Red Chinese capital at Nanking?

[Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy]

This isn't really AH, just H: Why did the Chinese Communists move China's capital back to Beijing? Is it something they had been planning for some time or a spur of the moment thing?

[Sumeragi]

Being more centrally located in terms of industrialization (Manchuria), having been the original and non-Chiang capital of the ROC, geopolitically safer (Shandong and Liaoning being a good barrier), closer to the USSR, less damaged than Nanjing, and originally the most ideologically red of the historical Chinese capitals (Beijing University), with the added honor of where the May Fourth Movement started.

I think these would be the main reasons.

[Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy]

But it was also the city that Sun Yat-sen had chosen to be the nation's capital. Was the association with Chiang that much stronger?

[Sumeragi]

Yes, but we're not completely sure as the reason for Sun choosing Nanjing. Part of it was probably because there was already a Beijing "government" with Yuan Shikai being in control through the Beiyang Army. Basically, the existence of Yuan was most likely a factor in . Either way, Beijing was the official capital until Chiang changed it to Nanjing in 1927.

[LeoXiao]

I'd guess it's probably because of the strong association with the Chiang Kai-shek government. Also, the entire Communist movement had been forced to the north so a northern capital probably seemed like a good idea.

In Chinese, there is a term called "the king facing south" (南面王）, and traditionally rulers would orient their thrones to reflect this name.
Mao thought of himself as a new emperor and had a rich education in history, so it's likely that he also wanted a northern capital for this symbolic reason as well.

[Snake Featherston]

IIRC because that's where their power-center had been before the war and they for understandable reasons did not want to emphasize any continuity with the GMD after it.