JCC: Chinese Civil War
Nationalists
Mara Guyer
Chair
Ryan Buscaglia
Chair
GSMUN XX
Delegates,
GSMUN XX
Our World, Our Future
Robin Schwartzkopf
Secretary-General
Harish Tekriwal
Director-General
Isha Gangal
Undersecretary-General for
External Communications
Jessica Kong
Charge d’Affaires
Parth Kotak
Undersecretary-General for
Logistics
Avery Gagne
Undersecretary-General for
Crisis Simulations
Annie Zhang
Director of Specialized
Agencies
Dharaa Rathi
Director of General
Assemblies
Kiersen Mather
Director of Press and
Publications
Ketty Bai
Director of Charitable
Giving
Andrew McCullough
Director of Technology
Mr. Max Smith
MUN Club Sponsor
Welcome to GSMUN XX’s JCC Chinese Civil War Nationalists committee, cochaired by Mara Guyer and Ryan Buscaglia! You, as the leaders of China’s
Nationalist party, have come together to determine the political future of China and
to address major problems posed by the Communist party, as well as outside
forces. As conflicts worsen within the country, members will need to come up with
swift and effective solutions. But before we continue, here is a quick introduction
to your dais:
Mara Guyer, a senior, is excited to serve as co-chair of this committee. This is her
third year as a member of Maggie Walker’s Model UN Club, and second year
chairing at the school’s own conference. At school, Mara is a member of the field
hockey team, chair of the Honor Council, and coordinator of the Newtowne
Tutoring program. She enjoys public radio, college basketball, and debating the
merits of Smash Mouth’s excellent music with her co-chair.
Ryan Buscaglia, also a senior, cannot express his enthusiasm in being able to cochair this committee. This is his fourth year as a member of MUN, having
historically worked Crisis for GSMUN. His senior seminar choice is Foreign Policy
in the Middle East, with a focus on nuclear arms and strategy. Ryan is a cross
country/track and field runner, and will be running at the University of Virginia
next year. He is also the President/Big Kahuna of Maggie Walker’s Hackey Sack
club. Ryan is an aficionado of fine cinema, unlike his co-chair. (Please ask)
Now that you know a little about your chairs, here are some requirements and
recommendations for when the party’s session convenes. As delegates, you are
expected to come prepared with thorough research on the topics for this
committee. The background guide provides preliminary information on these
topics, but delegates should further explore the topics in order to write a
comprehensive position paper. It is essential that each delegate write a position
paper, as it will act as a reference guide during the conference. Please use CMS
formatting for the position paper, and keep in mind that the conference follows
Maggie Walker’s Honor Code policy; plagiarism will not be tolerated. That being
said, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please do not hesitate to
contact us at our email, [email protected]. Lastly, please remember
that the most important part of Model UN is the quality of your ideas, and how
they contribute to the debate in committee. We are looking forward to meeting you
all in committee and 好运!
Your chairs,
Mara Guyer
[email protected]
Ryan Buscaglia
[email protected]
Committee Overview
You comprise the members of
Kuomintang party, the ruling body of the
rightful Republic of China. Your goal is to
create a unified China, minimize provincial infighting, promote economic and
infrastructural development, curb Communist
influence and aggression, and ultimately
secure a powerful spot on the world stage for
your nation. Throughout this committee, your
fate will be intertwined with that of the
Chinese Communist Party, and your decisions
must adequately address the problems the
Communists present.
Committee Background
The Chinese Nationalist Party, better
known as the Kuomintang (KMT) was
formed under revolutionaries Sun Yat-sen and
Song Jiaoren following the 1911 Xinhai
revolution, which led to the eventual
abdication of emperor Puyi and overthrow of
China’s Qing dynasty in 1912.
Influenced by western philosophy,
Sun Yat-sen’s writings and principles
advocated for a nationalist Chinese movement
and, ultimately, a republican government.
Following the 1911 revolution, an interim
government was established in the southern
provinces with Sun Yat-sen as the first
President of the Republic of China. However,
the interim government’s control was
nominal, many provinces were still under
Qing influence, and the Emperor had never
officially abdicated. In particular, many
powerful northern provinces and generals had
never expressed support for or against the
revolution. In an effort to close the
disjunction between provinces, Sun Yat-sen
negotiated with Yuan Shikai, the powerful
military leader of the Beiyang army in the
north. Shikai acted as intermediary between
the revolutionaries and the remnants of the
Qing dynasty, eventually negotiating the
abdication of the Emperor. In order to
consolidate military and political power, Sun
Yat-sen ceded his Presidency to Shikai, who
then moved the official capital of the republic
from Nanking in the south to Beijing. This
move worried many southern revolutionaries,
who felt the spirit of the revolution and
democratic ideals weren’t properly embraced
in the north. In the first National Assembly
elections, which took place in late 1912 and
early 1913, the KMT won a majority of seats
in the parliament, a landmark moment in the
young republic’s history.
However, this victory was short lived
as Shikai began to demonstrate increasingly
autocratic tendencies, ignoring the National
Assembly and its decisions. He began to see
the KMT and its revolutionary republican
base as an obstacle to his consolidation of
power. In early 1913, KMT leader and
founder Song Jiaoren was assassinated, most
likely at the orders of President Shikai. In
response, the KMT organized an armed
attempt to overthrow Shikai, though it
ultimately failed due to poor planning and
execution. The parliament was disbanded, and
KMT members were forced to flee in exile to
Japan. From exile, Sun Yat-sen called for
another revolution to depose Shikai, but few
old supporters bought into what they saw as a
futile effort.
Shikai ruled autocratically from his
strong military base, redistributing power in
the provinces to military governors. This
increase of power to local military leaders
would set the foundation for decades of
provincial conflict. In an effort to validate and
increase his authority, Shikai declared himself
the new Emperor of China, taking the name
Hongxian. Shikai’s regime rapidly lost favor;
his reign became one of the shortest in
Imperial history as numerous provinces began
to rebel late in 1915. Shikai abandoned his
‘Empire,’ yet maintained his hollow
presidency until his death in June 1916.
Following Shikai’s rule, China’s numerous
provinces fell into a state of provincial
infighting and warlord control.
During this period, Yat-sen and the
KMT fell to the wayside despite some
ineffectual attempts to mount campaigns back
in China. Yat-sen gained enough support to
revitalize the KMT in 1920, headquartering its
political base out of the city of Guangzhou
(Canton) in the southern Guangdong
province. As the KMT rebuilt its political
influence throughout the southern provinces,
it also sought recognition and support from
Western powers. They were stonewalled by
Europe and the United States, but found an
ally in the newly stabilized Soviet Union in
1923. Soviet aid was pledged with the
agreement of cooperation between the KMT
and the relatively small number of members
of the Communist Party of China (CPC). CPC
members were encouraged to join the KMT,
marking the creation of the First United
Front. Sun Yat-sen and other leaders saw this
as a necessary and benign partnership, as the
CPC constituted a relatively small number of
activists. Among the early members of the
Chinese Communist Party to reluctantly join
the KMT was a revolutionary from the rural
part of Hunan province named Mao Zedong.
The Soviets aided the KMT in
creating a more effective political institution
in numerous ways, particularly in the
spreading of propaganda and educational
material. Additionally, they provided military
strategy, training, and resources. One of the
most critical military developments was the
technique of military mass mobilization,
which the Soviets promulgated as an ideal
form of proletarian resistance. Mass
mobilization is the organization of grassroots
civilian activists into loose quasi-trained
militia. The communists embraced this
technique heavily, but the KMT found limited
use for trained civilians.
In 1923, one of Sun Yat-sen’s most
trusted advisors, Chiang Kai-shek was sent to
Moscow for intense military and political
training. Chiang returned in 1924 as head of
the Whampoa Military Academy, which
provided the bulk of the KMT’s military
power. His Soviet political studies and military
leadership proved invaluable, as Chiang
became poised to assume power as the head
of the KMT when Sun Yat-sen died in 1925.
Over time, numerous other warlords in the
southern provinces of China had committed
their support to the KMT, lending Chiang a
strong base when he officially assumed
leadership in July of 1926. The KMT was
prepared to challenge the northern warlords
of the Beiyang government in Beijing.
Throughout their partnership with the
KMT, the Communists had been recruiting
for their cause from within while still
supporting the KMT leadership. From 1923
to 1926 the CPC membership had increased
exponentially to the point where they could
be viewed as a threat to KMT power, yet not
so large as to actually have potential in
challenging the KMT. However, the death of
Sun Yat-sen had created rifts between leftwing elements of KMT leadership under
Wang Jingwei and right-wing elements under
Chiang Kai-shek. Regardless, plans were made
for the First United Front to begin marching
north and east to challenge the warlords’
control. Set to begin in mid 1926, the
Northern Expedition was nearly derailed
prematurely when the Zhongshan Warship
Incident in March called into question the
CPC/KMT alliance. Also known as the
Canton Coup, the Zhongshan incident was a
purging of communist elements in the
Guangzhou military by Chiang. This
represented the first openly hostile act against
the CPC, yet the First United Front remained
intact. Though significantly weakened, the
communists still sought to cultivate their
influence among the KMT left-wing leaders.
The Northern Expedition proceeded,
and the National Revolutionary Army (NRA)
marched north. The NRA was well-trained,
armed, and received as they marched forward,
suppressing the warlord’s forces.
Commander-in-chief Chiang Kai-shek and his
second-in-command Li Zongren defeated a
powerful warlord Sun Chuanfang, yet had to
halt their campaign when a split arose in the
KMT in early 1927. In Chiang’s absence the
CPC and left-wing KMT leaders had decided
to move the capital of the KMT government
from Guangzhou to the heavily communist
city of Wuhan--a decision he denounced in
turn. Meeting with numerous KMT leaders on
April 7th, Chiang determined that communist
elements ought to be removed as a danger to
the social and economic wellbeing of the
revolution. On April 12th, a purge of leftwing KMT and CPC members occurred,
called the Shanghai Massacre, in which many
individuals were arrested or executed. The
left-wing KMT government in Wuhan under
Wang Jingwei protested the purge, but
eventually bowed to Chiang’s power, expelled
the communists, and reconciled with the rest
of the KMT.
Chiang resumed the Northern
Expedition with help from Manchurian
forces. The NRA eventually defeated the
Beiyang Army and took over the
internationally recognized capital, Beijing, in
1928. The nationalist forces and KMT gained
recognition as the official government of
China, and proceeded to tie up loose ends and
reorganize the country. However, the age old
adage “War corrupts everything” rang true.
Chiang and the KMT had begun their
nationalist struggle and northern expedition
with hopes of eventually creating a western
style of government with provincial
autonomy. By the end, Chiang had set forth
to introduce a centralized one-party state by
which to enforce stability and unity in the
nation.
Following their expulsion from the
KMT, the communists retreated to the
countryside, mustering their forces and
ideologically converting peasants in mass in
order to create a force large enough to rebel.
On August 1st, 1927 the communists
launched their first counter revolt against the
KMT government in the province of Jiangxi.
After a few days, they were beaten back and
forced to retreat, yet these forces would
constitute the beginning of what would
become the People’s Liberation Army. The
Chinese Civil war had begun.
Questions to Consider:
1. How will you deal with the growing
Communist influence in your country?
2. Specifically, what will you do to curb
the discontent among rural peasants?
3. What solutions do you propose to
better unify the numerous and diverse
provinces of your great nation?
4. How will you address the extreme
ethnic differences throughout the
nation?
5. How will you respond to increased
Japanese aggression?
6. What is the best way to structure
economic development in your
nation?
7. How will you promote your
government on the world stage?
8. How will you respond to international
concerns far and near?
Bibliography
Beck, Sanderson. "Republican China in
Turmoil 1912-1926." Republican
China in Turmoil 1912-1926. 2007.
Accessed August 27, 2016.
http://www.san.beck.org/21-3RepublicanChina1912-26.html.
Dull, Jack L. "War between Nationalists and
communists." Encyclopedia
Britannica. Last modified August 12,
2016. Accessed October 9, 2016.
https://www.britannica.com/place/C
hina/War-between-Nationalists-andcommunists#ref590723.
Fairbank, John King. China: A New History.
Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of
Harvard University Press, 1992.
Lew, Christopher R., and Edwin Pak-wah
Leung. Historical Dictionary of the Chinese
Civil War. 2nd ed. Lanham, MD:
Scarecrow Press, 2013.
Lynch, Michael. Modern Warfare. Oxford, UK:
Osprey Publishing, 2010.
Tanner, Harold. "Chinese Civil War, 19451949." Oxford Bibliographies. Last
modified November 30, 2015.
Accessed October 9, 2016.
http://www.oxfordbibliographiesonli
ne.com/view/document/obo9780199791279/obo-97801997912790031.xml.
United States Department of State. "The
Chinese Revolution of 1949." Office
of the Historian. Accessed October 9,
2016.
https://history.state.gov/milestones/
1945-1952/chinese-rev.