KMT-CCP Relations during the Early Postwar Period, August-December 1945

After World War Ⅱ, the Nationalist Government of China (KMT) was distressed internally arid externally for the following two reasons: 1. The position of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was stronger than eight years ago when the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out. 2. The Nationalist's signing of the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance of 1945 on the basis of the Yalta Agreement neither weakened the cooperative relations between the CCP and the USSR nor benefited the Nationalist Government's attempt to regain Manchuria. First, Chiang Kai-shek invited Mao Tse-tung to hold the talks in Chungking in August 1945 in order to obtain political concessions from the CCP, but this proved unsuccessful. Second, in the latter half of 1945, the Nationalist's representatives negotiated with the Commander of the Red Army in Manchuria regarding China's recovery of Manchuria, while at the same time its forces fought against the CCP troops fiercely for the occupation of Northern China-both attempts failed. The setbacks suffered by the Nationalist Government in the latter part of 1945 were a prelude to its final collapse in 1949.