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-s-· the CCP's postvar triumph make that 11111ch difference to the probleDUS eaoh encountered in Sze ch·oan and the methods each employed there, or did the CoiMIWliata have to atruggle in the early month5 and year& with moat of the same obstacles that the KMr had !aced, using ::ruch the sa""' arsenal of veapona to overcome their probleu? It ehould be 1natruct1ve to cOllpare the tvo caaea. ~~2!~~ Robert A, Xapp University of Washington • .. The anw•ption in the following pages ia that the Nationa.liat regint collapsed in 1949 as a re~ult primarily of endogenoua cauaea. To accept thia aasumption, we need not der~ that factors external to the Nationaliet regime--auch aa the comzunist revolutionary- mover:>ent, American policy toward China., or Ruseian strategms in Manchuria.- """Y in varying degree have imposed atraina that contributed to the Nationalist dif!icul ti•e and r.a.s tened the ul tlma te demise, But only because of the wealmelllles and fAilings of the Nationalist regime itself could those external factors acquire such forca or infl uenc• that they could become proximatil cau11ea of the t:ationalist collapse, At this particular juncture of historiographical development, tha focal questiona that c~nfront etu~enta of the 19}011 and l940e, it seems to me, are1 {1) what vas the cor.jition of the Nationalist regime on the eve of the war vith Japan? And (2) what t-.a~>*r.ed to the regi.., during and after the var with Japan that contributed to ita final colla~:se? Karein I s;.all be concerned only with the aeamd of theBe questions, And~ pu~~se is r.ot t~ provide an answer to that queation, but only to suggest categories of ar..;;.lysis that a-.ay subsequently contribute to an answer, ~rr~cts of the Shift of the Regi~ from the Coast to the Interior. Prior to the war, the revenues of the regime had been derived largely from the customs and traderelated taxes, and from borrowing from the urban-based industrial and financial clasael, Aft;,::- the outbrak of the war, when the govenunent vall forced to move to the interior prcYir.c.o•, the regime had to ee-arch for new sources of fUnding. 'l'he result vas a he?.vy deprr.dence o~: agricultural taxes.·.-as tr.e cla~s ctaracter of the regime changed as a reaul t of thie shift to 1.he interior? Ir.sofar as class ·analyAis haa been applied to the regime during this period, it l~ :rost f::--cquer.tly contended that the Nationalista be.came financially dependent u;>cn obscorantist landlords of the interior. l'he alleged result vas that conservaUve, anti-l!teral, an~ anti-co:tJrr.miat forces \most notably the CC elique) were ·strengthened by thb 1tove, wh~I"E'as the :-,ore liberal and progresaive elements in the regime were ;;ca..•c.:d •hen tr.ey lo3t the backing of the urban bureaucracy. Or vas the Nationalist r.gi~e Jn fa~t wit~o"t a ~lass basis--a military-civil bureaucracy ~hat vielded pover o:::y to erUla.r.c: tc.e ;:>o..-er, prestige, and wealth of its own members? I! eo, then the .,ost zeaningful question is not hov the character of the regime vas altered by the move to Szech.,.a.n, but rather: did the Chinese people perceive the· true character of the regime? -"hen? /lnd how did they react to that perception? :Sterioration of the RegiJ;.e'a Administrative EftecUvenns and Integrity during the -.·.. r. 'fbe qual! \y of the Na.tionaliet adminiltration on the ne of the var reMine . -9probl ~matical, Whatever the bench-mark of administration in 1937, however, there was a precipitate decline by 1945. How was this decline manifested? And what were the causes? I am uncertain how the war may have affected the administra•ive practices of the Nationalist bureaucracy. We know that in the United States there was a vast proliferation of the bureaucracy and an uncommon degree of bureaucratic boon-doggling during World War II. It may be that the eame was true in China, but that remains only a guess. The most egregious mark...

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