
The Second United Front ( zh, t=第二次國共合作 , s=第二次国共合作 , first=t , l=Second Nationalist-Communist Cooperation, p=dì èr cì guógòng hézuò ) was the alliance between the ruling
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 ...
(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) to resist the
Imperial Japanese invasion of
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
during 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 ...
, which suspended the
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government, government of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Armed conflict continued intermitt ...
from 1937 to 1945.
Background
In late 1935, Chiang Kai-shek started secret negotiations with the Soviet Union in the hopes of gaining material assistance if war broke out between China and Japan. As a precondition for an agreement, the Soviets wanted Chiang to negotiate a ceasefire with the CCP. Although reluctant to engage with a group he saw as a rebels, Chiang cautiously sought to establish contact with the CCP. The CCP Central Committee told them that the CCP was interested in a united anti-Japanese army under a government of national defense. Given the wide gap between the CCP and KMT's conditions, further negotiations did not take place during the first half of 1936.
Meanwhile, the CCP opened up separate negotiations with the Nationalist forces besieging them in northwest China. They managed to sign secret ceasefire agreements with
Zhang Xueliang, leader of the
Northeastern Army, and
Yang Hucheng, leader of the Northwestern Army. These generals were frustrated that Chiang' was prioritizing Civil War over resistance to Japan. Yan Xishan, another neighboring warlord, also signed a secret agreement with the Communists, although he was not as closely aligned with them as Zhang or Yang. The members of this northwestern alliance were united by their desire to resist Japan, but they differed over the details of how this could best be accomplished. The Communists supported a plan to use Soviet support to take over
Shaanxi
Shaanxi is a Provinces of China, province in north Northwestern China. It borders the province-level divisions of Inner Mongolia to the north; Shanxi and Henan to the east; Hubei, Chongqing, and Sichuan to the south; and Gansu and Ningxia to t ...
,
Gansu
Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...
,
Ningxia,
Qinghai, and
Xinjiang
Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...
and turn northwest China into a base under Zhang's command to resist Japan and oppose Chiang. Zhang, Yang, and Yan were still committed to convincing Chiang to lead the anti-Japanese resistance. As they continued to negotiate, they kept their alliance secret and even staged fake military battles to allay the suspicions of the Nanjing government.
Negotiations between Chiang and the CCP began in earnest in late 1936. Chiang continued to try to resolve the civil war militarily; he continued to consider a negotiated settlement with the CCP to be a last resort. He was encouraged by the results of the Ningxia campaign in mid-to-late October. In that campaign, the Second and Fourth Corps of the Red Army marched north to pick up supplies dropped in Mongolia by the Soviet Union, but found themselves trapped on the wrong side of the Yellow River. They were cut to pieces by the
Hui cavalry allied with the Nationalists. Chiang began making preparations for a sixth encirclement campaign, and instructed Zhang and Yang to participate. In early November, Chen Lifu presented Pan Hannian with a set of extremely harsh conditions for a deal. Pan balked, calling them "conditions for surrender". In late November, Chiang ordered the Northeastern Army and forces from the central Nationalist Army,
Hu Zongnan's Right Route Army, to attack towards the Communist capital at
Bao'an. At the resulting Battle of Shanchengbao, the Northeastern Army withheld most of its forces from the attack. This allowed the Red Army to ambush and nearly wipe out Hu's 78th regiment. This reversed the diplomatic situation: Chen Lifu moderated his conditions, but the CCP recalled Pan Hannian from Nanjing on December 10.
In late 1936, Zhang Xueliang decided that his repeated attempts to persuade Chiang to create a united front with the Communists were not going to be enough. To Zhang, Chiang appeared dead-set on continuing the Civil War even as the threat of Japanese invasion loomed ever larger. Following Yang Hucheng's advice, he decided to resort to drastic measures. On 12 December 1936, the disgruntled Zhang and Yang conspired to kidnap Chiang and force him into a truce with the CCP. The incident became known as the Xi'an Incident.
[Ye, Zhaoyan Ye, Berry, Michael. (2003). ''Nanjing 1937: A Love Story''. Columbia University Press. .] Both parties suspended fighting to form a Second United Front to focus their energies and fight the Japanese.
Cooperation during the War of Resistance
As a result of the truce between KMT and CCP, the Red Army was reorganized into the
New Fourth Army and the
8th Route Army, which were placed under the command of the
National Revolutionary Army. The CCP agreed to accept the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek, and began to receive some financial support from the
central government run by KMT. In agreement with KMT
Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region and
Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region were created. They were controlled by the CCP.
Among the points of negotiation in the Second United Front was the ability of the Communist Party to openly publish
newspapers and periodicals in KMT areas.
In late August 1937,
Zhou Enlai and KMT Central Publicity Department head Shao Lizi agreed that the newspapers ''
Xinhua Daily'' and ''Chuin Chung Weekly'' would be published in these areas.
After the commencement of full-scale war between China and Japan, CCP forces fought in alliance with the KMT forces during the
Battle of Taiyuan, and the high point of their cooperation came in 1938 during the
Battle of Wuhan.
However, the CCP submission to the
chain of command of the National Revolutionary Army was in name only. The CCP acted independently. The level of actual coordination between the CCP and KMT during the Second Sino-Japanese War was minimal.
[Buss, Claude Albert. (1972). Stanford Alumni Association. The People's Republic of China and Richard Nixon. United States.]
Breakdown and aftermath
In the midst of the Second United Front, the CCP and the Kuomintang were still vying for territorial advantage in "Free China" (i.e. those areas not occupied by the Japanese or ruled by puppet governments). The uneasy alliance began to break down by late 1938 as a result of CCP efforts to expand their military strength through absorbing Chinese guerrilla forces behind enemy lines. For Chinese militia who refused to switch their allegiance, the CCP would call them "collaborators" and then attack to eliminate their forces. For example, the Red Army led by
He Long attacked and wiped out a brigade of Chinese militia led by Zhang Yin-wu in
Hebei
Hebei is a Provinces of China, province in North China. It is China's List of Chinese administrative divisions by population, sixth-most populous province, with a population of over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. It bor ...
in June, 1939.
In December 1940, Chiang Kai-shek demanded that the CCP's
New Fourth Army evacuate
Anhui
Anhui is an inland Provinces of China, province located in East China. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze and Huai rivers, bordering Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the east, Jiang ...
and
Jiangsu
Jiangsu is a coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the List of Chinese administra ...
Provinces. Despite the intense pressure, the New Fourth Army commanders committed insubordination by marching in an unauthorized direction and also missed the deadline to evacuate. Added to this were the attacks by the CCP on the Kuomintang Forces in Hebei in August 1939 and in Jiangsu in October 1940, so they were ambushed and defeated by Nationalist troops in January 1941. This clash, which would be known as the
New Fourth Army Incident, weakened but didn't end the CCP position in Central China and effectively ended any substantive co-operation between the Nationalists and the CCP and both sides concentrated on jockeying for position in the inevitable Civil War.
[Schoppa, R. Keith. (2000). The Columbia Guide to Modern Chinese History. Columbia University Press. . ] It also ended the Second United Front formed earlier to fight the Japanese.
[Schoppa, R. Keith. (2000). The Columbia Guide to Modern Chinese History. Columbia University Press. . p. 160]
Afterwards, within the Japanese occupied provinces and behind enemy lines the KMT and CCP forces carried on warfare with each other, with the CCP eventually destroying or absorbing the KMT
partisan forces or driving them into the
puppet forces of the Japanese. The CCP under the leadership of
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 ...
also began to focus most of their energy on building up their sphere of influence wherever opportunities were presented, mainly through rural mass organizations, administrative,
land
Land, also known as dry land, ground, or earth, is the solid terrestrial surface of Earth not submerged by the ocean or another body of water. It makes up 29.2% of Earth's surface and includes all continents and islands. Earth's land sur ...
and
tax reform measures favoring poor
peasants; while the KMT allocated many divisions of its regular army to carry out military blockade of the CCP areas in an attempt to neutralize the spread of their influence until the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
After 1945
After the Second Sino-Japanese War, Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong attempted to engage in peace talks. This effort failed and by 1946 the KMT and the CCP were engaged in all-out civil war. The CCP were able to obtain seized Japanese Army weapons in the Northeast – with Soviet acquiescence – and took the opportunity to engage the already weakened KMT. In October 1949, Mao established the People's Republic of China, while Chiang retreated to the island of Taiwan.
See also
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Outline of the Chinese Civil War
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Timeline of the Chinese Civil War
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United front (People's Republic of China)
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United front in Taiwan
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United front in Hong Kong
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
''Resistance and Revolution in China''*
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{{Chinese Civil War
1930s in China
1940s in China
Anti-fascism in China
Anti-imperialism in Asia
Anti-Japanese sentiment in China
China in World War II
Chinese Civil War
Defunct political party alliances in Asia
National Revolutionary Army
Political party alliances in China
Politics of the Second Sino-Japanese War
History of the Chinese Communist Party
United front (China)