The Second Front

In a narrow sense, it refers to the students’ patriotic democratic movement in the KMT-ruled areas in the period of the War of Liberation, in addition to the People's Liberation War carried out by the People's Liberation Army on the first front, the military front; in a broad sense, it refers to the patriotic and democratic movement in the whole KMT-ruled areas.

On May 30, 1947, Mao Zedong clearly expounded the meaning of the second front in his article "The Chiang Kai-shek Government is Besieged by the Whole People". He pointed out: "There are now two battle fronts in China. The war between Chiang Kai-shek's invading troops and the People's Liberation Army constitutes the first front. Now a second front has emerged, that is, the sharp struggle between the great and righteous student movement and the reactionary Chiang Kai-shek government. … The student movement is part of the whole people's movement. The upsurge of the student movement will inevitably promote an upsurge of the whole people's movement.”

After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, in order to realize the people's desire for peace and democracy and smash the military attack of the KMT army, the CPC Central Committee strengthened its leadership over the struggle in the KMT-ruled areas. And after the KMT army launched a full-scale civil war, the CPC led the people of the KMT-ruled areas in their struggle against the United States’ support for Chiang Kai-shek's KMT Government in launching a civil war, forming a second front. The process of this struggle can be divided into four stages:

(1) August 1945-June 1946. The main content of the struggle was to strive for peace and democracy and oppose the civil war dictatorship policy of the KMT ruling group.

(2) July 1946-June 1947. The main content of the struggle was to protest the atrocities of the U.S. Army and carry out the struggle against hunger, civil war and persecution.

(3) July 1947-July 1948. The main content of the struggle was to continue the "anti-persecution" struggle and hold the anti-American and anti-Japanese campaign.

(4) August 1948-September 1949. The main content of the struggle was to achieve national liberation and cooperate with the People’s Liberation Army to march into cities and take over cities.

The struggle of the second front and the People’s Liberation Army on the military front were interrelated and mutually supportive, playing an important role in winning the victory of the national war of liberation and the birth of the new China.