An overview of the history of all of the resistance-war base areas by an authority on the subject. Van Slyke, Lyman P. “The Chinese Communist Movement during the Sino-Japanese War, 1937–1945.”

In Mao Zedong's original formulation of the military strategy of people's war, a revolutionary base area (Chinese: 革命根据地 gémìng gēnjùdì), or simply base area, is a local stronghold that the revolutionary force conducting the people's war should attempt to establish, starting from a remote area with mountainous or forested terrain ...

However, the evidence presented in this article demonstrates that during late 1939 and early 1940 in some counties of the Southwest Shanxi Base Area and other major North China base areas the CCP abandoned its moderate approach and promoted a radical and violent class struggle.

Though China suffered tremendous losses, China’s resistance—fueled by its antipathy to Japan’s growing aggression—led to the ultimate defeat of the Japanese troops. Commemoration of China’s war resistance was not always proportional to the unprecedented devastation.