Read this article to learn about the communist victory in China after 1945!
Soon after, the United States and her allies received another shock. On 1 October 1949, the People’s Republic of China was established.
During the Second World War, massive quantities of armaments had been made available by the US to Chiang Kai-shek’s government in China for the war against the Japanese. China was under the grip of a civil war.
The civil war in China was suspended when Chiang Kai- shek was forced to give primacy to the war against Japan instead of fighting the communists.
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However, the two—Chiang Kai-shek’s government and the Chinese communists—did not really fight against the Japanese unitedly, but some semblance of not fighting against each other was maintained during the war. In July 1946, the civil war was resumed.
With three years, Chiang Kai-shek’s forces were completely routed, in spite of the US supply of sophisticated weaponry. Chiang Kai-shek, along with the remnants of his forces, fled to Taiwan (Formosa) which had been freed from Japan after the Japanese defeat in the Second World War.
The communist victory in the most populous country further aggravated the fear of communism with the Western bloc. The overthrow of the communist rule in China and the restoration of Chiang Kai-shek’s government on mainland China became a major objective of the US policy. For over two decades, the US refused to recognise the government of China.
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The US, with the support of her allies, also kept China out of the United Nations. China’s seat in the United Nations, including the one in the Security Council as a permanent member, was occupied by Chiang Kai-shek’s government which, with US military support, was in occupation of only a Chinese island. Chiang Kai-shek’s army continued to be armed and prepared by the US to launch an invasion into mainland China.
The fear of communism led the US to intervene in the affairs of Asian countries and the Cold War was brought to Asia. The US was also involved in many military conflicts and wars in Asia.
Seeing every issue in terms of the Cold War, the United States also came in conflict with anti-colonial nationalist struggles for freedom and with many independent nations which were trying to strengthen their national independence and to assert their independent role in world affairs.