Xie Chuntao, editor of Why and How the CPC Works in China, speaks at the launch ceremony for the book's English edition in July 2011 (FILE)

On October 1, 1949, the People's Republic of China was founded. It was only three years and three months after the War of Liberation(1946-49) between the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Communist Party of China (CPC) broke out. When the war began, no one in the CPC, the KMT, the United States, the Soviet Union or other countries expected that the end would come so fast because the CPC was much weaker than the KMT. Various parties were looking for a convincing answer, but the parties had a common understanding that the popular support of the people finally decided the outcome of the war.

In the final phase of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-45), what kind of a country should be built on the ruins of the war became the focus of Chinese politics. The CPC advocated the establishment of a democratic coalition government, aiming to put an end to the one-party autocracy of the KMT and implement a multi-party system on the basis of democracy. This gained tremendous political support as soon as it was put forth, especially from the majority of the forces outside the CPC and KMT. Clearly, the coalition government had become a common political aspiration of all parties except the KMT. However, the KMT's vision of the postwar political situation of China was completely different from that of the CPC. Chiang Kai-shek strongly opposed the CPC's coalition government suggestion, demanding the CPC give up its armed forces. Then, ignoring public opinion at home and abroad, the KMT launched brutal military operations against the CPC-controlled areas, resulting in a civil war.

On December 15, 1945, U.S. President Truman declared that a strong, united and democratic China was extremely important for world peace, as a divided China in turmoil would endanger the stability and peace of the world both then and in the future. His administration also called for the armies of both the CPC and the KMT to stop the conflict and hold a national conference of representatives of the major political forces. Meanwhile, Truman also sent General Marshall, former chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, as his special envoy to China to mediate between the CPC and the KMT.

The CPC had a positive and welcoming attitude toward the mediation of the United States. On December 17, 1945, a spokesman for the CPC issued a statement, saying that the CPC welcomed the suggestions President Truman made on December 15 about his China policy. Chiang Kai-shek firmly opposed a coalition government, and Marshall's mediation led nowhere. The U.S. had to give up the mediation, and eventually sided with the KMT.

Thus, in the early period after the victory of the War of Resistance Aganist Japanese Aggression, the blueprint for multi-party democracy that the CPC was making efforts to create was drowned by the rumble of guns. Later, John Leighton Stuart, a former U.S. ambassador to China, remarked that the KMT's poor record showed that the one-party system should be abandoned. The only way for China's salvation was to achieve broad democracy and give the people human rights. However, the tremendous efforts made by the CPC for peace, democracy and unity awakened people of all walks of life in China, who saw through the nature of the KMT regime. As a result, the common aspirations and financial resources of the majority of the people were brought together, and the foundation of the victory over the KMT was consolidated.

China's land issue was an old problem. "Land to the tiller" had been the cry for over 2,000 years, in peasant revolt after peasant revolt. However, mere changes of dynasty had failed to change the fate of the peasants. It was left to the CPC to solve this age-old problem.

Before 1949, the land tenure situation of various classes was extremely irrational. Jack Belden, an American, pointed out in his book China Shakes the World that in general, landlords and rich peasants, who accounted for about 10 percent of the population, owned 55 to 65 percent of the land. A more accurate estimate would be 70 to 80 percent.

To change this situation, on May 4, 1946, the CPC issued the Instructions on Land Issues, which announced the CPC's support for the masses in their efforts to acquire land from the landlords, and in struggles for reduction of rent for land and of interest on loans. By the first half of 1949 in the old liberated areas like northeast China, north China, northwest China and east China's Shandong and Jiangsu provinces, and the newly liberated areas, the land had basically been distributed evenly, and nearly 100 million peasants had acquired land for the first time.

They flocked to join the army and supported the front. In Shandong alone, during the civil war, 950,000 men joined the CPC forces, and more than 11 million farmers and militiamen were mobilized to help the army transport logistic materials. Moreover, the CPC-led rural reform completely changed the appearance of China's rural areas and the attitudes of the peasants.

In October 1944, Michael Mansfield, a congressman from the U.S. state of Montana, came to China as a representative of President Roosevelt. In January 1945 he returned to Washington D.C. and submitted a report to the Congress, in which he noted that the KMT was becoming more and more unpopular with the common people. Ordinary people were afraid of KMT soldiers and tax collectors. Peasant rebellions, criticism of provincial government officials and students' resistance to being press-ganged were all powerful evidence. The CPC was highly organized and disciplined. If there were no guns, they used spears and clubs. The ordinary people's loss of trust in the KMT became clear after the outbreak of the War of Liberation in 1946.

Due to the huge demand for guns and ammunition, the KMT's military expenditures surged. This resulted in a series of chain reactions in the KMT-controlled areas, like hyperinflation and an extremely high unemployment rate.

After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1945, people in the enemy-occupied areas wanted the KMT Central Committee to send officials to govern them. However, the officials devoted themselves to plunder. Li Zongren (Li Tsung-jen), who was then vice president and acting president of the Republic of China, said in his memoirs at that time people mocked those carpet-bagging officials saying they only knew how to plunder gold, houses, cars, bank notes and women. So wherever KMT officials went, the situation there got worse.

Summing up the reasons for the KMT's loss of the mainland, John Leighton Stuart said: On the whole, the CPC was able to give the impression, both to the Chinese masses, especially the peasantry, and to foreign observers in and out of China, that it was truly devoted to the cause of the people and was truly seeking to promote in China the cause of democracy and to win for China a position of real independence and strength in the family of nations.

A Chinese saying goes, "Those who command popular support will gain state power." During the War of Liberation, the CPC rallied the overwhelming majority of the people and their resources to create the situation described by Mao Zedong: "In China we unite workers, peasants (including the newly rich), independent business people, small and medium capitalists oppressed and persecuted by the reactionary forces, students, teachers, professors, intellectuals in general, professionals, enlightened gentry, public servants and oppressed minorities and overseas Chinese to fight for state power and rule the country under the leadership (through the CPC) of the working class." However, the KMT had lost all its popular support, and people even asked "Whom exactly does the KMT represent?"

Popular support finally decided the outcome of the war. On February 1, 1949, on the eve of defeat, Chiang Kai-shek admitted that during the two decades of his administration he had put too few efforts into political reform and social welfare. Furthermore, the educational personnel in KMT, government and military departments had not paid attention to the implementation of the Three Principles of the People (Nationalism, Democracy and People's Livelihood) initiated by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, KMT's founding father.

(Source: Chapter One from Why and How the CPC Works in China by New World Press)