Modern China — total war and the Communist victory
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Flip to reveal answersWhat was the Xi'an Incident (December 1936)?
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All 12 Flashcards — Modern China — total war and the Communist victory
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Question
What was the Xi'an Incident (December 1936)?
Answer
Jiang Jieshi's own general Zhang Xueliang kidnapped him at Xi'an to force him to stop fighting the CCP and instead resist Japan.
Question
What was the Second United Front?
Answer
The fragile 1937-45 alliance between the GMD and CCP against Japan, agreed after the Xi'an Incident — cooperation on the surface, deep rivalry underneath.
Question
What event began full-scale war between China and Japan in 1937?
Answer
The Marco Polo Bridge Incident (July 1937), a clash near Beijing that escalated into the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Question
What happened at Nanjing in December 1937?
Answer
Japanese troops massacred an estimated 200,000-300,000 Chinese civilians and disarmed soldiers after capturing the GMD capital.
Question
What was the 'Three Alls' (sanguang) policy?
Answer
Japan's scorched-earth counter-insurgency policy in occupied northern China from around 1940: kill all, burn all, loot all — aimed at destroying support for communist guerrillas.
Question
How did the Second Sino-Japanese War affect the CCP and GMD differently?
Answer
The CCP expanded its rural base and army fighting Japan behind enemy lines, gaining peasant trust. The GMD lost its best troops and its economic heartland, retreating to Chongqing and starting a slide into inflation.
Question
Name three reasons the Communists won the civil war of 1946-49.
Answer
Peasant support (won through land redistribution), Guomindang corruption and hyperinflation, and collapsing GMD morale (desertions and defections).
Question
What role did the USA play in the Chinese Civil War?
Answer
It gave the GMD military aid and loans and tried to broker a ceasefire (General Marshall's mission, 1946), but this could not fix the GMD's deeper internal weaknesses.
Question
What role did the USSR play in the Chinese Civil War?
Answer
Soviet forces occupying Manchuria after defeating Japan handed captured Japanese weapons to the CCP, though Stalin's support was cautious and inconsistent.
Question
What was the Huai-Hai Campaign (1948-49)?
Answer
A decisive series of battles in which CCP forces destroyed the GMD's best remaining armies, opening the path to final victory.
Question
When and how was the People's Republic of China founded?
Answer
Mao Zedong proclaimed the PRC on 1 October 1949 in Beijing, after Jiang Jieshi's Guomindang government retreated to the island of Taiwan.
Question
Describe the process from Xi'an Incident to PRC founding in order.
Answer
Xi'an Incident (1936) forces a truce -> Second United Front and full-scale war with Japan from 1937 -> Japan's brutal occupation (Three Alls) reshapes both parties' strength -> Japan surrenders (1945) -> civil war resumes (1946) -> CCP wins key campaigns (1948-49) -> PRC founded (1949).
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Topic 12.8 hub
Emergence of Modern China (1910–1949)
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