What happened in China in 1947

Mondo History Updated on 2024-01-31

The year 1947 was an extremely crucial year in the process of the Liberation War for Chinese history, and the major events of this year were like chess pieces, carefully laid out on the chessboard of China's modern revolution, which not only profoundly changed the domestic political pattern, but also indirectly affected the trend of the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in the context of the international Cold War.

First of all, on February 28 at the beginning of the year, a shocking social movement broke out in Taiwan - the "228 Incident". Although the struggle against the Kuomintang initiated by the local people was brutally suppressed by the authorities, it was like a lightning bolt that pierced the darkness, revealing the sharpness of the internal contradictions at the end of the Kuomintang rule and the people's strong desire for democracy and freedom, and also laid the groundwork for the later New China's Taiwan policy.

Then, on March 12, Truman delivered a speech of far-reaching historical significance in Congress, formally proposing the "Truman Doctrine" with the containment of communism as the guiding ideology. The promulgation of this doctrine marked the formal establishment of the Cold War situation on a global scale, and its influence quickly spread to the Asian battlefield, exerting a subtle and complex impact on the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. The United States' support for the Kuomintang and its hostile attitude towards the communist regime intensified the confrontation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party to a certain extent, and prompted the CCP to rely more firmly on its own strength and the support of the people to advance the war of liberation.

On the domestic battlefield, the Chinese People's Liberation Army has won a series of decisive victories in the northwest region. From March to June, the success of the battles of Qinghuatou, Yangmahe, and Panlong was like a hammer, which effectively dealt a blow to the arrogance of the Kuomintang army, and also opened the prelude to the strategy of the People's Liberation Army. In particular, on June 30, the army led by ** and *** successfully crossed the Yellow River and advanced into the Dabie Mountains, directly threatening the heartland of Kuomintang rule and opening a new stage of the People's Liberation Army's comprehensive strategic offensive.

After that, Chen Geng and Xie Fuzhi led the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army to advance to the Hubei-Shaanxi border area in western Henan, and Su Yu commanded the outer line corps of the East China Field Army to cross the Yellow River in southwest Shandong and directly enter the Henan-Anhui Soviet border area to launch a large-scale strategy. This series of military operations has enabled the PLA to continuously expand its battle front, and its combat area has gradually penetrated deep into the hinterland of the Kuomintang-ruled areas, greatly compressing the strategic space of the opponent.

At the same time, the Communist Party of China convened a national land conference in the same year and adopted the "Outline of China's Land Law", which clearly put forward the implementation of the land policy of land ownership for the cultivators, which is the most direct and profound concern and commitment to the broad masses of peasants. The implementation of this policy has won the enthusiastic support of the peasants, greatly stimulated the peasants' enthusiasm for joining the army and supporting the front, and provided a solid human resource and social foundation for the people's army under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.

To sum up, this series of major events that occurred in 1947 undoubtedly constituted an important symbol that China's Liberation War entered the strategic stage. The People's Army under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has achieved a strategic shift from defense to offense through a series of successful military operations and a popular land reform policy, and in the process has gathered a broader and deeper social foundation, thus laying a solid foundation for the eventual seizure of national power.

Related Pages