The Chinese Civil War or "Revolutionary War"), which lasts from April 1927 to May 1950, is a civil war in China between the Kuomintang (KMT or Chinese Nationalist Party) and the Chinese Communist Party (CPC).

The war begins in 1927, after the Northern Expedition.

The war represents an ideological split between the Western-supported Nationalist KMT, and the Soviet-supported Communist CPC.The civil war carries on intermittently until the looming Second Sino-Japanese War interrupts it, resulting in an organized and temporary Chinese resistance to the Japanese invasion.

The Japanese assault and occupation is an opportunistic attack made possible by China's own state of internal turmoil.

Japan's campaign is defeated in August, 1945 by the Allies, marking the end of the Second World War, and China's full-scale civil war resumes in 1946.

Hostilities end after 23 years in 1950, with an unofficial cessation of major hostilities, with the CPC controlling mainland China (including Hainan Island) and the KMT restricted to their remaining territories of Taiwan, Pescadores, and the several outlying Fujianese islands.

To this day, no official armistice has ever been signed, although the two sides have close economic ties.