The Chinese Communist Revolution refers to the continuation phase of the Chinese Civil War, fought between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) led by Mao Zedong and the Nationalist Government. The revolution began in earnest after the assassination of Chiang Kai-shek in July 1940, which left the Nationalist regime leaderless and demoralised. His successor junta signed the Treaty of Shanghai with Japan, ending the Second Sino-Japanese War but forcing humiliating concessions, including the cession of several coastal cities and restrictions on the National Revolutionary Army. This peace enraged many Chinese and created a political vacuum that the CCP exploited, positioning themselves as the sole legitimate government of China.
From 1940 to 1943, the conflict escalated into what was, by all means, a theatre of World War II. The Communists enjoyed material and military support from both The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Japanese Empire, reorganising its guerrilla cells into the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), while spreading influence across the countryside through radical land reform and anti-Western propaganda. The weakened Nationalist forces, fractured by factionalism and dependent on aid and troops from The United States of America and its allies, steadily lost ground. Major battles included the Siege of Wuhan (1941) and the Battle of Chongqing (1942), culminating in the capture of Canton in February 1943. With victory secured, Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of The People's Republic of China, which quickly aligned itself with the Fourth Eurasian Communist International (COMINTERN). China’s transformation into a communist state dramatically altered the balance of power in Asia, providing the Soviet Union with a vast ally with numberless fighting-age men, securing Japan’s continental flank, and ensuring that East Asia would remain firmly in the Eurasian Axis' hands. Fate was not so kind with Japan, however.