Chinese Soviet Republic - Establishment

Establishment

On November 7, 1931, the anniversary of the 1917 Russian Bolshevik Revolution, a National Soviet People's Delegates Conference was held in Ruijin (瑞金), Jiangxi province. Ruijin had been selected as the national capital and the Republic had received assistance from the Soviet Union to accommodate the gathering. The "Chinese Soviet Republic" (Chinese: "中華蘇維埃共和國") was thus born, even though the majority of China was still under control of the nationalist Government of the Republic of China. On that day, they had an opening ceremony for the new country, while Mao Zedong and other communists attended this military parade. Because it had its own national bank, printed its own money, collected tax through its own tax bureau, it is therefore considered as the beginning of Two Chinas.

With Mao Zedong as both head of state ("國家主席", 'state chairman') and government ("總理", prime minister), the Jiangxi Soviet gradually expanded. At its peak, it reached more than 30,000 square kilometres and three million in population, which covered considerable parts of two provinces (with Tingzhou in Fujian). Furthermore, its economy was more stable than most areas that were under the control of the Chinese warlords. In addition to the militia and guerilla, its regular Chinese Red Army alone had already reached more than 140,000 by the early 1930s, and they were better armed than most Chinese warlords' armies at the time. Not only did the Chinese Red Army have modern communication technology (such as telephones, telegraphs and radios which the warlords' armies still lacked), it was also regularly transmitting wireless messages in codes while breaking nationalist codes. At the time, only Chiang Kai-shek's army could match this formidable communist force.

The Kuomintang (KMT), led by Chiang Kai-shek, felt threatened by the Soviet Republic. It led other Chinese warlords to have the National Revolutionary Army besiege the Soviet Republic repeatedly, launching what Chiang and his fellow nationalists called encirclement campaigns. The communists however, responded and called their counterattacks counter encirclement campaigns. Chiang Kai-shek's first, second and third encirclement campaigns were defeated by the Chinese Red Army led by Mao. However, after the third counter encirclement campaign, Mao was removed from the leadership and replaced by the Chinese communist returning from the Soviet Union (Wang Ming). The command of the Chinese Red Army was handled by a three-man committee that included Wang Ming's associates Otto Braun (Li De)( the Comintern military advisor), Bo Gu, and Zhou Enlai. The Jiangxi Soviet thus began its inevitable rapid downfall under their extreme left-wing governance and incompetent military command. Still, the new leadership could not immediately rid itself of Mao's influence which prevailed during the fourth encirclement campaign, and hence this protected the communists temporarily. However, as a result of the complete dominance the new communist leadership (that achieved after the fourth counter encirclement campaign), the Red Army was nearly halved, with most its equipment lost during Chiang's fifth encirclement campaign, which started in 1933 and was orchestrated by Chiang's German advisers, who involved the systematic encirclement of the Jiangxi Soviet region with fortified blockhouses. This method proved to be extremely effective, and in an effort to break the blockade, the Red Army (under the orders of the three man committee) besieged the forts many times but suffered heavy casualties as well as limited success. As a result, the Jiangxi Soviet shrunk significantly in size due to the Chinese Red Army's disastrous manpower and material losses.

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