Chinese Civil War

Chinese Civil War
Chinese Civil War
Traditional Chinese	國共內戰
Simplified Chinese	国共内战
Literal meaning	Kuomintang–Communist civil war
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Guó-Gòng Nèizhàn
Bopomofo	ㄍㄨㄛˊ ㄍㄨㄥˋ ㄋㄟˋ ㄓㄢˋ
Wade–Giles	Kuo2-Kung4 Nei4-chan4
Tongyong Pinyin	Guó-Gòng Nèi-jhàn
IPA	[kwǒ.kʊ̂ŋ nêɪ.ʈʂân]
Wu
Romanization	Koh-gon-ne-tsoe
Yue: Cantonese
Jyutping	Gwok3 gung6 noi6 zin3
IPA	[kʷɔk̚˧ kʊŋ˨ nɔj˨ tsin˧]
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ	Kok-kiōng lāi-chiàn

Chinese Civil War
	Part of the interwar period, the Chinese Communist Revolution and the Cold War in Asia
	Clockwise from top left: Communist troops at the Battle of Siping; National Revolutionary Army troops during the Shangdang Campaign; Chiang Kai-shek inspecting soldiers; ROCA members boarding a ship during the retreat to Taiwan in 1949; Mao Zedong in the 1930s; CCP general Su Yu inspecting troops shortly before the Menglianggu campaign;
Date	1927 – 1937 (First phase); 1945 – 1950 (Second phase); ;
Location	Mainland China (including Hainan) and its coast, China–Burma border
Result	Chinese Communist Party victory; Major combat ended, but no armistice or peace treaty signed; The Kuomintang Islamic insurgency against the People's Republic of China's rule continued in the provinces of Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Xinjiang, Yunnan until 1958.; Campaign at the China–Burma border; De facto existence of two Chinas and beginning of the Cross-Strait conflict; Four major escalations in Cross-Strait conflict: 1954: First Taiwan Strait Crisis; 1958: Second Taiwan Strait Crisis; 1996: Third Taiwan Strait Crisis; 2022: Fourth Taiwan Strait Crisis; ;
Territorial; changes	Chinese Communist Party control of mainland China, including Hainan; Proclamation of the People's Republic of China in Mainland China; Government of the Republic of China evacuates to the Island of Taiwan; Nationalists occupy parts of the China-Burma border;
Belligerents
1927–1936:; Republic of China Kuomintang; National Revolutionary Army; ;	1927–1936:; Chinese Communist Party Chinese Soviet Republic (1931–1937); Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (1927–1937); ; Minxi Soviet Government (1929–1931); Fujian People's Government (1933–1934); Qiongya Soviet Government (1928–1934);
1945–1950:; Republic of China Kuomintang; Republic of China Armed Forces; ;	1945–1950:; Chinese Communist Party Yan'an Soviet (1937–1950); Pre-PLA troops and militia; Inner Mongolian People's Republic (1945–1945); People's Republic of China (1949) People's Liberation Army; ; ;
1950–1961:; Republic of China Nationalist loyalists; ;	1950–1961:; People's Republic of China People's Liberation Army; ;
Commanders and leaders
Chiang Kai-shek; (Director-General of the Kuomintang); Bai Chongxi; Chen Cheng; Li Zongren; Yan Xishan; He Yingqin; Hu Zongnan; Gu Zhutong; Wei Lihuang; Du Yuming ; Sun Li-jen; Fu Zuoyi ; Liu Zhi; Xue Yue; Wang Yaowu; Tang Enbo; Huang Baitao †; Zhang Lingfu †; Zhang Xueliang; Feng Yuxiang (until 1930);	Mao Zedong; (Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party); Zhou Enlai; Zhu De; Peng Dehuai; Lin Biao; Liu Bocheng; He Long; Chen Yi; Luo Ronghuan; Xu Xiangqian; Nie Rongzhen; Ye Jianying; Deng Xiaoping; Su Yu; Chen Geng; Wang Jiaxiang; Ye Ting †; Bo Gu †; Li De; Zhang Guotao (until 1936);
Strength
2 million regular troops; 2.3 million militia (August 1948);	1.2 million regular troops; 2.6 million militia (July 1945);
Casualties and losses
370,000 killed; 1.5–1.7 million total (second phase);	263,800 killed; 190,000 missing; 850,000 wounded (second phase); over 1.3 million total (second phase);
	est. 7 million (first phase); est. 2.5 million (second phase); up to 6 million total (second phase);

The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Armed conflict continued intermittently from 1 August 1927 until Communist victory resulted in their near-complete control over mainland China on 10 December 1949.

The war is generally divided into two phases with an interlude. In 1926 and 1927, the KMT and CCP, allied with one another in the First United Front, had carried out a very successful campaign, the Northern Expedition, against warlords in central China. The CCP calls this the First Revolutionary Civil War. The united front broke up and war broke out between the KMT and the CCP on 1 August 1927. The CCP calls this the Second Revolutionary Civil War; it lasted until 1937. From 1937 to 1945, hostilities were mostly put on hold as the Second United Front fought the Japanese invasion of China with eventual help from the Allies of World War II. However, armed clashes between the groups remained common.

The civil war resumed as soon as it became apparent that Japanese defeat was imminent, with the communists gaining the upper hand in the second phase of the war from 1945 to 1949, generally referred to as the Chinese Communist Revolution. The CCP calls this the Third Revolutionary Civil War. The Communists gained control of mainland China and proclaimed the People's Republic of China in 1949, forcing the leadership of the Republic of China to retreat to the island of Taiwan. Starting in the 1950s, a lasting political and military stand-off between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait has ensued, with the ROC in Taiwan and the PRC on the mainland both claiming to be the legitimate government of all China. After the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis, both tacitly ceased to engage in open conflict in 1979; however, no armistice or peace treaty has ever been signed.