Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.4, 2014

 

The Bombing of Shanghai by Kuomintang Air Force on February 6, 1950 and the Government's Response

(Abstract)

 

Xu Fenghua

 

On February 6, 1950, the Kuomintang air force launched a large-scale air strike on Shanghai. This was a heavy blow and a sharp test for the newly established regime led by the Communist Party of China (CPC). Confronted with power cuts, business shutdowns, over a thousand casualties and more than 50000 displaced people, the East China Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and the Shanghai Municipal Government, with support from the central government, immediately took prompt and effective measures to mobilize the population, including restoring electricity supplies, comforting and compensating affected families and undertaking restoration work, implementing air defenses and counter-espionage, stabilizing commodity prices, maintaining financial stability, reopening factories and resuming production. In the shortest possible time, they calmed the panicking Shanghai citizens and restored society's operational mechanisms. This process consolidated the newly established People's Government and enhanced its credibility. The bombing, therefore, had a profound influence on the urban policies of the CPC in the early stage of the People's Republic and on the development of Shanghai itself.