Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region

The Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region, frequently abbreviated at the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region, was an area under the control of the Chinese Communist Party during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the second phase of the Chinese Civil War

After their success in the Battle of Pingxingguan in September 1937, in October 1937, the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army was ordered to occupy the Mount Wutai area of Shanxi in order to set up an Anti-Japanese Base Area.

Naming
This was called the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Anti-Japanese Base Area, often referred to as a communist Border Area or Liberated Area. The abbreviated names of the three provinces were often used to describe the area, thus it was known as Jin-Cha-Ji in modern transliteration. In older Western literature it was often called Chin-Cha-Ki. Note that the term Border Area was used in official descriptions, for example, the postal service, set up in November 1937, was named the Shanxi-Hebei-Chahar Border Area Provisional Post. (Renamed the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Area Provisional Post in January 1938).

History
After Japan's fall 1938 victory in the Battle of Wuhan, its forces advanced deep into Communist territory and redeployed 50,000 troops to the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region. Elements of the Eighth Route Army soon attacked the advancing Japanese, inflicting between 3,000 and 5,000 casualties and resulting in a Japanese retreat.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Communist Party built a broader coalition in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region. Its land policies were more moderate than during other periods, focusing on rent and interest rate deductions. Implementation of these reforms accelerated following 1943.

Following the May 4, 1946 Instructions on Land Issues issued by the Communist Party, instructions for implementing the instructions in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region stated that the intent was to achieve land to the tiller rather than equal redistribution.

At the beginning of the Chinese Civil War in 1946, large Nationalist forces entered the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region. Although information on the extent of territory controlled by the Nationalists during this period is not clear, one Communist report indicates that by October 1946, the Nationalists and their allies controlled or contested 45% of villages in the region. This decreased to approximately 35% by February 1947.

In April 1947, the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region began a Land Reinvestigation Movement in which poor peasant mass organizations investigated and adjusted the results of land distribution during the Second Sino-Japanese War. During this Land Reinvestigation Movement, it was mandated that landlords could not be completely dispossessed of land unless they had collaborated with the Japanese invaders or defected to the Nationalists. It was also mandated that the interests of middle peasants could not be violated.

Concluding that most peasants were satisfied with the land they had received and that some were even concerned about further mass land reform campaigns because of their radical turns in the past, in June 1948, the Communist Party ended land reform in the Border Region and in northern China generally with the exception of an area of approximately ten million people.

By late 1948, the Nationalists' conventional armed forces had been ejected from the region, although Nationalist-affiliated militia remained active thereafter.

Media
The Communist Party's Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region Committee had an official newspaper, the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Daily.

Armed forces
When the Chinese Civil War began after the defeat of the Japanese, the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Field Army had more than 180,000 soldiers. It later merged with other forces into the 234,000 soldier North China Field Army.

Militias in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region included several thousand militia members per county, sometimes as many as 10,000 or 25,000.