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
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
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 Birth of the PRC Witnesses the Tortuous Course Toward Success
Three Fundamental Themes and Four Lessons in Learning Modern Chinese History
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