China: Politics of Civil War Era

The relevance of Pepper’s work for a scholar seeking to understand the dyna­mic that informed the politics of China’s civil war period cannot be over empha­sized. Not only does Pepper treat us to a most perceptive and brilliant analysis of what went into making a communist victory possible in 1949, when just four years earlier the Kuomintang (KMT) had enjoyed the undisputed confidence of al­most every section of Chinese society, but she also provides us with a wealth of data and documentation on the subject. The story of KMT rule during the period 1945-46 to 1948-49, both in the cities and the countryside, was, as Pepper records, is a sorry one. The venality and corruption of its officials gradually aliena­ted almost every section of the urban and rural population. Government policy makers of the time also revealed both a lack of will and determination to take those· hard decisions so necessary for any kind of economic recovery. Instead, the KMT appeared to have only one obses­sion for which it was willing to sacrifice the interests of all – the continuation of the civil war against the communists.