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there (1934-35), this ' Chinese Soviet Republic' wastransported by the now famous ' long march' of its redarmy towards the north-western region, far nearer toSoviet territory, and Soviet influence began to revive.However different Russian and Chinese Communismmay be, it remains significant that China is the onlycountry in the world, apart from the Union, where alarge and influential Communist party continues in being.The repercussions of the Japanese occupation ofManchuria (1931-32) started a realignment of forces, andthe Japanese invasion of China within the Great Wall in1937 resulted in the U.S.S.R. supporting Chiang Kaishekand his Kuomintang government by an alliance.The Chinese Communists had been leading the way inall-out resistance to the invader and combined, despitefrequent rifts and jockeyings, with Chiang Kai-shek inthe present (1943) ' national united front.' In effectingthis rapprochement Soviet influence was instrumental,and the Soviet material and moral aid provided to ChiangKai-shek refashioned in new form the links between thetwo countries.As has just been seen, the complete change betweenthe Soviet-Chinese rupture of 1927 and the Soviet-Chinese alliance of 1937 was due to the unleashing ofJapanese continental imperialism.In 1931-32 Japan overran the whole of Manchuria,which she erected as the nominally independent state ofManchukuo, and in effect deprived the Soviet Union ofthe Chinese Eastern Railway. Instead of a few milesalong the Korean boundary, Japan now faced the Unionalong 1500 miles of frontier. Soviet strength was greatlyimpaired by the crisis of collectivization and the firstfive-year plan, and Japan seemed about to seize what shehad relinquished in 1922, the Soviet Maritime Provincewith Vladivostok, and thus to remove the threat fromSoviet air bases. No such attempt was made, if onlybecause she was deflected by an explosion in Shanghai ofanti-Japanese feeling over the rape of Manchuria.The Soviet government remained on the defensive andcut its losses in 1935 by selling its rights in the ChineseEastern Railway to Manchukuo-Japan. This was a311