The Second United Front was the alliance between the Kuomintang The Kuomintang of China (KMT); (Hanyu Pinyin: Guómíndǎng, GMD), translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party or Chinese National People's Party, is a political party of the Republic of China (Taiwan, ROC). It can be seen romanized as Guomindang (according to the Pinyin transcription system) in some contexts. It is the founding and the ruling (KMT) and Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and the ruling political party of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and is one of the world's largest political parties (CCP) during the Second Sino-Japanese War 2 The official PRC statistics for China's civilian and military casualties in the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937-1945 are 20 million dead and 15 million wounded. The figures for total military casualties, killed and wounded are: Nationalist 3.2 million; Communist 500,000 or World War II Albania · Australia · Austria · Azerbaijan · Belarus · Belgium · Brazil · Bulgaria · Burma · Cambodia · Canada · Ceylon (Sri Lanka) · Channel Islands · China · Czechoslovakia · Denmark · Dutch East Indies · Egypt · Estonia · Finland · France · Germany · Gibraltar · Greece · Greenland · Hong Kong · Hungary · Iceland ·, which suspended the Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China (CPC). The war began in April 1927, amidst the Northern Expedition. The war represented an ideological split between the Western-supported Nationalist KMT and the Soviet-supported Communist CPC. In the People's Republic of China the war is more commonly known from 1937 to 1946.
During the Japanese invasion The Japanese invasion of Manchuria by the Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan, beginning on September 19, 1931, immediately followed the Mukden Incident. The Japanese occupation of Manchuria lasted until the end of World War II and the occupation The Pacification of Manchukuo, was a campaign to pacify the resistance to the newly established puppet state of Manchukuo between the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies of Manchuria and later the Communist Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army and the Imperial Japanese Army and the forces of Manchukuo during the Second Sino-Japanese War which took place of Manchuria Manchuria is a historical name given to a vast geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria either falls entirely within People's Republic of China, or is divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast China , and historically referred as Guandong (simplified Chinese: , Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (October 31, 1887 – April 5, 1975) was a political and military leader of 20th century China, who saw the Chinese Communists as a greater threat, refused to ally with the Communists to fight against the Japanese. On December 12, 1936, Kuomintang Generals Zhang Xueliang Zhang Xueliang or Chang Hsüeh-liang (3 June 1901 (according to other accounts in 1898 or 1900) in Haicheng County, Fengtian province of China – 14 October 2001 in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States), nicknamed the "Young Marshal" (少帥), became the effective ruler of Manchuria and much of North China after the assassination of his and Yang Hucheng Yang Hucheng (26 November 1893 – 6 September 1949) was a Chinese warlord during the Warlord Era of Republican China and Kuomintang general during the Chinese Civil War kidnapped Chiang and forced him to a truce with the Communists. The incident became known as the Xi'an Incident. Both parties agreed to suspend fighting and form a Second United Front to focus their energies and fighting against the Japanese. It was a moment rarely seen during wars- where both sides join together to face a greater threat.
The alliance that was created with the Communists was in name only and the Communists hardly ever engaged the Japanese in conventional battles but proved efficient in guerrilla warfare. The level of actual co-operation and co-ordination between the CCP and KMT during World War II was minimal. In the midst of the Second United Front, the Communists 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 situation came to a head in late 1940 and early 1941 when there were major clashes between the Communist and KMT forces. In December 1940, Chiang Kai-shek demanded that the CCP’s New Fourth Army The New Fourth Army was a unit of the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China established in 1937. In contrast to most of the National Revolutionary Army, it was controlled by the Communist Party of China and not by the ruling Kuomintang. The New Fourth Army and the Eighth Route Army were the two main communist forces from 1938. The evacuate Anhui Anhui is a province of the People's Republic of China. Located in eastern China across the basins of the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River, it borders Jiangsu to the east, Zhejiang to the southeast, Jiangxi to the south, Hubei to the southwest, Henan to the northwest, and Shandong for a tiny section in the north. The capital of the province is and Jiangsu Jiangsu (simplified Chinese: 江苏; traditional Chinese: 江蘇; pinyin: Jiāngsū; Wade–Giles: Chiang-su; Postal map spelling: Kiangsu) is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning (now Nanjing), and su, for the city of Suzhou. The Provinces. Under intense pressure, the New Fourth Army commanders complied, but they were ambushed by Nationalist troops and soundly defeated in January 1941. This clash, which would be known as the New Fourth Army Incident The New Fourth Army Incident , also known as the Wannan Incident (皖南事变), occurred in China in January 1941 during the Second Sino-Japanese War, during which the Chinese Civil War was in theory suspended, uniting the Communists and Nationalists against the Japanese. It is significant as the end of real cooperation between the Nationalists, weakened the CCP position in Central China and effectively ended any substantive co-operation between the Nationalists and the Communists and both sides concentrated on jockeying for position in the inevitable Civil War.
Within the Japanese occupied provinces the KMT and CCP forces carried on warfare with each other, with the Communists eventually destroying or absorbing the KMT forces or driving them into the puppet forces of the Japanese. By the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Communists were in control of nearly all of the areas of North China not controlled by Japan or its puppet forces.
The China Democratic League, an umbrella organization for three political parties and three political pressure groups, was also part of the united front during the war.
See also
- First United Front The First United Front of the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was formed in 1923 as an alliance to end warlordism in China. Together, they formed the National Revolutionary Army and set out in 1926 on the Northern Expedition. The CCP joined the KMT as individuals, making use of KMT's superiority in numbers to help spread
- Third United Front The 2005 Pan-Blue visits to mainland China were a series of groundbreaking visits by delegations of the Kuomintang to mainland China. They were hailed as the highest level of exchange between the Communist Party of China and the Kuomintang since Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong met in Chongqing, China on August 28, 1945
- United Front (China)
- United Front Doctrine
Sources
- Resistance and Revolution in China [1]
Categories: National Revolutionary Army | Chinese Civil War | 20th century in China
