<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 many authorities pay particular attention to the four years from 1945 to 1949, the war started from conflicts that began in August 1927, with the White Terror at the end of Generalissimo Chiang Kai - shek's Northern Expedition of 1926--1928, and essentially ended when major hostilities 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 CPC gaining control of almost the entire Mainland China and establishing the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 to replace the KMT's Republic of China (ROC). 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 in mainland China 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 Japan . Four years later came the cessation of major military activity, with the newly founded People's Republic of China controlling mainland China (including Hainan), and the Republic of China's jurisdiction restricted to Taiwan, Penghu, Quemoy, Matsu and several outlying islands . </P>

What two groups were fighting in the chinese civil war