New Fourth Army Incident - Definition

The New Fourth Army Incident occurred during the Chinese Civil War in December 1940. The Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek demanded the surrender of the Communist Party of China’s New Fourth Army from the Anhui and Jiangsu Provinces. The New Fourth Army commanders agreed, but even so, KMT troops ambushed them and in January 1941, the New Fourth Army was defeated. The CPC position in central China was severely weakened by this battle. After this, there was very little hope for cooperation between the two parties, and both sides began to try to gain the upper hand over the other.