ABSTRACT
With the increasingly rapid gains the Red Army was making in 1948 and 1949, it was becoming obvious to most observers that the corrupt and demoralized rule by the Nationalist Party over China was coming to an end. With the failure of the Guomindang (GMD) anti-Communist offensive of 1946, the tide of battle increasingly favored the revolutionary forces, resulting first in the "liberation" of the northeast and then, successively, other areas of the country. By January 1949, Beiping was peacefully liberated, and within another year the mainland was united (except for the colonies of Hong Kong and Macao) under the new flag of the People's Republic of China.
