Historical Documents - Office of the Historian

Political and military situation in China ¹

^1.Continued from Foreign Relations, 1948, vol. vii, pp. 1 ff.

Contents

I. Nationalist and Communist maneuvers regarding conditions for peace; Chinese Government appeal for four-power mediation and United States refusal; Communist capture of Tientsin and Peiping; retirement of President Chiang Kaishek (January 1–23) (Documents 1–90)
II. Efforts of Acting President Li Tsung-jen to organize peace talks, and negative attitude of Chinese Communists; unofficial peace delegations from Nanking and Shanghai; move of Executive Yuan from Nanking to Canton; friction between Acting President Li and Premier Sun Fo; fall of Sun Fo Cabinet (January 23–March 14) (Documents 91–214)
III. Formation of Ho Ying-chin Cabinet; collapse of peace talks between the Chinese Government and the Chinese Communists at Peiping (March 15-April 22) (Documents 215–310)
IV. Chinese Communist crossing of the Yangtze; fall of Nanking, Hankow, Shanghai, Taiyuan; mounting political confusion in Nationalist China (April 22–May 31) (Documents 311–424)
V. The question of possible aid to the new regime; meeting at Peiping of the Communist-sponsored Preparatory Committee for the new Political Consultative Conference; continuing factionalism in Nationalist China (June 1–July 6) (Documents 425–482)
VI. Increase of activities of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (press interview, visits to Canton and Chungking, establishment of personal headquarters on Formosa); visits of Acting President Li Tsung-jen to Formosa; continuing collapse of National Government’s military positions; political activities in Communist-occupied China (July 8–September 23) (Documents 483–607)
VII. Meeting at Peiping of the Communist-sponsored People’s Political Consultative Conference (PCC); establishment at Peiping of the “Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China” (September 24–October 3) (Documents 608–621)
VIII. Disintegration of Nationalist armies on mainland; fall of Canton, Chungking, and Kunming; removal of Nationalist capital to Taipei; continued impasse between Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and Acting President Li Tsung-jen; latter’s visit to the United States for medical treatment; Communist warning regarding Indochina frontier; visit of Mao Tse-tung to Moscow (October 7–December 31) (Documents 622–740)