced into fighting and had no belief or sense of belonging to their superiors. This eventually led to mass desertions and therefore victory in battle for the CCP.

In conclusion, the CCP won because they won the hearts of the masses. They had support from the people, who were China. Marxist theory- "rise of the peasantry was bound to bring victory." The support of the people eventually led to the victory of the CCP in the civil war in 1949.