<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> The Chinese Civil War was a war fought between the Kuomintang (KMT) - led government of the Republic of China and the Communist Party of China (CPC). Although particular attention is paid to the four years of Chinese Communist Revolution from 1945 to 1949, the war actually started in August 1927, with the White Terror at the end of Generalissimo Chiang Kai - shek's Northern Expedition, and essentially ended when major hostilities between the two sides ceased in 1950 . The conflict took place in two stages: the first between 1927 and 1937, and the second from 1946 to 1950, with the Second Sino - Japanese War in 1937--1945 separating them . The war marked a major turning point in modern Chinese history, with the Communists gaining control of mainland China and establishing the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, forcing the Republic of China (ROC) to retreat to Taiwan . It resulted in a lasting political and military standoff between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, with the ROC in Taiwan and the PRC on mainland China with both officially claiming to be the legitimate government of all China . </P> <P> The war represented an ideological split between the communist CPC and the nationalist KMT . Conflict continued intermittently until late 1937, when the two parties came together to form the Second United Front to counter the Imperial Japanese Army threat and to prevent the country from crumbling . Full - scale civil war in China resumed in 1946, a year after the end of hostilities with the Empire of Japan in September 1945 . Four years later came the cessation of major military activity, with the newly founded People's Republic of China controlling mainland China (including the island of Hainan), and the Republic of China's jurisdiction restricted to Taiwan, Penghu, Quemoy, Matsu and several outlying islands . </P>

What were the two opposing sides in china's civil war