Illustrating the lessons of permanent revolution, when Japanese imperialism invaded and occupied Manchuria, in 1931, Chiang Kai Shek continued to see the Chinese Communist Party as the main enemy. As Trotsky described, in the 1930's, these kinds of conditions always lead to the supposed “anti-imperialist”, bourgeois forces allying with imperialism against the revolutionary workers, including allying with one imperialist alliance against another, and, thereby substituting domination by one imperialism to that of another, as with Ukraine.
By 1937, as World War II approached, Japanese imperialism had its sights set on expanding its dominance in the Pacific, including the Pacific coast of the USSR. In 1905, it had had a quick success over Tsarist Russia, and its ability to occupy Manchuria, encouraged it to think that it could repeat its success. It began by occupying the whole of China, creating conditions in which Chiang Kai Shek, and the KMT were forced into a renewed alliance with the Chinese Communist Party. In fact, this alliance amounted only to a reduction in the degree of fighting between the two. The KMT forces used standard military tactics and strategy, reflecting their nature as a bourgeois army, whilst the Chinese Communists utilised the guerilla warfare methods of a peasant army. In areas not occupied by the Japanese, fighting between the KMT and CCP forces, continued, as before.
In 1939, the Japanese military suffered a severe defeat against the USSR, in the Battle of Khalkin Gol. Prior to that, Japan had seen a war with the USSR as an easier option than war with the US. Following this defeat, Japanese military planners reversed that opinion, and, as US imperialism was also, now, looking to establish its own dominance in the Pacific, began to plan their war with the US, which began in 1941, with the attack on Pearl Harbour. The occupation and annexation of China, and other territories, was central to this goal of Japanese imperialism, of creating a large regional market under its domination, required for the large scale production, just as Germany sought to create such a single market in Europe under its domination.
Both US imperialism, and the USSR, had reason to oppose Japanese imperialism in China, and sought to end the continued conflict between their respective proxies, in order to fight it. In fact, prior to Japan attacking Pearl Harbour, and declaring war on the US, which led to Germany also declaring war on the US, Nazi Germany also acted alongside the US, Britain the USSR and other European states in supporting China. These were the conditions in which The Chinese Communist Party, essentially a peasant party, but backed by both US imperialism, and the USSR, against Japanese imperialism, was able to grow, and eventually seize power in China, not via a proletarian revolution, but via a Peasant War.
The KMT, under Chiang Kai Shek, having identified the CCP as the main enemy, compromised with Japanese imperialism. In 1940, Chiang Kai Shek, demanded that the CCP's New Fourth Army leave the Anhui and Jiangsu provinces. The CCP again complied, and as they retreated, were ambushed by KMT forces, again leading to several thousand of them being slaughtered. It brought to an end the second popular front between the CCP and KMT. The KMT's conventional warfare was ineffective against the superior Japanese forces, and its compromises with Japanese imperialism made it unpopular in areas where the Japanese oppressed local populations, with a corresponding increase in support for the CCP, assisting its guerrilla strategy. A similar process has been seen in Vietnam, and elsewhere.
KMT forces were, thereby, denuded through the course of the war, whilst the CCP's forces grew, and areas of the countryside under its control expanded. At the end of the war, the Chinese Red Army had 1.3 million men, with a separate militia of around 2.6 million. More than 100 million people lived in CPC controlled areas.
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