Defeat of the Kuomintang
The Kuomintang-Communist alliance had
collapsed by 1946 and by the end of WWII China was in the grip of an all-out
Civil War. The 900, 000-strong Communist army was backed by the millions
of active supporters.
By 1948 the Communists had captured so much US-supplied Kuomintang equipment
and had recruited so many Kuomintang soldiers that they equaled the Kuomintang
in both numbers and supplies.
Three great battles were fought in 1948 and 1949 in which the Kuomintang
were defeated and hundreds of thousands of Kuomintang troops joined the
Communists. The Communists moved south and crossed the Changjiang River;
by October all the major cities had been liberated.
In Beijing on October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the foundation of
the PRC. Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan Island, taking with him the entire
gold reserves of the country and what was left of his air force and navy.
Some two million refugees and soldiers from the mainland crowded onto
the island.