The Chongqing Negotiations () were a series of negotiations between the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

-ruled Nationalist government and the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...

(CCP) from 29 August to 10 October 1945, held in Chongqing, China. The negotiations were highlighted by the final meeting between the leaders of both parties, Chiang Kai-shek and

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

, which was the first time they had met in 20 years. Most of the negotiations were undertaken by

Wang Shijie Wang Shih-chieh also known as Wang Shijie (; 10 March 1891 – 21 April 1981) was a Chinese politician and scholar of the Kuomintang in service to the Republic of China.徐主編（2007）、79頁。劉国銘主編（2005）、143頁。 He s ...

and

Zhou Enlai Zhou Enlai (; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman and military officer who served as the first premier of the People's Republic of China from 1 October 1949 until his death on 8 January 1976. Zhou served under Chairman Ma ...

, representatives of the Nationalist government and CCP, respectively. The negotiations lasted for 43 days, and came to a conclusion after both parties signed the

Double Tenth Agreement The Double Tenth Agreement, formally known as the Summary of Conversations Between the Government and Representatives of the Communist Party of China, was an agreement between the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that was ...

Background

After the end of the

First United Front The First United Front (; alternatively ), also known as the KMT–CCP Alliance, of the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), was formed in 1924 as an alliance to end warlordism in China. Together they formed the National Revo ...

in 1927, the Nationalist government launched several purges of Communists within the Kuomintang. The CCP responded to these purges with several uprisings against the Nationalist government. Chiang then retaliated with the Encirclement Campaigns aimed to search and destroy the

Chinese Red Army The Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army or Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, commonly known as the Chinese Red Army or simply the Red Army, are the armed forces of the Chinese Communist Party. It was formed when Communis ...

across China throughout the first half of the 1930s. The two sides came to a ceasefire after the

Xi'an Incident The Xi'an Incident, previously romanized as the Sian Incident, was a political crisis that took place in Xi'an, Shaanxi in 1936. Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Nationalist government of China, was detained by his subordinate generals Chang ...

in December 1936, where the Nationalists and the Communists agreed to form a united front once again to counter Japanese military aggression.

Negotiations

In August 1945, Mao and Zhou flew from

Yan'an Yan'an (; ), alternatively spelled as Yenan is a prefecture-level city in the Shaanbei region of Shaanxi province, China, bordering Shanxi to the east and Gansu to the west. It administers several counties, including Zhidan (formerly Bao'an) ...

to the Chinese wartime capital of Chongqing to discuss the relationship between the CCP and the KMT in the aftermath of the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

. The

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

were receptive to the idea of another united front between the Nationalists and the Communists, as Stalin told the Chinese Communists that it was their "best hope for the future". Accompanied by American ambassador Patrick J. Hurley, Mao joined Chiang for dinner on 27 August, which was the first time these two leaders had met in 20 years. It would also be their last meeting. After seven weeks of negotiations, the two sides agreed on the common goal to eventually establish a political democracy in China, and to place all Chinese armed forces under the command of Chiang.

Result

Throughout the negotiations, armed struggles between the two parties continued to escalate as the CCP were under attack both north and south of the

Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...

. Mao returned to Yan'an on 11 October, and a joint statement was issued by the CCP and the KMT to outline the result of the negotiations, which is now known as the Double Tenth Agreement. In this agreement, the CCP and the KMT mutually recognized each other, as the two parties planned to form a coalition government. The aim of the agreement was to avoid another civil war. The Nationalist government was unwilling to recognize the areas under control by the CCP. Chiang was unconvinced by the joint statement, and came to realize that a military solution was necessary. Mao described the statement as "a mere scrap of paper", and expressed to the Soviet Union that the civil war was "virtually inevitable". By November 1945, it was clear that the agreement was going to be short-lived, and the full-scale civil war soon resumed in 1946.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * {{Chinese Civil War Chinese Civil War 1945 in China History of Chongqing 1945 conferences