China 1949: Year of Revolution

Description

The events of 1949 in China reverberated across the world and throughout the rest of the century. That tumultuous year saw the dramatic collapse of Chiang Kai-shek’s ‘pro-Western’ Nationalist government, overthrown by Mao Zedong and his communist armies, and the foundation of the People’s Republic of China. China 1949 follows the huge military forces that tramped across the country, the exile of once-powerful leaders and the alarm of the foreign powers watching on. The well-known figures of the Revolution are all here. But so are lesser known military and political leaders along with a host of ‘ordinary’ Chinese citizens and foreigners caught in the maelstrom. They include the often neglected but crucial role played by the ‘Guangxi faction’ within Chiang’s own regime, the fate of a country woman who fled her village carrying her baby to avoid the fighting, a prominent Shanghai business man and a schoolboy from Nanyang, ordered by his teachers to trek south with his classmates in search of safety. Shadowing both the leaders and the people of China in 1949, Hutchings reveals the lived experiences, aftermath and consequences of this pivotal year - one in which careers were made and ruined, and popular hopes for a ‘new China’ contrasted with fears that it would change the country forever. The legacy of 1949 still resonates today as the founding myth, source of national identity and root of the political behaviour of modern China. Graham Hutchings has written a vivid, gripping account of the year in which China abruptly changed course, and pulled the rest of world history along with it. Cover page Halftitle page Praise page Title page Copyright page Dedication Epigraph CONTENTS FIGURES MAPS ABBREVIATIONS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS NOTES ON TRANSLITERATION 1949 CHRONOLOGY PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS IN 1949 Prologue Notes Introduction High noon in Nanjing Notes 1 Adversaries ‘The enemy will not perish of himself’ Making China ‘modern’ Raising the Red Flag Chiang’s republic The Party and the peasants Yanan years Chiang: emboldened, embattled, eclipsed Notes 2 ‘The event on the horizon’ Watching, waiting, plotting, fleeing Beiping besieged The last gasp of Chinese liberalism Shanghai sunset Power plays Notes 3 Peace postures Chiang’s short goodbye ‘Plucked like ripe fruit’: Beiping surrenders Li ‘takes charge’ City life: Mao moves in The ‘peace general’ flies north ‘This is your last chance. Don’t lose it’ Nanjing says ‘no’ Notes 4 ‘Offshore China’ Taiwan: island refuge? Transferring the treasure Getting there Hong Kong: an imperial dilemma ‘A bit of a riddle’ Typhoon shelter Tightening control Notes 5 Crossing the river ‘Oh, the South is great!’ The Yangtze is ‘worth 300,000 soldiers’ A question of timing Agents of change: the ‘south-bound cadres’ Ships and sailors Crossings, crises, collapse Notes 6 Taking the cities ‘Overturning heaven and earth’ Last hours in Nanjing Interlude The new order The ‘ex-ambassadors’ Defence of a ‘dying cause’: the taking of Taiyuan The ‘huge test’: taking Shanghai Getting ready Nationalist end game ‘Calculated among the liberated’ Shanghai’s new dawn Notes 7 Parallel worlds Li licks his wounds ‘Chiang Kai-shek is our enemy’: Guangxi’s peace movement Lin Biao vs Bai Chongxi: a duel resumed ‘Scraping the bottom of the barrel’: the Nationalists in Guangzhou Land reform: the Nationalists ‘latch on’ Chiang returns Beiping: re-casting the country Hong Kong: fortress or free port? On the move in south China Notes 8 Mao’s new world ‘The CCP is here to stay for some time’ ‘“You are dictatorial”: Dear Sirs, . . . that is exactly what we are’ Rights and wrongs Restoring economic order Labour and capital ‘“Liberation” is intensely political’ The ‘armour of the regime’ Cornered and constrained: the ‘West’ gets ready to bow out New China’s new friends Notes 9 End games ‘Our position is critical’ Guangzhou conquered Hong Kong: tightrope walking Guangxi graveyard Filling out the frontiers Undignified exit: Chiang’s last days in the mainland Taiwan: living on borrowed time Notes 10 Afterwards 1949’s long shadow Notes PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS AFTER 1949 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX