Posted on 10/18/2001 10:02:07 PM PDT by super175
Read some books still does not help you. You have to UNDERSTAND.
The KMT were not communist. They were also friendly to America. They also had democratic aims.
You seem to be misinterpreting the actual radicalness of communism and the communist party in context of the time.
There was one group called the Dixie Mission (from America) who preffered Mao though. Those people were later purged. John Paton Davies and several others were bona-fide communist sympathizers.
That's why the US supported KMT. What I mean by "good" is "friendly to America"
The DPP in Taiwan used to be called "communist sympathizers" by KMT. After DPP took power, it started calling KMT "communist sympathizers". Sounds like "communist sympathizers" are everywhere.
I did know some facts about China.
This though would be an interesting topic to look up...when and were and how the US got relations with the KMT...
One thing for sure, the KMT were not radical ideological Maoist communists. That probably tipped the scales in their favor...
Also we have to realize, in the 1920s and 30s and all the way up into the 1940s, the Communists were a small band of radicals out in the countryside. They did not even have the appearance of a legit government. What should America do? Choose a bunch of hooligans running around the countryside, or a somewhat established government?
China, under the KMT was headed down the path in the 1930s that the Mainland is now headed down (finally) in 2001. The Communists had a revolution against that though. Even Deng was put in prison, if I am not mistaken, over his economic views.
Communism interrupted what was originally the plan...
You scored a point with that comment...
Radical or not, it doesn't matter. The KMT was much more radical than the warlords it defeated. So what? I bet the US would have recognized PRC in 1949 if Mao promised to protect the US's interets. The Ameican ambassador didn't leave Nanjing when PLA seized the city. Instead he satyed there for several months and tried many times to contact CCP authorities with the help of his student, Huang Hua, who later became Chinese foreign minister. But Mao asked the US to apologize for its "mistake" or "crime" of supporting Chiang in the civil war before considering the possibility of establishing any diplomatic relations with the US. Of course this was something the US wouldn't do, so CCP expelled all US citizens from China.
>>They did not even have the appearance of a legit government.
Actually the CCP did set up a central government, called "The Soviet Republic of China", in its territory. Of course no one recognized it.
>>What should America do? Choose a bunch of hooligans running around the countryside, or a somewhat established government?
An established government was the right choice. No question about it. However, the US got so much involved in the civil war between KMT and CCP that there were no way CCP could be friendly to the US after it took power. Otherwise there wouldn't have been the Korea War and the Vietman War. Britain was smart. It stayed neutral during the civil war. Although it was ready to abandon Hongkong when PLA was marching towards the colony, Mao's troops stopped advancing at the border. Britain and China established deplomatic relations in 1950 and the CCP didn't confiscate or freeze British assets in China.
Right.
>>It was a revolution against the KMT and their 'capitalistic' ways.
It was a revolution against the KMT, but not neccessarily their 'capitalistic' ways. Liu Shaoqi said to the capilists in Tianjing right after liberation, "the more the capitalists, the better".
>>China, under the KMT was headed down the path in the 1930s that the Mainland is now headed down (finally) in 2001. The Communists had a revolution against that though. Even Deng was put in prison, if I am not mistaken, over his economic views.
How did the US know in 1940s that Deng would be in prison in 1960s? Did the US supported KMT because Truman had seen the future of China and the Cultural Revolution? BTW it was during the Cultural Revolution that the US and China became partners against the USSR. Did the US criticize Mao's "atrocity" when Nixon visited Mao's bedroom and chatted with "the great leader of a great nation"?
>>Communism interrupted what was originally the plan...
The plan only existed in the books.
US interests were to fight and defeat communism.
Did the US government think so?
Although China was technically 'communist' they were (and still are) operating in the grey area...
It was something like 30 years that the US withheld recognition...
If China did not help the US win against the USSR, we most likely still would not recognize the PRC. The CCP had to do something big to win trust.
I've never heard the term "communist sympathizers" when I grew up there. It is the translation that messed up the "facts". Just like we had the discussion long time ago about "yong guei zi".
I'm lucky that I read from both English and Chinese sources and I'm really shocked to find out especially in the mass communication field's translation is the worst. It scrwed up so many facts and no REPORTER even knows it.
Since I started using internet I don't watch TV and read news magazine anymore.
I have to admit that my kids always laugh at my English.
No, it is. It is the only significant part of China which was not taken over by the Communists and for many years Taiwan was considered by many countries (including Taiwan) as THE CHINA and where THE TRUE Chinese government had its temporary seat. To say that Taiwan is not part of China is like to say that West Berlin (or East Berlin depending on your attitude to the Soviet block) was not a part of Germany during the Cold War.
I think it is common everywhere. In the Cultural Revolution the logic was very simple: You are either with us (revolutionary) or you are against us (anti-revolutionary). If you are not a communist, you have to be anti-communist. If you are not anti-communist, you must be a communist. It is like black-or-white logic, easy for peasants to understand, though the inventors won't believe it.
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