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The Rise of Red China
- GenresChina
256 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1967
About the author
Robert C. Goldston
43 books2 followersRobert Conroy Goldston was an American writer best known for his works of history.
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February 9, 2025
How did the communists win in China?
Because of the propaganda system in the US, young Americans grow up learning almost nothing about communism, except that it is "bad," or "evil," or at the very least "unamerican."
This knee-jerk reaction is cultivated because the essence of communism, that rich people aren't necessary in society, is an existential threat to rich people everywhere. Since rich people have incredible power in US society, they use that power to try and keep people from knowing anything about communism here.
Because of this Americans never learn much about the Russian Revolution or the Chinese Communist Revolution. It is a subject that gets almost no attention in public schools. We never learn why entire "Nationalist divisions often deserted en masse to the Red Army or surrendered after token resistance" during the Chinese Civil War. How does something like that happen? If you ask me it is because the communists were offering something that nationalist forces were not: An end to the feudal landlord system.
Goldston, Robert. The Rise of Red China. Fawcett Premier, Greenwich, CT 1967. p. 190
I found a wonderful little book called The Rise of Red China by American historian Robert Goldston when I was on vacation. Goldston approaches the material from a Western view. He begins his story with Marco Polo at the dawn of European contact with China.
Communism faced an uphill battle in China. As Goldston describes this is partially because of Confucius. The great sage provided the moral and ethical basis for Chinese government and society, a system designed to bring peace, justice, and universal order. It lasted about 25 centuries. Baked into this philosophy was a tacit acceptance of hierarchy. The Confucian version of the Golden Rule is to "treat those beneath you as you would be treated by those above you." And yet, while this system was very effective for maintaining conservative aristocratic government, it also contained a moral basis for revolution with the concept that "Heaven decides as the people decide."
Goldston, Robert. The Rise of Red China. Fawcett Premier, Greenwich, CT 1967. p. 21-22
So over the course of thousands of years different dynasties would rise and fall because the people would get fed up and overthrow them. A new dynasty would come in and over time heap greater and greater burdens on the back of the peasant class, driving them to desperation and rebellion. Then some new group would organize the discontented masses, seize state power, topple the old dynasty and begin a new one. Then the cycle would start all over again.
By the dawn of the 20th century, the dynastic system is on its last legs. During the rise of the Qing (ching) dynasty in the 1600s, known as the Great Qing dynasty, European powers began chipping away at Chinese sovereignty. In the mid to late 19th century China was losing control of its cities and large chunks of territory to other countries. Russia grabbed land in the Northeast, the French took Indochina, Japan came after Korea, England and Germany were grabbing whatever they could as well.
So the Qing dynasty is disintegrating and here comes Sun Yat-sen, (soon yaht-sen) celebrated in modern China as the Forerunner of the Revolution. He helps found the Republic of China and its first political party the Kuomintang (kwo-min-tang), the Nationalist Party in 1911. He gets credit for overthrowing the Qing dynasty and establishing a modern nation state.
Sun Yat-sen organized his platform around what he called Three Great Principles: Nationalism, democracy, and the people's livelihood. Nationalism meant the end of the Qing dynasty and foreign imperialism. The second principle, "minquan," (min-chen) meant the rights of the people to control their government through elections. The last principle, "minsheng," or "people's livelihood" was the least developed. Though it is sometimes translated as "socialism," it was mostly an early call for land reform through taxation.
In 1922 the Nationalists formed an alliance with the Chinese Communist Party. Unfortunately their united front didn't last very long. By 1927 these two groups were at war, Sun Yat-sen was dead and Mao Zedong and nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek both claimed to be carrying the banner of the Three Great Principles.
By the 1930s Nationalist forces were fighting the communists as hard as they were the Japanese, who were expanding their claims further and further into Chinese territory. By that point the Red Army already had 60,000 troops and the support of 50 million peasants. Mao was sure that the peasants were the key to winning the Chinese civil war. However, he was in the minority amongst his fellow communist leaders who believed that workers in the cities needed to lead the revolution.
Goldston writes, "A very essential difference between the Kuomintang [nationalists] and the Communist Party dictatorships was the fact that the Kuomintang relied upon the continued support of the landlord in order to maintain itself, while the Communists sought to seize power by opposing the landlords." The fight for the support of the Chinese population ultimately came down to this fundamental difference. If the nationalists won the landlord class would still be on top. Education would remain only for a tiny minority. Nationalists were attempting to impose political democracy from the top-down. These ideas echoed the old Confucian idea that peasants should "remain where you are and obey the dictates of heaven."
Goldston, Robert. The Rise of Red China. Fawcett Premier, Greenwich, CT 1967. p. 133
During World War II the Kuomintang and Communists agreed to a tenuous truce in order to expel the Japanese. It was during this period Mao tried to win support by abolishing the worst aspects of peasant life in liberated areas. Rents were reduced, rent controls were imposed, the landlord was forbidden from raising rents or evicting tenants. Control of villages was taken out of the hands of its richest inhabitants and handed over to local elected councils. Taxes were reduced as well.
Mao won more support from peasants with the "get your hands dirty" campaign. Red Army regiments that weren't fighting were put to work growing their own food and helping peasants tend the land. Soldiers labored side by side with peasants in the fields and used their horses for plowing. As Goldston says, this policy "did more than any amount of communist propaganda to win peasant support. The idea that an army did not necessarily have to bring disaster to their lives but might even help them raise their standard of living was a revolutionary thought to China's peasants."
Goldston, Robert. The Rise of Red China. Fawcett Premier, Greenwich, CT 1967. p. 178
After World War II the Kuomintang and the Communists went back to fighting each other. The United States threw its full support behind Chiang Kai-shek, sending him billions over the next few years. Planes, tanks, weapons, ammunition, and a thousand military advisors were sent to back the Kuomintang against the Communists. American forces were sent to Shanghai, Tsingtao (sing-tau), and other naval ports. Nationalist officers were trained at US army and naval schools. It did not matter.
Goldston, Robert. The Rise of Red China. Fawcett Premier, Greenwich, CT 1967. p. 185
Chinese peasants made up both the Nationalist and Red armies. Goldston writes, "The appeal of Communist policies which had successfully attracted support from the peasants in the Liberated Areas was no less to the peasants of Chiang Kai-shek's army. Nationalist soldiers could see no benefit in fighting for a government which oppressed them, and, when given the opportunity, they deserted by the tens of thousands to the Communist side, taking their weapons with them."
Goldston, Robert. The Rise of Red China. Fawcett Premier, Greenwich, CT 1967. p. 190-191
As the civil war started back up Mao changed his policies for the areas under communist control. The Liberated Areas Land Law abolished the feudal system, abolished the land ownership rights of all landlords, canceled all rural debts, and handed ownership of the land over to the peasants to manage. Says Goldston, "As a weapon agains the Kuomintang this new land law was the equivalent of many armies."
Goldston, Robert. The Rise of Red China. Fawcett Premier, Greenwich, CT 1967. p. 193
Peasant uprisings began throughout Kuomintang territories. As support for the nationalists receded, "it seemed that its only allies were to be found in certain American military and commercial circles, not in China."
Goldston, Robert. The Rise of Red China. Fawcett Premier, Greenwich, CT 1967. p. 191
Before long Red Army forces completely surrounded and destroyed the Kuomintang forces in the devastating Battle of Huai-Hai (yu-way-hai). Chiang Kai-shek and two million of his supporters fled, with the nation's entire gold reserve, to Taiwan.
It is plain to me that the policies of the Communist Party are what won the Chinese Civil War for the communists. It seems like there comes a time when wealth elites get too greedy and the mass of the people looks around and asks, do we really need rich people? Those who say, no, we don't, are called communists.
It didn't matter how much material support the United States gave to Chiang Kai-shek and his nationalists. The Kuomintang was fighting to preserve the existing class structure. The Communists were fighting to end the class hierarchy that had dominated their society for roughly 25 centuries. This was the most important factor. Mao Zedong offered a way to break up the landlord class and hand power to the peasants. That is why the communists won in China.
Hey America, do we really need billionaires?
Because of the propaganda system in the US, young Americans grow up learning almost nothing about communism, except that it is "bad," or "evil," or at the very least "unamerican."
This knee-jerk reaction is cultivated because the essence of communism, that rich people aren't necessary in society, is an existential threat to rich people everywhere. Since rich people have incredible power in US society, they use that power to try and keep people from knowing anything about communism here.
Because of this Americans never learn much about the Russian Revolution or the Chinese Communist Revolution. It is a subject that gets almost no attention in public schools. We never learn why entire "Nationalist divisions often deserted en masse to the Red Army or surrendered after token resistance" during the Chinese Civil War. How does something like that happen? If you ask me it is because the communists were offering something that nationalist forces were not: An end to the feudal landlord system.
Goldston, Robert. The Rise of Red China. Fawcett Premier, Greenwich, CT 1967. p. 190
I found a wonderful little book called The Rise of Red China by American historian Robert Goldston when I was on vacation. Goldston approaches the material from a Western view. He begins his story with Marco Polo at the dawn of European contact with China.
Communism faced an uphill battle in China. As Goldston describes this is partially because of Confucius. The great sage provided the moral and ethical basis for Chinese government and society, a system designed to bring peace, justice, and universal order. It lasted about 25 centuries. Baked into this philosophy was a tacit acceptance of hierarchy. The Confucian version of the Golden Rule is to "treat those beneath you as you would be treated by those above you." And yet, while this system was very effective for maintaining conservative aristocratic government, it also contained a moral basis for revolution with the concept that "Heaven decides as the people decide."
Goldston, Robert. The Rise of Red China. Fawcett Premier, Greenwich, CT 1967. p. 21-22
So over the course of thousands of years different dynasties would rise and fall because the people would get fed up and overthrow them. A new dynasty would come in and over time heap greater and greater burdens on the back of the peasant class, driving them to desperation and rebellion. Then some new group would organize the discontented masses, seize state power, topple the old dynasty and begin a new one. Then the cycle would start all over again.
By the dawn of the 20th century, the dynastic system is on its last legs. During the rise of the Qing (ching) dynasty in the 1600s, known as the Great Qing dynasty, European powers began chipping away at Chinese sovereignty. In the mid to late 19th century China was losing control of its cities and large chunks of territory to other countries. Russia grabbed land in the Northeast, the French took Indochina, Japan came after Korea, England and Germany were grabbing whatever they could as well.
So the Qing dynasty is disintegrating and here comes Sun Yat-sen, (soon yaht-sen) celebrated in modern China as the Forerunner of the Revolution. He helps found the Republic of China and its first political party the Kuomintang (kwo-min-tang), the Nationalist Party in 1911. He gets credit for overthrowing the Qing dynasty and establishing a modern nation state.
Sun Yat-sen organized his platform around what he called Three Great Principles: Nationalism, democracy, and the people's livelihood. Nationalism meant the end of the Qing dynasty and foreign imperialism. The second principle, "minquan," (min-chen) meant the rights of the people to control their government through elections. The last principle, "minsheng," or "people's livelihood" was the least developed. Though it is sometimes translated as "socialism," it was mostly an early call for land reform through taxation.
In 1922 the Nationalists formed an alliance with the Chinese Communist Party. Unfortunately their united front didn't last very long. By 1927 these two groups were at war, Sun Yat-sen was dead and Mao Zedong and nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek both claimed to be carrying the banner of the Three Great Principles.
By the 1930s Nationalist forces were fighting the communists as hard as they were the Japanese, who were expanding their claims further and further into Chinese territory. By that point the Red Army already had 60,000 troops and the support of 50 million peasants. Mao was sure that the peasants were the key to winning the Chinese civil war. However, he was in the minority amongst his fellow communist leaders who believed that workers in the cities needed to lead the revolution.
Goldston writes, "A very essential difference between the Kuomintang [nationalists] and the Communist Party dictatorships was the fact that the Kuomintang relied upon the continued support of the landlord in order to maintain itself, while the Communists sought to seize power by opposing the landlords." The fight for the support of the Chinese population ultimately came down to this fundamental difference. If the nationalists won the landlord class would still be on top. Education would remain only for a tiny minority. Nationalists were attempting to impose political democracy from the top-down. These ideas echoed the old Confucian idea that peasants should "remain where you are and obey the dictates of heaven."
Goldston, Robert. The Rise of Red China. Fawcett Premier, Greenwich, CT 1967. p. 133
During World War II the Kuomintang and Communists agreed to a tenuous truce in order to expel the Japanese. It was during this period Mao tried to win support by abolishing the worst aspects of peasant life in liberated areas. Rents were reduced, rent controls were imposed, the landlord was forbidden from raising rents or evicting tenants. Control of villages was taken out of the hands of its richest inhabitants and handed over to local elected councils. Taxes were reduced as well.
Mao won more support from peasants with the "get your hands dirty" campaign. Red Army regiments that weren't fighting were put to work growing their own food and helping peasants tend the land. Soldiers labored side by side with peasants in the fields and used their horses for plowing. As Goldston says, this policy "did more than any amount of communist propaganda to win peasant support. The idea that an army did not necessarily have to bring disaster to their lives but might even help them raise their standard of living was a revolutionary thought to China's peasants."
Goldston, Robert. The Rise of Red China. Fawcett Premier, Greenwich, CT 1967. p. 178
After World War II the Kuomintang and the Communists went back to fighting each other. The United States threw its full support behind Chiang Kai-shek, sending him billions over the next few years. Planes, tanks, weapons, ammunition, and a thousand military advisors were sent to back the Kuomintang against the Communists. American forces were sent to Shanghai, Tsingtao (sing-tau), and other naval ports. Nationalist officers were trained at US army and naval schools. It did not matter.
Goldston, Robert. The Rise of Red China. Fawcett Premier, Greenwich, CT 1967. p. 185
Chinese peasants made up both the Nationalist and Red armies. Goldston writes, "The appeal of Communist policies which had successfully attracted support from the peasants in the Liberated Areas was no less to the peasants of Chiang Kai-shek's army. Nationalist soldiers could see no benefit in fighting for a government which oppressed them, and, when given the opportunity, they deserted by the tens of thousands to the Communist side, taking their weapons with them."
Goldston, Robert. The Rise of Red China. Fawcett Premier, Greenwich, CT 1967. p. 190-191
As the civil war started back up Mao changed his policies for the areas under communist control. The Liberated Areas Land Law abolished the feudal system, abolished the land ownership rights of all landlords, canceled all rural debts, and handed ownership of the land over to the peasants to manage. Says Goldston, "As a weapon agains the Kuomintang this new land law was the equivalent of many armies."
Goldston, Robert. The Rise of Red China. Fawcett Premier, Greenwich, CT 1967. p. 193
Peasant uprisings began throughout Kuomintang territories. As support for the nationalists receded, "it seemed that its only allies were to be found in certain American military and commercial circles, not in China."
Goldston, Robert. The Rise of Red China. Fawcett Premier, Greenwich, CT 1967. p. 191
Before long Red Army forces completely surrounded and destroyed the Kuomintang forces in the devastating Battle of Huai-Hai (yu-way-hai). Chiang Kai-shek and two million of his supporters fled, with the nation's entire gold reserve, to Taiwan.
It is plain to me that the policies of the Communist Party are what won the Chinese Civil War for the communists. It seems like there comes a time when wealth elites get too greedy and the mass of the people looks around and asks, do we really need rich people? Those who say, no, we don't, are called communists.
It didn't matter how much material support the United States gave to Chiang Kai-shek and his nationalists. The Kuomintang was fighting to preserve the existing class structure. The Communists were fighting to end the class hierarchy that had dominated their society for roughly 25 centuries. This was the most important factor. Mao Zedong offered a way to break up the landlord class and hand power to the peasants. That is why the communists won in China.
Hey America, do we really need billionaires?
February 3, 2017
The Rise of China
The rise of red china ( written by Robert Goldston) is deeply reccomended to an audience that shows deep interest in a sufficient way to learn chinese history. The book offers and promises a look into the leaders and dynasties of ancient china up to the rural and constructive making of communism in the 1900s. Its point and purpose of the entirety is to give its reader a relatable piece of information one that is good for many audiences to understand and comprehend about how red china was formed. However the book may be one that some reader find as more of a process to get through due to the override of information due to the excessive history that china is known for. But the book also gives excellent illustrations, diagrams, and picture that may better the reader to follow along and stay engaged . And for those who are looking for a source of info that is primary Goldston is a historical writer who lived closely to the time of some of the communist event therefor would be considered credible and may be a good source for any researchers or student writing a paper. Overall the book is one that's very educational and academic and personally the informative style is very beneficial and would be excellent for anyone to benefit from.
The rise of red china ( written by Robert Goldston) is deeply reccomended to an audience that shows deep interest in a sufficient way to learn chinese history. The book offers and promises a look into the leaders and dynasties of ancient china up to the rural and constructive making of communism in the 1900s. Its point and purpose of the entirety is to give its reader a relatable piece of information one that is good for many audiences to understand and comprehend about how red china was formed. However the book may be one that some reader find as more of a process to get through due to the override of information due to the excessive history that china is known for. But the book also gives excellent illustrations, diagrams, and picture that may better the reader to follow along and stay engaged . And for those who are looking for a source of info that is primary Goldston is a historical writer who lived closely to the time of some of the communist event therefor would be considered credible and may be a good source for any researchers or student writing a paper. Overall the book is one that's very educational and academic and personally the informative style is very beneficial and would be excellent for anyone to benefit from.
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