Misplaced Pages

#994005

117-647: He rebelled against the Kuomintang after Chiang Kai-shek began violently suppressing Communists , when he planned and led the unsuccessful Nanchang Uprising . After escaping, he organized a soviet in rural Hunan (and later Guizhou ), but was forced to abandon his bases when pressured by Chiang's Encirclement Campaigns . He joined the Long March in 1935, over a year after forces associated with Mao Zedong and Zhu De were forced to do so. He met with forces led by Zhang Guotao , but he disagreed with Zhang about

234-457: A $ 120,000 inheritance, and the reason is that according to her niece, that she donated most of her wealth when she was still alive. Chiang, requiring support, tolerated corruption with people in his inner circles, as well as high-ranking nationalist officials, but not of lower-ranking officers. In 1934, he ordered seven military officers who embezzled state property to be shot. In another case, several division commanders pleaded with Chiang to pardon

351-415: A 1969 speech, Chiang related a story about his boat trip to Japan at nineteen years old. Another passenger on the ship, a Chinese fellow student who was in the habit of spitting on the floor, was chided by a Chinese sailor who said that Japanese people did not spit on the floor, but instead would spit into a handkerchief. Chiang used the story as an example of how the common man in 1969 Taiwan had not developed

468-441: A connection with the personal name of the person. As the courtesy name is the name used by people of the same generation to address the person, Chiang soon became known under this new name. Sometime in 1917 or 1918, as Chiang became close to Sun Yat-sen, he changed his name from Chiang Chih-ch‘ing to Chiang Chung-cheng ( Chinese : 蔣中正 ; pinyin : Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng ; Wade–Giles : Chiang Chung -cheng ). By adopting

585-639: A criminal officer, but as soon as the division commanders had left, Chiang ordered him shot. The deputy editor and chief reporter at the Central Daily News, Lu Keng , made headline international news by exposing the corruption of two senior officials, Kong Xiangxi ( H. H. Kung ) and T. V. Soong . Chiang then ordered a thorough investigation of the Central Daily News to find the source. However, Lu, risked execution by refusing to comply and protecting his journalists. Chiang wanting to avoid an international response and so jailed Lu instead. Chiang realized

702-463: A frontal war against Japan and prioritizing anti-communist suppression was widely unpopular and provoked nationwide protests. In 1932, while Chiang was seeking first to defeat the Communists, Japan launched an advance on Shanghai and bombarded Nanjing. That disrupted Chiang's offensives against the Communists for a time, but it was the northern factions of Hu Hanmin's Guangdong government (notably

819-536: A helpless lone war. We were alone in a desert, with no available or possible assistance could we look forward to. But our determination was never shaken, nor was hope abandoned. In early 1906, Chiang cut off his queue , the required hairstyle of men during the Ch‘ing dynasty , and had it sent home from school, shocking the people in his hometown. Chiang grew up at a time in which military defeats, natural disasters, famines, revolts, unequal treaties and civil wars had left

936-696: A national leadership conference in Nanjing with Zhang Xueliang and General Ma Fuxiang during which Chiang and Zhang dauntlessly upheld that Manchuria was part of China in the face of the Japanese invasion. After the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, Chiang resigned as Chairman of the National Government. He returned shortly afterward and adopted the slogan "first internal pacification, then external resistance." However, his policy of avoiding

1053-642: A new base in northeast Guizhou in mid-1933. In 1934 Ren Bishi joined He in Guizhou with his own surviving forces after also being forced to abandon his soviet in another Encirclement Campaign. Ren and He merged forces, with He becoming the military commander and Ren becoming the commissar. He joined the Long March in November 1935, over a year after forces led by Zhu De and Mao Zedong were forced to evacuate their own soviet in Jiangxi . He's ability to resist

1170-726: A new headquarters there. Because the Second Army of the Chinese Red Army under He Long's command was one of the few Communist forces to arrive in Yan'an mostly intact, his force was able to assume the responsibility of protecting the new capital after their arrival. When the Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army in 1937, He was placed in command of the 120th Division. From late 1938 to 1940 He fought both

1287-618: A pen name for the articles that he published in a Chinese magazine he founded: Voice of the Army ( 軍聲 ). Jieshi is the pinyin romanization of this name, based on Standard Chinese , but the most recognized romanized rendering is Kai-shek which is in Cantonese romanization. Because the Republic of China was based in Canton (a Cantonese-speaking area), Chiang (who never spoke Cantonese but

SECTION 10

#1732765592995

1404-695: A photograph that had been taken in Japan c.  1895 or 1898. It showed members of the Revive China Society with Yeung Ku-wan as president, in the place of honor, and Sun, as secretary, on the back row, along with members of the Japanese Chapter of the Revive China Society. When told that it was not for sale, Chiang offered a million dollars to recover the photo and its negative, "The party must have this picture and

1521-411: A prosperous family of salt merchants . Chiang's father died when he was eight, and he wrote of his mother as the "embodiment of Confucian virtues ". The young Chiang was inspired throughout his youth by the realization that the reputation of an honored family rested upon his shoulders. He was a naughty child. At a young age he was interested in the military. As he grew older, Chiang became more aware of

1638-499: A rock', is the beginning of line 2 of Hexagram 16 , " 豫 ". Others note that the first character of his courtesy name is also the first character of the courtesy name of his brother and other male relatives on the same generational line, while the second character of his courtesy name shih ( 石 —meaning "stone") suggests the second character of his "register name" tai ( 泰 —the famous Mount Tai ). Courtesy names in China often bore

1755-457: A town in Yixing , Jiangsu, about 38 km (24 mi) southwest of central Wuxi and 10 km (6.2 mi) from the shores of Lake Tai . He was the third child and second son of his father Chiang Chao-Tsung  [ zh ] (also Chiang Su-an; 1842–1895; 蔣肇聰 ) and the first child of his father's third wife Wang Tsai-yu  [ zh ] (1863–1921; 王采玉 ) who were members of

1872-607: A way that had not been possible when the nation lacked an effective central government. Under that context, the Chinese Rural Reconstruction Movement was implemented by some social activists who graduated as professors of the United States with tangible but limited progress in modernizing the tax, infrastructural, economic, cultural, and educational equipment and the mechanisms of rural regions. The social activists actively co-ordinated with

1989-545: Is a county-level city in the southeast of Guangdong province, administered as a part of the prefecture-level city of Shanwei . It lies on the mainland on coast of the South China Sea east of Hong Kong . Under the Qing , the area was known as Lufeng County . Together with neighboring Haifeng and the now separated Luhe county now carved out from Lufeng, it formed the short-lived Hailufeng Soviet in 1927. It

2106-678: Is also criticized for his flooding of the Yellow River and for allowing the Honan Famine during the war with Japan. Chiang is also credited with transforming China from a semi-colony of various imperialist powers to an independent country by amending the unequal treaties signed by previous governments, as well as moving various national treasures and traditional artworks to the National Palace Museum in Taipei during

2223-688: Is spelled using a Cantonese transliteration he adopted as opposed to Hanyu Pinyin, though pinyin was adopted by the Republic of China government in 2009 as its official romanization. Chiang was born on 31 October 1887, in Hsikow , a town in Fenghua , Zhejiang , China, about 30 kilometers (19 mi) west of central Ningbo . He was born into a family of Wu Chinese-speaking people with their ancestral home —a concept important in Chinese society —in Heqiao,

2340-781: Is the name under which Chiang is still commonly known in Taiwan. Often the name is shortened to "Chung-cheng" only. Many public places in Taiwan are named Chungcheng after Chiang. For many years passengers arriving at the Chiang Kai-shek International Airport were greeted by signs in Chinese welcoming them to the "Chung Cheng International Airport". Similarly, the monument erected to Chiang's memory in Taipei, known in English as Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall ,

2457-444: The 1949 retreat . Like many other Chinese historical figures, Chiang used several names throughout his life. The name inscribed in the genealogical records of his family is Chiang Chou-t‘ai ( Chinese : 蔣周泰 ; pinyin : Jiǎng Zhōutài ; Wade–Giles : Chiang Chou -t‘ai ). This so-called "register name" ( 譜名 ) is the one by which his extended relatives knew him, and the one he used in formal occasions, such as when he

SECTION 20

#1732765592995

2574-655: The 19th Route Army ) that primarily led the offensive against the Japanese during the skirmish. Brought into the NRA immediately after the battle, the 19th Route Army's career under Chiang would be cut short by being disbanded for demonstrating socialist tendencies. In December 1936, Chiang flew to Xi'an to co-ordinate a major assault on the Red Army and the CPC, which had retreated into Yan'an . However, Chiang's allied commander Zhang Xueliang, whose forces were used in his attack and whose homeland of Manchuria had been recently invaded by

2691-781: The Canton Coup . The SS Yungfeng , renamed the Chung-shan in Sun's honour, had appeared off Changzhou , the location of the Whampoa Academy, on apparently-falsified orders and amid a series of unusual phone calls trying to ascertain Chiang's location. He initially considered fleeing Guangdong and even booked passage on a Japanese steamer but then decided to use his military connections to declare martial law on 20 March 1926 and to crack down on Communist and Soviet influence over

2808-670: The Chinese Red Army in 1934. The Communists, tipped off that a Nationalist offensive was imminent, retreated in the Long March during which Mao rose from a mere military official to the most influential leader of the Chinese Communist Party. Some academics and historians have classified Chiang's rule as fascist. The New Life Movement , initiated by Chiang, was based upon Confucianism mixed with Christianity, nationalism, and authoritarianism that have some similarities to fascism. Frederic Wakeman argued that

2925-654: The Manchu -dominated Ch‘ing dynasty unstable and in debt. Successive demands of the Western powers and Japan since the Opium War had left China owing millions of taels of silver. During his first visit to Japan to pursue a military career from April 1906 to later that year, he describes himself as having strong nationalistic feelings with a desire, among other things, to 'expel the Manchu Ch‘ing and to restore China'. In

3042-547: The Nanjing decade , various aspects of foreign imperialism, concessions and privileges in China were moderated by diplomacy. The government acted to modernize the legal and penal systems and attempted to stabilize prices, amortize debts, reform the banking and currency systems, build railroads and highways, improve public health facilities, legislate against traffic in narcotics, and augment industrial and agricultural production. Efforts were made to improve education standards, and

3159-656: The Republic of China on the island of Taiwan until his death in 1975. He was considered the legitimate head of China by the United Nations until 1971 . Born in Chekiang , Chiang received a military education in China and Japan and joined Sun Yat-sen 's Tungmenghui revolutionary organization in 1908. After the 1911 Revolution , he was a founding member of the KMT, becoming one of Sun's closest lieutenants and head of

3276-485: The SS Yungfeng , where Chiang joined them as soon as he could return from Shanghai, where he was ritually mourning his mother's death. For about 50 days, Chiang stayed with Sun, protecting and caring for him and earning his lasting trust. They abandoned their attacks on Chen on 9 August, taking a British ship to Hong Kong and traveling to Shanghai by steamer. Sun regained control of Canton in early 1923, again with

3393-610: The Second Sino-Japanese War , and over the next eight years led the war of resistance, mostly from Chungking . As the leader of a major Allied power , Chiang attended the Cairo Conference to discuss terms for the Japanese surrender . When the Second World War ended, the civil war with the Communists (led by Mao Zedong ) resumed; in 1949, Chiang's government was defeated and retreated to

3510-773: The Shanghai International Settlement police observed him and eventually charged him with various felonies. These charges never resulted in a trial, and Chiang was never jailed. Chiang became a founding member of the Nationalist Party (a forerunner of the KMT) after the success (February 1912) of the 1911 Revolution . After the takeover of the Republican government by Yuan Shikai and the failed Second Revolution in 1913, Chiang, like his KMT comrades, divided his time between exile in Japan and

3627-589: The Western Hills Group , began to show soon after the cleansing against the communists, and Chiang later imprisoned Hu. Though Chiang had consolidated the power of the KMT in Nanjing, it was still necessary to capture Beijing to claim the legitimacy needed for international recognition. Beijing was taken in June 1928, from an alliance of the warlords Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan . Yan Xishan moved in and captured Beiping on behalf of his new allegiance after

He Long - Misplaced Pages Continue

3744-773: The Whampoa Military Academy . After Sun's death in 1925, Chiang became commander-in-chief of the NRA, and led the Northern Expedition from 1926 to 1928, which nominally reunified China under a Nationalist government in Nanking . During the campaign, the KMT–CCP alliance broke down in 1927 and Chiang massacred the communists in Shanghai , triggering the Chinese Civil War . As the leader of

3861-566: The Wuchang uprising , Chiang returned to China in 1911, intending to fight as an artillery officer. He served in the revolutionary forces, leading a regiment in Shanghai under his friend and mentor Chen Qimei , as one of Chen's chief lieutenants. In early 1912 a dispute arose between Chen and Tao Chengzhang , an influential member of the Revolutionary Alliance who opposed both Sun Yat-sen and Chen. Tao sought to avoid escalating

3978-617: The Wukan protests , is also located in the Donghai subdistrict. Lufeng has a population of 1.7 million, mostly Han Chinese. More specifically, a considerable percentage of the population belong to the Minnan sub group; the rest are Teochews , Hakka and Ming Dynasty Jianghuai military speakers. Therefore, dialects of both Min Nan , Teochew and Hakka are spoken, in addition to Mandarin , which

4095-689: The attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Chinese Communists and many conservative anti-communist writers have argued that Chiang was pro-capitalist based on the alliance thesis (the alliance between Chiang and the capitalists to purge the communist and the leftist elements in Shanghai , as well as in the resulting civil war). However, Chiang also antagonized the capitalists of Shanghai by often attacking them and confiscating their capital and assets for government use even while he denounced and fought against communists. Critics have called that " bureaucratic capitalism ". Historian Parks M. Coble argues that

4212-620: The death of Zhang Zuolin in 1928. His successor, Zhang Xueliang , accepted the authority of the KMT leadership, and the Northern Expedition officially concluded, completing Chiang's nominal unification of China and ending the Warlord Era . After the Northern Expedition ended in 1928, Yan, Feng, Li Zongren and Zhang Fakui broke off relations with Chiang shortly after a demilitarization conference in 1929, and together they formed an anti-Chiang coalition to openly challenge

4329-515: The island of Taiwan , where he imposed martial law and persecuted critics in the White Terror , which lasted until his death. Presiding over a period of economic reforms and prosperity , from 1948 Chiang won five elections to six-year terms as President of the ROC in which he faced minimal opposition or was elected unopposed. He was also Director-General of the KMT until his death in 1975, and

4446-618: The "biggest bandit". He was the second highest-ranking member of the Military Affairs Commission at the time that he was purged, and the method in which he and those close to him were purged set the pattern for multiple later purges of the PLA leadership throughout the Cultural Revolution. After being purged, He was placed under indefinite house arrest for the last two and a half years of his life. He described

4563-617: The 1st Division, 9th Corps of the National Revolutionary Army. He served under Zhang Fakui during the Northern Expedition. In late 1926 He joined the CCP. In 1927, after the collapse of Wang Jingwei 's leftist Kuomintang government in Wuhan and Chiang Kai-shek's suppression of communists , He left the Kuomintang and joined the Communists, commanding the 20th Corps, 1st Column of the Red Army. He and Zhu De planned and led

4680-491: The Comintern, but returned at Sun's demand, and accepted Chou En-lai as his political commissar. The early years at Whampoa allowed Chiang to cultivate a cadre of young officers loyal to both the KMT and himself. Throughout his rise to power, Chiang also benefited from membership within the nationalist Tien-ti-hui fraternity, to which Sun Yat-sen also belonged, and which remained a source of support during his leadership of

4797-409: The Communists and their Soviet advisers led to the beginning of the Chinese Civil War . Wang Jingwei's National Government was weak militarily, and was soon ended by Chiang with the support of a local warlord ( Li Zongren of Guangxi ). Eventually, Wang and his leftist party surrendered to Chiang and joined him in Nanjing. However, the cracks between Chiang and Hu's traditionally Right-Wing KMT faction,

He Long - Misplaced Pages Continue

4914-536: The Dang Guo of the KMT. Any successes that the Nationalists achieved, however, were met with constant political and military upheavals. Many of the urban areas were now under the control of the KMT, but much of the countryside remained under the influence of weakened-but -undefeated warlords, landlords, and Communists. Chiang often resolved issues of warlord obstinacy through military action, but such action

5031-585: The Japanese army and Kuomintang-affiliated guerrillas in Hubei . He's responsibilities increased during the Second Sino-Japanese War , and in 1943 he was promoted to be the overall commander of Communist forces in Shanxi , Shaanxi, Gansu , Ningxia , and Inner Mongolia . By the end of World War II He commanded a force of approximately 175,000 troops across northwestern China. He's most notable subordinates included Zhang Zongxun , Xu Guangda , and Peng Shaohui . He

5148-421: The Japanese, did not support the attack on the Communists. On 12 December, Zhang and several other Nationalist generals, headed by Yang Hucheng of Shaanxi kidnapped Chiang for two weeks in what is known as the Xi'an Incident . They forced Chiang into making a " Second United Front " with the Communists against Japan. After releasing Chiang and returning to Nanjing with him, Zhang was placed under house arrest, and

5265-407: The KMT, and Canton Governor Chen Chiung-ming , who wanted to implement a federalist system with Canton as a model province. On 16 June 1922 Ye Ju , a general of Chen's whom Sun had attempted to exile, led an assault on Canton's Presidential Palace . Sun had already fled to the naval yard and boarded the SS Haichi , but his wife narrowly evaded shelling and rifle-fire as she fled. They met on

5382-399: The KMT. Only 2,000 survivors eventually returned to fight for the Communists in 1928, when Zhu reformed his forces in Hunan. After his forces were defeated, He fled to Lufeng, Guangdong . He spent some time in Hong Kong , but was later sent by the CCP to Shanghai , then to Wuhan. Chiang Kai-shek continuously tried to persuade him rejoin the Kuomintang , but failed. After the failure of

5499-417: The Kuomintang and the Japanese led him to question Mao's unconditional emphasis on the importance of ideological guerrilla warfare at the expense of conventional tactics and military organization. In October 1945, one month after the Japanese surrender, the command of He's forces was transferred to Peng Dehuai , which operated as the "Northwest Field Army". He became Peng's second-in-command, but spent most of

5616-430: The Kuomintang was partially due to his position on the periphery of Communist-controlled territory. While on the Long March He's forces met Communist forces led by Zhang Guotao in June 1936, but both He and Ren disagreed with Zhang about the direction of the Long March, and He eventually led his forces into Shaanxi to join Mao Zedong by the end of 1936. In 1937 He settled his troops in northwestern Shaanxi and established

5733-403: The Kuomintang. Sun Yat-sen died on 12 March 1925, creating a power vacuum in the Kuomintang. A contest ensued among Wang Ching-wei , Liao Chung-k‘ai , and Hu Han-min . In August, Liao was assassinated and Hu was arrested for his connections to the murderers. Wang Ching-wei , who had succeeded Sun as chairman of the Canton regime, seemed ascendant but was forced into exile by Chiang following

5850-484: The Nanchang Uprising, He turned down an offer by the CCP Central Committee to study in Russia and returned to Hunan, where he raised a new force in 1930. His force controlled a broad area of the countryside in the Hunan-Hubei border region, around the area of Lake Hong , and organized this area into a rural soviet. In mid-1932 Kuomintang forces targeted He's soviet as part of the Fourth Encirclement Campaign . He's forces abandoned their bases, moved southwest, and established

5967-421: The National Revolutionary Army, the military academy, and the party. The right wing of the party supported him, and Joseph Stalin , anxious to maintain Soviet influence in the area, had his lieutenants agree to Chiang's demands on a reduced Communist presence in the KMT leadership in exchange for certain other concessions. The rapid replacement of leadership enabled Chiang to effectively end civilian oversight of

SECTION 50

#1732765592995

6084-403: The Nationalist government but soon realized the widespread corruption. Military supplies that were sent appeared on the black market. Significant sums of money that had been transmitted through T. V. Soong, China's finance minister, soon disappeared. President Truman famously referred to the Nationalist leaders, "They're thieves, every damn one of them." He also said, "They stole $ 750 million out of

6201-453: The Nationalist government ultimately lay with Chiang. All major policy changes on military, diplomatic, or economic issues required his approval. According to historian Odd Arne Westad , "no other leader within the [KMT] had the authority to force through even the simplest decisions. The practical power of high-ranking officials like ministers or the head of the Executive Yuan was more closely tied to their relationship with Chiang than with

6318-466: The New Life Movement was " Confucian fascism ". Chiang also sponsored the creation of the Blue Shirts Society , in conscious imitation of the Blackshirts in the Italian Fascist Party and the Sturmabteilung of the Nazi Party. Its ideology was to expel foreign (Japanese and Western) imperialists from China and to crush communism. Close ties with Nazi Germany also gave the Nationalist government access to German military and economic assistance during

6435-434: The ROC during the Nanking decade , Chiang sought to modernise and unify the nation, although hostilities with the CCP continued. His government presided over economic and social reconstruction while trying to avoid a war with Japan. In 1936, he was kidnapped in the Sian Incident , and obliged to form an anti-Japanese Second United Front with the CCP. After the Marco Polo Bridge incident in 1937, Chiang mobilised China for

6552-481: The abolition of polygamy and foot binding . Under Chiang's leadership, the Republic of China government also enacted a women's quota in the parliament, with reserved seats for women. During the Nanjing Decade, average Chinese citizens received education that they had been denied by the dynasties. That increased the literacy rate across China and also promoted the ideals of Tridemism of democracy, republicanism, science, constitutionalism, and Chinese nationalism based on

6669-408: The anti-capitalist rhetoric of Sun Yat-sen and directed the Kuomintang media to attack the capitalists and capitalism openly. He supported government-controlled industries instead. Coble says that the rhetoric had no impact on governmental policy and that its use was to prevent the capitalists from claiming legitimacy within the party or society and to control them and their wealth. Authority within

6786-440: The battle dispelled Japan's claims that it could conquer China in three months and also demonstrated to the Western powers that the Chinese would continue the fight. By December, the capital city of Nanjing had fallen to the Japanese resulting in the Nanjing Massacre . Chiang moved the government inland first to Wuhan and later to Chongqing. Lufeng, Guangdong Lufeng , alternately romanized as Lukfung in Cantonese,

6903-418: The billions that we sent to Chiang. They stole it, and it's invested in real estate down in São Paolo and some right here in New York." Soong Mei-ling and Soong Ai-ling lived luxurious lifestyles and held millions in property, clothes, art, and jewelry. Soong Ai-ling and Soong Mei-ling were also the two richest women in China. Despite living a luxurious life for almost her entire life, Soong Mei-ling left only

7020-409: The civil war in 1949, He spent most of the 1950s in both civilian and military roles in the southwest. He's military accomplishments were recognized when he was promoted to being one of the Ten Marshals in 1955, and he served in a number of civilian positions. He was made Vice Premier . He headed the National Sports Commission , and in that role facilitated sports exchanges with the Soviet Union and

7137-402: The conditions of his imprisonment as a period of slow torture, in which his captors "intended to destroy my health so that they can murder me without spilling my blood". During the years that he was imprisoned, his captors restricted his access to water, cut off his house's heat during the winter, and refused him access to medicine to treat his diabetes. He died in 1969 after being hospitalized for

SECTION 60

#1732765592995

7254-488: The course of the 1930s and the 1940s when the Nationalist government's revenues were less than $ 30 million per year. The Soong family's eldest son, T.V. Soong , was the Chinese premier and finance minister, and the eldest daughter, Soong Ai-ling , was the wife of Kung Hsiang-hsi , the wealthiest man in China. The second daughter, Soong Ching-ling , was the wife of Sun Yat-sen, China's founding father. The youngest daughter, Soong Mei-ling, married Chiang in 1927, and following

7371-399: The eastern European countries. He was one of the most well-traveled members of the CCP elite, and led numerous delegations abroad, meeting with leaders of other Asian countries, the Soviet Union , and East Germany . After Mao Zedong purged Peng Dehuai in 1959, Mao appointed He to the head of an office to investigate Peng's past and find reasons to criticize Peng. He accepted the position but

7488-414: The exiled Chinese Revolutionary Party. In 1917, Sun Yat-sen moved his base of operations to Canton, where Chiang joined him in 1918. At this time Sun remained largely sidelined; without arms or money, he was soon expelled from the city and exiled again to Shanghai, only to return to Canton with mercenary help in 1920. After his return, a rift developed between Sun, who sought to militarily unify China under

7605-430: The first decades of his life (as a person grew older, younger generations would use one of the courtesy names instead). Colloquially, the school name is called "big name" ( 大名 ), whereas the "milk name" is known as the "small name" ( 小名 ). The school name that Chiang chose for himself was Chih-ch‘ing ( Chinese : 志清 ; pinyin : Zhīqīng ; Wade–Giles : Chih-ch‘ing , which means "purity of aspirations"). For

7722-528: The foreign great powers with suspicion, wrote in a letter that they "all have it in their minds to promote the interests of their own respective countries at the cost of other nations" and saw it as hypocritical for any of them to condemn one another's foreign policy. He used diplomatic persuasion on the United States, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union to regain lost Chinese territories, as he viewed all foreign powers as imperialists that were attempting to exploit China. During April 1931, Chiang Kai-shek attended

7839-470: The formal authority of their position. Chiang created multiple layers of power in his administration which he sometimes played off against each other to prevent individuals or cliques from gathering power that could oppose his authority. Contrary to the critique that Chiang was highly corrupt, he was not involved in corruption himself. However his wife, Soong Mei-ling, ignored her family's involvement in corruption. The Soong family embezzled $ 20 million in

7956-454: The generals who had assisted him were executed. The Second United Front had a commitment by Chiang that was nominal at best and was all but dissolved in 1941. The Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in July 1937, and in August, Chiang sent 600,000 of his best-trained and equipped soldiers to defend Shanghai . With over 200,000 Chinese casualties, Chiang lost the political cream of his Whampoa -trained officers. Although Chiang lost militarily,

8073-494: The havens of the Shanghai International Settlement . In Shanghai, Chiang cultivated ties with the city's underworld gangs, which were dominated by the notorious Green Gang and its leader Du Yuesheng. On 18 May 1916 agents of Yuan Shikai assassinated Chen Qimei. Chiang then succeeded Chen as leader of the Chinese Revolutionary Party in Shanghai. Sun Yat-sen's political career reached its lowest point during this time—most of his old Revolutionary Alliance comrades refused to join him in

8190-426: The help of mercenaries from Yunnan and of the Comintern . Undertaking a reform of the KMT, he established a revolutionary government aimed at unifying China under the KMT. That same year Sun sent Chiang to Moscow, where he spent three months studying the Soviet political and military system. There Chiang met Leon Trotsky and other Soviet leaders, but quickly came to the conclusion that the Russian model of government

8307-404: The infant shortly after his birth and known only to the close family. So the name that Chiang received at birth was Chiang Jui-yüan ( Chinese : 蔣瑞元 ; pinyin : Jiǎng Ruìyuán ). In 1903, the 16-year-old Chiang went to Ningbo as a student, and chose a " school name " ( 學名 ). This was the formal name of a person, used by older people to address him, and the one he would use the most in

8424-576: The influence of compatriots to support the revolutionary movement to overthrow the Manchu -dominated Qing dynasty and to set up a Han -dominated Chinese republic. He befriended Chen Qimei , and in 1908 Chen brought Chiang into the Tungmenghui , an important revolutionary brotherhood of the era. Finishing his military schooling at Tokyo Shinbu Gakko, Chiang served in the Imperial Japanese Army from 1909 to 1911. After learning of

8541-618: The issues that surrounded him and in his speech to the Kuomintang in 1945 said: As you all know I was an orphan boy in a poor family. Deprived of any protection after the death of her husband, my mother was exposed to the most ruthless exploitation by neighbouring ruffians and the local gentry. The efforts she made in fighting against the intrigues of these family intruders certainly endowed her child, brought up in such an environment, with an indomitable spirit to fight for justice. I felt throughout my childhood that my mother and I were fighting

8658-632: The legitimacy of the Nanjing government. In the Central Plains War , they were defeated. Chiang made great efforts to gain recognition as the official successor of Sun Yat-sen. In a pairing of great political significance, Chiang was Sun's brother-in-law. He had married Soong Mei-ling , the younger sister of Soong Ching-ling , Sun's widow, on 1 December 1927. Originally rebuffed in the early 1920s, Chiang managed to ingratiate himself to some degree with Soong Mei-ling's mother by first divorcing his wife and concubines and promising to sincerely study

8775-515: The local governments in the towns and villages since the early 1930s. However, the policy was subsequently neglected and canceled by Chiang's government because of rampant wars and the lack of resources after the Japanese War and the civil war. Despite being a conservative, Chiang supported modernization policies such as scientific advancement, universal education, and women's rights. The Kuomintang supported women's suffrage and education and

8892-605: The main force of the Nanchang Uprising in 1927. In the Nanchang Uprising He and Zhu led a combined force of 24,000 men and attempted to seize the city of Nanchang , but they were not able to secure it against the inevitable Kuomintang attempt to retake the city. The campaign suffered from logistical difficulties, and the communists suffered 50% casualties in the two months of fighting. Most of He's soldiers who survived surrendered, deserted, and/or rejoined

9009-405: The marriage, both families became intimately connected, which created the "Soong dynasty" and the "Four Families". However, Soong was also credited for her campaign for women's rights in China, including her attempts to improve the education, culture, and social benefits of Chinese women. Critics have said that the "Four Families" monopolized the regime and looted it. The US sent considerable aid to

9126-538: The mid-1930s. In a 1935 speech, Chiang stated that "fascism is what China now most needs" and described fascism as the stimulant for a declining society. Mao once derogatorily compared Chiang to Adolf Hitler, referring to him as the "Führer of China". Sino-German relations rapidly deteriorated as Germany grew closer to Japan and almost completely broke down when Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China in 1937, which Germany failed to mediate. However, China did not declare war on Germany, Italy, or even Japan until after

9243-518: The military after 15 May, though his authority was somewhat limited by the army's own regional composition and divided loyalties. On 5 June 1926, he was named commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army [NRA] and, on 27 July, he finally launched Sun's long-delayed Northern Expedition , aimed at conquering the northern warlords and bringing China together under the KMT. The NRA branched into three divisions: to

9360-411: The name Chung-cheng, he was choosing a name very similar to the name of Sun Yat-sen, who is known among Chinese as Chung-shan ( 中山 —meaning "central mountain"), thus establishing a link between the two. The meaning of uprightness, rectitude, or orthodoxy, implied by his name, also positioned him as the legitimate heir of Sun Yat-sen and his ideas. It was readily accepted by members of the Kuomintang , and

9477-468: The national academy of sciences, Academia Sinica , was founded. In an effort to unify Chinese society, the New Life Movement was launched to encourage Confucian moral values and personal discipline. Guoyu ("national language") was promoted as the official language, and the establishment of communications facilities (including radio) was used to encourage a sense of Chinese nationalism in

9594-482: The national government as having moved to Wuhan. In 1927, when he was setting up the Nationalist government in Nanjing, he was preoccupied with "the elevation of our leader Dr. Sun Yat-sen to the rank of 'Father of our Chinese Republic'. Dr. Sun worked for 40 years to lead our people in the Nationalist cause, and we cannot allow any other personality to usurp this honored position". He asked Chen Guofu to purchase

9711-574: The negative at any price. They must be destroyed as soon as possible. It would be embarrassing to have our Father of the Chinese Republic shown in a subordinate position". On 12 April 1927, Chiang carried out a purge of thousands of suspected Communists and dissidents in Shanghai, and began large-scale massacres across the country collectively known as the "White Terror" . During April, more than 12,000 people were killed in Shanghai. The killings drove most Communists from urban cities and into

9828-667: The new capital of Nanjing to be enshrined in a mausoleum, the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum . In the West and in the Soviet Union, Chiang Kai-shek was known as the "Red General". Movie theaters in the Soviet Union showed newsreels and clips of Chiang. At Moscow, Sun Yat-sen University portraits of Chiang were hung on the walls; and, in the Soviet May Day parades that year, Chiang's portrait was to be carried along with

9945-519: The next fifteen years or so, Chiang was known as Chiang Chih-ch‘ing Chinese : 蔣志清 ; pinyin : Jiang Zhīqīng ; Wade–Giles : Chiang Chih -ch‘ing . This is the name by which Sun Yat-sen knew him when Chiang joined the republicans in Kwangtung in the 1910s. In 1912, when Chiang was in Japan, he started to use the name Chiang Kai-shek ( Chinese : 蔣介石 ; pinyin : Jiǎng Jièshí ; Wade–Giles : Chiang Chieh -shih ) as

10062-521: The phrase "bureaucratic capitalism" is too simplistic to adequately characterize this phenomenon. Instead, he says, the regime weakened all social forces so that the government could pursue policies without being responsible nor responsive to any outside political groups. By defeating any potential challenge to its power, government officials could amass sizable fortunes. With that motive, Chiang cracked down pro-communist worker and peasant organizations, as well as rich Shanghai capitalists. Chiang also continued

10179-477: The portraits of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and other Communist leaders. The United States consulate and other Westerners in Shanghai were concerned about the approach of "Red General" Chiang as his army was seizing control of large areas of the country in the Northern Expedition. Having gained control of China, Chiang's party remained surrounded by defeated warlords who remained relatively autonomous within their own regions. On 10 October 1928, Chiang

10296-655: The precepts of Christianity. He read the copy of the Bible that May-ling had given him twice before making up his mind to become a Christian, and three years after his marriage he was baptized in the Soong's Methodist church. Although some observers felt that he adopted Christianity as a political move, studies of his recently opened diaries suggest that his faith was strong and sincere and that he felt that Christianity reinforced Confucian moral teachings. Upon reaching Beijing, Chiang paid homage to Sun Yat-sen and had his body moved to

10413-510: The purge. The NRA formed by the KMT swept through southern and central China until it was checked in Shandong , where confrontations with the Japanese garrison escalated into armed conflict. The conflicts were collectively known as the Jinan incident of 1928. Now with an established national government in Nanjing, and supported by conservative allies including Hu Hanmin, Chiang's expulsion of

10530-590: The quarrel by hiding in a hospital, but Chiang discovered him there. Chen dispatched assassins. Chiang may not have taken part in the assassination, but would later assume responsibility to help Chen avoid trouble. Chen valued Chiang despite Chiang's already legendary temper, regarding such bellicosity as useful in a military leader. Chiang's friendship with Chen Qimei signaled an association with Shanghai's criminal syndicate (the Green Gang headed by Du Yuesheng and Huang Jinrong ). During Chiang's time in Shanghai,

10647-685: The rest of the Chinese Civil War in central CCP headquarters, in and around Yan'an . After the Japanese surrender, in 1945, He was elected to the CCP Central Committee , and his influence rose within both the military and the communist political system. Near the end of the Chinese Civil War He was promoted to command the First Field Army , which was active in Southwest China . After the Communists won

10764-682: The rural countryside, where the KMT was less powerful. In the year after April 1927, over 300,000 people died across China in the anti-communist suppression campaigns, executed by the KMT. One of the most famous quotes from Chiang (during that time) was, that he would rather mistakenly kill 1,000 innocent people, than allow one Communist to escape. Some estimates claim the White Terror in China took millions of lives, most of them in rural areas. No concrete number can be verified. Chiang allowed Soviet agent and advisor Mikhail Borodin and Soviet general Vasily Blücher (Galens) to "escape" to safety after

10881-7478: The severe malnutrition that he developed while under house arrest. He died soon after being admitted to hospital, after a glucose injection complicated his chronic diabetes. He was posthumously partially rehabilitated by Mao in 1974, then fully rehabilitated after Deng Xiaoping came to power in the late 1970s. A stadium in Changsha was named after him in 1987. Zhu De Peng Dehuai Lin Biao Liu Bocheng He Long Chen Yi Luo Ronghuan Xu Xiangqian Nie Rongzhen Ye Jianying 0 1 Internal Affairs Xie Juezai 0 2 Ministry of Foreign Affairs Zhou Enlai 0 3 Ministry of National Defense Peng Dehuai 0 4 Ministry of Public Security Luo Ruiqing 0 5 Ministry of Justice Shi Liang ♀ 0 6 Ministry of Supervision Qian Ying ♀ 0 7 State Planning Commission Li Fuchun 0 8 State Infrastructure Commission Bo Yibo → Wang Heshou 0 9 Ministry of Finance Li Xiannian 0 10 Ministry of Food Zhang Naiqi 0 11 Ministry of Commerce Zeng Shan 0 12 Ministry of Foreign Trade Ye Jizhuang 0 13 Ministry of Heavy Industry/ Ministry of Metallurgical Industry Wang Heshou 0 14 Ministry of Chemical Industry Peng Tao 0 15 Ministry of Building Materials Industry Lai Jifa 0 16 First Ministry of Machine Building Huang Jing 0 17 Second Ministry of Machine Building Zhao Erlu 0 18 Ministry Of Fuel Industries Chen Yu 0 19 Ministry of Geology Li Siguang 0 20 Ministry of Building Construction Liu Xiufeng 0 21 Ministry of Textile Industry Jiang Guangnai 0 22 Ministry of Light Industry Jia Tuofu → Sha Qianli 0 23 Ministry of Local Industry Sha Qianli 0 24 Ministry of Railways Teng Daiyuan 0 25 Ministry of Transport Zhang Bojun 0 26 Ministry of Posts & Telecommunications Zhu Xuefan 0 27 Ministry of Agriculture Liao Luyan 0 28 Ministry of Forestry Liang Xi 0 29 Ministry of Water Resources Fu Zuoyi 0 30 Ministry of Labor Ma Wenrui 0 31 Ministry of Culture Shen Yanbing 0 32 Ministry of Higher Education Yang Xiufeng 0 33 Ministry of Education Zhang Xiruo 0 34 Ministry of Health Li Dequan ♀ 0 35 Commission for Physical Culture and Sports He Long 0 36 Ethnic Affairs Commission Ulanhu 0 37 Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission He Xiangning ♀ 0 38 Third Ministry of Machine Building Zhang Linzhi 0 39 National Economic Commission Bo Yibo 0 40 National Technical Commission Huang Jing 0 41 Ministry of Urban Development Wan Li 0 42 Ministry of Food Industry Li Zhuchen 0 43 Ministry of Aquatic Products Xu Deheng 0 44 Ministry of State Farms and Land Reclamation Wang Zhen 0 45 Ministry of Timber Industry Luo Longji 0 1 Internal Affairs Qian Ying → Zeng Shan 0 2 Foreign Affairs Chen Yi 0 3 National Defense Peng Dehuai → Lin Biao 0 4 Public Security Luo Ruiqing → Xie Fuzhi 0 5 National Basic Construction Commission Chen Yun 0 6 State Planning Commission Li Fuchun 0 7 National Economic Commission Bo Yibo 0 8 National Science and Technology Commission Nie Rongzhen 0 9 Finance Li Xiannian 0 10 Food Sha Qianli 0 11 Commerce Cheng Zihua → Yao Yilin 0 12 Foreign Trade Ye Jizhuang 0 13 Aquatic Products Xu Deheng 0 14 Metallurgical Industry Wang Heshou 0 15 Chemical Industry Peng Tao 0 16 First Ministry of Machine Building Zhao Erlu → Duan Junyi 0 17 Second Ministry of Machine Building Song Renqiong → Liu Jie 0 18 Coal Industry Zhang Linzhi 0 19 Petroleum Industry Yu Qiuli 0 20 Geology Li Siguang 0 21 Building Construction Liu Xiufeng 0 22 Textile Industry Jiang Guangnai 0 23 Light Industry Li Zhuchen 0 24 Railways Teng Daiyuan 0 25 Transport Wang Shoudao 0 26 Posts & Telecommunications Zhu Xuefan 0 27 Ministry of Agriculture Liao Luyan 0 28 State Farms and Land Reclamation Wang Zhen 0 29 Forestry Liu Wenhui 0 30 Water Resources and Electric Power Fu Zuoyi 0 31 Labor Ma Wenrui 0 32 Culture Mao Dun 0 33 Education Yang Xiufeng 0 34 Ministry of Health Li Dequan ♀ 0 35 Commission for Physical Culture and Sports He Long 0 36 Ethnic Affairs Commission Ulanhu 0 37 Foreign Cultural Liaison Commission Zhang Xiruo 0 38 Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission Liao Chengzhi 0 39 Agricultural Machinery Chen Zhengren 0 40 Machinery Industry Zhang Liankui → Sun Zhiyuan 0 1 Foreign Affairs Chen Yi 0 2 National Defense Lin Biao 0 3 State Planning Commission Li Fuchun 0 4 National Economic Commission Bo Yibo 0 5 Science and Technology Commission Nie Rongzhen 0 6 Public Security Xie Fuzhi 0 7 Internal Affairs Zeng Shan 0 8 Ethnic Affairs Commission Ulanhu 0 9 Ministry of Agriculture Liao Luyan 0 10 State Farms and Land Reclamation Wang Zhen 0 11 Forestry Liu Wenhui 0 12 Aquatic Products Xu Deheng 0 13 Metallurgical Industry Lü Dong 0 14 Chemical Industry Gao Yang 0 15 First Ministry of Machine Building Duan Junyi 0 16 Second Ministry of Machine Building Liu Jie 0 17 Third Ministry of Machine Building Sun Zhiyuan 0 18 Fourth Ministry of Machine Building Wang Zheng  [ zh ] 0 19 Fifth Ministry of Machine Building Qiu Chuangcheng 0 20 Sixth Ministry of Machine Building Fang Qiang  [ zh ] 0 21 Seventh Ministry of Machine Building Wang Bingzhang 0 22 Eighth Ministry of Machine Building Chen Zhengren 0 23 Coal Industry Zhang Linzhi 0 24 Petroleum and Chemical Industries Yu Qiuli 0 25 Water Resources and Electric Power Fu Zuoyi 0 26 Geology Li Siguang 0 27 Building Construction Li Renjun  [ zh ] → Liu Yumin  [ zh ] 0 28 Building Materials Industry Lai Jifa 0 29 Textile Industry Jiang Guangnai 0 30 Light Industry Li Zhuchen 0 31 Railways Lü Zhengcao 0 32 Transport Sun Daguang 0 33 Posts & Telecommunications Zhu Xuefan 0 33 Material Management Yuan Baohua 0 34 Labor Ma Wenrui 0 35 Finance Li Xiannian 0 36 Food Sha Qianli 0 37 Ministry of Commerce Yao Yilin 0 38 Foreign Trade Ye Jizhuang 0 39 Culture Lu Dingyi 0 40 Education He Wei  [ zh ] 0 41 Higher Education Jiang Nanxiang 0 42 Ministry of Health Qian Xinzhong 0 43 Commission for Physical Culture and Sports He Long 0 44 Foreign Cultural Liaison Committee Zhang Xiruo 0 45 Foreign Economic Liaison Committee Fang Yi 0 46 Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission Liao Chengzhi 0 47 Second Ministry of Light Industry Xu Yunbei 0 48 National Basic Construction Commission Gu Mu Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975)

10998-574: The spirit of public sanitation that Japan had. Chiang decided to pursue a military career. He began his military training at the Baoding Military Academy in 1906, the same year Japan left its bimetallic currency standard, devaluing the Japanese yen . He left for Tokyo Shinbu Gakko , a preparatory school for the Imperial Japanese Army Academy intended for Chinese students, in 1907. There, he came under

11115-517: The strategy of the Red Army and led his forces to join and support Mao. After settling and establishing a headquarters in Shaanxi , He led guerrilla forces in Northwest China in both the Chinese Civil War and the Second Sino-Japanese War , and was generally successful in expanding areas of Communist control. He commanded a force of 170,000 troops forces by the end of 1945, when his force

11232-602: The victory of the Chinese Communist Party were recognized when he was named one of the Ten Marshals , and he served as China's vice premier . He did not support Mao Zedong's attempts to purge Peng Dehuai in 1959 and attempted to rehabilitate Peng. After the Cultural Revolution was declared in 1966, he was one of the first leaders of the PLA to be purged. He died in 1969 when a glucose injection provided by his jailers complicated his untreated diabetes. He Long

11349-582: The village leaders died in the police custody . The police blocked the roads leading to the village. As of 2005 year's end, the city comprises three urban subdistricts and 17 towns . These are organised into 47 neighbourhood committees and 280 village committees . The city's executive, legislature and judiciary are located in the Donghai Subdistrict ( 东海 街道 ), together with the CPC subbranch and PSB suboffice. Wukan Village , site of

11466-529: The west was the returned Wang Jingwei, who led a column to take Wuhan ; Bai Chongxi 's column went east to take Shanghai; Chiang himself led in the middle route, planning to take Nanjing before pressing ahead to capture Beijing . However, in January 1927, Wang Jingwei and his KMT leftist allies took the city of Wuhan amid much popular mobilization and fanfare. Allied with a number of Chinese Communists and advised by Soviet agent Mikhail Borodin , Wang declared

11583-900: The widespread problems that corruption was creating and so he undertook several anti-corruption campaigns before and after World War II with varying success. Before the war, both campaigns, the Nanjing Decade Cleanup of 1927–1930 and the Wartime Reform Movement of 1944–1947, failed. After the World War II and the Civil War, both campaigns, the Kuomintang Reconstruction of 1950–1952 and the Governmental Rejuvenation of 1969–1973, succeeded. Chiang, who viewed all of

11700-479: Was 20 he killed a local government tax assessor who had killed his uncle for defaulting on his taxes. He then fled and became an outlaw, giving rise to the legend that he began his revolutionary career with just two kitchen knives. After beginning his life as an outlaw he gained a reputation as a " Robin Hood -like figure". His signature weapon was a butcher knife. Around 1918 He raised a volunteer revolutionary army that

11817-570: Was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and military commander who was the leader of the Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) party and commander-in-chief and Generalissimo of the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) from 1926, and leader of the Republic of China (ROC) in mainland China from 1928. After Chiang was defeated in the Chinese Civil War by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1949, he continued to lead

11934-562: Was a member of the Tujia ethnic group. Born in the Sangzhi , Hunan , he and his siblings, including He Ying , grew up in a poor peasant household, despite his father being a minor Qing military officer. His father was a member of the Gelaohui (Elder Brother Society), a secret society dating back to the early Qing dynasty. A cowherd during his youth, he received no formal education. When He

12051-582: Was a native Wu speaker ) became known by Westerners under the Cantonese romanisation of his courtesy name, while the family name as known in English seems to be the Mandarin pronunciation of his Chinese family name, transliterated in Wade–Giles. "Kai-shek" soon became Chiang's courtesy name ( 字 ). Some think the name was chosen from the classic Chinese book the I Ching ; "介于石" ; '[he who is] firm as

12168-473: Was accused of a mutiny in feb 1964, after a Soviet Union trip with Zhou Enlai. The Soviet were unhappy, with China direction. Cultural revolution followed soon after, to purged communist and rightist leanings in China. Jiang Qing denounced He in December 1966 of being a "rightist" and of intra-CCP factionalism. Following Jiang's accusations He and his supporters were branded an anti-CCP element and quickly purged. He's persecutors singled him out by labeling him

12285-493: Was aligned with a local Hunan warlord, and in 1920, his personal army joined the National Revolutionary Army . In 1923 He was promoted to command the Nationalist Twentieth Army. In 1925 He ran a school for training Kuomintang soldiers. While running this school, He became close with some of his students who were also Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members. During the 1926 Northern Expedition , He commanded

12402-419: Was costly in terms of men and material. The Central Plains War alone nearly bankrupted the Nationalist government and caused almost 250,000 casualties on both sides. In 1931, Hu Hanmin, an old supporter of Chiang, publicly voiced a popular concern that Chiang's position as both premier and president flew in the face of the democratic ideals of the Nationalist government. Chiang had Hu put under house arrest, but Hu

12519-617: Was later promoted to county-level city status. The area rose to prominence in the early 21st century as a scene of unrest. Jieshi saw serious inter-village violence over road use in October 2009 and March 2010 and, in September 2011, a series of protests or riots occurred in Wukan Village over allegations of Communist Party members unfairly selling farmers' land for development. Fresh protests broke out in December, when one of

12636-464: Was married. In deference to tradition, family members did not use the register name in conversation with people outside of the family. The concept of a "real" or original name is/was not as clear-cut in China as it is in the Western world. In honor of tradition, Chinese families waited a number of years before officially naming their children. In the meantime, they used a " milk name " ( 乳名 ), given to

12753-406: Was named "Chung Cheng Memorial Hall" in Chinese. In Singapore, Chung Cheng High School was named after him. His name is also written in the free area of the Republic of China as "The Late President Honorable Chiang" ( 先總統 蔣公 ), where the one-character-wide space in front of his name known as Nuo tai shows respect. He is often called Honorable Chiang . The "Chiang Kai-shek" in this article

12870-473: Was named director of the State Council, the equivalent to President of the country, in addition to his other titles. As with his predecessor Sun Yat-sen, the Western media dubbed him "generalissimo". According to Sun Yat-sen's plans, the KMT was to rebuild China in three steps: military rule , political tutelage , and constitutional rule . The ultimate goal of the KMT revolution was democracy, which

12987-469: Was not considered to be feasible in China's fragmented state. Since the KMT had completed the first step of revolution through seizure of power in 1928, Chiang's rule thus began a period of what his party considered to be "political tutelage" in Sun Yat-sen's name. During this so-called Republican Era, many features of a modern, functional Chinese state emerged and developed. From 1928 to 1937, known as

13104-633: Was not suitable for China. Chiang later sent his eldest son, Chiang Ching-Kuo , to study in Russia. After his father's split from the First United Front in 1927, Ching-Kuo was retained there, as a hostage until 1937. Chiang wrote in his diary, "It is not worth it to sacrifice the interest of the country for the sake of my son." When Chiang returned in 1924 Sun appointed him Commandant of the Whampoa Military Academy . Chiang resigned after one month in disagreement with Sun's close cooperation with

13221-513: Was placed under the command of Peng Dehuai and He became Peng's second-in-command. He was placed in control of Southwest China in the late 1940s, and spent most of the 1950s in the Southwest administering the region in both civilian and military roles. He held a number of civilian and military positions after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. In 1955, his contributions to

13338-627: Was released after national condemnation. Hu then left Nanjing and supported a rival government in Canton. The split resulted in a military conflict between Hu's Guangdong government and Chiang's Nationalist government. Throughout his rule, complete eradication of the Communists remained Chiang's dream. After he had assembled his forces in Jiangxi , Chiang led his armies against the newly established Chinese Soviet Republic . With help from foreign military advisers such as Max Bauer and Alexander von Falkenhausen , Chiang's Fifth Campaign finally surrounded

13455-514: Was succeeded by his son Chiang Ching-kuo , who became president in 1978. Like Mao, Chiang is a controversial figure. Supporters credit him with unifying the nation and ending the Century of Humiliation , leading the resistance against Japan, and economic development in mainland China and Taiwan. Critics portray him as a brutal right-wing dictator and head of a corrupt authoritarian regime which massacred civilians and suppressed political dissent. He

13572-411: Was successful in expanding Communist base areas throughout the period of World War II. Part of He's success was due to the social confusion caused by Japan's Ichi-Go offensive in the areas of China that Japanese operations effected. He was frequently able to expand Communist areas of operation by allying with local, independent guerrilla forces who were also fighting the Japanese. He's experience fighting

13689-406: Was sympathetic to Peng, and stalled for over a year before submitting his report. Mao's prestige weakened when it became widely known that Mao's Great Leap Forward had been a disaster, and He eventually presented a report that was positive, and which attempted to vindicate Peng. Peng was partially rehabilitated in 1965, but then purged again at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution 1966. He long

#994005