A Study On The Interactive Relationship Between The CPC And The Local Elites In Northern Shaanxi During The Anti - Japanese War

As an important group in Chinese rural society, local elites possessed more social resources than ordinary people and enjoyed higher authority in local society. Affected by geographical social environment, in addition to the common characteristics of generalelite groups, the local elites in northern Shaanxi play multiple social roles in the rural society, such as local governor, villagers’ defender, arbiter of the event disputes and so on, which also play an important part in the right culture networkin northern Shaanxi.During the period of Anti-Japanese War (the War), the Communist Party of China (CPC) acted as the core force to lead the Chinese revolution and achieve the final victory. Its interaction with local elites in northern Shaanxi where the Central Committee of CPC was located was a successful example of the CPC’s united front work, which played a significant demonstrating role at that time.Inspired by the CPC’s new democracy theory and united front policy,local elites joined the border region construction and played an active role in the construction of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and the victory of the War.History is traced to the same origin. Combing the relationship between the CPC and local elites in northern Shaanxisystematicallynot only has important theoretical significance, but also has far-reaching practical significance. Based on the background of the War, this paper takes time asa line to comb and summarize the interaction between the CPC and local elites in northern Shaanxi based on the analysis of the CPC’s changes inthe political attitude toward local elites and adjustment of policy as well as local elites’ response to the CPCso as to makesome implications on the current national issues, rural issues and even political reform issues.Theresearch of this paperconsists ofthe introduction, the body and the conclusion.The introduction brieflydescribes the origin of the topic, the research significance and status, the definition of core concept and research idea as well asthe innovations.The body includes the second, third, fourth and fifth chapters.Chapter 2:the constituentsof local elites in northern Shaanxi and their interpersonal connection with the CPC before the war. This chapter on the one hand briefly describes the constituents and group characteristics of local elites in northern Shaanxi in the early 20th century and then analyzes their status in the power and culture network of northern Shaanxi from the aspects of politics, economy, culture and armed force. On the other hand, it analyzes the interpersonal connection and interaction between local elites in northern Shaanxi and the CPCduringthe AgrarianRevolutionary War from the perspective of local elites’ attitude toward the CPC and their behavior selection as well as the CPC’s uniting with local elites.Chapter 3:the changes of the CPC in the political attitude toward local elites in northern Shaanxi. This chapter dividesthe changes of the CPC in the political attitude toward local elites into three stages in the order of time, namely the uniting stage from the failure of Weihua Uprising to the eve of counter-insurgency elimination, the exclusion stage during the counter-insurgency elimination and theuniting stage from after the end of the counter-insurgency elimination to the eve of the victory of the War.In addition, it makes a brief introduction to the reasons for the changes of the CPC in the political attitude toward local elites from the perspective of changes in Chinese society’s principal contradiction, the CPC’s accumulation of political experience, Mao Zedong’s acquisition of leadership of the CPC as well as the patriotic feeling of local elites in northern Shaanxi.Chapter 4:the CPC’s preferential treatment policy to local elites in northern Shaanxi in the context of united front. It is the key chapter of this paper. From the perspective of the united front, this chapter systematically discusses the CPC’s preferential treatment policy to local elites in northern Shaanxi after the breakout of the War. Firstly, this paper introduces the "three-thirds" principle for democratic participation in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, which mainly includes the historical background and the political reasons, main points of the "three-thirds" principle, the difficulties in the process and solutions to solve the problems, and the effect of the CPC’s preferential treatment policy. Secondly, according to the main points and policy effect of double-cut and double-pay land policy, this paperbrieflyintroduces the land policy of the CPC during the War. Lastly, with the clue oftime, there are two stages, from 1937 to 1939 and from 1940 to 1945,this paper introduces new economic policy to protect private businessmen in detail.Chapter 5:the formation of Northern Shaanxi local elites to the new regime and the political attitude of the new elite.This chapter is based on the above the fourth chapter and makes a brief description of local elites’different responses and behavioral characteristics in the face of the new regime, mainly including positive and negative aspects.At the same time,ittakes the intellectual and labor modelsand heroes for example analyzes and interprets the emerging elites in northern Shaanxi in politicalchanges.Chapter 6:the positive impact of local elites in northern Shaanxi on the construction of border region and the victory of the War. This chapter focuses on the contributions of local elites in northern Shaanxi to the construction of border region and the victory of the War in the following four aspects:political participation and suggestions in the form of representative assembly and discussion with the Border Region Government, wide publicity ofthe CPC’s anti-Japanese democratic policies through words and deeds to their children and connection network,positive participation intothe cultural and educational construction in the border region as well as support for the army in the War.The conclusionis mainly a brief summary of the research and points out those that are not covered in this paper and need to be further researched.