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144-599: The history of the People's Liberation Army began in 1927 with the start of the Chinese Civil War and spans to the present, having developed from a peasant guerrilla force into the largest armed force in the world. Throughout the centuries, two tendencies have influenced the role of the military in national life, one in peacetime and the other in times of upheaval. In times of peace and stability, military forces were firmly subordinated to civilian control. The military
288-482: A mixer which helped them to hide their cryptocurrency exchanges, to launder over $ 20.5 million in cryptocurrency, from Axie Infinity , and steal over $ 600 million worth of cryptocurrency from the game's owner. Because of this, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Blender.io, which marked the first time it has taken action against a mixer, to try to crack down on North Korean hackers. The privacy of cryptocurrency has been debated. Although many customers like
432-453: A reproducible way. The word technology can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible tools such as utensils or machines , and intangible ones such as software . Technology plays a critical role in science , engineering , and everyday life . Technological advancements have led to significant changes in society. The earliest known technology is the stone tool , used during prehistory , followed by
576-485: A circling retreat to the west and north, which reportedly traversed over 9,000 kilometers over 370 days." The route passed through some of the most difficult terrain of western China by traveling west, and then northwards towards Shaanxi. "In November 1935, shortly after settling in northern Shaanxi, Mao officially took over Zhou Enlai's leading position in the Red Army. Following a major reshuffling of official roles, Mao became
720-802: A fierce battle, the CCP captured Jinan and Shandong province on 24 September 1948. The Huaihai Campaign of late 1948 and early 1949 secured east-central China for the CCP. A large number of KMT troops deserted and changed sides in these conflicts. The outcome of these encounters were decisive for the military outcome of the civil war. The Pingjin Campaign resulted in the Communist conquest of northern China. It lasted 64 days, from 21 November 1948 to 31 January 1949. The PLA suffered heavy casualties while securing Zhangjiakou , Tianjin along with its port and garrison at Dagu and Beiping . The CCP brought 890,000 troops from
864-678: A founding member of the CCP, was never able to challenge Mao's authority. Essentially, the great retreat made Mao the undisputed leader of the Chinese Communist Party. The Kuomintang used Khampa troops—who were former bandits—to battle the Communist Red Army as it advanced and to undermine local warlords who often refused to fight Communist forces to conserve their own strength. The KMT enlisted 300 "Khampa bandits" into its Consolatory Commission military in Sichuan, where they were part of
1008-410: A rise in extremism, while others see it as an opportunity to usher in a post-scarcity economy . Some segments of the 1960s hippie counterculture grew to dislike urban living and developed a preference for locally autonomous , sustainable , and decentralized technology, termed appropriate technology . This later influenced hacker culture and technopaganism . Technological utopianism refers to
1152-411: A rise in social media's cultural prominence, with potential repercussions on democracy, and economic and social life. Early on, the internet was seen as a "liberation technology" that would democratize knowledge, improve access to education, and promote democracy. Modern research has turned to investigate the internet's downsides, including disinformation, polarization, hate speech, and propaganda. Since
1296-517: A role. The invention of writing led to the spread of cultural knowledge and became the basis for history, libraries , schools, and scientific research. Continuing improvements led to the furnace and bellows and provided, for the first time, the ability to smelt and forge gold, copper, silver, and lead – native metals found in relatively pure form in nature. The advantages of copper tools over stone, bone and wooden tools were quickly apparent to early humans, and native copper
1440-571: A single strike, this time the KMT troops patiently built blockhouses, each separated by about eight kilometres (five miles), to surround the Communist areas and cut off their supplies and food sources. In October 1934, the CCP took advantage of gaps in the ring of blockhouses (manned by the forces of a warlord ally of Chiang Kai-shek's, rather than regular KMT troops) and broke out of the encirclement. The warlord armies were reluctant to challenge Communist forces for fear of losing their own men and did not pursue
1584-509: A source of ideas. Futures research methodologies include survey research , modeling, statistical analysis , and computer simulations . Existential risk researchers analyze risks that could lead to human extinction or civilizational collapse, and look for ways to build resilience against them. Relevant research centers include the Cambridge Center for the Study of Existential Risk , and
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#17328489607611728-567: A substantial amount of their own supplies to the Communists, who received Northeastern China from the Soviets as well. In March 1946, despite repeated requests from Chiang, the Soviet Red Army under the command of Marshal Rodion Malinovsky continued to delay pulling out of Manchuria, while Malinovsky secretly told the CCP forces to move in behind them, which led to full-scale war for the control of
1872-423: A total power vacuum of local Chinese forces. Consequently, the 700,000 Japanese troops stationed in the region surrendered. Later in the year Chiang Kai-shek realized that he lacked the resources to prevent a CCP takeover of Manchuria following the scheduled Soviet departure. He therefore made a deal with the Soviets to delay their withdrawal until he had moved enough of his best-trained men and modern materiel into
2016-615: Is a term dating back to the early 17th century that meant 'systematic treatment' (from Greek Τεχνολογία , from the Greek : τέχνη , romanized : tékhnē , lit. 'craft, art' and -λογία , 'study, knowledge'). It is predated in use by the Ancient Greek word [[[τέχνη|tékhnē]]] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) , used to mean 'knowledge of how to make things', which encompassed activities like architecture. Starting in
2160-466: Is always beneficial, that scientific openness is always preferable, or that they can afford to wait until a dangerous technology has been invented before they prepare mitigations. Emerging technologies are novel technologies whose development or practical applications are still largely unrealized. They include nanotechnology , biotechnology , robotics , 3D printing , blockchains , and artificial intelligence . In 2005, futurist Ray Kurzweil claimed
2304-499: Is an interdisciplinary subfield of ethics that analyzes technology's ethical implications and explores ways to mitigate the potential negative impacts of new technologies. There is a broad range of ethical issues revolving around technology, from specific areas of focus affecting professionals working with technology to broader social, ethical, and legal issues concerning the role of technology in society and everyday life. Prominent debates have surrounded genetically modified organisms ,
2448-731: Is creating both new opportunities and new obligations for us, opportunity for greater productivity and progress; obligation to be sure that no workingman, no family must pay an unjust price for progress." upon signing the National Commission on Technology, Automation, and Economic Progress bill. With the growing reliance of technology, there have been security and privacy concerns along with it. Billions of people use different online payment methods, such as WeChat Pay , PayPal , Alipay , and much more to help transfer money. Although security measures are placed, some criminals are able to bypass them. In March 2022, North Korea used Blender.io ,
2592-769: Is generally divided into two phases with an interlude: from August 1927 to 1937, the First United Front alliance of the KMT and CCP collapsed during the Northern Expedition , and the Nationalists controlled most of China. From 1937 to 1945, hostilities were mostly put on hold as the Second United Front fought the Japanese invasion of China with eventual help from the Allies of World War II , although armed clashes between
2736-673: Is intended to function as a unified entity with joint operations across different military branches. Chinese Civil War [REDACTED] China portal The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang -led government of the Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), with armed conflict continuing intermittently from 1 August 1927 until Communist victory resulted in their total control over mainland China on 7 December 1949. The war
2880-545: Is the sailing ship ; the earliest record of a ship under sail is that of a Nile boat dating to around 7,000 BCE. From prehistoric times, Egyptians likely used the power of the annual flooding of the Nile to irrigate their lands, gradually learning to regulate much of it through purposely built irrigation channels and "catch" basins. The ancient Sumerians in Mesopotamia used a complex system of canals and levees to divert water from
3024-481: Is the largest cause of long-term economic growth. Throughout human history, energy production was the main constraint on economic development , and new technologies allowed humans to significantly increase the amount of available energy . First came fire, which made edible a wider variety of foods, and made it less physically demanding to digest them. Fire also enabled smelting , and the use of tin , copper, and iron tools, used for hunting or tradesmanship . Then came
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#17328489607613168-632: The 12 April Incident , the White Terror, or the Shanghai massacre . This incident widened the rift between Chiang and Wang Jingwei , the leader of the left wing faction of the KMT. The left wing of the KMT also expelled CCP members from the Wuhan Government , which in turn was toppled by Chiang Kai-shek. The KMT resumed its campaign against warlords and captured Beijing in June 1928. Soon, most of eastern China
3312-752: The Autumn Harvest Uprising , led by Mao Zedong. Borodin then returned to the Soviet Union in October via Mongolia. In November, Chiang Kai-shek went to Shanghai and invited Wang to join him. On 11 December, the CCP started the Guangzhou Uprising , establishing a soviet there the next day, but lost the city by 13 December to a counter-attack under the orders of General Zhang Fakui . On 16 December, Wang Jingwei fled to France. There were now three capitals in China:
3456-580: The Central Plain . At the same time, Communist forces also began to counterattack in Northeastern China, North China and East China. By late 1948, the CCP captured the northern cities of Shenyang and Changchun and seized control of the Northeast after suffering numerous setbacks while trying to take the cities, with the decisive Liaoshen Campaign . The New 1st Army , regarded as the best KMT army,
3600-447: The Chinese Civil War , central control of separate Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-controlled enclaves within China was limited, adding to the confusion of nomenclature of Communist forces. The 1929 Gutian Congress was important in establishing the principle of party control over the military, which continues to be a core principle of the party's ideology . In the short term, this concept
3744-499: The Eight Points of Attention , instructed the army to avoid harm to or disrespect for the peasants, regardless of the need for food and supplies. This policy won support for the Communists among the rural peasants. On January 15, 1949, the CCP's Central Military Commission decided to reorganise the regional armies of the PLA into four field armies. In January 1974, the PLA saw action in
3888-683: The Empire of Japan . In 1930, the Central Plains War broke out as an internal conflict of the KMT; launched by Feng Yuxiang , Yan Xishan , and Wang Jingwei. The attention was turned to root out remaining pockets of CCP activity in a series of five encirclement campaigns . The first and second campaigns failed, and the third was aborted due to the Mukden Incident . The fourth campaign (1932–1933) achieved some early successes, but Chiang's armies were badly mauled when they tried to penetrate into
4032-588: The Information Age and the birth of the Internet . The Space Age began with the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957, and later the launch of crewed missions to the moon in the 1960s. Organized efforts to search for extraterrestrial intelligence have used radio telescopes to detect signs of technology use, or technosignatures , given off by alien civilizations. In medicine, new technologies were developed for diagnosis ( CT , PET , and MRI scanning), treatment (like
4176-651: The Ma clique . Along the way, the Communist army confiscated property and weapons from local warlords and landlords, while recruiting peasants and the poor, solidifying its appeal to the masses. Of the 90,000–100,000 people who began the Long March from the Soviet Chinese Republic, only around 7,000–8,000 made it to Shaanxi. The remnants of Zhang's forces eventually joined Mao in Shaanxi, but with his army destroyed, Zhang, even as
4320-545: The Minoans on the Greek island of Crete built a 50 km road leading from the palace of Gortyn on the south side of the island, through the mountains, to the palace of Knossos on the north side of the island. Unlike the earlier road, the Minoan road was completely paved. Ancient Minoan private homes had running water . A bathtub virtually identical to modern ones was unearthed at
4464-496: The Second Industrial Revolution , technology stopped being considered a distinct academic discipline and took on the meaning: the systemic use of knowledge to practical ends. Tools were initially developed by hominids through observation and trial and error . Around 2 Mya (million years ago), they learned to make the first stone tools by hammering flakes off a pebble, forming a sharp hand axe . This practice
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4608-542: The South China Sea following a long-simmering dispute with the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) over the Paracel Islands . The PLA successfully seized control of three disputed islands in a naval battle and a subsequent amphibious assault. A Sino-Vietnamese War revealed specific shortcomings in military capabilities and thus provided an additional impetus to the military modernization effort. The border war,
4752-713: The Taiwan Strait has ensued, with the ROC in Taiwan and the PRC on the mainland both claiming to be the legitimate government of all China. After the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis , both tacitly ceased to engage in open conflict in 1979; however, no armistice or peace treaty has ever been signed. Following the collapse of the Qing dynasty and the 1911 Revolution , Sun Yat-sen assumed
4896-600: The Tigris and Euphrates rivers for irrigation. Archaeologists estimate that the wheel was invented independently and concurrently in Mesopotamia (in present-day Iraq ), the Northern Caucasus ( Maykop culture ), and Central Europe. Time estimates range from 5,500 to 3,000 BCE with most experts putting it closer to 4,000 BCE. The oldest artifacts with drawings depicting wheeled carts date from about 3,500 BCE. More recently,
5040-602: The World Economic Forum 's "The Future of Jobs Report 2020", AI is predicted to replace 85 million jobs worldwide, and create 97 million new jobs by 2025. From 1990 to 2007, a study in the U.S. by MIT economist Daron Acemoglu showed that an addition of one robot for every 1,000 workers decreased the employment-to-population ratio by 0.2%, or about 3.3 workers, and lowered wages by 0.42%. Concerns about technology replacing human labor however are long-lasting. As US president Lyndon Johnson said in 1964, "Technology
5184-550: The control of fire —which in turn contributed to the growth of the human brain and the development of language during the Ice Age , according to the cooking hypothesis . The invention of the wheel in the Bronze Age allowed greater travel and the creation of more complex machines. More recent technological inventions, including the printing press , telephone, and the Internet , have lowered barriers to communication and ushered in
5328-864: The dialysis machine , defibrillator , pacemaker , and a wide array of new pharmaceutical drugs ), and research (like interferon cloning and DNA microarrays ). Complex manufacturing and construction techniques and organizations are needed to make and maintain more modern technologies, and entire industries have arisen to develop succeeding generations of increasingly more complex tools. Modern technology increasingly relies on training and education – their designers, builders, maintainers, and users often require sophisticated general and specific training. Moreover, these technologies have become so complex that entire fields have developed to support them, including engineering, medicine, and computer science ; and other fields have become more complex, such as construction, transportation, and architecture. Technological change
5472-460: The knowledge economy . While technology contributes to economic development and improves human prosperity , it can also have negative impacts like pollution and resource depletion , and can cause social harms like technological unemployment resulting from automation . As a result, philosophical and political debates about the role and use of technology, the ethics of technology , and ways to mitigate its downsides are ongoing. Technology
5616-402: The lever , the screw , and the pulley ) were combined into more complicated tools, such as the wheelbarrow , windmills , and clocks . A system of universities developed and spread scientific ideas and practices, including Oxford and Cambridge . The Renaissance era produced many innovations, including the introduction of the movable type printing press to Europe, which facilitated
5760-472: The mainland China , it did not rule out the use of force against the island if serious internal disturbances, a declaration of independence, or a threatening alliance occurred. The divisions of the "Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army" (中國工農紅軍) were named according to historical circumstances, sometimes in a nonconsecutive way. Early Communist units often formed by defection from existing Kuomintang forces, keeping their original designations. Moreover, during
5904-464: The presidency of the newly formed Republic of China, and was shortly thereafter succeeded by Yuan Shikai . Yuan was frustrated in a short-lived attempt to restore monarchy in China , and China fell into power struggle after his death in 1916. The Kuomintang (KMT), led by Sun Yat-sen, created a new government in Guangzhou to rival the warlords who ruled over large swathes of China and prevented
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6048-399: The smelting of ores, along with the use of a wind-drafted clay kiln , which released lead into the atmosphere and the sediment of rivers. Philosophy of technology is a branch of philosophy that studies the "practice of designing and creating artifacts", and the "nature of the things so created." It emerged as a discipline over the past two centuries, and has grown "considerably" since
6192-406: The 1970s, technology's impact on the environment has been criticized , leading to a surge in investment in solar , wind , and other forms of clean energy . Since the invention of the wheel, technologies have helped increase humans' economic output. Past automation has both substituted and complemented labor; machines replaced humans at some lower-paying jobs (for example in agriculture), but this
6336-429: The 1970s. The humanities philosophy of technology is concerned with the "meaning of technology for, and its impact on, society and culture". Initially, technology was seen as an extension of the human organism that replicated or amplified bodily and mental faculties. Marx framed it as a tool used by capitalists to oppress the proletariat, but believed that technology would be a fundamentally liberating force once it
6480-413: The 19th century, continental Europeans started using the terms Technik (German) or technique (French) to refer to a 'way of doing', which included all technical arts, such as dancing, navigation, or printing, whether or not they required tools or instruments. At the time, Technologie (German and French) referred either to the academic discipline studying the "methods of arts and crafts", or to
6624-734: The CCP and Chiang's troops were temporarily avoided. In the last month of World War II in East Asia, Soviet forces launched the huge Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation against the Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria and along the Chinese-Mongolian border. This operation destroyed the Kwantung Army in just three weeks and left the USSR occupying all of Manchuria by the end of the war in
6768-621: The CCP as the greater threat. Chiang refused to ally with the CCP, preferring to unite China by eliminating the warlord and CCP forces first. He believed his forces were too weak to face the Japanese Imperial Army ; only after unification could the KMT mobilize against Japan. He ignored the Chinese people's discontent and anger at the KMT policy of compromise with the Japanese, instead ordering KMT generals Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng to suppress
6912-401: The CCP executed a "passive defense" strategy. It avoided the strong points of the KMT army and was prepared to abandon territory in order to preserve its forces. In most cases the surrounding countryside and small towns had come under Communist influence long before the cities. The CCP also attempted to wear out the KMT forces as much as possible. This tactic seemed to be successful; after a year,
7056-470: The CCP in 1943 with the propaganda piece China's Destiny , which questioned the CCP's power after the war, while the CCP strongly opposed Chiang's leadership and referred to his regime as fascist in an attempt to generate a negative public image. Both leaders knew that a deadly battle had begun between themselves. In general, developments in the Second Sino-Japanese War were to the advantage of
7200-482: The CCP to take the cities of Changsha , Shantou and Guangzhou. The Red Army consisting of mutinous former National Revolutionary Army (NRA) soldiers as well as armed peasants established control over several areas in southern China . KMT forces continued to attempt to suppress the rebellions. Then, in September, Wang Jingwei was forced out of Wuhan. September also saw an unsuccessful armed rural insurrection, known as
7344-433: The CCP was being supplied by the Soviet Union, the CCP was able to utilize a large number of weapons abandoned by the Japanese, including some tanks. When large numbers of well-trained KMT troops began to defect to the Communist forces, the CCP was finally able to achieve material superiority. The CCP's most effective political reform was its land reform policy. This drew the massive number of landless and starving peasants in
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#17328489607617488-557: The CCP was quickly suppressed the next day by the Nationalist government in Wuhan, led by Wang Jingwei. On 14 August, Chiang Kai-shek announced his temporary retirement, as the Wuhan faction and Nanjing faction of the Kuomintang were allied once again with common goal of suppressing the CCP after the earlier split. Wang Jingwei took the leadership of KMT after Chiang. Attempts were later made by
7632-466: The CCP with much fervor. In addition, the main KMT forces were preoccupied with annihilating Zhang Guotao 's army, which was much larger than Mao's. The massive military retreat of Communist forces lasted a year and covered what Mao estimated as 12,500 km (25,000 Li ); it became known as the Long March . This military retreat was undertaken by the Chinese Communist Party, led by Mao Zedong, to evade
7776-566: The CCP, as its guerrilla war tactics had won them popular support within the Japanese-occupied areas. However, the KMT had to defend the country against the main Japanese campaigns, since it was the legal Chinese government, a factor which proved costly to Chiang Kai-shek and his troops. Japan launched its last major offensive against the KMT, Operation Ichi-Go , in 1944, which resulted in the severe weakening of Chiang's forces. The CCP also suffered fewer losses through its guerrilla tactics. By
7920-604: The CCP. However, their provincial forces suffered significant casualties in battles against the Red Army. On 12 December 1936, the disgruntled Zhang and Yang conspired to kidnap Chiang and force him into a truce with the CCP. The incident became known as the Xi'an Incident. Both parties suspended fighting to form a Second United Front to focus their energies and fight the Japanese. In 1937, Japan launched its full-scale invasion of China and its well-equipped troops overran KMT defenders in northern and coastal China. The alliance of CCP and KMT
8064-574: The CCP. On 15 November 1945, the KMT began a campaign to prevent the CCP from strengthening its already strong base. At the same time, however, the return of the KMT also brought widespread graft and corruption, with an OSS officer remarking that the only winners were the Communists. In the winter of 1945–1946, Joseph Stalin commanded Marshal Rodion Malinovsky to give Mao Zedong most Imperial Japanese Army weapons that were captured. Chiang Kai-shek's forces pushed as far as Chinchow (Jinzhou) by 26 November 1945, meeting with little resistance. This
8208-501: The CCP. The CCP then began movements in opposition of the Northern Expedition , passing a resolution against it at a party meeting. Then, in March 1927, the KMT held its second party meeting where the Soviets helped pass resolutions against the Expedition and curbing Chiang's power. Soon, the KMT would be clearly divided. Throughout this time, the Soviet Union sent money and spies to support
8352-511: The CCP. Without their support, the CCP likely would have failed. This is evidenced by documents showing other communist parties in China at the time, one with as many as 10,000 members, which all failed without support from the Soviet Union. In early 1927, the KMT–CCP rivalry led to a split in the revolutionary ranks. The CCP and the left wing of the KMT decided to move the seat of the KMT government from Guangzhou to Wuhan , where communist influence
8496-536: The Communists. In 1936, Zhou Enlai and Zhang Xueliang grew closer, with Zhou even suggesting that he join the CCP. However, this was turned down by the Comintern in the USSR. Later on, Zhou persuaded Zhang and Yang Hucheng , another warlord, to instigate the Xi'an Incident. Chiang was placed under house arrest and forced to stop his attacks on the Red Army, instead focusing on the Japanese threat. During Japan's invasion and occupation of Manchuria , Chiang Kai-shek saw
8640-566: The Japanese or ruled by Japanese puppet governments such as Manchukuo and the Reorganized National Government of China ). The situation came to a head in late 1940 and early 1941 when clashes between Communist and KMT forces intensified. Chiang demanded in December 1940 that the CCP's New Fourth Army evacuate Anhui and Jiangsu Provinces, due to its provocation and harassment of KMT forces in this area. Under intense pressure,
8784-505: The KMT camp decreased as his power increased. On 7 April, Chiang and several other KMT leaders held a meeting, during which they proposed that Communist activities were socially and economically disruptive and had to be undone for the Nationalist revolution to proceed. On 12 April, many communists within the KMT were purged in Shanghai through hundreds of arrests and executions on the orders of General Bai Chongxi . The CCP referred to this as
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#17328489607618928-480: The KMT government occupied most of the banks, factories and commercial properties, which had previously been seized by the Imperial Japanese Army. They also conscripted troops at an accelerated pace from the civilian population and hoarded supplies, preparing for a resumption of war with the Communists. These hasty and harsh preparations caused great hardship for the residents of cities such as Shanghai, where
9072-637: The KMT had no forces, the Japanese surrendered to the Soviet Union. Chiang Kai-shek reminded Japanese troops to remain at their posts to receive the KMT, but Communist forces soon began taking surrenders from the Japanese and fighting those who resisted. General Wedemeyer of the United States Army became alarmed at these developments and wanted seven American divisions to be sent to China, but General Marshall replied that it should not be given priority over Japan and Korea. The first post-war peace negotiation, attended by both Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong,
9216-599: The KMT. Within less than two years after the Sino-Japanese War, the KMT had received $ 4.43 billion from the US—most of which was military aid. Highlighting the aid provided by the US to the KMT, the Communists' position was that the US was stirring domestic warfare and characterized the civil war as both a national revolution against the KMT and a revolution against US colonization and aggression. As postwar negotiations between
9360-480: The Nationalist government and the CCP failed, the civil war between these two parties resumed. This stage of war is referred to in mainland China and Communist historiography as the "War of Liberation" (Chinese: 解放战争 ; pinyin: Jiěfàng Zhànzhēng ). On 20 July 1946, Chiang Kai-shek launched a large-scale assault on Communist territory in North China with 113 brigades (a total of 1.6 million troops). Knowing their disadvantages in manpower and equipment,
9504-428: The Nationalist government in Wuhan. This conflict led to the creation of the Red Army . On 4 August, the main forces of the Red Army left Nanchang and headed southwards for an assault on Guangdong. Nationalist forces quickly reoccupied Nanchang while the remaining members of the CCP in Nanchang went into hiding. A CCP meeting on 7 August confirmed the objective of the party was to seize the political power by force, but
9648-553: The Neolithic but was originally used in the preceding Mesolithic in some areas such as Ireland. Agriculture fed larger populations, and the transition to sedentism allowed for the simultaneous raising of more children, as infants no longer needed to be carried around by nomads . Additionally, children could contribute labor to the raising of crops more readily than they could participate in hunter-gatherer activities. With this increase in population and availability of labor came an increase in labor specialization . What triggered
9792-586: The New Fourth Army commanders complied. The following year they were ambushed by KMT forces during their evacuation, which led to several thousand deaths. It also ended the Second United Front, formed earlier to fight the Japanese. As clashes between the CCP and KMT intensified, countries such as the United States and the Soviet Union attempted to prevent a disastrous civil war. After the New Fourth Army incident, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent special envoy Lauchlin Currie to talk with Chiang Kai-shek and KMT party leaders to express their concern regarding
9936-497: The Northeast. These favorable conditions also facilitated many changes inside the Communist leadership: the more radical hard-line faction who wanted a complete military take-over of China finally gained the upper hand and defeated the careful opportunists. Before giving control to Communist leaders, on 27 March, Soviet diplomats requested a joint venture of industrial development with the Nationalist Party in Manchuria. Although General Marshall stated that he knew of no evidence that
10080-497: The PLA conducted its largest military exercise in North China since the founding of the People's Republic of China. In 1985, Deng Xiaoping announced that the PLA would demobilize 1 million troops. On the other hand, border battles and skirmishes continued throughout the 1980s. The "deepening national defense and military reform" was announced in November 2015 at a plenary session of the Central Military Commission (CMC)'s Central Leading Group for Military Reform . In 2016,
10224-430: The PLA's largest military operation since the Korean War, was essentially a limited, offensive, ground-force campaign. The war had mixed results militarily and politically. Although the numerically superior Chinese forces penetrated about fifty kilometers into Vietnam, the PLA was not on good terms with its supply lines and was unable to achieve a decisive victory in the war. Both China and Vietnam claimed victory. In 1981,
10368-662: The Palace of Knossos. Several Minoan private homes also had toilets, which could be flushed by pouring water down the drain. The ancient Romans had many public flush toilets, which emptied into an extensive sewage system . The primary sewer in Rome was the Cloaca Maxima ; construction began on it in the sixth century BCE and it is still in use today. The ancient Romans also had a complex system of aqueducts , which were used to transport water across long distances. The first Roman aqueduct
10512-465: The Paleolithic era include clothing and shelter. No consensus exists on the approximate time of adoption of either technology, but archaeologists have found archaeological evidence of clothing 90-120 kya and shelter 450 kya. As the Paleolithic era progressed, dwellings became more sophisticated and more elaborate; as early as 380 kya, humans were constructing temporary wood huts. Clothing, adapted from
10656-497: The People's Liberation Army was pursuing remnants of KMT forces southwards in southern China, and only Tibet was left. A Chinese Muslim Hui cavalry regiment, the 14th Tungan Cavalry, was sent by the Kuomintang to attack Mongol and Soviet positions along the border during the Pei-ta-shan Incident . Technology Technology is the application of conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals , especially in
10800-531: The Red Army and the People's Liberation Army (PLA). In developing his thought, Mao drew on the works of the Chinese military strategist Sun Zi (4th century BC) and Soviet and other theorists, as well as on the lore of peasant uprisings, such as the stories found in the classical novel Shuihu Zhuan ( Water Margin ) and the stories of the Taiping Rebellion . Synthesizing these influences with lessons learned from
10944-489: The Red Army's successes and failures, Mao created a comprehensive politico-military doctrine for waging revolutionary warfare . People's war incorporated political, economic, and psychological measures with protracted military struggle against a superior foe. As a military doctrine, people's war emphasized the mobilization of the populace to support regular and guerrilla forces; the primacy of men over weapons, with superior motivation compensating for inferior technology ; and
11088-535: The Second Front Red Army (紅二方面軍/红二方面军/Hóng Èr Fāngmiàn Jūn) and the Fourth Front Red Army (紅四方面軍/红四方面军/Hóng Sì Fāngmiàn Jūn), also translated as "First Front Red Army", "Second Front Red Army" and "Fourth Front Red Army". Mao's military thought grew out of the Red Army's experiences in the late 1930s and early 1940s and formed the basis for the " people's war " concept, which became the doctrine of
11232-488: The Stanford Existential Risk Initiative. Future technologies may contribute to the risks of artificial general intelligence , biological warfare , nuclear warfare , nanotechnology , anthropogenic climate change , global warming , or stable global totalitarianism , though technologies may also help us mitigate asteroid impacts and gamma-ray bursts . In 2019 philosopher Nick Bostrom introduced
11376-493: The agricultural revolution: humans no longer needed to hunt or gather to survive, and began to settle in towns and cities, forming more complex societies, with militaries and more organized forms of religion. Technologies have contributed to human welfare through increased prosperity, improved comfort and quality of life, and medical progress , but they can also disrupt existing social hierarchies, cause pollution, and harm individuals or groups. Recent years have brought about
11520-460: The alteration of matter at the atomic and molecular level in various disciplines including computer science, engineering, and biology. And engineering ethics deals with the professional standards of engineers, including software engineers and their moral responsibilities to the public. A wide branch of technology ethics is concerned with the ethics of artificial intelligence : it includes robot ethics , which deals with ethical issues involved in
11664-461: The atmosphere, causing the greenhouse effect . This continues to gradually heat the earth, causing global warming and climate change . Measures of technological innovation correlates with a rise in greenhouse gas emissions. Pollution, the presence of contaminants in an environment that causes adverse effects, could have been present as early as the Inca Empire . They used a lead sulfide flux in
11808-490: The belief that technological development is a moral good , which can and should bring about a utopia , that is, a society in which laws, governments, and social conditions serve the needs of all its citizens. Examples of techno-utopian goals include post-scarcity economics , life extension , mind uploading , cryonics , and the creation of artificial superintelligence . Major techno-utopian movements include transhumanism and singularitarianism . The transhumanism movement
11952-504: The chairman of the Military Commission, with Zhou and Deng Xiaoping as vice-chairmen." This marked Mao's position as the pre-eminent leader of the CCP, with Zhou in second position to him. The march ended when the CCP reached the interior of Shaanxi . Zhang Guotao 's army (Red 4th Front Army), which took a different route through northwest China, was largely destroyed by the forces of Chiang Kai-shek and his Chinese Muslim allies,
12096-557: The city-state of Ur dates to around 3,429 BCE, and even older fragments of wheel-thrown pottery have been found in the same area. Fast (rotary) potters' wheels enabled early mass production of pottery, but it was the use of the wheel as a transformer of energy (through water wheels , windmills, and even treadmills) that revolutionized the application of nonhuman power sources. The first two-wheeled carts were derived from travois and were first used in Mesopotamia and Iran in around 3,000 BCE. The oldest known constructed roadways are
12240-519: The communication of knowledge. Technology became increasingly influenced by science, beginning a cycle of mutual advancement. Starting in the United Kingdom in the 18th century, the discovery of steam power set off the Industrial Revolution , which saw wide-ranging technological discoveries, particularly in the areas of agriculture , manufacturing, mining, metallurgy , and transport, and
12384-462: The countryside into the Communist cause. This strategy enabled the CCP to access an almost unlimited supply of manpower for both combat and logistical purposes; despite suffering heavy casualties throughout many of the war's campaigns, manpower continued to grow. For example, during the Huaihai Campaign alone the CCP was able to mobilize 5,430,000 peasants to fight against the KMT forces. After
12528-444: The design, construction, use, and treatment of robots, as well as machine ethics , which is concerned with ensuring the ethical behavior of artificially intelligent agents . Within the field of AI ethics, significant yet-unsolved research problems include AI alignment (ensuring that AI behaviors are aligned with their creators' intended goals and interests) and the reduction of algorithmic bias . Some researchers have warned against
12672-404: The effort of the central government to penetrate and destabilize local Han warlords such as Liu Wenhui . The government was seeking to exert full control over frontier areas against the warlords. Liu had refused to battle the Communists in order to conserve his army. The Consolatory Commission forces were used to battle the Red Army, but they were defeated when their religious leader was captured by
12816-529: The end of the war, the Red Army had grown to more than 1.3 million members, with a separate militia of over 2.6 million. About one hundred million people lived in CCP-controlled zones. Under the terms of the Japanese unconditional surrender dictated by the Allies, Japanese troops were to surrender to KMT troops but not to the CCP, which was present in some of the occupied areas. In Manchuria , however, where
12960-621: The formation of a solid central government. After Sun's efforts to obtain aid from Western countries were ignored, he turned to the Soviet Union . In 1923, Sun and Soviet representative Adolph Joffe in Shanghai pledged Soviet assistance to China's unification in the Sun–Joffe Manifesto , a declaration of cooperation among the Comintern , KMT, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Comintern agent Mikhail Borodin arrived in 1923 to aid in
13104-473: The four traditional traditional departments of the military were replaced by 15 new departments, commissions, and offices led by the CMC. On 1 February 2016, China replaced its system of seven military regions with newly-established Theater Commands: Northern , Southern , Western , Eastern , and Central . In the prior system, operations were segmented by military branch and region. In contrast, each Theater Command
13248-517: The fur and hides of hunted animals, helped humanity expand into colder regions; humans began to migrate out of Africa around 200 kya, initially moving to Eurasia . The Neolithic Revolution (or First Agricultural Revolution ) brought about an acceleration of technological innovation, and a consequent increase in social complexity. The invention of the polished stone axe was a major advance that allowed large-scale forest clearance and farming. This use of polished stone axes increased greatly in
13392-466: The groups remained common. Exacerbating the divisions within China further was the formation of the Wang Jingwei regime , a Japan-sponsored puppet government ostensibly led by Wang Jingwei , which was established to nominally govern the regions of China that came under Japanese occupation. The civil war resumed as soon as it became apparent that Japanese defeat was imminent, with the communists gaining
13536-584: The heart of Mao's Soviet Chinese Republic . During these campaigns, KMT columns struck swiftly into CCP areas, but were easily engulfed by the vast countryside and were not able to consolidate their foothold. Finally, in late 1934, Chiang launched a fifth campaign that involved the systematic encirclement of the Jiangxi Soviet region with fortified blockhouses . The blockhouse strategy was devised and implemented in part by newly hired Nazi advisors. Unlike previous campaigns in which they penetrated deeply in
13680-420: The hostility between the two parties, with Currie stating that the only ones to benefit from a civil war would be the Japanese. The Soviet Union, allied more closely with the CCP, sent an imperative telegram to Mao in 1941, warning that civil war would also make the situation easier for the Japanese military. Due to the international community's efforts, there was a temporary and superficial peace. Chiang criticized
13824-441: The hypothetical risk of an AI takeover , and have advocated for the use of AI capability control in addition to AI alignment methods. Other fields of ethics have had to contend with technology-related issues, including military ethics , media ethics , and educational ethics . Futures studies is the systematic and interdisciplinary study of social and technological progress. It aims to quantitatively and qualitatively explore
13968-544: The internationally recognized republic capital in Beijing , the CCP and left-wing KMT at Wuhan and the right-wing KMT regime at Nanjing , which would remain the KMT capital for the next decade. This marked the beginning of a ten-year armed struggle, known in mainland China as the "Ten-Year Civil War" (十年内战) which ended with the Xi'an Incident , when Chiang Kai-shek was forced to form the Second United Front against invading forces from
14112-482: The introduction of skyscrapers accompanied by rapid urbanization. Communication improved with the invention of the telegraph , the telephone, the radio, and television. The 20th century brought a host of innovations. In physics, the discovery of nuclear fission in the Atomic Age led to both nuclear weapons and nuclear power . Analog computers were invented and asserted dominance in processing complex data. While
14256-504: The invention of vacuum tubes allowed for digital computing with computers like the ENIAC , their sheer size precluded widespread use until innovations in quantum physics allowed for the invention of the transistor in 1947, which significantly compacted computers and led the digital transition. Information technology, particularly optical fiber and optical amplifiers , allowed for simple and fast long-distance communication, which ushered in
14400-404: The issue more thoroughly; others fear that directed evolution could lead to eugenics or extreme social inequality. Nanotechnology will grant us the ability to manipulate matter "at the molecular and atomic scale", which could allow us to reshape ourselves and our environment in fundamental ways. Nanobots could be used within the human body to destroy cancer cells or form new body parts, blurring
14544-690: The line between biology and technology. Autonomous robots have undergone rapid progress, and are expected to replace humans at many dangerous tasks, including search and rescue , bomb disposal , firefighting , and war. Estimates on the advent of artificial general intelligence vary, but half of machine learning experts surveyed in 2018 believe that AI will "accomplish every task better and more cheaply" than humans by 2063, and automate all human jobs by 2140. This expected technological unemployment has led to calls for increased emphasis on computer science education and debates about universal basic income . Political science experts predict that this could lead to
14688-452: The new ruler or his successors subordinated the military to civilian control once again. Since the 1960s, China had considered the Soviet Union the principal threat to its security; lesser threats were posed by long standing border disputes with Vietnam and India. China's territorial claims and economic interests made the South China Sea an area of strategic importance to China. Although China sought peaceful unification of Taiwan with
14832-451: The next generation of military leaders. The Soviets provided the academy with teaching material, organization, and equipment, including munitions. They also provided education in many of the techniques for mass mobilization. With this aid, Sun raised a dedicated "army of the party", with which he hoped to defeat the warlords militarily. CCP members were also present in the academy, and many of them became instructors, including Zhou Enlai , who
14976-417: The next technological revolution would rest upon advances in genetics , nanotechnology , and robotics , with robotics being the most impactful of the three technologies. Genetic engineering will allow far greater control over human biological nature through a process called directed evolution . Some thinkers believe that this may shatter our sense of self, and have urged for renewed public debate exploring
15120-403: The northeast to oppose some 600,000 KMT troops. There were 40,000 CCP casualties at Zhangjiakou alone. They in turn killed, wounded or captured some 520,000 KMT during the campaign. After achieving decisive victory at Liaoshen, Huaihai and Pingjin campaigns, the CCP destroyed 144 regular and 29 irregular KMT divisions, including 1.54 million veteran KMT troops, which significantly reduced
15264-419: The notion of a vulnerable world , "one in which there is some level of technological development at which civilization almost certainly gets devastated by default", citing the risks of a pandemic caused by bioterrorists , or an arms race triggered by the development of novel armaments and the loss of mutual assured destruction . He invites policymakers to question the assumptions that technological progress
15408-443: The number of foods that could be eaten. The cooking hypothesis proposes that the ability to cook promoted an increase in hominid brain size , though some researchers find the evidence inconclusive. Archaeological evidence of hearths was dated to 790 kya; researchers believe this is likely to have intensified human socialization and may have contributed to the emergence of language . Other technological advances made during
15552-500: The oldest-known wooden wheel in the world as of 2024 was found in the Ljubljana Marsh of Slovenia ; Austrian experts have established that the wheel is between 5,100 and 5,350 years old. The invention of the wheel revolutionized trade and war. It did not take long to discover that wheeled wagons could be used to carry heavy loads. The ancient Sumerians used a potter's wheel and may have invented it. A stone pottery wheel found in
15696-538: The political discipline "intended to legislate on the functions of the arts and crafts." The distinction between Technik and Technologie is absent in English, and so both were translated as technology . The term was previously uncommon in English and mostly referred to the academic discipline, as in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . In the 20th century, as a result of scientific progress and
15840-580: The power balance became more favorable to the CCP. They wiped out 1.12 million KMT troops, while their strength grew to about two million men. In March 1947, the KMT achieved a symbolic victory by seizing Yan'an, the capital of the Yan'an Soviet . The Communists counterattacked soon afterwards; on 30 June 1947, CCP troops crossed the Yellow River and moved to the Dabie Mountains area, restored and developed
15984-459: The power of the Chinese Communist Party grew considerably. Their main force grew to 1.2 million troops, backed with additional militia of 2 million, totalling 3.2 million troops. Their "Liberated Zone" in 1945 contained 19 base areas, including one-quarter of the country's territory and one-third of its population; this included many important towns and cities. Moreover, the Soviet Union turned over all of its captured Japanese weapons and
16128-553: The privacy of cryptocurrency, many also argue that it needs more transparency and stability. Technology can have both positive and negative effects on the environment. Environmental technology , describes an array of technologies which seek to reverse, mitigate or halt environmental damage to the environment. This can include measures to halt pollution through environmental regulations, capture and storage of pollution, or using pollutant byproducts in other industries. Other examples of environmental technology include deforestation and
16272-417: The progression from early Neolithic villages to the first cities, such as Uruk , and the first civilizations, such as Sumer , is not specifically known; however, the emergence of increasingly hierarchical social structures and specialized labor, of trade and war among adjacent cultures, and the need for collective action to overcome environmental challenges such as irrigation , are all thought to have played
16416-556: The pursuit or attack of the Kuomintang army. It consisted of a series of marches, during which numerous Communist armies in the south escaped to the north and west. Over the course of the march from Jiangxi the First Front Army, led by an inexperienced military commission, was on the brink of annihilation by Chiang Kai-Shek's troops as their stronghold was in Jiangxi. The Communists, under the command of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, "escaped in
16560-409: The range of plausible futures and to incorporate human values in the development of new technologies. More generally, futures researchers are interested in improving "the freedom and welfare of humankind". It relies on a thorough quantitative and qualitative analysis of past and present technological trends, and attempts to rigorously extrapolate them into the future. Science fiction is often used as
16704-458: The region. However, the Soviets refused permission for the Nationalist troops to traverse its territory and spent the extra time systematically dismantling the extensive Manchurian industrial base (worth up to $ 2 billion) and shipping it back to their war-ravaged country. KMT troops were then airlifted by the US to occupy key cities in North China, while the countryside was already dominated by
16848-598: The reorganization and consolidation of both the CCP and the KMT along the lines of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union . The CCP, which was initially a study group, and the KMT jointly formed the First United Front . In 1923, Sun sent Chiang Kai-shek , one of his lieutenants, for several months of military and political study in Moscow. Chiang then became the head of the Whampoa Military Academy that trained
16992-401: The reversing of deforestation. Emerging technologies in the fields of climate engineering may be able to halt or reverse global warming and its environmental impacts, although this remains highly controversial. As technology has advanced, so too has the negative environmental impact, with increased release of greenhouse gases , including methane , nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide , into
17136-523: The stone-paved streets of the city-state of Ur, dating to c. 4,000 BCE , and timber roads leading through the swamps of Glastonbury , England, dating to around the same period. The first long-distance road, which came into use around 3,500 BCE, spanned 2,400 km from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea , but was not paved and was only partially maintained. In around 2,000 BCE,
17280-673: The strength of Nationalist forces. Stalin initially favored a coalition government in postwar China, and tried to persuade Mao to stop the CCP from crossing the Yangtze and attacking the KMT positions south of the river. Mao rejected Stalin's position and on 21 April, began the Yangtze River Crossing Campaign . On 23 April, they captured the KMT's capital, Nanjing. The KMT government retreated to Canton (Guangzhou) until 15 October, Chongqing until 25 November, and then Chengdu before retreating to Taiwan on 7 December. By late 1949,
17424-489: The three progressive phases of protracted warfare—strategic defensive , strategic stalemate , and strategic offensive (see Mobile Warfare ). During the first stage, enemy forces were "lured in deep" into one's own territory to overextend, disperse, and isolate them. The Red Army established base areas from which to harass the enemy, but these bases and other territory could be abandoned to preserve Red Army forces. In addition, policies ordered by Mao for all soldiers to follow,
17568-523: The two Chinese leaders. It concluded with the signing of the Double Tenth Agreement . Both sides stressed the importance of a peaceful reconstruction, but the conference did not produce any concrete results. Battles between the two sides continued even as peace negotiations were in progress, until the agreement was reached in January 1946. However, large campaigns and full-scale confrontations between
17712-984: The unemployment rate rose dramatically to 37.5%. Hyperinflation meant those employed in the Kuomintang forces lost the purchasing power of their pay. This resulted in corruption and the embezzlement of supplies which disappeared into the barter economy. Ordinary Kuomintang soldiers were often malnourished and desertion was common. The US strongly supported the Kuomintang forces. About 50,000 US soldiers were sent to guard strategic sites in Hebei and Shandong in Operation Beleaguer . The US equipped and trained KMT troops, and transported Japanese and Koreans back to help KMT forces to occupy liberated zones as well as to contain Communist-controlled areas. According to William Blum , American aid included substantial amounts of mostly surplus military supplies, and loans were made to
17856-480: The upper hand in the second phase of the war from 1945 to 1949, generally referred to as the Chinese Communist Revolution . The Communists gained control of mainland China and proclaimed the People's Republic of China in 1949, forcing the leadership of the Republic of China to retreat to the island of Taiwan . Starting in the 1950s, a lasting political and military stand-off between the two sides of
18000-527: The use of robotic soldiers, algorithmic bias , and the issue of aligning AI behavior with human values. Technology ethics encompasses several key fields. Bioethics looks at ethical issues surrounding biotechnologies and modern medicine, including cloning, human genetic engineering, and stem cell research. Computer ethics focuses on issues related to computing. Cyberethics explores internet-related issues like intellectual property rights , privacy , and censorship . Nanoethics examines issues surrounding
18144-506: The value judgments that shape technology. Cultural critic Neil Postman distinguished tool-using societies from technological societies and from what he called "technopolies", societies that are dominated by an ideology of technological and scientific progress to the detriment of other cultural practices, values, and world views. Herbert Marcuse and John Zerzan suggest that technological society will inevitably deprive us of our freedom and psychological health. The ethics of technology
18288-451: The war with the Japanese ended, Chiang Kai-shek quickly moved KMT troops to newly liberated areas to prevent Communist forces from receiving the Japanese surrender. The US airlifted many KMT troops from central China to the Northeast (Manchuria). President Harry S. Truman was very clear about what he described as "using the Japanese to hold off the Communists". In his memoirs he writes: It
18432-527: The widespread application of the factory system . This was followed a century later by the Second Industrial Revolution which led to rapid scientific discovery, standardization, and mass production. New technologies were developed, including sewage systems , electricity, light bulbs , electric motors , railroads, automobiles , and airplanes. These technological advances led to significant developments in medicine, chemistry , physics , and engineering. They were accompanied by consequential social change, with
18576-529: Was "freed from societal deformations". Second-wave philosophers like Ortega later shifted their focus from economics and politics to "daily life and living in a techno-material culture", arguing that technology could oppress "even the members of the bourgeoisie who were its ostensible masters and possessors." Third-stage philosophers like Don Ihde and Albert Borgmann represent a turn toward de-generalization and empiricism, and considered how humans can learn to live with technology. Early scholarship on technology
18720-560: Was built in 312 BCE. The eleventh and final ancient Roman aqueduct was built in 226 CE. Put together, the Roman aqueducts extended over 450 km, but less than 70 km of this was above ground and supported by arches. Innovations continued through the Middle Ages with the introduction of silk production (in Asia and later Europe), the horse collar , and horseshoes . Simple machines (such as
18864-513: Was compensated by the creation of new, higher-paying jobs. Studies have found that computers did not create significant net technological unemployment . Due to artificial intelligence being far more capable than computers, and still being in its infancy, it is not known whether it will follow the same trend; the question has been debated at length among economists and policymakers. A 2017 survey found no clear consensus among economists on whether AI would increase long-term unemployment. According to
19008-539: Was followed by a Communist offensive on the Shandong Peninsula that was largely successful, as all of the peninsula, except what was controlled by the US, fell to the Communists. The truce fell apart in June 1946 when full-scale war between CCP and KMT forces broke out on 26 June 1946. China then entered a state of civil war that lasted more than three years. By the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War,
19152-475: Was forced to surrender after the CCP conducted a brutal six-month siege of Changchun that resulted in more than 150,000 civilian deaths from starvation. The capture of large KMT units provided the CCP with the tanks, heavy artillery and other combined-arms assets needed to execute offensive operations south of the Great Wall. By April 1948, the city of Luoyang fell, cutting the KMT army off from Xi'an. Following
19296-665: Was further developed in the June 1930 Program for the Red Fourth Army at All Levels and the winter 1930 Provisional Regulations on the Political Work of the Chinese Workers and Peasants Army (Draft), which formally established Party leadership of the military. By the time of the 1934 Long March , numerous small units had been organized into three unified groups, the First Front Red Army (紅一方面軍/红一方面军/Hóng Yī Fāngmiàn Jūn),
19440-468: Was in Chongqing from 28 August to 10 October 1945. Chiang entered the meeting at an advantage because he had recently signed a friendly treaty with the Soviet Union while the Communists were still forcing the Japanese to surrender in some places. Mao was accompanied by American ambassador Patrick J. Hurley , who was devoted to Chiang but also wanted to ensure Mao's safety in light of the past history between
19584-465: Was in name only. Unlike the KMT forces, CCP troops shunned conventional warfare and instead waged guerrilla warfare against the Japanese. The level of actual cooperation and coordination between the CCP and KMT during World War II was minimal. In the midst of the Second United Front, the CCP and the KMT were still vying for territorial advantage in " Free China " (i.e., areas not occupied by
19728-424: Was made a political instructor. Communist members were allowed to join the KMT on an individual basis. The CCP itself was still small at the time, having a membership of 300 in 1922 and only 1,500 by 1925. As of 1923, the KMT had 50,000 members. However, after Sun died in 1925, the KMT split into left- and right-wing movements. KMT members worried that the Soviets were trying to destroy the KMT from inside using
19872-438: Was perfectly clear to us that if we told the Japanese to lay down their arms immediately and march to the seaboard, the entire country would be taken over by the Communists. We therefore had to take the unusual step of using the enemy as a garrison until we could airlift Chinese National troops to South China and send Marines to guard the seaports. Using the pretext of "receiving the Japanese surrender", business interests within
20016-536: Was probably used from near the beginning of Neolithic times (about 10 kya). Native copper does not naturally occur in large amounts, but copper ores are quite common and some of them produce metal easily when burned in wood or charcoal fires. Eventually, the working of metals led to the discovery of alloys such as bronze and brass (about 4,000 BCE). The first use of iron alloys such as steel dates to around 1,800 BCE. After harnessing fire, humans discovered other forms of energy. The earliest known use of wind power
20160-454: Was refined 75 kya (thousand years ago) into pressure flaking , enabling much finer work. The discovery of fire was described by Charles Darwin as "possibly the greatest ever made by man". Archaeological, dietary, and social evidence point to "continuous [human] fire-use" at least 1.5 Mya. Fire, fueled with wood and charcoal , allowed early humans to cook their food to increase its digestibility, improving its nutrient value and broadening
20304-649: Was split between two arguments: technological determinism , and social construction . Technological determinism is the idea that technologies cause unavoidable social changes. It usually encompasses a related argument, technological autonomy, which asserts that technological progress follows a natural progression and cannot be prevented. Social constructivists argue that technologies follow no natural progression, and are shaped by cultural values, laws, politics, and economic incentives. Modern scholarship has shifted towards an analysis of sociotechnical systems , "assemblages of things, people, practices, and meanings", looking at
20448-427: Was strong enough to overcome domestic rebellions and foreign invasion, yet it did not threaten civilian control of the political system. In times of disorder, however, new military leaders and organizations arose to challenge the old system, resulting in the militarization of political life . When one of these leaders became strong enough, he established a new political order ruling all China. After consolidating power,
20592-400: Was strong. However, Chiang and Li Zongren , whose armies defeated the warlord Sun Chuanfang , moved eastward toward Jiangxi . The leftists rejected Chiang's demand to eliminate Communist influence within KMT, and Chiang denounced them for betraying Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People by taking orders from the Soviet Union. According to Mao Zedong , Chiang's tolerance of the CCP in
20736-504: Was under the control of the Nanjing central government, which received prompt international recognition as the sole legitimate government of China. The KMT government announced, in conformity with Sun Yat-sen, the formula for the three stages of revolution: military unification, political tutelage, and constitutional democracy. On 1 August 1927, the CCP launched an uprising in Nanchang against
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