The Communist Party of China (CPC), also known as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),[1] is the Marxist-Leninist party which founded and governs the People's Republic of China, a totalitarian state which rules over China in the present day.
In the days of the Warlord Era, the CCP were allied with the Nationalist Party (KMT) which, under Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, was keen on reunifying the country from its base in southern China. Communists in Shanghai eagerly awaited the forces of the KMT's Northern Expedition, believing that they were the reinforcements needed to capture the city together. Upon their arrival on 12 April 1927, however, the KMT immediately executed an indiscriminate massacre of the communists with the aid of Du Yuesheng's Green Gang notwithstanding. Chiang had orchestrated the slaughter as a preemptive strike against the CCP to signal his definitive severance of their alliance.[2] The event is traditionally treated as the start of the Chinese Civil War between the KMT and CCP although the Civil War was in fact the last phase in a prolonged period of armed conflict between factions vying for power with the fall of the Qing dynasty. [citation needed]
After a lull in the civil war during World War II, the CCP achieved victory against the KMT by seizing the entirety of Mainland China and forcing Chiang Kai-shek to flee with his remaining forces to Taiwan. Mao Zedong, as Chairman of the CCP, then established the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949. [citation needed]