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

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the one party state, sole ruling party of the country Republic of China (1912-1949), during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until Retreat ...

-ruled

Nationalist government The Nationalist government, officially the National Government of the Republic of China, refers to the government of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China from 1 July 1925 to 20 May 1948, led by the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT ...

and the

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

(CCP) from 29 August to 10 October 1945, held in

Chongqing ChongqingPostal Romanization, Previously romanized as Chungking ();. is a direct-administered municipality in Southwestern China. Chongqing is one of the four direct-administered municipalities under the State Council of the People's Republi ...

, China. The negotiations were highlighted by the final meeting between the leaders of both parties, Chiang Kai-shek and

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...

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

Zhou Enlai Zhou Enlai ( zh, s=周恩来, p=Zhōu Ēnlái, w=Chou1 Ên1-lai2; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman, diplomat, and revolutionary who served as the first Premier of the People's Republic of China from September 1954 unti ...

, 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 , 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 Warlord Era, warlordism in China. Together they formed the National Revolution ...

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 The encirclement campaigns of the Chinese Civil War were Republic of China (ROC) offensives against Chinese Communist Party (CCP) revolutionary base areas in China from the late-1920s to 1934 during the Chinese Civil War. The climax were the fiv ...

aimed to

search and destroy Seek and destroy (also known as search and destroy, or S&D) is a military strategy which consists of inserting infantry forces into hostile territory and directing them to search and then attack enemy targets before immediately withdrawing. Fi ...

the

Chinese Red Army The Chinese Red Army, formally the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army( zh, labels=no, t=中國工農紅軍) or just the Red Army( zh, labels=no, t=紅軍), was the military wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1928 to 1937. I ...

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 was a Chinese political crisis that lasted from 12 to 26 December 1936. Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Nationalist government of China, was arrested in Xi'an by soldiers of the Northeastern Army under the command of Ge ...

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; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternatively spelled as Yenan is a prefecture-level city in the Shaanbei region of Shaanxi Province of China, province, China, bordering Shanxi to the east and Gansu to the west. It administers several c ...

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 was fought between the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part ...

. The

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

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 Patrick Jay Hurley (January 8, 1883July 30, 1963) was an American attorney, Republican Party politician, military officer, and diplomat. He was the 51st United States Secretary of War from 1929 to 1933 in the cabinet of Herbert Hoover and a ke ...

, 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 Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...

. 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.

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