China's Inevitable Revolution: Rethinking America's Loss to the Communists

273 Pages·2007·1.67 MB·English

by  Thomas Lutze

China’s Inevitable Revolution
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China’s Inevitable Revolution
Rethinking America’s Loss to the Communists
Thomas D. Lutze
CHINA’SINEVITABLEREVOLUTION
Copyright ©Thomas D. Lutze, 2007.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in
any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case
of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published in 2007 by
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trademark in the European Union and other countries.
ISBN-10: 1-4039-7977-4
ISBN-13: 978-1-4039-7977-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lutze, Thomas D.
China’s inevitable revolution : rethinking America’s loss to the
Communists / Thomas D. Lutze.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-4039-7977-4 (alk. paper)
1. United States—Foreign relations—China. 2. China—Foreign
relations—United States. 3. United States—Foreign relations—
1945–1953. 4. Cold War. 5. China—History—Civil War, 1945–1949.
6. China—Politics and government—1945–1949. 7. Liberalism—
China—History—20th century. 8. Communism—China—History—
20th century. 9. China—Foreign relations—1912-1949. I. Title.
E183.8.C5L88 2007
327.7305109’045—dc22 2007015274
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Scribe Inc.
First Edition: December 2007
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
A Note on Romanization ix
Abbreviations x
Introduction 1
1 The Failure of Mediation:
The Hurley and Marshall Missions 17
2 The Battle Lines Are Drawn: U.S. Contention
with the CCP to Win the Middle Forces, 1947 55
3 The Middle Forces in China’s Urban Turmoil, 1947 79
4 The Battle for the Middle Forces Peaks:
The Domestic Factors, 1947–48 105
5 The Battle for the Middle Forces Peaks:
The International Factor, 1947–48—Japan 127
6 America’s Loss: Clearing the Battlefield—
And Parting Shots, 1948–49 157
Notes 195
Works Cited 237
Index 253
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book would not have been written without the encouragement and
assistance of many people and institutions both in the United States and in
China. Maurice Meisner and Thomas McCormick at the University of
Wisconsin provided positive and helpful comments on the earliest version
of this study many years ago, and continued to support the work in the
time since. Other scholars who offered encouragement along the way
include Larry I. Bland, Walter LaFeber, Thomas Paterson, Clara Sun,
Edmund Wehrley, Odd Arne Westad, and Marilyn Young.
My research in China depended on the helpful and generous guidance
of Zhang Zhuhong of Peking University’s History Department.
Interviews and access to archives were greatly facilitated by Qiu Renzong
of the Chinese Academy of Social Science, by Huang Daolin and the
Foreign Students Office at Peking University (PKU), and by liaison offi-
cials representing the central committees of several democratic parties:
Wei Shiyuan and Du Ningwen of the Guomindang Revolutionary
Committee, Jin Ruonian and Zhang Ronghua of the China Democratic
League, Wang Jian and An Guiying of the China Democratic National
Construction Association, and, in Shanghai, Jin Peiji of the Chinese
Association for the Promotion of Democracy. Four other Chinese schol-
ars, Li Yunfeng of Northwest University in Xi’an, Liang Yi of Beijing
Union University, Lin Chun of the London School of Economics, and
Jean K. M. Hung of the University Services Center in Hong Kong, either
assisted me in arranging interviews or in pointing me to important
archives containing rich materials for this study.
Funding for my research in China was generously provided by the
Committee on Scholarly Communication with China, the MacArthur
Scholars Program at the University of Wisconsin (UW), the UW–Madison
Department of History, and Illinois Wesleyan University.
My good friends and colleagues Chuck Springwood, Irv Epstein, Mike
Stein, and Dreux Montgomery have offered consistent encouragement in
my efforts to bring this work to fruition, and Patra Noonan at Illinois
viii Acknowledgments
Wesleyan has regularly come through with much needed assistance on
technical issues and on the compilation of the book’s bibliography.
I am grateful to my family, in particular my older children, Peter and
Andrew, who provided me with companionship during my first year of
research in China, and my younger children, Ariana and Nathaniel, who
have been a big help in giving me the quiet time necessary to complete
the manuscript.
To all these people, I express my deepest thanks. But most especially, I
want to thank my wife and partner Abigail Jahiel for her help with trans-
lations, her insightful comments and criticisms, her patience, and, most
importantly, her caring support as I have worked on this project.
The assistance of all these people, and many others not mentioned, has
resulted in this finished product. Nevertheless, I alone assume responsi-
bility for the arguments and conclusions of this study. Any errors are
mine, not those of the people whose help I gratefully acknowledge here.
A NOTE ON ROMANIZATION
Rendering Chinese names and phrases into a romanized form that is acces-
sible to Western readers is rarely a simple proposition. At different times
and in different places, different systems of romanization have been uti-
lized. Over the past three decades, however, the Hanyu pinyinsystem has
increasingly become the standard in Western scholarship. This book
acknowledges this trend and in almost all cases uses pinyin.
Because the subject matter of this study predates the introduction of
pinyin, however, many of the English-language primary sources cited refer
to people and places in romanized forms (oftentimes utilizing the earlier
Wade-Giles system or some variant thereof) other than pinyin—forms that
remain better known to most readers. Therefore, a few exceptions to the
use of pinyinwill be observed:
Sun Yat-sen instead of the pinyinSun Zhongshan;
Chiang Kai-shek instead of the pinyinJiang Jieshi; and
Chiang Ching-kuo instead of the pinyinJiang Jingguo.
In addition, several Chinese universities have officially maintained until
today the earlier, historical rendition of their names in English. For exam-
ple, Beijing daxue, or Beida, is officially Peking University in English, not
Beijing University, and Qinghua daxue is rendered as Tsinghua University,
not Qinghua University. Yanjing daxue, which was merged with Beijing
daxue after 1949 and whose campus now is home to Beida, is rendered as
Yenching University.
Readers should note, too, that during the late 1940s, today’s capital of
China, Beijing, or Northern Capital, was then referred to as Beiping
(Peip’ing), or Northern Peace, because the capital of China at that time
was Nanjing (Nanking), or Southern Capital.
Where confusion might exist over the name of a person or place, the
alternative romanization of the name will appear in parentheses following
the name when it is first introduced.