Page:Earl Browder - Civil War in Nationalist China (1927).pdf/8

 then held power only in the extreme South (Kwantung), began a Northern Punitive Expedition against the militarist rulers. This expedition had the most phenomenal successes. It swept through the provinces of Hunan and Kiangsi to Hupeh and the Yangtse River valley, occupying the commercial and industrial center of interior China, Hankow (the Wuhan cities). It gathered in the coast Provinces of Fukien and Chekiang; it occupied Nanking after a furious battle, and was handed Shanghai by the revolutionary working class, adding the Provinces of Anhui and Kiangsu. From the Yangste Valley the Northern Expedition proceeded, in the spring and early summer of 1927, onward toward Peking, establishing its lines on the Hwang Ho (Yellow River) and the south of Shantung Province in mid-summer.

Simultaneously with the occupation of the Yangtse Valley by the Nationalists there came to the forefront of Chinese affairs a new factor: This is the struggle within the Nationalist Movement itself. The Kuomintang, a bloc of the most varied classes, began to divide itself into two separate and distinct parts, along the lines of antagonistic economic interests. This differentiation within the Kuomintang rapidly developed into an open split, and then into Civil War.

It is with this Civil War within the Kuomintang, within Nationalist China, that this pamphlet is primarily concerned.

In addition to personal experiences, and long interviews with leaders of all phases of the revolutionary movement, I have also made use of translations of extensive reports which were placed at my disposal by Comrade Michael Borodin. This material which is the result of several years' investigations by many competent workers will be used later for extended work on the more fundamental aspects of the Chinese Revolution.