This week, we looked at the situation in China throughout the 1920s and 30s as the nationalist Guomindang party under Chiang Kai-Shek worked to centralize power away from the warlords, while simultaneously trying to exterminate the communists. One of the interesting themes that I noticed from the Wednesday readings was that the Guomindang did not actually ever truly end warlord power; instead, Chiang Kai-Shek’s army would force a warlord to submit and recognize his power, but essentially leave that warlord in place and allow him to keep his army. Moreover, the problem of the Guomindang reliance on Chiang personally comes through in the readings, since he seems to be the only one actually keeping the party together. This is most clear from the fact that subordinates of Chiang’s would often stop following Guomindang orders if they were given an army and assigned far enough away from Chiang’s government.
The readings for both Wednesday and Friday left me with one big question: what exactly was the Japanese government’s involvement with China in the 1920s and early 30s? It seems as though they were fairly receptive towards Chiang Kai-Shek, allowing him to come to Japan to get married, as well as hosting many of the future leaders of both nationalist and communist forces. This strikes me as odd, considering both Chinese nationalism and communism are fundamentally opposed to the expansionist, imperialist doctrine that I understand Japan as holding in this period. The two possible explanations that I came up with were that the Japanese government was not invested in cracking down on student groups, or else that the Japanese government of the twenties and early thirties was far less strict than the government of the late thirties and through World War Two.
The readings for Friday provided an interesting insight into what made the communist forces so effective in China. One of the consistent themes throughout the Red Star Over China reading was that the communist troops and leaders had more integrity and belief in their cause than either the warlords or the Guomindang. In particular, the descriptions of the leaders paint them as very attentive to the common person, something that I am sure would make them stand out to the people. The readings for Friday also forced me to think about biases, including my own, more than any previous readings in the course. For example, it was very jarring to me to see Mao described as a moderating influence on killing among communists, considering the millions who perished during his rule. Additionally, the Luding Bridge reading felt to me like the most blatant propaganda that we have seen in this class, with the troops all falling over themselves to be the ones to attack the enemy.
“The Tale of the Luding Bridge.” In The Search for Modern China: A Documentary Collection, Third ed. Edited by Janet Chen et. al., W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.
Moïse Edwin E. Modern China: A History Third ed. Harlow, England: Pearson/Longman, 2008.
Snow, Edgar. Red Star Over China. 1st rev. and enl. ed. New York: Grove Press, 1968, First published 1938 by Random House.
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