What did the declassified documents reveal?

This is Declassified. Today, we examine a declassified Central Intelligence Agency record titled "Preliminary Observations: China Resistance Movement." This report, dated August fifteenth, nineteen-fifty, provides an early assessment of anti-Communist forces in China shortly after the Chinese Civil War and during the initial phase of the Korean War. You can find this document on The Black Vault, at documents2.theblackvault.com. This document was released by the Central Intelligence Agency under the Freedom of Information Act, though a specific FOIA case number is not provided. It was declassified in nineteen-ninety-three under the authority of the National Archives and Records Administration, and has been part of the public record since its release. The document reads: "Preliminary Observations: China Resistance Movement. The following general observations are made tentatively respecting the question of a China resistance movement. These observations are admittedly based on incomplete data. 1. Actualities. There appears to be nothing like a true resistance movement in being at this time. The thinking of the Chinese generally is probably still in a stunned state, due to recent events. This is probably true whether the individual Chinese was pro-Nationalist or pro-Communist. Fanatics of either group, of course, would hardly have changed at all in their thinking. It is too early still for much in the way of a new ideology to have developed from a situation where the latest of a long series of Chinese panaceas, international Communism, has like most of its predecessors been found wanting in practice. There is more than a little opposition to Communism, but to date primarily in the form of peasant resistance to the tax-collector, and armed action against the police officials who would fit the villager into a system of military service and labor corvees to which he has always objected, rather than as a rival political system and organization contending for power. There is some anti-Soviet feeling expressed in labels pinned on roving bands, but the feeling will probably be found only in beginning pages and hardly develop into a powerful force until at least the Chinese experience of Soviet policies and tactics as respects China has been greater, and knowledge more accurate and bitterer therefore. It is to be recalled that, to date, Soviet designs regarding China, if suspected and to a certain degree indicated by developments, generally remain veiled from the Chinese population. Lacking an ideology, the bandits and guerrillas now active in South, Central, and West China lack other goal than survival. Their struggle is defensive, in that their main aim seems still to be maintenance of their existence as such. Their anti-Sovietism is hardly stronger than the normal nationalism of the Chinese who has undergone the usual political indoctrination of either Kuomintangism or Communism. They have such organization as they may have inherited from the military…

Why was this case declassified?

This material entered the public record through the U.S. declassification and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process. The originating source document is linked on this page so the citation chain is auditable.

Case File · ARCHIVE-007Declassified

Filed NOV 5 · 2026Runtime 1 min

CIA Preliminary Observations: China Resistance Movement.

U.S. public record · FOIAUpdated November 5, 2026

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◆ BLUF — The short version

This is Declassified. " This report, dated August fifteenth, nineteen-fifty, provides an early assessment of anti-Communist forces in China shortly after the Chinese Civil War and during the initial phase of the Korean War. com. This document was released by the Central Intelligence Agency under the Freedom of Information Act, though a specific FOIA case number is not provided.

Date: NOV 5 · 2026
Release: Declassified · U.S. public record (FOIA)
Source document: View the primary source document

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This is Declassified. Today, we examine a declassified Central Intelligence Agency record titled "Preliminary Observations: China Resistance Movement." This report, dated August fifteenth, nineteen-fifty, provides an early assessment of anti-Communist forces in China shortly after the Chinese Civil…

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Questions about this case

What was CIA Preliminary Observations: China Resistance Movement. about?: This is Declassified. " This report, dated August fifteenth, nineteen-fifty, provides an early assessment of anti-Communist forces in China shortly after the Chinese Civil War and during the initial phase of the Korean War. com. This document was released by the Central Intelligence Agency under the Freedom of Information Act, though a specific FOIA case number is not provided.
Why was this case declassified?: This material entered the public record through the U.S. declassification and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process. Storyflo narrates it directly from the public release.

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CIA Preliminary Observations: China Resistance Movement.

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