Editing Second Sino-Japanese War (section)

==1939–1943==
[[File:Second Sino-Japanese War WW2.png|thumb|The extent of Japanese occupation in 1940 (in red)]]
By 1939, the Nationalist army had withdrawn to the southwest and northwest of China and the Japanese controlled the coastal cities that been centres of Nationalist power.<ref name=":022" />{{Rp|page=30}} From 1939 to 1945, China was divided into three regions: Japanese-occupied territories (''Lunxianqu''), the Nationalist-controlled region (''Guotongqu''), and the Communist-controlled regions (''Jiefangqu<u>,</u>'' or liberated areas).<ref name=":022" />{{Rp|page=35}}

From the beginning of 1939, the war entered a new phase with the unprecedented defeat of the Japanese at [[Battle of Suixian–Zaoyang]] and [[First Battle of Changsha]].

In 1939, Mao Zedong wrote ''The Greatest Crisis under Current Conditions'', calling for more active resistance against Japan and for the strengthening of the Second United Front.<ref name=":22">{{Cite book |last=Wang |first=Xian |title=Gendered Memories: An Imaginary Museum for Ding Ling and Chinese Female Revolutionary Martyrs |date=2025 |publisher=[[University of Michigan Press]] |isbn=978-0-472-05719-1 |series=China Understandings Today series |location=Ann Arbor}}</ref>{{Rp|page=76}}

The Chinese launched their first large-scale [[1939–1940 Winter Offensive|counter-offensive]] against the IJA in December 1939; however, due to its low military-industrial capacity and limited experience in modern warfare, this offensive was defeated. Afterwards Chiang could not risk any more all-out offensive campaigns given the poorly trained, under-equipped, and disorganized state of his armies and opposition to his leadership both within the Kuomintang and in China in general. He had lost a substantial portion of his best trained and equipped troops in the Battle of Shanghai and was at times at the mercy of his generals, who maintained a high degree of autonomy from the central KMT government.

During the offensive, Hui forces in Suiyuan under generals [[Ma Hongbin]] and [[Ma Buqing]] routed the Imperial Japanese Army and their puppet Inner Mongol forces and prevented the planned Japanese advance into northwest China. Ma Hongbin's father [[Ma Fulu]] had fought against Japanese in the [[Boxer Rebellion]]. General [[Ma Biao (general)|Ma Biao]] led Hui, Salar and Dongxiang cavalry to defeat the Japanese at the [[Battle of Huaiyang]]. Ma Biao fought against the Japanese in the Boxer Rebellion.

After 1940, the Japanese encountered tremendous difficulties in administering and garrisoning the seized territories, and tried to solve their occupation problems by implementing a strategy of creating friendly puppet governments favourable to Japanese interests in the territories conquered. This included prominently the [[Wang Jingwei regime|regime]] headed by [[Wang Jingwei]], one of Chiang's rivals in the KMT.<ref name=":022" />{{Rp|page=35}} However, [[Japanese war crimes|atrocities]] committed by the Imperial Japanese Army, as well as Japanese refusal to delegate any real power, left the puppets very unpopular and largely ineffective. The only success the Japanese had was to recruit a large [[Collaborationist Chinese Army]] to maintain public security in the occupied areas.

===Japanese expansion===
By 1941, Japan held most of the eastern coastal areas of China and Vietnam, but [[guerrilla]] fighting continued in these occupied areas. Japan had suffered high casualties which resulted from unexpectedly stubborn Chinese resistance, and neither side could make any swift progress in the manner of [[Nazi Germany]] in Western Europe.

By 1943, Guangdong had experienced famine. As the situation worsened, New York Chinese compatriots received a letter stating that 600,000 people were killed in [[Siyi]] by starvation.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4hdwAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA117 |title=Brokering Belonging: Chinese in Canada's Exclusion Era, 1885–1945 |isbn=978-0199780549 |last1=Mar |first1=Lisa Rose |year=2010 |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref>

===Second phase: October 1938 – December 1941===
[[File:Chinese soldiers 1939.jpg|thumb|National Revolutionary Army soldiers march to the front in 1939.]]
During this period, the main Chinese objective was to drag out the war for as long as possible in a war of attrition, thereby exhausting Japanese resources while it was building up China's military capacity. American general [[Joseph Stilwell]] called this strategy "winning by outlasting". The NRA adopted the concept of "magnetic warfare" to attract advancing Japanese troops to definite points where they were subjected to ambush, flanking attacks, and encirclements in major engagements. The most prominent example of this tactic was the successful defense of [[Changsha]] in 1939, and again in the [[Battle of Changsha (1941)|1941 battle]], in which heavy casualties were inflicted on the IJA.

Local Chinese [[Resistance movement|resistance forces]], organized separately by both the CCP and the KMT, continued their resistance in occupied areas to make Japanese administration over the vast land area of China difficult. In 1940, the [[Eighth Route Army|Chinese Red Army]] launched a [[Hundred Regiments Offensive|major offensive]] in north China, destroying railways and a major coal mine. These constant guerilla and sabotage operations deeply frustrated the Imperial Japanese Army and they led them to employ the [[Three Alls policy]]—kill all, loot all, burn all. It was during this period that the bulk of Japanese war crimes were committed.

By 1941, Japan had occupied much of north and coastal China, but the KMT central government and military had retreated to the western interior to continue their resistance, while the Chinese communists remained in control of base areas in [[Shaanxi]]. In the occupied areas, Japanese control was mainly limited to railroads and major cities ("points and lines"). They did not have a major military or administrative presence in the vast Chinese countryside, where Chinese guerrillas roamed freely.

From 1941 to 1942, Japan concentrated most of its forces in China in an effort to defeat the Communist bases behind Japan's lines.<ref name=":022" />{{Rp|page=35}} To decrease guerilla's human and material resources, the Japanese military implemented its Three Alls policy ("Kill all, loot all, burn all").<ref name=":022" />{{Rp|page=35}} In response, the Communist armies increased their role in production activities, including farming, raising hogs, and cloth-making.<ref name=":022" />{{Rp|page=35}}

===Relationship between the Nationalists and the Communists===
[[File:Zhu De with NRA Emblem.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Eighth Route Army]] Commander [[Zhu De]] with a KMT "Blue Sky, White Sun" emblem cap]]

After the Mukden Incident in 1931, Chinese public opinion was strongly critical of Manchuria's leader, the "young marshal" Zhang Xueliang, for his non-resistance to the Japanese invasion, even though the Kuomintang central government was also responsible for this policy, giving Zhang an order to improvise while not offering support. After losing Manchuria to the Japanese, Zhang and his [[Fengtian clique|Northeast Army]] were given the duty of suppressing the Red Army in Shaanxi after their [[Long March]]. This resulted in great casualties for his Northeast Army, which received no support in manpower or weaponry from Chiang Kai-shek.

In the [[Xi'an Incident]] that took place on 12 December 1936, Zhang Xueliang kidnapped Chiang Kai-shek in [[Xi'an]], hoping to force an end to KMT–CCP conflict. To secure the release of Chiang, the KMT agreed to a temporary ceasefire with the Communists. On 24 December, the two parties agreed to a [[Second United Front (China)|United Front]] against Japan; this had salutary effects for the beleaguered Communists, who agreed to form the [[New Fourth Army]] and the [[8th Route Army]] under the nominal control of the NRA. In addition, [[Shaan-Gan-Ning]] and Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei border regions were created, under the control of the CCP. In Shaan-Gan-Ning, Communists in the Shaan-Gan-Ning Base Area fostered [[History of opium in China|opium production]], taxed it, and engaged in its trade—including selling to Japanese-occupied and KMT-controlled provinces.<ref name=":03">{{Cite book |last=Chun |first=Yung-fa |author-link=Chen Yung-fa |title=New Perspectives on the Chinese Revolution |date=1995 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=9781315702124 |editor-last=Saich |editor-first=Tony |location=New York |chapter=The Blooming Poppy under the Red Sun: The Yan'an Way and the Opium Trade |doi=10.4324/9781315702124 |oclc=904437646 |editor-last2=van de Ven |editor-first2=Hans |editor-link2=Hans van de Ven}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Hevia |first=James Louis |year=2003 |title=Opium, Empire, and Modern History |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/content/crossref/journals/china_review_international/v010/10.2hevia.pdf |journal=China Review International |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=307–326 |doi=10.1353/cri.2004.0076 |s2cid=143635262 |issn=1527-9367}}</ref> The Red Army fought alongside KMT forces during the [[Battle of Taiyuan]], and the high point of their cooperation came in 1938 during the [[Battle of Wuhan]].

The formation of a united front added to the legality of the CCP, but what kind of support the central government would provide to the communists were not settled. When compromise with the CCP failed to incentivize the Soviet Union to engage in an open conflict against Japan, the KMT withheld further support for the Communists. To strengthen their legitimacy, Communist forces actively engaged the Japanese early on. These operations weakened Japanese forces in Shanxi and other areas in the North. Mao Zedong was distrustful of Chiang Kai-shek, however, and shifted strategy to guerrilla warfare in order to preserve the CCP's military strength.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Nobu |first1=Iwatani |title=How the War with Japan Saved the Chinese Communist Party |url=https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/d00722/ |website=Nippon Communications Foundation |date=27 July 2021}}</ref>

Despite Japan's steady territorial gains in northern China, the coastal regions, and the rich [[Yangtze River]] Valley in central China, the distrust between the two antagonists was scarcely veiled. The uneasy alliance began to break down by late 1938, partially due to the Communists' aggressive efforts to expand their military strength by absorbing Chinese guerrilla forces behind Japanese lines. Chinese militia who refused to switch their allegiance were often labelled "collaborators" and attacked by CCP forces. For example, the Red Army led by [[He Long]] attacked and wiped out a brigade of Chinese militia led by Zhang Yin-wu in Hebei in June 1939.{{sfn|Huang|p=259}} Starting in 1940, open conflict between Nationalists and Communists became more frequent in the occupied areas outside of Japanese control, culminating in the [[New Fourth Army Incident]] in January 1941.

Afterwards, the Second United Front completely broke down and Chinese Communists leader [[Mao Zedong]] outlined the preliminary plan for the CCP's eventual seizure of power from Chiang Kai-shek. Mao himself is quoted outlining the "721" policy, saying "We are fighting 70 percent for self development, 20 percent for compromise, and 10 percent against Japan".{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}} Mao began his final push for consolidation of CCP power under his authority, and his teachings became the central tenets of the CCP doctrine that came to be formalized as [[Mao Zedong Thought]]. The Communists also began to focus most of their energy on building up their sphere of influence wherever opportunities were presented, mainly through rural mass organizations, administrative, land and tax reform measures favouring poor peasants; while the Nationalists attempted to neutralize the spread of Communist influence by military blockade of areas controlled by CCP and fighting the Japanese at the same time.<ref name=CRISIS-TIME-MAGAZINE>{{cite magazine|title=Crisis|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,801570-4,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071120121411/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,801570-4,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=20 November 2007|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|date=13 November 1944}}</ref>

===Entrance of the Western Allies===
[[File:Chiang Kai Shek and wife with Lieutenant General Stilwell.jpg|thumb|Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and his wife [[Soong Mei-ling]] with Lieutenant General [[Joseph Stilwell]] in 1942, [[British Burma]]]]
[[File:Madame Chiang Kai Shek of China Addressed the House of Representatives on 18 February 1943.mp3|thumb|The 18 February 1943 address by Soong Mei-ling before both houses of the United States Congress.]]
[[File:United China Relief1.jpg|thumb|A United States poster from the United China Relief organization advocating aid to China]]

Japan had expected to extract economic benefits of its invasions of China and elsewhere, including in the form of fuel and raw material resources.<ref name=":022" />{{Rp|page=30}} As Japanese aggression continued, however, the United States responded with trade embargoes on various goods, including oil and petroleum (beginning December 1939) and scrap iron and munitions (beginning July 1940).<ref name=":022" />{{Rp|page=30}} The United States demanded that Japan withdraw from China and also refused to recognize Japan's occupations of the Indochinese countries.<ref name=":022" />{{Rp|page=30}} In spring 1941, trade negotiations between the United States and Japan failed.<ref name=":022" />{{Rp|page=30}} In July 1941, the United States froze Japanese financial assets and obtained Dutch and British agreements to also cut those countries' oil exports to Japan.<ref name=":022" />{{Rp|page=30}} This in turn prompted the Japanese decision to attack Pearl Harbor.<ref name=":022" />{{Rp|page=30}}

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States declared war against Japan, and within days China joined the Allies in formal declaration of war against Japan, Germany and Italy.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}} As the Western Allies entered the war against Japan, the Sino-Japanese War would become part of a greater conflict, the [[Pacific War|Pacific theatre]] of [[World War II]]. Japan's military action against the United States also restrained its capacity to conduct further offensive operations in China.<ref name=":022" />{{Rp|page=30}}

After the Lend-Lease Act was passed in 1941, American financial and military aid began to trickle in.<ref>Tai-Chun Kuo, "A Strong Diplomat in a Weak Polity: TV Soong and wartime US–China relations, 1940–1943." ''Journal of Contemporary China'' 18.59 (2009): 219–231.</ref> [[Claire Lee Chennault]] commanded the 1st American Volunteer Group (nicknamed the [[Flying Tigers]]), with American pilots flying American warplanes which were painted with the Chinese flag to attack the Japanese. He headed both the volunteer group and the uniformed U.S. Army Air Forces units that replaced it in 1942.<ref>Daniel Ford, ''Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941–1942'' (2007).</ref> However, it was the Soviets that provided the greatest material help for China from 1937 into 1941, with fighter aircraft for the Nationalist Chinese Air Force and artillery and armour for the Chinese Army through the [[Sino-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact|Sino-Soviet Treaty]]; [[Operation Zet]] also provided for a group of Soviet volunteer combat aviators to join the Chinese Air Force in the fight against the Japanese occupation from late 1937 through 1939. The United States embargoed Japan in 1941 depriving it of shipments of oil and various other resources necessary to continue the war in China. This pressure, which was intended to disparage a continuation of the war and bring Japan into negotiation, resulted in the [[Attack on Pearl Harbor]] and Japan's drive south to procure from the resource-rich European colonies in Southeast Asia by force the resources which the United States had denied to them.

Almost immediately, Chinese troops achieved another decisive victory in the [[Battle of Changsha (1942)|Battle of Changsha]], which earned the Chinese government much prestige from the Western Allies. President Franklin D. Roosevelt referred to the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union and China as the world's "[[Four Policemen]]"; his primary reason for elevating China to such a status was the belief that after the war it would serve as a bulwark against the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Westad |first=Odd |title=Decisive Encounters: The Chinese Civil War, 1946–1950 |year=2003 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-4484-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/decisiveencounte00west/page/305 305] |url=https://archive.org/details/decisiveencounte00west |url-access=registration}}</ref>

Knowledge of Japanese naval movements in the Pacific was provided to the American Navy by the [[Sino-American Cooperative Organization]] (SACO) which was run by the Chinese intelligence head [[Dai Li]].<ref name="Wakeman2003">{{cite book|author=Frederic E. Wakeman|title=Spymaster: Dai Li and the Chinese Secret Service|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jYYYQYK6FAYC&pg=PA309|year=2003|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-92876-3|pages=309–|access-date=29 July 2016|archive-date=12 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221012012438/https://books.google.com/books?id=jYYYQYK6FAYC&pg=PA309|url-status=live}}</ref> Philippine and Japanese ocean weather was affected by weather originating near northern China.<ref name="Kush2012">{{cite book|author=Linda Kush|title=The Rice Paddy Navy: U.S. Sailors Undercover in China|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2azvCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT206|year= 2012|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-78200-312-0|pages=206–|access-date=29 July 2016|archive-date=12 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221012012459/https://books.google.com/books?id=2azvCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT206|url-status=live}}</ref> The base of SACO was located in Yangjiashan.<ref name="Wakeman2003 2">{{cite book|author=Frederic E. Wakeman|title=Spymaster: Dai Li and the Chinese Secret Service|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jYYYQYK6FAYC&pg=PA497|year=2003|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-92876-3|pages=497–|access-date=29 July 2016|archive-date=12 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221012012542/https://books.google.com/books?id=jYYYQYK6FAYC&pg=PA497|url-status=live}}</ref>

Chiang Kai-shek continued to receive supplies from the United States. However, in contrast to the [[Pacific Route|Arctic supply route]] to the Soviet Union which stayed open through most of the war, sea routes to China and the [[Yunnan–Vietnam Railway]] had been closed since 1940. Therefore, between the [[Japanese conquest of Burma|closing of the Burma Road]] in 1942 and its re-opening as the [[Ledo Road]] in 1945, foreign aid was largely limited to what could be flown in over "[[The Hump]]". In Burma, on 16 April 1942, 7,000 British soldiers were encircled by the Japanese 33rd Division during the [[Battle of Yenangyaung]] and rescued by the Chinese 38th Division.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Slim |first=William |title=Defeat into Victory |year=1956 |publisher=Cassell |location=London |isbn=0-304-29114-5}}</ref> After the [[Doolittle Raid]], the Imperial Japanese Army conducted a massive sweep through [[Zhejiang]] and [[Jiangxi]], now known as the [[Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign]], with the goal of finding the surviving American airmen, applying retribution on the Chinese who aided them and destroying air bases. The operation started 15 May 1942, with 40 infantry battalions and 15–16 artillery battalions but was repelled by Chinese forces in September.<ref>{{Cite book |first=R. Keith |last=Schoppa |title=In a Sea of Bitterness, Refugees during the Sino-Japanese War|publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-674-05988-7 |page=28}}</ref> During this campaign, the Imperial Japanese Army left behind a trail of devastation and also spread [[cholera]], [[typhoid]], [[Plague (disease)|plague]] and [[dysentery]] pathogens. Chinese estimates allege that as many as 250,000 civilians, the vast majority of whom were destitute Tanka boat people and other pariah ethnicities unable to flee, may have died of disease.<ref>Yuki Tanaka, ''Hidden Horrors'', Westviewpres, 1996, p. 138</ref> It caused more than 16&nbsp;million civilians to evacuate far away deep inward China. 90% of Ningbo's population had already fled before battle started.<ref name="Mackinnon2008" />{{rp|49}}

Most of China's industry had already been captured or destroyed by Japan, and the Soviet Union refused to allow the United States to supply China through the [[Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic|Kazakhstan]] into [[Xinjiang]] as the Xinjiang warlord Sheng Shicai had turned anti-Soviet in 1942 with Chiang's approval. For these reasons, the Chinese government never had the supplies and equipment needed to mount major counter-offensives. Despite the severe shortage of matériel, in 1943, the Chinese were successful in repelling major Japanese offensives [[Battle of West Hubei|in Hubei]] and [[Battle of Changde|Changde]].

Chiang was named Allied commander-in-chief in the China theater in 1942. American general Joseph Stilwell served for a time as Chiang's chief of staff, while simultaneously commanding American forces in the [[China-Burma-India Theater]]. For many reasons, relations between Stilwell and Chiang soon broke down. Many historians (such as [[Barbara W. Tuchman]]) have suggested it was largely due to the corruption and inefficiency of the Kuomintang government, while others (such as [[Ray Huang]] and [[Hans van de Ven]]) have depicted it as a more complicated situation. Stilwell had a strong desire to assume total control of Chinese troops and pursue an aggressive strategy, while Chiang preferred a patient and less expensive strategy of out-waiting the Japanese. Chiang continued to maintain a defensive posture despite Allied pleas to actively break the Japanese blockade, because China had already suffered tens of millions of war casualties and believed that Japan would eventually capitulate in the face of America's overwhelming industrial output. For these reasons the other Allies gradually began to lose confidence in the Chinese ability to conduct offensive operations from the Asian mainland, and instead concentrated their efforts against the Japanese in the [[Pacific Ocean Areas]] and [[South West Pacific theatre of World War II|South West Pacific Area]], employing an [[island hopping]] strategy.<ref>Hans Van de Ven, "Stilwell in the Stocks: The Chinese Nationalists and the Allied Powers in the Second World War", ''Asian Affairs'' 34.3 (November 2003): 243–259.</ref>

[[File:Cairo conference.jpg|thumb|Chiang Kai-shek, [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], and [[Winston Churchill]] at the 1943 [[Cairo Conference]]]]

Long-standing differences in national interest and political stance among China, the United States, and the United Kingdom remained in place. British Prime Minister [[Winston Churchill]] was reluctant to devote British troops, many of whom had been routed by the Japanese in earlier campaigns, to the reopening of the [[Burma Road]]; Stilwell, on the other hand, believed that reopening the road was vital, as all China's mainland ports were under Japanese control. The Allies' "[[Europe first]]" policy did not sit well with Chiang, while the later British insistence that China send more and more troops to Indochina for use in the [[Burma Campaign]] was seen by Chiang as an attempt to use Chinese manpower to defend British colonial possessions. Chiang also believed that China should divert its crack army divisions from Burma to eastern China to defend the airbases of the American bombers that he hoped would defeat Japan through bombing, a strategy that American general Claire Lee Chennault supported but which Stilwell strongly opposed. In addition, Chiang voiced his support of the [[Indian independence movement]] in a 1942 meeting with [[Mohandas Gandhi]], which further soured the relationship between China and the United Kingdom.{{sfn|Huang|pp=299–300}}

American and Canadian-born Chinese were recruited to act as covert operatives in Japanese-occupied China. Employing their racial background as a disguise, their mandate was to blend in with local citizens and wage a campaign of sabotage. Activities focused on destruction of Japanese transportation of supplies (signaling bomber destruction of railroads, bridges).{{Sfn|MacLaren|pages=200–220}} Chinese forces [[Battle of Northern Burma and Western Yunnan|advanced to northern Burma]] in late 1943, besieged Japanese troops in [[Myitkyina]], and [[Battle of Mount Song|captured Mount Song]].<ref>{{Cite book|year=2012|title=The Second World War|location=London|publisher=[[Weidenfeld & Nicolson]]|isbn=978-0-297-84497-6|ref=CITEREFBeevor2012}}</ref> The British and Commonwealth forces had their operation in [[Mission 204]] which attempted to provide assistance to the Chinese Nationalist Army.{{sfn|Stevens|p=70}} The first phase in 1942 under command of [[Special Operations Executive|SOE]] achieved very little, but lessons were learned and a second more successful phase, commenced in February 1943 under British Military command, was conducted before the Japanese [[Operation Ichi-Go]] offensive in 1944 compelled evacuation.{{sfn|Stevens|p=73}}