A Brief Modern Chinese History. Haipeng Zhang

Convergence of the Wuhan and Nanjing Nationalist Governments and the Nominal Unification of China

       Establishing the Armed Independent Regime of Workers and Peasants in Jiangxi

       The Kuomintang’s Encirclement and Annihilation and the CPC’s Counterattacks

       The Social History Controversy of the 1930s

       9. The Deepening National Crisis and the Adjustment of Class Relations

       The September 18 Incident and the Nonresistance Strategy

       Japan’s Intensified Aggression Against China and Jiang Jieshi’s Increased Nonresistance

       China’s Greater Effort to Fight Japan

       The Setback for the Chinese Communist Movement

       The Sian Incident and China’s New Opportunity to Rehabilitate

       10. The Outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan

       The Lugouqiao Incident

       The August 13th Incident in Shanghai and the Anti-Japanese National United Front

       The National Defense System and the CPC and the Kuomintang’s Strategies

       The ERA (Eighth Route Army) and the Battle of Shanxi

       The Battle of Shanghai and the Nanjing Massacre

       China’s Great Victory in Taierzhuang and the Fall of Wuhan and Guangzhou

       11. The Two Battlefields in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression

       The Collaboration of the Kuomintang’s Frontal Battlefield and the CPC’s Battlefield Behind the Enemy Lines

       The Incident in Southern Anhui

       The Pearl Harbor Attack and the International Anti-Fascist United Front

       The Kuomintang’s Failure on the Battlefront and the CPC’s Offensive in the Rear

       Corruption and Dictatorship in the Areas under the Kuomintang’s Rule and the Growth of the CPC’s Revolutionary Anti-Japanese Bases

       The Coalition Government and China’s Counteroffensive

       The CPC-Kuomintang Struggle and Two Prospects for China

       The Unconditional Surrender of Japan and China’s Final Victory in the War of Resistance

       12. The Victory of the People’s War of Liberation and the Founding of the People’s Republic of China

       Chongqing Negotiations and the Political Consultative Conference

       Changing Sino-Soviet and Sino-US Relations

       Outbreak of Full-Scale Civil War

       The Crisis-Ridden Areas under the Kuomintang’s Rule and the Stable and Prosperous Liberated Areas

       Three Great Decisive Battles

       The Broken Peace Talks in Beijing and the PLA’s Capture of Nanjing

       The Founding of the People’s Republic of China

       13. The Historical Significance of the People’s Republic of China

       The Birth of the People’s Republic of China Brings Epochal Change to China and the World

       The PRC Lays the Foundation of a New Era of Socialist Development with Chinese Characteristics and the Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation

       The Birth of the PRC Witnesses the Tortuous Course Toward Success

       Three Fundamental Themes and Four Lessons in Learning Modern Chinese History

       Bibliography

       Web Sources

1. The Opium Wars and China’s Decline

      China and the World before 1840

      In 1840 the British Empire launched the dirty First Opium War (1840–1842) against China. This war forcibly stopped the historical course in which China enjoyed a fully independent development, and marked the beginning of modern Chinese history. Chinese society gradually became semi-feudal and semi-colonial. A brief discussion of the global situation before the First Opium War follows.

      Revolutions broke out in Britain in 1640 and in France in 1789 that led to the dawn of the capitalist system. Thereafter, the capitalist countries of Europe attempted to colonize the world. Using various means such as piracy, robbery, the slave trade, drug (opium) smuggling, wars of aggression, and so on, these colonialists plundered a large amount of wealth from Asia, Africa, and America. This looted wealth constituted a major source of capital and contributed decisively to the growth of European capitalism. History has proven that European capitalist civilization relied heavily on the colonial loot and plunder that it had taken from Asian, African, and American countries and their people, even though it did help to advance humankind. As a consequence, during the seventeenth century, the capitalist countries grew richer and richer while those in the colonized lands became poorer and poorer.

      The 1760s saw the Industrial