Revolution of 1949

Chinese Civil War 國共內戰 (Kuomintang-Communist Civil War)
Part of Cross-Strait conflict and Cold War (from 1947)
Clockwise from the top: Communist troops at the Battle of Siping, Muslim soldiers of the NRA, Mao Zedong in the 1930s, Chiang Kai-shek inspecting soldiers, CCP general Su Yu investigating the front field shortly before the Menglianggu Campaign
Date 1 August 1927 – 22 December 1936      (9 years, 4 months and 3 weeks) 31 March 1946 – 1 May 1950      (4 years, 1 month and 1 day) Location China Result Chinese Communist victory Major combat ended, but no armistice or peace treaty signed Small pockets of insurgency continued through the 1960s Territorial changes Communist Party of China takeover of mainland China and Hainan People's Republic of China established in mainland China Government of the Republic of China relocated to Taiwan
Belligerents
1927–36  Republic of China Kuomintang National Revolutionary Army	1927–36 Communist Party Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army Chinese Soviet Republic (1931–37) Jiangxi–Fujian Soviet (1931–34) Fujian People's Government (1933–34) Supported by:  Soviet Union Communist International
1947–49  Republic of China Kuomintang Republic of China Armed Forces Supported by:  United States	1946–49 Communist Party Pre-PLA troops and militia People's Liberation Army East Turkestan Republic (1944–46) Ili National Army Supported by:  Soviet Union
1949–61 Republic of China Republic of China Armed Forces Nationalist loyalist guerrillas, militias and regular troops left in Mainland China and Burma Supported by:  United States	1949–61  People's Republic of China People's Liberation Army Supported by:  Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders
Chiang Kai-shek Bai Chongxi Chen Cheng Li Zongren Yan Xishan He Yingqin Hu Zongnan Gu Zhutong Wei Lihuang Du Yuming  Sun Li-jen Fu Zuoyi  Liu Chih Xue Yue Wang Yaowu Tang Enbo Huang Baitao † Zhang Lingfu † Zhang Xueliang Feng Yuxiang (Until 1930)	Mao Zedong Zhu De Peng Dehuai Zhou Enlai Lin Biao Liu Bocheng He Long Chen Yi Luo Ronghuan Xu Xiangqian Nie Rongzhen Ye Jianying Deng Xiaoping Su Yu Chen Geng Wang Jiaxiang Ye Ting † Bo Gu † Li De Zhang Guotao (Until 1936)
Strength
4,300,000 (June 1946) 3,650,000 (June 1948) 1,490,000 (June 1949)	1,200,000 (July 1945) 2,800,000 (June 1948) 4,000,000 (June 1949)
Casualties and losses
c. 1.5 million (1948–49)	c. 250,000 (1948–49)
1945–49: c. 6 million (including civilians) 1928–37: c. 7 million (including civilians) 1945–49: c. 2.5 million (including civilians) c. 8 million casualties total

Chinese Communist victory

The Chinese Civil War was a war fought between the Kuomintang (KMT)-led government of the Republic of China and the Communist Party of China (CPC). Although particular attention is paid to the four years of Chinese Communist Revolution from 1945 to 1949, the war actually started in August 1927, with the White Terror at the end of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's Northern Expedition, and essentially ended when major hostilities between the two sides ceased in 1950. The conflict took place in two stages: the first between 1927 and 1937, and the second from 1946 to 1950, with the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937–1945 separating them. The war marked a major turning point in modern Chinese history, with the Communists gaining control of mainland China and establishing the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 and forced the Republic of China (ROC) to retreat to Taiwan. It resulted in a lasting political and military standoff between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, with the ROC in Taiwan and the PRC on mainland China with both officially claiming to be the legitimate government of all China.

The war represented an ideological split between the communist CPC and the nationalist KMT. Conflict continued intermittently until late 1937, when the two parties came together to form the Second United Front to counter the Imperial Japanese Army threat and to prevent the country from crumbling. Full-scale civil war in China resumed in 1946, a year after the end of hostilities with the Empire of Japan in September 1945. Four years later came the cessation of major military activity, with the newly founded People's Republic of China controlling mainland China (including the island of Hainan), and the Republic of China's jurisdiction restricted to Taiwan, Penghu, Quemoy, Matsu and several outlying islands.