Second united front
Second United Front ( Chinese 第二 次 国共 合作 ) is the name for the second phase of cooperation between the Communist Party of China and the Guomindang between 1937 and 1946, mainly during the Sino-Japanese War . The first united front existed from 1923 to 1927.
The Second United Front was established after the Xi'an Incident in late 1936, in which Chiang Kai-shek was kidnapped by two of his generals with the support of Zhou Enlai and forced at gunpoint to sign an armistice with the communists. The aim of the generals was not to wear out China's forces in the civil war in the face of Japanese aggression.
However, the united front was only a standstill agreement for the time of the war. Not only was there no coordination whatsoever between the communist and nationalist troops, the two parties also deployed troops to secure their sphere of influence against the other party, and there was even fighting between the parties, especially in 1940/41. The incident with the New 4th Army in 1940 plays a particularly important role here. Guomindang troops attacked with over 50,000 soldiers the New 4th Army with around 9,000 men. Parts of the 4th Army were killed, the rest taken prisoner. In response, the Chinese Communist Party began using the war against Japan to prepare for civil war with the Guomindang.
The second united front broke up in the spring of 1946 after Japan's surrender .
Individual evidence
- ^ Wu, Tien-wei: The Chinese Communist Movement. In: Hsiung, James C. and Steven I Levine (eds.): China's bitter victory, pp. 79-106.