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Practice

The document discusses Japanese expansion in East Asia from 1931 to 1941, focusing on the political developments within China, particularly the formation of the Second United Front. It includes perspectives from Mao Zedong on China's advantages in the anti-Japanese war, an account of Jiang Jieshi's kidnapping and subsequent agreement with the Communists, and a political cartoon depicting the Japanese occupation. These sources illustrate the complexities of Chinese unity and resistance against Japanese aggression during this period.

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18 views2 pages

Practice

The document discusses Japanese expansion in East Asia from 1931 to 1941, focusing on the political developments within China, particularly the formation of the Second United Front. It includes perspectives from Mao Zedong on China's advantages in the anti-Japanese war, an account of Jiang Jieshi's kidnapping and subsequent agreement with the Communists, and a political cartoon depicting the Japanese occupation. These sources illustrate the complexities of Chinese unity and resistance against Japanese aggression during this period.

Uploaded by

michael.lee
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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–6– N19/3/HISTX/BP1/ENG/TZ0/XX/T

Prescribed subject 3: The move to global war

Read sources I to L and answer questions 9 to 12. The sources and questions relate to case study 1:
Japanese expansion in East Asia (1931–1941) — Responses: Political developments within China — the
Second United Front.

Source I Mao Zedong in an interview with the American journalist Edgar Snow. Mao’s
secretary was the interpreter (16 July 1936).

In the anti-Japanese war, the Chinese people would have on their side greater advantages than those
the Red Army has utilized in its struggle with the Guomindang. China is a very big nation, and … if Japan
should succeed in occupying even a large section of China, getting possession of an area with as many
as 100 or even 200 million people, we would still be far from defeated …

As for munitions, the Japanese cannot seize our arsenals [military stores] in the interior, which are
sufficient to equip Chinese armies for many years, nor can they prevent us from capturing great amounts
of arms and ammunitions from their own hands …

Economically, of course, China is not unified. But the uneven development of China’s economy also
presents advantages in a war against the highly centralized and highly concentrated economy of Japan
… It is impossible for Japan to isolate all of China: China’s Northwest, Southwest, and West cannot be
blockaded by Japan.

The central point of the problem becomes the mobilization and unification of the entire Chinese people
and the building up of a united front.

[Source: Marxists Internet Archive (2014)]

Source J Lucian Pye, a professor of Chinese history, writing in the academic book
China: An Introduction (1984).

In December 1936, Jiang [Jieshi] flew up to Xian in Shaanxi province to press upon Zhang Xueliang
the urgency of completing the “annihilation” of the Communists before confronting the Japanese.
Upon arrival he was kidnapped by Zhang, who had been influenced by the Communists’ argument
that the Chinese were shamefully fighting other Chinese at a time when Japan threatened … At this
point, the Soviet Union intervened. Stalin sent a telegram to the Chinese Communists declaring that
unless they arranged for the release of Jiang he would publicly renounce them as Communists and
declare them to be mere “bandits”. Finally, an agreement was worked out between the Communists
and the Guomindang. Jiang declared that he would firmly lead the national resistance against any
further Japanese demands, and the Communists committed their forces to operating under the national
command and promised to cease their partisan revolutionary propaganda. Jiang was released on
Christmas Eve, 1936, and the Chinese nation seemed again to be moving towards genuine national
unity.

[Source: authorized by the children of Lucian and Mary Pye]


–7– N19/3/HISTX/BP1/ENG/TZ0/XX/T

Source K

Removed for copyright reasons

Source L David Low, a political cartoonist, depicts the Japanese occupation of China in
the cartoon “The Red Carpet” for the British newspaper the Evening Standard
(14 June 1935). The writing on the carpet is “Japanese World Power”. The
figures with their backs to the carpet represent Britain, France and the US.

[Source: David Low / Solo Syndication]

End of prescribed subject 3

Turn over

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