Penned in China’s south by Chiang Kai-shek‘s Nationalist forces, the young Chinese Communist Party organized a “liberated” communist state in parts of Jiangxi Province. As attacks by the Nationalists increased, the Red Army was forced to retreat 6,000 miles across western China in its famous “Long March.” Only 10% of the communist soldiers survived. During… Read more »
Forced to flee to the southwestern city of Chongqing by the Japanese advance, Chiang spent the next seven and a half years of the war ineffectively resisting the Japanese and worrying about the communists. Chiang received military aid from the British and Americans, and even had an American Chief of Staff, General “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell…. Read more »
Despite a renewed focus on the Japanese, the war did not go well. Chiang’s forces proved unable to displace the Japanese from the northeast, and Japan began pushing southward with impunity. In late 1937, they reached the capital in Nanjing. The Chinese attempted to resist, holding their ground for several weeks, but eventually were forced… Read more »