A 1927-49 struggle between Nationalists and Communists that, after Japan's war, produced the PRC and a Republic of China on Taiwan.
Educational history. Casualty figures are documented ranges. This is not operational advice, a ranking of nations, or a how-to for weapons or coups.
The Chinese Civil War, in its conventional dating, runs from the 1927 Shanghai massacre and the collapse of the First United Front to the Communist victory of 1949 -- interrupted, but not erased, by the war against Japan (1937-45). Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government (KMT) and Mao Zedong's Chinese Communist Party fought for the same country with different social programmes and foreign backers.
After Japan's surrender, US-mediated talks failed. The 1946-49 phase was decided in Manchuria and on the mainland railways: Liaoshen, Huaihai and Pingjin (1948-49) wrecked KMT field armies. Mao proclaimed the People's Republic on 1 October 1949; Chiang's Republic of China withdrew to Taiwan.
Deaths across the civil-war years are a wide scholarly band, often about 6-10 million when combat, massacre and associated famine are bundled -- figures overlap the Japanese war and later campaigns. The unfinished legal war across the Strait still structures East Asian security, including the Korean War's Chinese intervention in 1950.
Deep introduction
The civil war was a social revolution and a conventional war, paused by Japan and finished in 1949 with two Chinese states still claiming one sovereignty.
Sun Yat-sen's KMT had accepted Soviet aid and a CCP alliance. After the Northern Expedition, Chiang turned on the Communists in Shanghai in April 1927. Rural soviets, the Jiangxi period, and the Long March (1934-35) kept a CCP remnant alive in Yan'an.
The war against Japan forced a Second United Front that neither side trusted.
While Chiang's government retreated to Chongqing, the CCP expanded in north China behind Japanese lines. US observers (the Dixie Mission) saw a disciplined guerrilla party; US aid still flowed mainly to the KMT.
Corruption, inflation and conscription abuse hollowed Nationalist legitimacy even before 1946's open war.
Marshall's mission failed. Soviet withdrawal from Manchuria left a scramble for Japanese weapons. Lin Biao's northeast campaigns and the 1948-49 three great campaigns ended KMT resistance on the mainland.
Crossing the Yangtze in April 1949 opened Nanjing and Shanghai. The PRC was proclaimed before the last southern cities fell.
The ROC on Taiwan, US naval intervention in 1950 (after the Korean War began), and decades of martial law created a second Chinese modern story. The PRC's later Taiwan policy and the US Taiwan Relations Act (1979) are the diplomatic afterlife.
This page is the civil war, not a live invasion scenario.
1927-1949: Shanghai, Long March, Japan interval, three campaigns, PRC and Taiwan.
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02KMT armies and the PLA -- historical structures, not a live ORBAT.
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03Northern Expedition to Huaihai as historical sequence.
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04About 6-10 million across phases, scholarly range -- a wide, overlapping band.
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05Mao, Chiang, Zhou, Lin Biao, Soong Mei-ling, Marshall.
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06Two Chinas, the Strait, and the PVA in Korea.
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07Who-lost-China, 1 October / 10 October, and Korean War sequel.
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