4 Twentieth Century China

Twentieth Century China

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Anti-Manchu & Republican Movements in China in the Nineteenth Century

• Self-Strengthening Movement - studying the ways of the West

• 100 Days of 1898 - Emperor Kuangxi

• Boxer Rebellion in 1900 - Anti-Western

• 1905 - Exam system abolished

• Sun Yatsen• Drifting Provinces & Rebellious Generals



Chinese Emigration• A process going back centuries,

spreading in large numbers first to Southeast Asia

• Many kept their links with their ancestral homes.

• There were lots of reasons to leave China.

• The California Gold Rush (1849) drew many Chinese.

• Widespread discrimination• Chinatowns• 1852 - Ratio of Chinese men to women

in USA was 1685 to 1.• Chinese helped build the

Transcontinental Railroad.• Chinese also emigrated to Mexico and

South America.• 1882 - US Chinese Exclusion Act



The Fall of the Manchus

• Weakened by Western invasions

• Collapse of national boundaries

• Loss of tax control• Feuds among Manchu provinces

• Corruption & bribery• Armies kept for political power, not for fighting real wars



Double Ten Rebellion - Wuhan 1911

• The Qing “New Army” based in Wuhan.

• Police discovered plot to overthrow government, some army officers to be charged

• Rather than face arrest, the army rebelled against the Qing.

• Rebellion spread across the south of China.

• Emperor resigned.



The Republic of China (ROC)

• Sun Yatsen, “George Washington of China,” returns from overseas fundraising to become President of China.

• Kuomintang Party (KMT) leads the new government



“The Woman Problem”

• Men and later women writers in China had been writing about women’s place in a changing society.

• Liberal families stopped foot-binding and sent some daughters to school.

• Ding Ling was a leader in literature and early Chinese feminism.



General Yuan Shikai

• Dominates northern China around Beijing

• Agrees to unify China if he’s made president of the ROC

• Crowns himself emperor in 1916, dies soon after

• Central power collapses

• Warlords across China

• Sun Yatsen in south





The Great War (World War I)1914 - 1918

• West preoccupied• US banks lend money to everyone.

• Versailles Peace Treaty - Japan gets Germany’s old territory in China after the war.

• Japan gains power in Manchuria.



1919 - May 4th Movement

• Allied peace treaties at the end of World War One maintained Western power on Chinese coast and gave former German territories to Japan.

• Beijing - Student protests grows, demanding reforms in treaties and government.



Chinese Communist Party(CCP)

• Founded in Shanghai in 1921

• Work to organize factory workers in cities

• Mao Zedong among founders - soon working to organize peasants



First Chinese Civil War1920s

• Especially between north and south

• Alliance of Sun Yatsen’s Kuomintang party & CCP

• Advised by Russians - willing to help China, Russians have own goals.

• Whampao Academy near Canton - officer training, Russian training

• Establishes capital at Nanjing

• Beijing renamed Peiping• Sun Yatsen dies during

negotiations with northern forces in Beijing.



Chiang Kai-shek

• Chiang Kai-shek takes control of Kuomintang after Sun Yatsen’s death.

• Power based on leading Whampao Academy

• Eliminates enemies, allies with warlords, drives away Russians, breaks with CCP

• Marries money - Soong Family



KMT versus CCP

• Chiang Kai-shek & Kuomintang fight to destroy CCP competitors.

• Kuomintang and gangster allies destroy the Communists in Shanghai in 1927

• CCP organizes more and more in rural colonies (soviets).

• Kuomintang armies kill millions of peasants to destroy CCP support.

• Chiang Kai-shek sees CCP as greater enemy than Japan.



Japanese Expansion

• Japan takes more and more power along the coasts and rivers, especially Manchuria.

• Mukden Incident• Shanghai• Install Pu Yi as Emperor of Manchukuo in 1932





The Long March Legendary Journey of CCP

• CCP regions surrounded.• Kuomintang forces CCP

forces to flee in 1934.• 300 days from south

through Sichuan to Ye’nan in Shaanxi province

• 6000 miles, 18 mountain ranges, 24 major rivers, 10 warlords

• Crossing of the Dadu River - 20 men

• Helped peasants, didn’t take food

• 200,000 departed, 30,000 reached the north





Ye’nan Commune

• Other CCP groups come to join them, dig in.

• Kuomintang blockade them.

• CCP calls for a truce to drive out foreigners, especially Japan.



Zhou Enlai & Zhu De

• Zhou had studied Communism in France before World War I. He was a member of the Party before Mao and was an early competitor.

• Zhu was a former farm boy and PE teacher. He organized the Red Army.





Xi’an Incident1936

• Generals take Chiang Kai-shek prisoner and force negotiations with CCP.

• Plans made to fight Japanese forces in China - United Front



Second Sino-Japanese War1937 - 1945

• Marco Polo Bridge Incident

• Massive Japanese Invasion - “Trading land for time”

• Take over Manchuria, northern China, coastal cities

• Rape of Nanjing, new capital at Chongqing in Sichuan





World War TwoThe Pacific War (1941 - 1945)• Japanese attack Hong

Kong at the same time as Pearl Harbor

• Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

• USA begins supplying Kuomintang China

• Flying Tigers• Burma Road, then The

Hump• CCP units infiltrate

behind Japanese lines, work with peasants.

• Kuomintang armies mostly don’t fight, saving resources to fight CCP.





Second Civil War

• Kuomintang/CCP alliance collapses after war.

• Russians move to take over Manchuria, eventually removing most of its factories.

• USA tries to negotiate peace.

• CCP defeats Kuomintang in 1949.

• Kuomintang flees to Taiwan to maintain Republic of China - less than 1% of China.

• ROC controls Chinese seat at United Nations.

People’s Republic of China (PRC)

• CCP forces enter Beijing in 1948.

• Big Issues: land reform, women’s rights, health & education

• USA and its allies refuse to recognize it and stick with ROC.

• China forms alliances with India and many poor nations, especially in Africa.

• Mao Zedong - philosopher, primary leader

• Zhou Enlai - best diplomat, practical leader

• Zhu De - army commander





Korean War1950 - 1953

• Leftover dispute between Russia and USA

• As allied forces near the Chinese border, Red Army forces pour into battle.

• Negotiations end war, viewed as a victory by China over landlord nations



Tibet

• 1951 - China takes over Tibet.

• Han Chinese moved to Tibet.

• The Dalai Lama flees Tibet in 1959.

• Most Tibetan temples and monasteries destroyed in Cultural Revolution.



Communist Reforms in China

• Many reform movements became power struggles among CCP leaders.

• 1953 - Anti-Rightist Campaign - identify and reform old enemies

• 1956 - Hundred Flowers - trick?

• 1958 - Great Leap Forward - catch up with western industry, bad planning & natural disasters

• 1960 - Split with Russia



Nuclear Power

• 1964 - China detonates its first atomic bomb.

• Based on Russian technology

• Mao threatens to use nuclear weapons against any enemies, including now Russia.



Great People’s Cultural Revolution 1966 - 1976

• Mao returns to power, ruling until his death

• Cult of Mao• China turns upside down again and again.

• Even Zhou Enlai and Zhu De were in danger of imprisonment.

• Educational system stopped functioning.





Space Power

• 1970 - China launches its first rocket into space.

• Mostly used to launch satellites and to demonstrate power

• Manned space flight in 2003.



China Begins to Open

• 1971 - US Ping pong team goes to China, its first official US visitors in two decades.

• 1972 - President Nixon visits China and opens trade.

• 1974 - Terracotta Army discovery



1975 / 1976

• 1975 - Chiang Kai-shek dies in Taiwan.

• 1976 - Earthquakes & Floods

• Zhou dies• Zhu dies• Mao dies



Deng Xiaoping

• Deng Xiaoping comes to power

• Weakens cult of Mao• Opens China

economically but not politically

• One-Child Policy• 1979 - President

Carter recognizes PRC instead of ROC.

• Deng Xiaoping visits USA.



China’s Growing Economy

• Small markets and businesses spread and grow.

• Growing many times faster than markets in USA, Europe, and Japan



Tiananmen Square1989

• Calls for reforms and freedoms grow across China.

• Death of an old high official lead to gatherings and then protests in Beijing.

• University students lead protests.

• Negotiations and confrontations continue.

• Pro-reform leaders lose arguments and are sacked.

• Deng sends the army to clear the protests.





China continues to grow, develop, and modernize.

