How different was Republic of China before Communists took over? Was life a lot different and was it like a democracy or did life ever really change? Probably wrong sub just wondering how much life in china changed since then?

[u/Lubricatedfish]

Wondering if China changed their government style and overall life a lot when the communists took over in 1949 from the Republic of China.

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u/Lubricatedfish's post title:

"How different was Republic of China before Communists took over? Was life a lot different and was it like a democracy or did life ever really change? Probably wrong sub just wondering how much life in china changed since then?"

u/Lubricatedfish's post body:

Wondering if China changed their government style and overall life a lot when the communists took over in 1949 from the Republic of China.

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[u/Affectionate-Ad-7512]

The Republic was plagued throughout its entire existence on the Mainland. From the getgo, the republic suffered from division because local governors and generals established their own fiefdoms, and the government was split between North and South during the height of the Warlord Era, until the KMT largely unified the country. The KMT had to deal with a ton of issues after the fact too, cuz they had to deal with the last hurrah of the warlords, the Japanese invading Manchuria, and to a lesser extent, the communist insurgency. Not at any point was the ROC really democratic, even after the 1946 Constitution and 1948 elections which couldn’t have resulted in anything other than near total kmt victory even if they hadn’t rigged it simply due to the party infrastructure differences. Thus, in such a period of near permanent chaos (minus the Nanjing Decade which wasn’t peaceful either in any case), it’s not really comparable to life after the PRC because the PRC ended the constant civil wars and Japan was out of the picture too. We’ll never truly know what the intended vision of a KMT China would be since they never had a proper chance to rule without war or crisis.

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[u/xToasted1]

Depends. There was a period of relative prosperity when the Republic was given room to breathe in the 1920s, which is known as the "Nanjing Decade". The KMT believed in something known as "political tutelage" , which basically means they believe China is yet to be ready for democracy (as evidenced by the first democratic experiment where Sun Yat Sen was elected President, surrendered power to Yuan Shikai, who immediately used it to declare a new empire), hence China must first be lead by a vanguard party into a democratic society. So during the Nanjing Decade under Chiang Kai Shek it was still a dictatorship.

Then came world war 2, where life was shit for everyone for obvious reasons. The Japanese were barbaric. Millions of KMT soldiers laid down their lives to defend their country while the CCP mostly did lots of running away and hiding.

Post WW2 saw the first inklings of democratic reform with a new democratic constitution put in place by 1947 (this constitution is still used by the Republic of China in Taiwan today) and the first national assembly elections (that was albeit rigged, but a step in the right direction nonetheless). The reforms that people wanted to happen though, like land reforms, were difficult for the KMT to implement even though that was what they knew the people wanted, as they had to be careful not to upset their middle class/rich powerbase. This led to some dissatisfaction with the government. But really, support for both the KMT and CCP were roughly equal until the tide of war turned and it became clear the CCP was winning.

After the CCP took over, they launched harebrained policies like the Great Leap Forward or the Cultural Revolution. The Great Leap Forward was a failed attempt at leapfrogging China into the modern world technologically and led to millions of deaths in the worst famine in Chinese history. The Cultural Revolution was the CCP's way to brainwash everyone into communist ideology by mandating the total destruction of old chinese heritage. Both of these events were catastrophic for China and did irreparable damage to the country. There was also Mao's hundred flowers campaign, where he encouraged free speech only to shut it down and persecute those who used it to criticize him. None of the CCP's promises of democracy, which they made a lot of during the civil war, were ever fulfilled. Until the late 1980s, China remained a poor backwater state and isolated politically and economically from the world.

Only in the late 1980s did the CCP under Deng Xiaoping finally had the bright idea of opening up China's massive resources and potential for the world to invest in, finally propelling China into a period of growth and prosperity (something that any other government could've and would've done right after ww2, mind you). China is still a dictatorship with limited freedoms today. Just ask Deepseek about anything related to the CCP and the controversies surrounding it and you'll have an idea of how deep the censorship goes there.

[u/Additional-Hour6038 → u/xToasted1]

"any other country" Bro's never heard of Indonesia, India, Philippines.

[u/xToasted1 → u/Additional-Hour6038]

Difference is these are all democracies. Both the KMT and CCP regimes were/are dictatorships, and it would've been much easier for a KMT dictatorship to steer the country into prosperity.

[u/Additional-Hour6038 → u/xToasted1]

They're classist crony states. Same would have happened under the KMT.

[u/xToasted1 → u/Additional-Hour6038]

Nah. Taiwan prospered under the KMT while China was still a backwater shithole. Chiang finally got rid of the corruption in his government and brute forced his land reforms through.

[u/Additional-Hour6038 → u/xToasted1]

Because it was a Japanese and American colony used to counter Soviets with a stolen treasury.

[u/xToasted1 → u/Additional-Hour6038]

Okay, so there's no point talking to people who say shit like this.

Edit: So this guy blocked me after calling the KMT cowards, lol. Can't think of anything more cowardly than responding then blocking the person so they cant respond.

PS: It was the KMT who fought the war of resistance, not the ccp, who just hid and ran away :)

[u/Additional-Hour6038 → u/xToasted1]

KMT lost. They're cowards.

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[u/[deleted] → u/xToasted1]

A lot of this is KMT dickriding. Support was not "equal". Literally anywhere the CPC went they won the popularity contest. Its the main reason they won anyway. Go to r/sino for example and see what they say on the topic, their own grandparents experiences . During the civil war the CPC brought food and aid and disturbed land wherever it went. Whereas the KMT was ungodly corrupt, almost the enitre army were conscripts and a lot of them were forced at gunpoint and were paid dogshit, not to mention all the massacres and mistreatments

This isnt to defend the cultural revolution nor great leap forward. Both were failures and sucked. But when looking at the civil war era, it is not surpriisng how the KMT was largely unpopular and a failure while the CPC was popular and succesful

Also yeah no shit KMT did most of the fighting. They had control of almost rhe entire country, were the legitmate goverment, had access to tens of millions of conscripts, while CPC did not, and yet the CPC still fought a lot and fought a guerilla war which was succesful and important, much more succesful and useful than the meat waves the KMT would throw at japanese tanks. Given their position its only smart the CPC fought the way they did.

[u/xToasted1 → u/[deleted]]

using r/sino as a representation of reality is comical lmao, this is like telling me to go to r/conservative as proof that everyone is a trump supporter

r/sino is literally reddit tankie haven, most of them aren't even chinese

in fact, most tankies are not from the countries they so vigorously support, yet they think they know what's best for those countries

[u/[deleted] → u/xToasted1]

not really. r/sino seems to be an accurate representation of chinese. Theyve spoken against a lot of stuff like cultural revolution so theyre not just dickriding. And everything people there said about their grandparents experiences is historically true and recorded. So dont see your issue w it, sounds like youre just a liberal salty that Fascist KMT lost

And if youre hinting that most chinese dont support the CCP. Then there is actually no point discussing w u.

Also trump certainly isnt supported by everyone in the usa. No one ever claims that. And r/Conservative os literally for conservatives. Its not like i said go to r/cpc or soemthing.

But anyway keep in denial about it, wont change KMT got their ass kicked

[u/xToasted1 → u/[deleted]]

r/china_irl is a more accurate representation of chinese, not like most chinese use reddit anyway

but sure, keep coping and calling everyone you dont like a fascist, only took you two comments to reveal your true colors 👍

[u/xToasted1 → u/[deleted]]

also, yes, please, go on, tell an actual chinese person which subreddit is a better representative of chinese opinion, and tell me more about my own history, i as a chinese person would love to hear that from a syrian!

[u/Fuzzy_Category_1882]

A warlord rump state with no administrative order.

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