Professional Documents
Culture Documents
and Change
in Chinese
History
China today
The
PRCs
political
borders
today
Territorial
expansio
n of
China
since
1000BCE
Imperial China
The Republic
Chinese Civil
War (19271949)
The nominally reigning Kuomintang (KMT) had had a positive relationship with the
Communist Party of China (CPC or CCP), which was still in its infancy during the Sun Yat-sen
era
With Sun Yat-sens death in 1925, Chiang Kai-shek emerged as leader of the KMT. He was
ideologically opposed to communism and broke ties with the CCP, who were gaining power
and influence across rural China
The two parties had joined forces in the mid-20s in order to reunify China and end the
warlord era
The CCP had the support of the Soviet Union and by the 1930s was actively pursuing control
over China, while the KMT had the support of the staunchly anti-communist USA
The KMT and CCP joined forces once again after the invasion of the Japanese in 1937, until
Japans defeat in 1945, setting aside national disputes in order to defeat an international
enemy
From 1946-49, the civil war regained momentum, with the Soviet Union continuing to
support the CCP who achieved a communist revolution under Mao Zedong in 1949
Mao became the first president of the Peoples Republic of China, with Republic of China
being confined to the region commonly known as Taiwan
This marked the beginning of the communist era of China. The Communist Party of China
remains in power today