Shensi-Kansu-Ningsia Border Area

one of the liberated regions of China.

The area arose out of a partisan support base that had been formed on the border of Shensi and Kansu provinces in 1932–33 during a peasant uprising led by Kao Kang and Liu Chih-tan. The main forces of the Chinese Red Army entered the area in 1935–36 after the northwest campaign. With the army came most of the members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). From that time on, the Shensi-Kansu base was expanded and strengthened; a number of districts of Ningsia Province were also added.

By an agreement between the CPC and the Kuomintang during the anti-Japanese war of 1937–45, the Shensi-Kansu-Ningsia border area was known as the Special Region of the Chinese Republic. In 1947, during the People’s Liberation War of 1946–49 in China, the city of Yenan (seat of the CPC Central Committee from 1935) and a considerable part of the Shensi-Kansu-Ningsia border area were seized by Kuomintang troops. The area was liberated from the Kuomintang in April 1948.