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The People's Republic of China

Map of China

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The Chinese nation has existed since ancient times. The country was ruled by a succession of imperial dynasties from the 2nd millennium BC to the early 20th century.

In 1911, the last dynasty, the Manchu Qing, was overthrown by republican revolutionaries. In February 1912 Yuan Shikai, a general in the Qing military, emerged as the first president of the republican China. There ensued a long period of tumoil and unrest that did not end until 1949. In 1913 Yuan outlawed the Kuomintang or Chinese Nationalist party (consisting of many different revolutionary groups responsible for toppling the Qing dynasty) and dismissed parliament. In 1921 the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was formed in Shanghai. In 1923 the CCP joined forces with the KMT and they launched an expedition to rid China of warlords who had become dominant and to reunify the country under Chiang Kai-shek, the KMT leader. But the alliance did not last. In 1927 Chiang Kai-shek ordered a purge of communists from among the KMT ranks. Following the purge, the CCP was forced underground. The KMT continued its attempts to exterminate the communists. In October 1934 the KMT army encircled the communists, forcing them to fight their way out and begin a long retreat from the KMT army in what became known as the Long March -- a 6000 mile trek and fighting retreat that saw the 80,000-strong communist force move across China from the south to the northern Shaanxi province. About 8000 communists survived the year-long trek under the leadership of Mao Zedong. Though they may have suffered military defeat, but for the communists the Long March became a great moral victory. It symbolized the triumph of the human will in the face overwhelming odds.

Japanese aggression against China led to a renewed alliance between KMT and CCP in 1937. But the alliance could not hold. After the Japanese surrender and the end of the Second World Ward in 1945, civil war broke out between CCP and KMT forces. In 1949 the CCP forces defeated Chiang Kai-shek and his KMT army and they subsequently retreated to the island of Taiwan. On October 1, 1949 the CCP chairman, Mao Zedong, proclaimed the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.