James Sheridan, in China in Disintegration (Free Press, 1977 p.269) argues that:

‘It is absurd to speak of an historical event as “inevitable”, but the Communist–Guomindang civil war almost demands that adjective. It is difficult in retrospect to see how it could have been avoided. An abyss of profound hostility and distrust, and the scars of brutal conflict, separated the two parties, to say nothing of their utterly different social philosophies’