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Section II (National Study): China 1927-1949
Quick questions on The Shanghai Massacre and the end of the First United Front 1927: HSC Modern History National Study China
11short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is background?Show answer
The First United Front (formed January 1924) was based on Sun Yat-sen's calculation that the KMT needed Soviet aid and CCP organising capacity to overthrow the warlords. By early 1927 the Front was straining. CCP membership had grown from around 1,000 in 1925 to 58,000 by April 1927. CCP-led peasant associations claimed 9 million members in Hunan alone.
What is the Shanghai context?Show answer
Shanghai was the financial heart of China. The Shanghai Bankers' Association, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Western-dominated International Settlement and French Concession depended on labour discipline. The Green Gang, a Shanghai underworld syndicate under Du Yuesheng ("Big-Eared Du") and Huang Jinrong, controlled opium, prostitution, and labour-contracting; it had longstanding KMT links.
What is the bargain with the Green Gang and the bankers?Show answer
Through March and early April 1927 Chiang met Du Yuesheng, leaders of the Shanghai bourgeoisie (T.V. Soong, Yu Xiaqing), and foreign consuls. He secured a loan of around 30 million yuan from the Shanghai Bankers' Association. In return he agreed to disarm the union pickets and break the Communist apparatus.
What is the massacre?Show answer
In the early hours of 12 April 1927 Green Gang gunmen attacked union pickets across Shanghai under the cover of "labour-versus-labour" violence. NRA troops under General Bai Chongxi disarmed the workers and shot demonstrators. On 13 April a peaceful protest at Baoshan Road was fired on by NRA soldiers. The killing continued for days.
What is the Wuhan break and the Roy Telegram?Show answer
The Wuhan KMT under Wang Jingwei initially condemned Chiang and continued the United Front with the CCP. In June 1927 the Comintern emissary M.N. Roy showed Wang a telegram from Stalin instructing the CCP to seize land, build its own army within the KMT, and prepare to take power. Wang concluded he was being prepared as Chiang's next victim.
What is the failed urban risings?Show answer
The CCP, under Comintern direction, tried to recover by armed action.
What is mao at Jinggangshan and the rural turn?Show answer
In October 1927 Mao led his survivors to Jinggangshan, a bandit-controlled mountain area on the Hunan-Jiangxi border. He coordinated with the local outlaw leaders Yuan Wencai and Wang Zuo, then linked up with Zhu De's remnant Nanchang force in April 1928 to form the Fourth Red Army.
What is historiography?Show answer
Lloyd Eastman (The Abortive Revolution, 1974) treats the 1927 purge as ending whatever genuinely modernising potential the KMT had under Sun Yat-sen.
What is confusing the two KMT governments?Show answer
Wuhan (left-KMT, Wang Jingwei) and Nanjing (right-KMT, Chiang) were rivals from April to July 1927. Both ended up purging the Communists.
What is treating the Shanghai Massacre as a single event?Show answer
Purges across southern Chinese cities continued for months. The Canton Commune in December was the last gasp of the urban revolution.
What is missing the Stalin angle?Show answer
The CCP was bound to the KMT by Stalin's directive over Trotsky's objections. The 1927 defeat is part of the Stalin-Trotsky dispute, not just a Chinese event.