Campaign To Suppress Bandits in Central and Southern China - Campaign

Campaign

The communists planned their campaign in three stages, with the first lasting from May 1949 thru November 1949. Communist Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Guangxi and Guangdong Military Districts mobilized available regular and militia forces launched waves of offensive against bandits and by the end of the year, over 334,600 bandits were annihilated. After a brief relatively dormant period, the bandit guerrilla counterattacked in the spring of 1950. The communist high command of Central and Southern (China) Military Region held a conference in March 1950 to discuss the next step and decided to use three months to eradicate the bandits. Over forty thousand troop of Hunan Military District to eradicate bandits in western Hunan, Taifu (太浮) Mountains in Changde and Dragon Mountain in Shaoyang, and by the end of June 1950, over forty thousand bandits were killed. An equal number of bandits were killed in the same period of time in Pearl River Delta, and on coastal islands in Guangdong. Meanwhile, eight communist regiments of Guangxi Military District managed to kill over thirty thousand bandits in southeastern Guangxi.

In July 1950, the bandit guerrillas became overly confident due to the outbreak of Korean War, believing that the communist regime would collapse because it was not match to the mighty USA, and it was time for massive offensive. The communist high command of Central and Southern (China) Military Region held a second conference according and decided to reinforce Guangxi, and in Guangdong, concentrating on western and northern Guangdong. In western Hunan, two commands in the north and south would be formed to better coordinate the battles aimed to eradicate bandits in the border region of Hubei, Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangxi provinces. By the end of May 1951, over half a million bandits were eradicated. This marked the end of conventional warfare which the bandit guerrilla could no longer launch and bandit guerrillas could no longer mass sufficient strength to launch any strikes that posed real danger to the communist regime. By the beginning of June 1950, the campaign turned into purely counter guerrilla warfare. Communists strengthened their success by sending over thirty thousand cadres to the country side to support the land reform, and managed to won the support of most peasantry class. Communist further changed their tactics by forming over three thousand counter guerrilla teams and fought the bandit guerrilla with guerrilla warfare, and after a year, over seventy six thousand bandits were further eradicated.

On June 1, 1952, communists adjusted their tactic once more due to the progress made earlier, and the concentration turned into counterinsurgency warfare, with the responsibility transferred to police force. However, the Chinese police force at the time, the Public Security Army (Gong An Jun, 公安军) was a branch of regular army. By April 1953, another seventeen thousand bandits were eradicated and finally, in June 1953, all tasks were transferred to police force when communists declared that the campaign ended with the eradication over 1.16 million bandits in Central and Southern China.