China’s Modern Wars, 1911–1979
- LAST REVIEWED: 23 June 2021
- LAST MODIFIED: 23 June 2021
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791279-0167
- LAST REVIEWED: 23 June 2021
- LAST MODIFIED: 23 June 2021
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791279-0167
Introduction
Few informed observers would deny the important role that military conflict has played in China’s 20th century. Scholars have long shown interest in this topic, producing a wide body of scholarship on various aspects of China’s major wars since 1911. A traditional focus on major campaigns and commanders has given way to new approaches that explore the social and environmental consequences of war, studies of different regions or base areas, and the experiences of combatants. This bibliography begins with the 1911 Revolution, which ended the millennia-old imperial system in China. Instead of producing a new government, the revolution ushered in a period of military separatism as sections of the country fell under the political and military control of independent commanders, typically known as “warlords.” The 1920s saw the rise of two prominent political parties, the Guomindang (GMD) or “Nationalist” Party and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), each of which developed military forces in order to acquire political power and implement its particular plan for a new China. These two forces combined to create a National Revolutionary Army (NRA), which embarked on the Northern Expedition to defeat the warlords and unify the country. The alliance proved fleeting as Nationalist and Communists clashed in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The Japanese seizure of Manchuria in 1931 and subsequent territorial encroachments in northern China directed the national focus to external threats. In 1937 China and Japan began an eight-year war that featured massive destruction and dislocation. This Sino-Japanese War (which the Chinese call the “Eight Year War of Resistance” against Japan) merged with the war in Europe to produce the Pacific War, which brought China and the United States together as wartime allies. The defeat of Japan in August 1945 provided little respite, as CCP and GMD forces resumed their struggle for political power in the Chinese Civil War from 1945–1949. The CCP triumph ushered in a new government, the People’s Republic of China, which within one year sent “volunteer” soldiers to defend North Korea against the United Nations force in the Korean War. In the twenty-five years following the Korean War armistice, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) engaged in military operations in the Taiwan Straits, border conflicts with India and the Soviet Union, and supported Vietnamese allies in the wars against the French and Americans. The 1979 war with Vietnam capped China’s modern wars since 1911.
General Overviews
The field of Chinese military history remains a small but vibrant field, and a number of scholars have produced good overviews of the war. The best place to start is Elleman 2001, which reaches back into the late Qing period and offers a comprehensive view of the major conflicts in and around China’s borders in the 19th and 20th centuries. Paine 2012 is an excellent analysis of China’s connections to the broader international conflicts in Asia, and Li 2007 focuses on the development of the CCP’s armed forces. Graff and Higham 2001 and Tien 1992 (cited under Strategy and Theory) provide historical context for understanding modern Chinese military history.
Dreyer, Edward L. China at War, 1901–1949. London: Longman, 1995.
Part of the Longman series on “Modern Wars in Perspective.” Deals with military conflicts and developments from the late Qing reforms through the end of the civil war in 1949. Largely a synthesis of Western scholarship.
Elleman, Bruce A. Modern Chinese Warfare, 1795–1989. New York: Routledge, 2001.
A detailed discussion of the twenty-five best-known military conflicts China participated in between 1789 and 1989. Emphasizes diplomacy as a part of warfare and argues that China has often pursued imperialist policies with regard to its neighbors.
Graff, David A., and Robin Higham, eds. A Military History of China. Boulder, CO: Westview, 2001.
Chronological treatment of Chinese military history from the ancient world to the 1990s. Chapters 10–16 deal with the 20th century, authored by prominent scholars in the field. A good introductory source.
Li, Xiaobing. A History of the Modern Chinese Army. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 2007.
An excellent survey of the history of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. Concentrates on operational, institutional, and political factors that shaped the development of the communist military forces.
Liu, F. F. A Military History of Modern China. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1956.
Liu served as an officer in the Chinese Nationalist Army. This book focuses on the establishment of the Whampoa Military Academy and the subsequent development of the NRA. Liu emphasizes issues of command, training, organization, and foreign influences rather than individual battles and combat.
Paine, S. C. M. The Wars for Asia 1911–1949. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Analyzes the Sino-Japanese War and Chinese Civil War and connected events that cannot be treated separately. Paine stresses that decisions made by individual leaders in China, Japan, and Russia led to larger regional conflict.
Swope, Kenneth. Warfare in China since 1600. Aldershot, UK, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005.
A collection previously published journal articles dealing with various topics in modern Chinese military history. More than half of the articles deal with the 20th century.
Worthing, Peter. A Military History of Modern China: From the Manchu Conquest to Tian’anmen Square. Westport, CT: Praeger Security International, 2007.
A survey of Chinese military history from the Qing to the 1990s. Focuses on the causes, conduct, and consequences of war and the role of the military in the development of modern China.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- 1916 Easter Rising, The
- 1812, War of
- Aerial Bombardment, Ethics of
- Afghanistan, Wars in
- Africa, Gunpowder and Colonial Campaigns in
- African Military History and Historiography
- African Wars of Independence
- Air Transport
- Allenby, Edmund
- All-Volunteer Army, Post-Vietnam Through 2016
- American Colonial Wars
- American Indian Wars
- American War of Independence
- Amir Timur
- Ancient Egyptian Warfare (3000 BCE–332 BCE)
- Animals and the Military
- Antietam, Battle of
- Arab-Israeli Wars, 1948-Present
- Arctic Warfare
- Argentine Armed Forces
- Armed Forces of the Ottoman Empire, 1683–1918
- Armored War
- Arms Control and Disarmament
- Army, Roman
- Artillery
- Artists and War Art
- Assyrian Warfare
- Attila and the Huns
- Australia from the Colonial Era to the Present
- Austrian Succession, War of the
- Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces
- Balkan Liberation, 1878–1913, Wars of
- Baltic Crusades
- Battle of Agincourt
- Battle of Bannockburn: 1341
- Battle of Plassey, 1757
- Battle of Route Coloniale 4, 1950: France’s first devastat...
- Battle of Salamis: 480 BC
- Battle of Tours (732?)
- Boer Wars
- Bonaparte, Napoleon
- Brazilian Armed Forces
- Britain and the Blitz
- British Armed Forces, from the Glorious Revolution to Pres...
- British Army in World War II
- British Army of the Rhine, The
- British-India Armies from 1740 to 1849
- Canada from World War I to the Present
- Canada in World War II
- Canada through World War I
- Cavalry since 1500
- Chaco War
- Charlemagne
- China's Modern Wars, 1911-1979
- Chinese Civil War, 1945-1949
- Chivalry
- Christianity and Warfare in the Medieval West
- Churchill, John, 1st Duke of Marlborough
- Churchill, Winston
- Civilians
- Clausewitz, Carl von
- Coalition and Alliance War
- Cold War, 1945-1990
- Cold War Dictatorships in the Southern Cone (Brazil, Argen...
- Commemoration
- Communications, French Revolution to the Present
- Conflict and Migration
- Conquest of Mexico and Peru
- Conscription
- Cornwallis, Charles
- Counterinsurgency in the Modern World
- Crimean War, 1853–1856
- Cromwell, Oliver
- Crusades, The
- Cuban Missile Crisis
- Defense Industries
- Dien Bien Phu, Battle of
- Dominion Armies in World War II
- Douhet, Giulio, airpower theorist
- Eisenhower, Dwight
- Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide
- European Wars, Mid-Nineteenth-Century
- Finland in World War II
- France in World War I
- Franco-Prussian War, 1870–71 (Franco-German War)
- Frederick the Great
- French Armies, Early Modern
- French Military, 1919-1940
- French Revolutionary Wars, The
- Gender Issues
- German Air Forces
- German Army, 1871–1945
- German Sea Power, 1848-1918
- German Unification, Wars of
- Germany's Eastern Front in 1941
- Grant, Ulysses S.
- Greek and Roman Navies
- Guerrilla Warfare, Pre-20th-Century
- Gunpowder Warfare in South Asia: 1400–1800
- Haig, Douglas
- Haitian Revolution (1789–1804)
- Hippolyte, Comte de Guibert, Jacques Antoine
- Hiroshima/Nagasaki
- History of Intelligence in China
- Hundred Days Campaign of 1918
- Hundred Years War
- Hungary, Warfare in Medieval and Early Modern
- Imperial China, War in
- India 'Mutiny' and 'Revolution,' 1857-1858
- Indian Army in World War I
- Indian Warfare, Ancient
- India-Pakistan Wars
- Indochina Wars, 1946-1975
- Information Warfare
- Intelligence, Military
- International Efforts to Control War
- Iraq Wars, 1980s-Present
- Irish Civil War, 1922–1923
- Irish Revolution, 1911-1923, The
- Italian Armed Forces in the Modern Age
- Italian Campaign, World War I
- Japanese Army in the World War II Era, The Imperial
- Japanese Navy
- Jomini, Antoine-Henri
- Justice, Military, the Anglo-American Tradition
- Justice of War and Justice in War
- Khan, Genghis
- Kursk, Battle of
- Learning and Adapting: The British Army from Somme to the ...
- Lee, Robert E.
- Lepizig, Battle of
- Literature and Drama, War in
- Loos, Battle of
- Louis XIV, Wars of
- Low-Intensity Operations
- Manzikert, Battle of
- Maratha Navy
- Media
- Medicine, Military
- Medieval Europe and the Middle East (500–1300), Siege Warf...
- Medieval French Warfare
- Medieval Japan, 900-1600
- Mercenaries
- Meuse-Argonne Offensive
- Mexican Revolution, c. 1910–1960
- Mexico and the United States, 1836–1848, Wars of
- Midway, Battle of
- Militarism
- Military Officers, United States
- Military Revolutions
- Militia
- Modern Piracy
- Mongol Wars
- Montgomery, Bernard Law
- Music and War
- Napoleonic Wars, The
- Napoleonic Wars, War and Memory in the
- NATO
- Navy, British
- Nelson, Horatio
- New Zealand
- Nimitz, Chester
- Nuclear Culture
- Nuclear Weapons
- Occupations and Military Government
- Operational Art
- Ottoman Navy
- Pacifism
- Passchaendale, Battle of
- Patton, George
- Peacekeeping
- Peninsular War
- Polish Armed Forces, 1918-present
- Political Purges in the 20th Century
- Poltava, Battle of
- Popular Culture and Modern War
- Prehistoric Warfare
- Pre-Revolutionary Mexican Armed Forces: 1810–1910
- Prince Eugene of Savoy
- Prisoners
- Private Military and Security Companies
- Propaganda
- Psychiatric Casualties
- Punic Wars
- Race, Ethnicity, and War
- Race in the US Military
- Red Cross
- Religio-Military Orders
- Revolt in the Spanish Netherlands: 1561–1609 (Dutch Revolt...
- Roman Empire
- Roman Republic
- Roses, Wars of the
- Russian and Soviet Armed Forces
- Russian Campaign of 1812
- Russian Civil War, 1918–1921
- Russian Military History
- Russian Military History, 1762-1825
- Russo-Japanese War
- Safavid Army
- Sailing Warships
- Science and Technology in War
- Science Fiction, Military
- Semi-Military and Paramilitary Organizations
- Seven Years' War
- Seven Years' War in North America, The
- Sino-Japanese Wars, 1895-1945
- South Africa's Apartheid Wars
- South West Pacific, 1941–1945, Campaigns in
- Southeast Asian Military History, Colonial
- Southeast Asian Military History, Precolonial
- Space and War
- Spain since the Reconquista
- Spanish Civil War
- Special Operations Forces
- Special Operations Forces
- Stalingrad, Battle of
- Steppe Nomadic Warfare
- Strategy
- Submarine Warfare
- Swedish Armed Forces
- Tactics
- Terrorism
- Tet Offensive
- The Allied Bombardment of Occupied Europe During World War...
- The United States and the Middle East, 1945-2001
- Third Battle of Panipat
- Thirty Years War, 1618–1648
- Trench Warfare
- Uganda–Tanzania War, 1978–1979
- United States Marine Corps, The
- Urban Warfare
- US Air Force
- US Air Power
- US Army
- Verdun, Battle of
- Victorian Warfare, 1837–1902
- Vietnam War
- Vietnam War in Hollywood Feature Films
- War at Sea in the Age of Napoleon
- War, Chemical and Biological
- War Correspondents
- War, Culture of
- War in Mughal India
- War of the Spanish Succession, 1701–1714
- War of the Triple Alliance (Paraguayan War)
- Warfare in Qing China
- Warfare, Precolonial, in Africa
- Warships, Steam
- Women in the Military
- World War I in Film
- World War I Origins
- World War I: The Eastern Front
- World War I: The Western Front
- World War II and the Far East
- World War II in Film
- World War II in the Mediterranean and Middle East
- World War II, Indian Army in
- World War II Origins
- World War II, Russo-German War
- Yugoslavian Civil War, 1991–1999
- Zhukov, Georgii
- Zulu Wars