Springboard to Victory

Sherman Xiaogang Lai, Ph.D. (2008) in History, Queen’s University at Kingston, M.A. (2002) Royal Military College of Canada, is a Research Associate in the Leverhulme China’s War with Japan Programme, University of Oxford. He is a former officer of the Chinese army and served in China’s Vietnam War.

• IntroductionChapter One: The Birth of the CCP Military-fiscal State in ShandongChapter Two: Moving Towards ConfrontationChapter Three: Escalation and the CCP’s Financial FrameworkChapter Four: Institutions of Economic ControlChapter Five: Pre-Pearl Harbor Policy ChangesChapter Six: From the Strategies of Confrontation to Time-killingChapter Seven: PerseveranceChapter Eight: Financial Pressure, Xu Muqiao and SaltChapter Nine: Turning Point and EncroachmentsChapter Ten: Accessing the Enemy’s Resources for Post-war RivalryChapter Eleven: The Campaign to Reduce Rents and Interest RatesChapter Twelve: Conclusion

"Lai provides a pioneering account of the Communists' banking institutions in wartime Shandong."Gregor Benton, Cardiff University, The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 71, No. 4 (November 2012) "Lai understands the province in ways that only a native son can do. He creates a picture of the misery and despair of the wartime period, and of the desperate fight of much of the local population to get rid of a hated occupier...The kind of detailed, meticulous work that Lai has done, based on a deep familiarity with a region and the institution he is working on (Lai served in the People's Liberation Army) is a model for a deeper understanding of the complex and often contradictory process by which the CCP came to power."Diana Lary, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, Pacific Affairs Volume 86 No. 1 (March 2013)