List of Rebellions in China - Communist Rebellion

Communist Rebellion

After radical Western ideologies came to China during the May Fourth Movement, Li Dazhao and other communists established the Communist Party of China in 1921 with the support of the Comintern. Communist Party members are allowed to join the Kuomintang, which, under the leadership of Sun Yat-sen, was seeking alliance to end the Warlord era and unify China. As the new leader of Kuomintang, Chiang Kai-shek, launched the Northern Expedition to unify China in 1927, the conservatives within Kuomintang in Nanking grew hostile to the communists, while the leftists in Wuhan were in favour of alliance with them. The first KMT-CCP alliance was broken when communists were arrested and executed in Shanghai in the April 12 Purge. The communists, under the leadership of Zhou Enlai and Zhu De, rebelled against the National Revolutionary Army at the Nanchang Uprising on 1 August 1927, and consequently established the Chinese Soviet Republic which controlled the self-proclaimed "Soviet Area" in Jiangxi. The headquarters of the secessionist republic was recovered by the Nationalist Government in 1934 but the communists evaded the Nationalist Revolutionary Army in the Long March and retreated to Shaanxi.

There was a temporary cease-fire when the second KMT-CCP alliance was formed in 1937 to combat the Japanese invasion. The Chinese Soviet Republic was renamed Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region, and the communist-led Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army became the New Fourth Army and the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army. All these changes were nominal, however, as the CCP expanded power and its fighting with the government persisted in the course of the war. After the surrender of Japan in 1945, the communists took over several regions formerly occupied by Japan. Full-scale war broke out amid the adoptation of the Constitution of the Republic of China in 1947. By October 1949, the communists occupied most of the Mainland China, and Mao Zedong of the CCP declared the People's Republic of China in Peking. The Government of the Republic of China relocated to Taipei and has failed to retake the mainland since then. Taiwan and part of Fukien Province became known as the Free Area of the Republic of China, despite constant threats of communist invasion. The Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion remained in effect until 1991.

As a result of the civil war, the mainland is under one-party rule of the Communist Party, while the Free Area of the Republic of China has enjoyed democracy and held 5 direct presidential elections since the termination of the Period of mobilization for the suppression of Communist rebellion.