ROC had never had control of the army. When ROC was formed, the army was owned by various local warlords. None of them would listen to the central government. This persisted from 1911, and had never been rectified. In 1945, ROC just finished the war with Japan. The country was in ruins. And the army was fragmented as usual. The PLA of the CPC had grown by leaps and bounds during the war and was ready to continue the revolution it had started.

So, ROC was weaken by the war to begin with, have no effective control of the army at the time.

Now, the PLA is totally under control of CPC, and CPC had 60 years of consolidating its power. There is no chance of a revolution can ever succeed. Therefore, no one will ever think about a revolution.

It’s a good point that it was not only inequality, but also corruption/poor governance. I mentioned that in the beginning, and had intended to emphasize that today, one could argue, that corruption and bad governance and eerily similar to the situation back then. So, I guess I get to make that point here.

I’d also like to say that you’re pretty cynical even for someone like me. In America there is tremendous upward mobility potential. It may not be as great as advertised, but Bill Clinton, Mike Bloomberg, and John Edwards all came from nothing (the latter two were successful in the private sector before they entered government).

But was it the wealth gap, or the social and political situations that inspired the revolution?

“Remember, America’s Gini Coefficient is nearly as high as China’s, and few people expect a peasant revolt there”

Exactly. America still [has/maintains the illusion of] the possibility of upward mobility for those who work hard and strike a bit of good luck, much like China today.