[barbarian]

Can someone tell me more about Kuomintang's history? How was this party founded ? Who was the leader?

[RollingWave]

The founder of KMT is Dr.Sun Yat San who was a trained doctor and spent a good part of his youth in Hanalulu before returning to his homeland in GuangDong.

When Mr.Sun decided to become a revolutionist to overthrow the Qing dynasty he first formed the Chong Shing Hui 中興會, which kinda translate into the reemergence (of chinese power in the world) organization.

After several unsuccessful attempts at revolutions he and many other revolution organization met in Japan and decided to form the Alliance organization 同盟會, which became the bases of the KMT 國民黨(citizen's party or more commonly known as the nationalist party.. but kouming acturally translate into citizen.. or nationals...)

The transition from the revolution organization to a political party happened after the Qing emperor resigned under the pressure of Yuan Shi Kei 袁世凱, who made a secert deal with the revolutionist that if they let him be the president he will force the emperor to step down.

But the newly formed KMT soon faced major threats as their #2 man Song Jiao Ren 宋教仁 was almost openly assainated by Yuan Shi Kei, the KMT openly declared war on Yuan and China split apart once more..... even after Yuan's death the central government in beijing remained in the hands of warlords who more often used war than election to decide who holds the president and other seats....
the KMT decided they really want non of this and eventrually left to set up a opposing government in GuanDong... ironically this government is pretty much just as hijacked by warlord as the one in the north.....

Sun Yat San and the KMT realize that unless they had a army they will never be able to make a stand in this warlord ravaged country, so they formed the Huang Pu military acadamy in Shanghai and began to focus on building their own military forces, the first assigned principal of this school was non other than Chang Kai Shiek who will be one of two man that forged China's destiny for the comming decades.

I'm forgetting the dates here and don't have materials to check up on right now but by the late 1920s the Huang Pu army was ready, and the KMT had already subdued a number of warlords to the south, they decided that it was time to retake the north and Chang was ready to lead an expedition north, but at the same time Dr. Sun passed away from liver dieases and his last words were "The revolution has not yet succeeded, comrades we must fight on" "革命尚未成功, 同志仍需努力"

After Sun's passing, Chang led the expendition northward and with his much better trained/equiped army and some cunning diplomatic moves he was able to at least by name reunite all of China and install the KMT as it's core.

However it was during the northern expeditions that the KMT and it's communist members began to openly splinter as the communist members attempted a unsuccessful coup in Wu Hang than fled to the south....

For the next 10 year was about the most stable period of China since the late 19h century, the KMT continue to have small scale battles with the communist but major cities advanced and in general most of China improved (well it was hard to get any worse really :ph43r: ) but tension between China and Japan grow increasingly and it became clear that war was inevitable as the Japanese annexed Manchuria and continued to pressure south.

But Mao have been successful in eluding the KMT and warlord army until 1937 when he and what's left of the communist party was cornered near Xi An, Chang Kai Shiek himself arrived at Shi An hoping to make sure that THIS time, there was no escape for Mao... however the move proved to have the opposite effect.

For the last few years there have been increased domestic pressure on Chang to stop fighting with the communist and face the ever growing Japanese threat head on, however Chang insiste that "the japanese is like a skin diesase but the communist is like a cancer" (and at least judging from what happened later... this statement turned true for the KMT XD)

to be continued..... i gotta run

[RollingWave]

The warlord incharged of the operation at xi an was also moved by the domestic pressure and one of them was the original warlord of Manchuria who's father was assainated by the Japanese, and they decided to stage a coup and kidnaped Chang, eventrually forcing him to sign a treaty with the communist to stop the in fighting.

A few month after this treaty the famous 7/7 event happened where the Japanese pretty much intentionally started what would lead to be a 8 year war which will eventrually became part of worldwar 2.

During the war despite the supposed peace between the two party, fighting still continued although on a smaller scale .

After the war, Chang and the KMT was at the height of it's power, however during the war the communist have regan much strength, and with the help of the soviet they succeded in securing a lot of land and weaponry, and the ensuing turned to their favor.

The reason for the KMT's defeat from 45-49 had many reasons..... the communist had spys within the KMT, they had wider public support espcially amoung the masses of workers and peasents... and also the KMT had power struggles within that also limited their ability.

All these played a part in the KMT's eventrual lose.... by 49 most of hte mainlands were lost and the government fled to Taiwan.

Chang Kai Shiek after arriving at Taiwan reformed the party and created a central dictatorship for himself with limited democracy at more local level. the system proved effective enough to ensure stability with the island. He remained in power until his death in 1975, his Song Chang Jin Guo took power and started many big economic reforms and eventrually democratic reforms. by his death in 1986 (i think... or 87) Taiwan was a booming economy and on it's way to becomming a democracy.

Chang was suceeded by his Vice President Lee Teng Hui, Lee for the most part continued Chang's trend... but he is still today a very very contraversial person, no one quesiton his effort into brining Taiwan into the only real full democracy in Asia that it is today.... but his rule is marred with corruption and he is now openly against the KMT and long since left.... which raises many to question if he intentionally conspried for the KMT's downfall in the 2000 presidential election.

The KMT lost the 2000 presidential election and recently lost again, and during the 90s many factions split from them, it's future seems grim and uncertain now, but who knows? this is a party that has surely survived so many great crisis during it's history that this oldest chinese party's future would surely be interesting.

[General_Zhaoyun]

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The warlord incharged of the operation at xi an was also moved by the domestic pressure and one of them was the original warlord of Manchuria who's father was assainated by the Japanese, and they decided to stage a coup and kidnaped Chang, eventrually forcing him to sign a treaty with the communist to stop the in fighting.

The person who kidnapped Chiang was Zhang Xueliang. It's kinda of interesteding that Zhang was treated as a 'hero' in PRC while a traitor in Taiwan..However, history seems to play some luck for the chinese communist. Had it not been Zhang Xueliang whose anti-Japanese zeal led him to kidnap Chiang, the communist would have been wiped out.

[RollingWave]

Quote

The person who kidnapped Chiang was Zhang Xueliang. It's kinda of interesteding that Zhang was treated as a 'hero' in PRC while a traitor in Taiwan..However, history seems to play some luck for the chinese communist. Had it not been Zhang Xueliang whose anti-Japanese zeal led him to kidnap Chiang, the communist would have been wiped out.

well you never know, and Chang isn't really considered a traitor nowadays...... and even before.. he's surrender without a fight during the north march was quiet important for the KMT to get into power in the first place.

[ac_dropout]

Zhang Xueliang actually spent the rest of life under house arrest under the KMT (40+ years). I believe Chiang Jing Guo finally released him. The guy moved to Hawaii after release and died only recently.

I always find all the major figures during this period of Chinese history to be tragic heroes.

They should make a movie about this guy, starring Jet Li.