DBWI: Red China?

So, what if Communists win Chinese Civil War?
It obviously should help USSR, but would it be enough to avoid OTL liberalization and loss of East Block?
And what would be the effects on Asia?
 
I'm not really sure that it's possible.

The Communists were mainly just a subsect of the KMT and didn't even match them in strength for that long.

The Communist forces were completely broken by the KMT in late 1935, and would be finished off in the spring of 1937 with the taking of Yan'an, so I guess it would have to be before then.

I honestly can't really see any of the communists achieving what Chiang Kai-shek was able to with helping the United States defeat Japan in 1944 and succeeding at getting China on the Security Council alongside the United States, Soviet Union, Britain, France, and India. It took a lot of lobbying and string polling with people who also believed in a degree of democratic values. I can't imagine a communist country getting that seat.

But if they were able to, the Communists were much more peasant and farmer based in their support, so I could see land reform coming way sooner than the late 50s. This would probably put the KMT plan of "A Province a Month" industrialization on hold, if it happens at all. For those who don't know, "A Province a Month" was a program where China would use a large part of its budget every month to go towards repairing infrastructure and building new roads and factories in a different province. It started in 1945, right after Germany surrendered and the Second World War ended, and kept going until 1966, touching on many provinces more than once. It's largely credited for China's industrial boom in the 1980s, which followed Japan's boom in the 1970s, and is said to be one of the main reasons that there are two superpowers in the world today, with India's rise on the horizon.
 
Though they tried to move away from the imperial system in the twentieth century, the historical Chinese pattern of a dynasty being established, crumbling, a period of anarchy, and then a new dynasty arising is really hard to break.

While Communism never really took route in China, one interesting event in the biography of Zedong, the first Emperor in the Later Xin Dynasty, was that he was briefly a member of the Chinese Communist Party in Shanghai in the 1920s. Of course he helped Chiang Kaishek crush the Communists later, before successfully turning on Chiang after World War 2 and destroying the republic. There is of course no trace of this history in the policies he instituted as Emperor.
 
Though they tried to move away from the imperial system in the twentieth century, the historical Chinese pattern of a dynasty being established, crumbling, a period of anarchy, and then a new dynasty arising is really hard to break.

While Communism never really took route in China, one interesting event in the biography of Zedong, the first Emperor in the Later Xin Dynasty, was that he was briefly a member of the Chinese Communist Party in Shanghai in the 1920s. Of course he helped Chiang Kaishek crush the Communists later, before successfully turning on Chiang after World War 2 and destroying the republic. There is of course no trace of this history in the policies he instituted as Emperor.
OOC: Wait, what?
 
Which means?

(Back to DBWI)
If China became communist, it would have been bad for them: Mao had some "ideas", you know... Stalinist ideas.
Would the USSR and China be close diplomaticly ? I think so: it would be difficult at first but it would work. But with the collapse of Communism in Europe, it could affect Communist China. And by affected, I mean, badly. We could see a new civil war in the 90s, like in Northern Korea OTL, but with a balkanization of the country: Xinjiang, Manchuria and Taiwan would secede and be independent. Tibet would still remain independent like IOTL. The 2000s would be a time of reconstruction, like in Korea IOTL.
 
Well, for one... the fashion would be different. Like in North Korea where women generally not allowed to wear trousers. Heck, the female mine workers in NK even wear skirt while working! I expect the same with Red China. On a plus side, just like in NK and Vietnam where the women wear traditional clothing to official state functions, the traditional qipao/cheongsam would still be official formal wear in China and this will resulted in the attire still be popular today, unlike in OTL where it is now only worn for occasions.
 
The Communist leader Mao Zedong was a peasant himself, so if he was able to win the Chinese Civil War, he would understand the peasantry well.

Mao would have focused on improving the lives of the lower classes, so this would mean abundant food, improvements in agriculture, education and health care, and preventing major famines in the countryside and other forms of mass suffering among the population.

Who knows, the majority of the Chinese population might have been a lot better off under Maoism.
 
I don't see it happening without a weaker USSR/Socialist International coming out of WWII. Following the fall of Germany and the "liberation" of France, Trotsky had nearly all of Europe at his beck and call. Given that the US at the time was still shaking off the slumber of isolationism (the Pacific War helped of course) and GB was doing its damnedest to maintain control over India, Trotsky's desire to expand the International looked to a lot of people like a desire to finally win the Great Game which was scaring a lot of countries in South and Central Asia shitless (it's worth remembering that there were still a lot of Soviet politicians who spoke fondly of 'Socialism in One Country' which did a lot to make Communism seem like just the next stage of European Imperialism, no matter what Trotsky said).

So no, I don't see this happening unless something is done to make Communism look less European or a more charismatic leader coming along to sway public opinion in favor of Communism. Some people have suggested Zedong but this seems unlikely to me; his shift toward Sinocentricism made it very unlikely that he would buy into a philosophy written by a German and championed by Russians (plus 'Chairman Mao' just sounds bizarre). If it were to happen, though, the consequences would be huge. I imagine we'd see closer cooperation between the US, GB and Japan and the historic rivalry between China and Japan would probably continue into the present day. On the plus side, with such a large and friendly neighbor, we might see a less paranoid and chaotic North Korea.
 
I'm not really sure that it's possible.

The Communists were mainly just a subsect of the KMT and didn't even match them in strength for that long.

The Communist forces were completely broken by the KMT in late 1935, and would be finished off in the spring of 1937 with the taking of Yan'an, so I guess it would have to be before then.

I honestly can't really see any of the communists achieving what Chiang Kai-shek was able to with helping the United States defeat Japan in 1944 and succeeding at getting China on the Security Council alongside the United States, Soviet Union, Britain, France, and India. It took a lot of lobbying and string polling with people who also believed in a degree of democratic values. I can't imagine a communist country getting that seat.

But if they were able to, the Communists were much more peasant and farmer based in their support, so I could see land reform coming way sooner than the late 50s. This would probably put the KMT plan of "A Province a Month" industrialization on hold, if it happens at all. For those who don't know, "A Province a Month" was a program where China would use a large part of its budget every month to go towards repairing infrastructure and building new roads and factories in a different province. It started in 1945, right after Germany surrendered and the Second World War ended, and kept going until 1966, touching on many provinces more than once. It's largely credited for China's industrial boom in the 1980s, which followed Japan's boom in the 1970s, and is said to be one of the main reasons that there are two superpowers in the world today, with India's rise on the horizon.
Hmm... What if somebody had forced Chiang/Jiang to work with the communists in 1936?

I recall from Zhang Xueliang's biography (Bloody Rivers and Smoke-Filled Skies, the Life of Zhang Xueliang, by Liu Ke) that at one point, he had considered forcing Jiang into a peace treaty with the Communists, and to unite them against Japan. If he'd gone through with it, do you think it might've worked?
 
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