Warlords, State Failures, and the Rise of Communism in China

Warlords, State Failures, and the Rise of Communism in China

This paper documents that the spread of communism in China was partly caused by state failures in the early 20th century. It finds that famines became more frequent after China fell into warlord fragmentation, especially for prefectures with less r...

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Main Authors: Huang, Zhangkai, Miao, Meng, Shao, Yi, Xu, Lixin Colin
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2021
Subjects:
FAMINE
WARLORD
GEOGRAPHY
INEQUALITY
COMMUNISM
STATE FAILURE
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/245461629729426131/Warlords-State-Failures-and-the-Rise-of-Communism-in-China
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36197
id okr-10986-36197
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-361972021-08-27T05:10:32Z Warlords, State Failures, and the Rise of Communism in China Huang, Zhangkai Miao, Meng Shao, Yi Xu, Lixin Colin FAMINE WARLORD GEOGRAPHY INEQUALITY COMMUNISM STATE FAILURE This paper documents that the spread of communism in China was partly caused by state failures in the early 20th century. It finds that famines became more frequent after China fell into warlord fragmentation, especially for prefectures with less rugged borders and those facing stronger military threat. The relation between topography and famines holds when using historical border changes to instrument border ruggedness. More people from famine-inflicted prefectures died in the subsequent decades for the communist movement, but not for the Nationalist Army. There is evidence that famines exacerbated rural inequality, which pushed more peasants to the side of the communists. 2021-08-26T15:00:53Z 2021-08-26T15:00:53Z 2021-08 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/245461629729426131/Warlords-State-Failures-and-the-Rise-of-Communism-in-China http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36197 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9754 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper East Asia and Pacific China
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic FAMINE
WARLORD
GEOGRAPHY
INEQUALITY
COMMUNISM
STATE FAILURE
spellingShingle FAMINE
WARLORD
GEOGRAPHY
INEQUALITY
COMMUNISM
STATE FAILURE
Huang, Zhangkai
Miao, Meng
Shao, Yi
Xu, Lixin Colin
Warlords, State Failures, and the Rise of Communism in China
geographic_facet East Asia and Pacific
China
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9754
description This paper documents that the spread of communism in China was partly caused by state failures in the early 20th century. It finds that famines became more frequent after China fell into warlord fragmentation, especially for prefectures with less rugged borders and those facing stronger military threat. The relation between topography and famines holds when using historical border changes to instrument border ruggedness. More people from famine-inflicted prefectures died in the subsequent decades for the communist movement, but not for the Nationalist Army. There is evidence that famines exacerbated rural inequality, which pushed more peasants to the side of the communists.
format Working Paper
author Huang, Zhangkai
Miao, Meng
Shao, Yi
Xu, Lixin Colin
author_facet Huang, Zhangkai
Miao, Meng
Shao, Yi
Xu, Lixin Colin
author_sort Huang, Zhangkai
title Warlords, State Failures, and the Rise of Communism in China
title_short Warlords, State Failures, and the Rise of Communism in China
title_full Warlords, State Failures, and the Rise of Communism in China
title_fullStr Warlords, State Failures, and the Rise of Communism in China
title_full_unstemmed Warlords, State Failures, and the Rise of Communism in China
title_sort warlords, state failures, and the rise of communism in china
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2021
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/245461629729426131/Warlords-State-Failures-and-the-Rise-of-Communism-in-China
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36197
_version_ 1764484763134984192

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