The Kuomintang understood well enough that the Communists wanted active battle against Japan as a stage on the way to their own victory and were consequently determined not to be drawn so deeply into resistance as to play their opponent’s game. Chiang Kai-shek’s aim was still to avoid and postpone outright conflict with Japan until the foreign powers should become involved and bring him enough help to defeat Japanese and Communists both, leaving him at last a clear and independent victor.
