Shanghai massacre
Shanghai massacre | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Communists being rounded up during the purges | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Green Gang | Left Kuomintang | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Chiang Kai-shek (NRA commander-in-chief) Bai Chongxi (NRA commander in Shanghai) Du Yuesheng (Green Gang leader) |
Chen Duxiu (CCP general secretary) Zhou Enlai | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
Republic of China Army; Green Gang and other Shanghai gangs | Chinese Communist Party; Kuomintang leftists; Shanghai labor union militias | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Approx. 5,000 soldiers of the 2nd Division of the 26th Army and members of various gangs | Thousands from labor union militias | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Minimal | 5,000[1]–10,000[2] killed |
Shanghai massacre | |||
---|---|---|---|
Traditional Chinese | 四一二事件 | ||
| |||
Alternative name | |||
Traditional Chinese | 四一二清黨 | ||
Simplified Chinese | 四一二清党 | ||
| |||
Alternative name(2) | |||
Traditional Chinese | 東南清黨 | ||
Simplified Chinese | 東南清党 | ||
| |||
Alternative name(3) | |||
Traditional Chinese | 四一二清黨 | ||
Simplified Chinese | 四一二清党 | ||
| |||
Alternative name(4) | |||
Traditional Chinese | 四一二慘案 | ||
Simplified Chinese | 四一二惨案 | ||
|
Part of People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949. |
Communism portal |
The Shanghai massacre of 12 April 1927, the April 12 Purge or the April 12 Incident as it is commonly known in China, was the violent suppression of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organizations and leftist elements in Shanghai by forces supporting General Chiang Kai-shek and conservative factions in the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party or KMT). Following the incident, conservative KMT elements carried out a full-scale purge of communists in all areas under their control, and violent suppression occurred in Guangzhou and Changsha.[3] The purge led to an open split between left-wing and right-wing factions in the KMT, with Chiang Kai-shek establishing himself as the leader of the right-wing faction based in Nanjing, in opposition to the original left-wing KMT government based in Wuhan, which was led by Wang Jingwei. By 15 July 1927, the Wuhan regime had expelled the Communists in its ranks, effectively ending the First United Front, a working alliance of both the KMT and CCP under the tutelage of Comintern agents. For the rest of 1927, the CCP would fight to regain power, beginning the Autumn Harvest Uprising. With the failure and the crushing of the Guangzhou Uprising at Guangzhou however, the power of the Communists was largely diminished, unable to launch another major urban offensive.[4]
Names
In KMT historiography, the event is occasionally referred to as "April 12 Purge" (四一二清黨), while the Communist historiography refers to the event in the form of "April 12 Counter-revolutionary Coup" (四一二反革命政變) or "April 12 Massacre" (四一二慘案).[5]
Background
The roots of the April 12 Incident go back to the Kuomintang's alliance with the Soviet Union, formally initiated by the KMT founder Sun Yat-sen after discussions with Soviet diplomat Adolph Joffe in January 1923. The alliance included both financial and military aid and a small but important group of Soviet political and military advisors, headed by Mikhail Borodin.[6] The Soviet Union's conditions for alliance and aid included co-operation with the small Chinese Communist Party. Sun agreed to let the Communists join the KMT as individuals but ruled out an alliance with them or their participation as an organized bloc. In addition, he demanded that the Communists, upon joining the KMT, adhere to KMT ideology and observe party discipline. Following their admission to the KMT, Communist activities, often covert, soon attracted opposition to the alliance among prominent KMT members.[7] Internal conflicts between left- and right-wing leaders of the KMT with regards to the United Front with the CCP continued right up to the launch of the Northern Expedition.
Plans for a Northern Expedition originated with Sun Yat-sen. After his expulsion from the government in
With the growth of KMT authority and military strength, the struggle for control of the Party's direction and leadership intensified. In January 1927, the NRA, commanded by Chiang Kai-shek captured
In response to the advances of the NRA, Communists in Shanghai began to plan uprisings against the warlord forces controlling the city. On 21–22 March, KMT and CCP union workers, led by Zhou Enlai and Chen Duxiu, launched an armed uprising in Shanghai and defeated the warlord forces of the Zhili clique. The victorious union workers occupied and governed urban Shanghai except for the international settlements prior to the arrival of the NRA's Eastern Route Army, led by Generals Bai Chongxi and Li Zongren. After the Nanking Incident in which foreign concessions in Nanjing were attacked and looted, both the right wing of the Kuomintang and western powers became alarmed by the growth of the influence of the Communists, who continued to organize daily mass student protests and labor strikes to demand the return of Shanghai international settlements to Chinese control.[9] With Bai's army firmly in control of Shanghai, on 2 April the Central Control Commission of KMT, led by former Chancellor of Peking University Cai Yuanpei, determined that the CCP actions were anti-revolutionary and undermined the national interest of China, and it voted unanimously to purge the Communists from the KMT.[10]
Purge
This section needs additional citations for verification. (April 2017) |
On 5 April, Wang Jingwei arrived in Shanghai from overseas and met with the CCP leader Chen Duxiu. After their meeting they issued a joint declaration re-affirming the principle of cooperation between the KMT and the CCP, despite urgent pleas from Chiang and other KMT elders to eliminate Communist influence. When Wang left Shanghai for Wuhan the next day, Chiang asked Green Gang leader Du Yuesheng and other gang leaders in Shanghai to form a rival union to oppose the Shanghai labor union controlled by the Communists, and made final preparations for purging CCP members.
On 9 April, Chiang declared martial law in Shanghai and the Central Control Commission issued the "Party Protection and National Salvation" proclamation(保黨救國), denouncing the Wuhan Nationalist Government's policy of cooperation with the CCP. On 11 April Chiang issued a secret order to all provinces under the control of his forces to purge Communists from the KMT.
Before dawn on 12 April, gang members began to attack district offices controlled by the union workers, including
During the White Terror, local Kuomintang officials specifically targeted short-haired women who had not been subjected to foot binding.[14] These officials presumed that women who rejected foot binding and traditional hair styles were radicals.[14] Kuomintang forces would cut off their breasts and shave their heads, displaying their mutilated corpses to cow the populace.[14]
Aftermath and significance
During the White Terror, the Kuomintang killed more than one million people, primarily peasants.
For the Kuomintang, 39 members of the Kuomintang Central Committee in Wuhan publicly denounced Chiang Kai-shek as a traitor to Sun Yat-sen, including Sun's widow Soong Ching-ling immediately after the purge. However, Chiang was defiant, forming a brand new Nationalist Government to rival the Communist-tolerant Nationalist Government in Wuhan controlled by Wang Jingwei on 18 April. The purges garnered the Nanjing government the support of much of the NRA, the Chinese merchant class, and foreign businesses, bolstering its economic and military position.[18]
The twin rival KMT governments, known as the Ninghan (Nanjing and Wuhan) Split (Chinese: 寧漢分裂), did not last long. In May 1927, Communists and peasant leaders in the Wuhan area were repeatedly attacked by Nationalist generals.[19] On 1 June, Joseph Stalin sent a telegram to the Communists in Wuhan, calling for mobilisation of an army of workers and peasants.[20] This alarmed Wang Jingwei, who decided to break with the Communists and come to terms with Chiang Kai-shek.
On the Communists' side, Chen Duxiu and his Soviet advisers, who had promoted cooperation with the KMT, were discredited and lost their leadership roles in the CCP. Chen was personally blamed, forced to resign and replaced by Qu Qiubai, who did not change Chen's policies in any fundamental way. The CCP planned for worker uprisings and revolutions in the urban areas.[15] The White Terror completely routed the Communists, and only 10,000 party members out of 60,000 survived.[14]
The first battles of the ten-year Chinese Civil War began with armed Communist insurrections in Changsha, Nanchang, and Guangzhou. During the
In June 1928, the National Revolutionary Army captured the
See also
- First United Front
- History of the Republic of China
- Republic of China Armed Forces
- List of massacres in China
- Man's Fate, a 1933 novel written by André Malraux
- Guangzhou Uprising
- Shanghai Commune of 1927
- Shanghai People's Commune
References
Citations
- ^ ISBN 978-0192731401.
In the next weeks five thousand Communists were butchered by the stammering machine-guns of the Kuomintang and by the knives of the criminal gangs whom Chiang recruited for slaughter.
- ^ ISBN 9781875585083.
- ^ Wilbur, Nationalist Revolution 114
- ^ Wilbur, Nationalist Revolution 170.
- ISBN 0-8047-5001-7.
- ^ Wilbur 1976, 135–140.
- ^ Wilbur 1976, 180-81.
- ^ Chang Kuo-t'ao, The rise of the Chinese Communist Party: 1928–1938, p. 581
- ^ Elizabeth, J. Perry (11 April 2003). "The Fate of Revolutionary Militias in China". Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Archived from the original on 1 May 2019. Retrieved 25 November 2006.
- ^ Chen Lifu, Columbia interviews, part 1, p. 29.
- ^ "許劍虹觀點:國共是如何分家的?談談95年前蔣中正與馮玉祥的會面-風傳媒". 19 June 2022. Archived from the original on 31 May 2023. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
- ^ "CHINA: Nationalist Notes". TIME. 25 June 1928. Archived from the original on 21 November 2010. Retrieved 11 April 2011.
- ISBN 0-224-07126-2. (This book is controversial for its anti-Mao tone and references.))
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: postscript (link - ^ from the original on 12 December 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ on 12 March 2011. p.38
- ISBN 9780295805450.
- ISBN 9781786730152.
- ^ Jowett 2013, pp. 158–159.
- ISBN 0333141547.
- ^ Harrison, The Long March to Power, p. 111
- ^ Patricia Stranahan (1994). "The Shanghai Labor Movement, 1927–1931". East Asian Working Paper Series on Language and Politics in Modern China. Archived from the original on 24 October 2006. Retrieved 25 November 2006.
Sources
- Chan, F. Gilbert; Thomas H. Etzold (1976). China in the 1920s: nationalism and revolution. New Viewpoints. ISBN 978-0-531-05589-2.
- ISBN 9780700600724.
- Chesneaux, Jean (1968). The Chinese Labor Movement 1919–1927. Stanford University Press.
- Harrison, James P. (1972). The long march to power: a history of the Chinese Communist Party, 1921–72. Praeger Publishers.
- ISBN 0-8047-0416-3.
- Jowett, Philip S. (2013). China's Wars. Rousing the Dragon 1894–1949. ISBN 978-1782004073.
- Perry, Elizabeth J. (1995). Shanghai on strike: The politics of Chinese labor. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-2491-3.
- Smith, Stephen A. (2000). A road is made: Communism in Shanghai, 1920–1927. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-2314-6.
- Wilbur, C. Martin (1983). The nationalist revolution in China, 1923–1928. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-31864-8.
- Wilbur, C. Martin; Julie Lien-ying How (1989). Missionaries of revolution: Soviet advisers and Nationalist China, 1920–1927. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-57652-0.
Further reading
- ISBN 0-679-72574-1. (360 pages) (This fictional account of the Shanghai purge by André Malraux won the 1933 Prix Goncourt in literature.))
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: postscript (link - Stranahan, Patricia (1998). Underground: The Shanghai Communist Party and the Politics of Survival, 1927–1937. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 0-8476-8723-6. (304 pages))
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: postscript (link - ISBN 978-1-931859-84-4. (550 pages))
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: postscript (link
External links
- Exploring Chinese History: The Nationalist Movement
- Tales of Old Shanghai: 1927 – the Communist Purge Archived 25 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine