Hi everyone, this is Klaus.
In our last video, we talked about
how similar the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Chinese Communist Movement were.
They both advocated democracy,
but were more cruel than autocracy.
They wanted to build an ideal and harmonious society,
but starved thousands of people to death.
They promoted equality between men and women,
but owned wives and concubines.
Wherever they went,
they plundered private property, burning books, killing scholars,
and destroying traditional culture.
But there was one big difference between them.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom failed,
but the CCP succeeded.
Let's analyze from a new angle today
why the CCP succeeded in seizing power,
and discuss the logic behind their success.
I hope you enjoy this video.
Why could the CCP defeat the Kuomintang
and seize power?
Some say that it was because the Kuomintang government was tyrannical and corrupt.
Some say it was because the Kuomintang warlords were fighting amongst themselves.
Some say it was because communist propaganda had effectively brainwashed the masses.
Of course, these are all clichés.
I won't bore you with those clichés.
I'm sure you have tuned in for my unique insights.
So were those clichés not the reasons why the CCP won?
Of course they were, but they were not the most fundamental reasons.
Yes, the Kuomintang government was corrupt, but the Qing empire was even more corrupt.
Most late Qing officials were a bunch of leeches who only knew how to smoke.
The people at the bottom were living in misery.
Yes, there were factions fighting each other within the KMT government,
but the infighting within the late Qing government was even worse.
It was Yuan Shikai, a royal family member, who forced the Qing emperor to abdicate.
Besides, the imperial army did not defeat the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
The Hunan local forces did.
The Hunan Army broke through the Tianjing City gate and gained huge wealth,
but only handed over two jade seals to the court.
Cixi didn't dare to complain.
When it comes to brainwashing the masses,
the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which combined politics and religion, was no worse than the CCP.
As we talked about in our last video,
the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was really hardcore, reducing the local population by 90%.
It mobilized every soul it could brainwash.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had over 100,000 female soldiers.
They fought for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to the last minute.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom also had Boy Scouts,
who were fearless and ferocious.
It is said that those children soldiers were such good killers that the Qing army was particularly frightened of those.
Chen Yu, first general of the late Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was once a boy scout.
Zeng Guofan said, "No one since the Han and Tang Dynasties has been as fierce as Chen."
By the way,
both the Nazis and the Communist Party had women and children soldiers.
Under the rule of such eveil regimes,
even women and children couldn't be spared.
If women and children needed to be sacrificed,
then what would be the point in defending the country?
The masses following the heavenly king Hong Xiuquan would rather eat grass than rebel.
I'm not joking. They really ate grass.
In short, when it comes to the ability to brainwash the masses,
the CCP is no match for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Therefore, none of the reasons above explains why the Communist Party could seize power.
Given that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the CCP were extremely alike in nature,
we have an opportunity to discover the root cause of the CCP's ability to seize power.
By comparing the two, we can find the real reason why the CCP could take over.
Our findings are as follows.
The biggest difference between the CCP and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom lies in their diplomacies and international environments.
The diplomacy of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was such a mess that it totally worked against the Taiping regime.
In the early days of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the European powers were neutral with a wait-and-see attitude.
After the Taiping Army captured Nanjing, the foreign nations began to approach it,
offering trade deals and military assistance.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the West shared the same belief in God.
They could have formed good diplomatic relations.
But due to the arrogance of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom,
the Western powers completely sided with the Qing government.
The intervention of the Western powers directly turned the tide of the battle,
putting the Taiping Army into a passive situation.
The territory of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom stopped growing.
Later on, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's diplomacy completely softened,
held in check by the Western powers in terms of military strategy.
In 1860, just because the British told them to, they gave up on Hubei, which was only guarded by a few thousand Qing troops.
As a result, they lost Anqing, and Tianjing was besieged.
Generally speaking, diplomacy should be a tug of war, but the diplomacy of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was too rigid.
It was never as soft or hard as it needed to be.
By contrast, the CCP's diplomacy was very successful.
The key reason was that compared with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom,
three-quarters of the CCP's early members were students who had studied overseas,
such as Zhou Enlai, Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu, Dong Biwu, Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping.
They were much more flexible when dealing with external forces.
For the CCP at that time, its relationship with the KMT government was of the utmost importance.
The CCP's diplomatic tactics were really powerful. They could win over enemies and turn them into friends.
By contrast, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was completely opposed to the Qing government.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom fought the Qing army for over a decade, and no Qing officials surrendered,
because the Taiping Army did not accept surrender and took no prisoners.
In its early days, the CCP took advantage of Sun Yat-sen's pro-Russia and communism-tolerant policy
and trained a large number of military talents via the national government.
Among the ten marshals, Chen Geng, Xu Xiangqian, and Ye Jianying were all from the Whampoa Military Academy.
The KMT's alliance with Russia and the Communist Party also paved the way for the CCP to spy on and infiltrate the Kuomintang.
The CCP also made friends with local forces.
During the Long March, the CCP tried to buy off the Kuomintang's Ma Jiajun.
Before the Anti-Japanese War,
the CCP was able to use diplomacy to turn its enemy Zhang Xueliang, then commander-in-chief in Northwest China,
against Chiang Kai-shek, which led to a second cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party,
buying the CCP another 8 years of respite.
During the Anti-Japanese War, the CCP, on the one hand, spread anti-Japanese propaganda,
and on the other hand, was secretly in cahoots with Wang's puppet government and the Japanese army, conspiring against the national army.
After the Anti-Japanese War, a second civil war broke out between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.
In the early days of the war, the CCP was at an overall disadvantage.
But the CCP sang the praises of democracy and called for peace
and a constitutional and democratic coalition government.
The CCP's PR campaign was a success both at home and abroad.
The US was fooled into sending Secretary of State Marshall to mediate the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.
This gave the CCP another chance to rest and grow.
After that, the US ceased aid to the KMT government and began to crack down on China.
The US imposed an arms embargo on China in August 1946.
However, the CCP was able to gain tremendous support from the Soviet Union.
The changes in diplomatic relations caused a sharp U turn in the situation of the civil war.
The CCP won one battle after another.
In addition to diplomacy, a different international environment helped the CCP seize power.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom went against the Qing empire,
who, despite some military conflicts with the Western powers,
was not in a full-scale war with the Europeans.
The overall national power of the Qing Dynasty was unaffected.
By contrast, during the Chinese Civil War, Japan launched an all-out war of aggression against China.
The KMT government was greatly consumed by the 8-year war against the Japanese.
The CCP, however, took advantage of the Japanese invasion,
and spread high-profile anti-Japanese propaganda, while developing and preserving communist strength.
As a result, the communist party grew stronger and stronger.
Let's compare the KMT and the CCP before and after the Anti-Japanese War.
After the Xi'an Incident in 1937, the entire Red Army was reorganized
as 45,000 troops of the Eighth Route Army and over 10,000 troops of the New Fourth Army.
Taking into accounts other militias, the CCP was no more than 70,000 troops strong.
When the 8-year Anti-Japanese War ended in 1945, the CCP army had grown to 900,000 regular troops.
The Chinese army had suffered over 3 million casualties in the Anti-Japanese War.
The air force and the navy were almost gone.
Thus, Mao Zedong had publicly thanked Japan for invading China many times,
and even spared Japan of any war indemnity.
Now that we've compared the CCP with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom,
we can say that the CCP seized power due to their cunning diplomacies and favorable international conditions.
The international environment was beyond their control at the time, so let's focus on their diplomacies.
Let's dig deeper and see why the two similar regimes had such different diplomacies.
Diplomatic relations, good or bad, are just a result.
Result is caused by behavior, which is in turn determined by logic.
The logic of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom lacked manoeuverability.
The idea was, "You're either a friend or an enemy. There's no in-between."
Thus, Taiping's diplomacy was non-existent. No Qing troops surrendered.
The CCP's logic was, "There are no eternal friends, only eternal interests."
Mao Zedong once said, "Uniting all forces that can be united at home and abroad was the magic weapon that led to the party's victory in its revolution."
This allowed the CCP to maneuver and grow.
Simply put,
both the CCP and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were hooligans,
but the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was a hooligan of principles,
like a thief with a moral compass.
By contrast, the CCP was a thug without principles.
The CCP was willing to do anything and everything to achieve its goal.
The biggest reason why the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom failed to cooperate with the foreign powers was that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom prohibited opium.
At the same time, it refused to recognize the benefits reaped by the Western powers and the Qing Dynasty after the Opium War.
If the CCP were in Taiping's shoes, it would have sold opium in exchange for guns and cannons.
The CCP would have been overjoyed.
The CCP was no stranger to opium.
In order to solve the financial difficulties and arms shortages in Yan'an,
the CCP once produced and sold so-called "special products".
In addition, the British envoy once offered to divide China with Hong Xiuquan
and to help him overthrow the Qing Dynasty.
Hong Xiuquan categorically rejected the offer out of national justice.
Had it been up to the CCP, the CCP would have said yes with a big smile.
Mao himself would have tried to get foreign weapons and half of China first and renegade later.
Besides, Mao only wanted to establish a Hunan Republic at first.
Later, when the communist army was at a disadvantage in the early days of the Civil War,
Mao Zedong advocated peace on condition that the KMT government recognized the legitimacy of the communist government in liberated areas.
He just wanted to share the country with the Kuomintang.
Moreover, Russia occupied the most Chinese territory, and after World War II, it ransacked Northeast China,
burning, killing, looting, and raping; to avoid being raped, Chinese women shaved their hair and posed as men.
Nevertheless, Mao Zedong still kissed Stalin's arse by calling Stalin "Daddy".
Mao was absolutely capable of splitting China with foreign powers.
The CCP's diplomatic philosophy of uniting all forces that can be united was pragmatism.
As the saying goes, "Take advantage, big or small."
It's like feeding two dogs. One dog is stubborn.
If you don't give it enough food, he won't eat any at all.
But the other dog is much more flexible.
I'll eat whatever you throw at it.
It doesn't matter how much food you give it. Which dog do you think will grow big and strong?
Therefore, if we set aside the international environment, which is a force majeur factor,
the key reason why the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom failed but the CCP made it
was that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was not as shameless as the CCP.
If you want to rule a country with cruelty and lies,
then a moral compass will only be a stumbling block.
This is easy to understand.
We've all seen in films and TV shows
where the bad guy suddenly relented at last minute,
and couldn't pull the trigger,
burying the seed of his own downfall.
So, if we set aside force majeur factors,
what really gave the CCP power
was its shamelessness and lack of a moral compass.
Alright, time to hear your comments.
In our last video, we compared the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the CCP movement.
Netizen Betty Todd mentioned some similarly brutal figures in history.
Netizen Jialing Zhou did the same.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the CCP are alike not just because of theirautocracy and brutality.
They both share communist traits, such as public ownership of land and property.
Netizens Caihong 97 and Joshua Shi said the CCP was an evil cult.
Communist China is more like a country where politics and religion are united.
Think of the communist party admission oath, worship of the cult leader, mind control, etc.
Netizen Lee Chad said, "Communist China is even worse than feudal China.
In feudal China, the emperor must take care of the nation and pass it on as legacy.
Nowadays, different families take turns sitting on the throne, exploiting the people to the fullest extent.
Moreover, feudal emperors also self-criticized. Today's emperor never admits his faults."
Well said! Klaus thanks you for the brilliant comment.
Netizens Jason Wong and Hash π mentioned the CCP's tampering with history textbooks.
I have found this article. Apparently, as per the Ministry of Truth, Mao Zedong is no longer responsible for the Cultural Revolution.
Amazing China indeed!
Netizen Gong Shancheng said that evil regimes always contradict themselves.
Netizen Jesus Nazarenus added,
"They don't see it that way. Simply put, rules for thee but not for me."
Netizen Dendrobium answered netizen Rick's question,
"Only democracy can help China break the vicious cycle of bloody coups."
Finally, netizen Castle Frank said that I had done what he didn't have time to do.
If you have ideas you want to express, please leave a comment.
We will exchange ideas and grow together.
Alright, that's it for this video.
This is Klaus. See you next time.