• The seed that planted the Chinese Civil war lies in its social, political and economic instability within the Chinese society. The Chinese civil war was an armed conflict between two ideologically opposed forces - the Nationalists Guomingdang (GMD) and the Communists People Liberation Army (CCP) – to see who could ultimately restore power and regain central control over China. As Historian Jonathan Spence argues, the Chinese Civil War should refer more narrowly to this latter conflict between 1946 and 1949, as this produced a decisive result. Although there are many causes to the outbreak of the war, the main long term, mid-term, immediate and catalyst causes will be discussed. The overthrow of the Manchu Dynasty coupled with the Warlord era, followed by the ideological divide between the CCP and the GMD during the First United Front led to the catalyst cause during the Sino-Japanese war, in which the two parties truly showed the extent to which they will go to, to become the leader and unifier of the country, unleashing the ultimate trigger to the outbreak of the Chinese Civil War.
The most significant long term cause of the civil war in China was the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, as it played a fundamental role in creating the conditions for the event. The Qing government became weakened economically, socially and politically from internal and external threats by the end of the 19th century. European imperialist powers and Japan forced their way into China to take advantage of trading possibilities, gaining rights and concessions in over 80 ports. Britain’s victory in the opium wars from 1839 to 1842 ended with the Treaty of Nanjing, where Britain obtained the right to free trade and Hong Kong Island was given to the British crown. The increasing nationalist resentment and internal opposition to the imperial power lead to the Taiping Rebellion from 1850 to 1864, in which 20 million people died, and the Boxer Uprising from 1898-1900. They were quashed with the help of regional and international army, highlighting the weakness of the government. Empress Cixi’s attempted to enforce reforms in response, but historians claim that this edict was just ‘window dressing’ and were too little, too late. Historian Grasso June argues, by 1911 “scholars and gentry were alienated by the dynasty’s reform efforts. Merchants and treaty port Chinese bitterly opposed preferential treatment accorded to foreigners in China.” The dynasty was overthrown in 1911 in the Double Tenth revolution, a military nationalist uprising. The subjugation and humiliation of China convinced many nationalists that the abdication of the emperor was necessary to modernize the country in order to make it a great power again. The terrible condition of the country and the inability of the government to deal with its problems effectively led to the discontentment of the people and their need for a stronger government. As the Dynasty was overthrown, a power vacuum arose, creating the perfect conditions for a fight between the GMD and the CCP in the Chinese Civil War to ensue.
The failure to fill the power vacuum left by the Qing Dynasty was one of the many causes of the Chinese Civil war, as China became divided up into different regions where warlords brutally exercised their power over the peasants. Manchu rule ended on the 12th of February 1912 and the revolutionaries declared China a republic with Sun Yatsen as president. However he soon resigned as Yuan Shikai became president from previous arrangements. Yuan made few reforms and did not address some key issue such as regionalism which became the main obstacle to uniting China. Yuan was forced to agree to Japanese economic concessions in 1914. In 1916, Yuan proclaimed himself as the emperor of China on the 1st of January but lost the support of the military and stood down soon after. Following Yuan’s death that year, China descended into chaos as he had not appointed a successor and the country became divided into regions ruled by independent warlords and small regional armies. Force and terror were used to keep control, the peasants were taxed heavily and in some cases 80% of their produce would go to the warlords. They became poorer and food production dropped, causing famine to become widespread. As historian Norman Lowe says “it was the ordinary Chinese peasants who suffered untold hardships.” In these conditions, the people became more nationalistic and wanted to unify China. The peasants who were exploited lead to later support for the CCP. As the result of the warlord era, the desire for change and modernisation was very intense. Thus, the two political parties of GMD and CCP were formed to fight for their own solution to Chian’s problems.

The rise in nationalism of the Chinese population, which increased the people’s need for a political party to lead the country, is yet another cause of the Chinese Civil War. The “national” feeling continued long after the overthrow of the Qing dynasty and during the rule of Yuan Shikai and the warlords. After the Paris Peace Conference and the Treaty of Versailles, German concessions were given to the Japanese. This triggered the May the Fourth movement which was a significant factor in intensifying the nationalism feeling of the country. The lack of political unity and the social and economic chaos in China led to the emergence of new nationalist groups. Mao Zedong was deeply moved by the nationalist movement and became an early member of the CCP in 1921. Author and historian Jung Chang recounts her father’s reasons for joining the communist party in Wild Swans as a result of, ‘widespread fighting amongst warlords, who all levied heavy taxes combined with the effects of the Great depression’ and Mao’s policy of ‘Chinese must not fight Chinese’ appealed to his sense of nationalism as well as offering equality and change. It also led to the setup of GMD by Sun Yatsen with three guiding principles: nationalism, democracy and socialism. Other Chinese were inspired by the GMD nationalist party, which had grown much stronger during the warlord period. Chinese nationalism, as a long term cause of the Chinese Civil War, strengthened the need for a unified country, and lead to the emergence of the CCP. The competing political influences between the CCP and the GMD during the United Front were short term causes that led to the Chinese Civil war. In 1924 Mikhail Borodin and the Comintern organised GMD and the CCP to join forces in a United Front. They transformed GMD from a small provincial party into a national government. Both nationalist parties had a common goal: to get rid of the warlords and free China of foreign powers. The CCP needed to cooperate with the GMD to survive - initially, its membership was mainly intellectuals and had no real military strength. By 1923 there were only 342 members. Following Sun’s death in 1925, Chiang Kaishek seized full control of the party. But despite his Soviet links, Chiang was even more right-wing and mistrustful of the CCP than Sun Yat-sen and became increasingly anti-communist. From 1926 to 1928, Chang Kaishek led the GMD on a Northern Expedition, a strike against the warlords in central China. Part of the success of the expedition was due to local support from the peasants with CCP’s land redistribution and equality ideas, as well as industrial workers. Within two years, the United Front had destroyed the power of the warlords. Left wing historians highlight the importance of peasant activists in initial success in the Northern Expedition, while Nationalist historians stress the importance of the new army of the GMD in the success of the Revolution. However tensions emerged between the GMD and the CCP due to their ideological divide, the key different between the two. The CCP wanted a central economy whilst GMD wanted to maintain capitalism. The GMD announced that it was the legitimate government of China. Because of the United Front, the CCP was able to survive in its membership and gained support during the Northern Expedition. Despite the success of the Second Revolution, China was not fully unified. The GMD and the CCP had worked together only under a common goal. The fight against the warlords was over, and the ideological divisions were to become the essential foundation of the conflict that broke out in 1946. The Chinese Civil War was immediately caused by the GMD attack on the CCP. When Chiang became the leader of the GMD in 1925, he started suspecting growing influence from the CCP and the Comintern. His suspicion arose due to the popular support for the communists from and peasants and industrial workers during the Northern Expedition. Chiang decided that he could no longer tolerate having the communists working within his own party. In areas under communist control, peasants have attacked landlords and seized land. Chiang felt that he needed to crush the CCP before China could be fully unified under the GMD. [Within his own party, there was a three-way split; 60% supported the leftist Wang Jingwei who worked closely with the communists, while only 23% support Chiang and the rest support Hu Hanmin. However, Chiang soon won back the support in his party due to having the financial backing of the wealth to enable him to unify China. His own brother-in-law T V Soong was appointed Finance Minister, allowing him to gather a war chest. In March of 1927, Chiang attacked Shanghai to eliminate the Communists from the GMD in the “White Terror.” As a result, 5,000 communists were shot. The GMD carried out similar attacks in other cities, in what became known as the “purification movement.” 250,000 communists, trade unionists and peasant leaders were massacred. Despite attempts to resist, the CCP was nearly crushed by the end of 1927. Now, the only hope of survival was to flee into the mountains of Jianxi. The GMD pursued them, determined to destroy the communists, thus starting the first phase Civil War. Chiang’s failure to destroy the CCP in the 5 encirclement campaigns was followed by CCP’s retreat via the Long march. They were more resolved to succeed and lead China. The tensions between the CCP and the GMD in the United Front lead to Chiang’s fear of a communist takeover. The GMD attacks on the CCP manifested the clear opposition the two parties had for one another. This caused the armed conflict between them in the Chinese Civil War.
The actions of the GMD and CCP during the Sino-Japanese war were a catalyst for civil war in 1946. As the Japanese invasion of China reached a climax in 1937, the Chinese people urged Chiang to redirect his forces to dispel the Japanese, but for him, it was more important to deal with the communists first. He said that “Japanese were a disease of the skin” but the communists were a “disease of the heart.” Zhang Xueliang captured Chiang while he was in Xian supervising the destruction of the communists. Communist diplomat Zhou Enlai reached a negotiation with Chiang to end the civil war and create a Second United Front consisting of GMD and CCP in a National War of Resistance against Japan. Chiang was now the head of a united country. The Communists promised to stop their overthrow of GMD, allow the GMD to lead the Red Army, and to stop the confiscations and redistributions of landlords’ land. The Nationalists likewise agreed to call off the civil war, to accept the CCP as a legal party, and to work with the CCP to oppose Japan. However, by 1938, both parties acted in terms of what was likely to happen once the Japanese were gone and their common enemy destroyed. By 1939, Chiang had broken his alliance with the Communists and ordered his troops to attack their forces. In 1941 the GMD army attempted to annihilate the communist armies in the south and refused to allow any of the $600 million of American aid or any military equipment to go to the communists which immediately lead to a loss of support. His leadership became increasingly dictatorial and many of his forces were facing starvation and sickness. Meanwhile, Mao continued to lead the CCP in a revolutionary warfare by liberating country towns and implementing their policies. Mao said that “our fixed policy should be 70 per cent expansion, 20 per cent dealing with the GMD and 10 per cent resisting the Japanese.” Historian James Sheridan writes that the reason they achieved the enthusiastic backing of the peasants was “by meeting the local, immediate needs of the peasants through reformist and radical social policies and by providing leadership for the defence of peasant communities against the Japanese.” The communists increased their control over the Eighth Route and the New Fourth Armies and did not always follow military instructions. They used the Second United Front to increase their influence in the countryside by claiming that they were the true defenders of China against the Japanese. The Sino-Japanese war was catalyst cause of the Second Stage of the Chinese Civil War because it highlighted the lengths to which both sides were willing to go to, to unify China. Indeed, much of the efforts from both parties were spent more on eliminating the other than on dispelling the Japanese. By the end of the war with Japan, both sides were ready to continue into another civil war.
The social, economic and political issues from long before the Chinese Civil war were crucial in causing the conditions for the war. Further western influence caused the collapse of the Qing Dynasty. During and after Yuan Shikai’s rule, China became divided by regionalism. These long term causes gave rise to Chinese nationalism which ultimately led to the formation of the two main nationalist parties, the GMD and the CCP. Their opposing ideologies cause them to compete for influence and despite their cooperation in the United Front the Chinese Civil War began when the GMD attacked the CCP. The Second Stage was then caused by the interruption of the Sino-Japanese war. Neither of the parties was willing to concede to the other, and ended with the outbreak of the Second Stage of the Chinese Civil War.