Kuomintang

In China

Founded in 1912 by Sun Yat-sen, the KMT helped topple the Qing Emperor and promoted modernization along Western lines. It came to power in 1927 under Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975), and moved the national capital from Beijing to Nanjing.

The party was always concerned with strengthening Chinese identity at the same time it was discarding old traditions in the name of modernity. In 1929, the KMT government suppressed the textbook Modern Chinese History, widely used in secondary education. The Nationalists were concerned that, by not admitting the existence of the earliest emperors in ancient Chinese history, the book would weaken the foundation of the state. The case of the Modern Chinese History textbook reflects the symptoms of the period: banning the textbook strengthened the Nationalists' ideological control but also revealed their fear of the New Culture Movement and its more liberal ideological implications.

The KMT tried to destroy the Communist party of Mao Zedong, but was unable to stop the invasion by Japan, which controlled most of the coastline and major cities, 1937-1945. Chiang Kai-shek secured massive military and economic aid from the United States, and in 1945 became one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, with a veto. The KMT governed most of China until it was defeated in civil war by the Communists in 1949.

The collapse of the KMT regime can in part be attributed to the government's economic policies, which triggered capital flight among the businessmen who had been the KMT's strongest supporters. The cotton textile industry was the leading sector of Chinese industry, but in 1948, shortages of raw cotton plunged the industry into dire straits. The KMT government responded with an aggressive control policy that directly procured cotton from producers to ensure a sufficient supply and established a price freeze on cotton thread and textiles. This policy failed because of resistance from cotton textile industrialists, who relocated textile facilities and capital to Hong Kong or Taiwan around the end of 1948 and early 1949 when prices soared and inflation spiraled out of control. Their withdrawal of support was a shattering blow to the morale of the KMT.

KMT as modernizers

Historians until the 1990s often portrayed the KMT simply as a band of corrupt leaders who colluded with rich financiers and industrialists and cared little for China's workers and peasants, contrasting it with the supposed broad base of popular support for the communists. However, as Bodenhorn (2002) shows, scholars are coming to an appreciation of its efforts to build a vibrant and dynamic state, before it lost on the battlefield to the Communists, but then had a second chance on Taiwan where they did succeed.

The KMT promoited science and industry, and tried to eradicate such traditional practices as footbinding, and extravagant marriage and funerary customs. The KMT had a complicated relationship to Christian missionary activity. Many high officials (including Chiang) were Christians and American public opinion that favored China was based on the missionaries. At the same time in the villages the KMT criticized missionary activity as an egregious example of imperialism. No significant action agaist the churches was taken but criticizing them was a much safer way to spread the anti-imperialist message of the KMT than taking on foreign firms or the U.S. The anti-Christian movements were important tactically for gaining the support of students and others in society who were angry at the influence of outsiders in China.

On Taiwan

The leadership, the remaining army, and hundreds of thousands of businessmen and other supporters, two million in all, fled to Taiwan. They continued to operate there as the "Republic of China" and dreamed of invading and reconquering what they called "Mainland China". The United States, however, set up a naval cordon after 1950 that has since prevented an invasion in either direction. The KMT regime kept the island under martial law for 38 years, killing up to 30,000 opponents during its dictatorial rule by Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo (1910-1988). As the original leadership died off, it had to held elections, so it allowed democracy, with full election of parliament in the early 1990s and first direct presidential election in 1996.

As the U.S. and China normalized relations after 1972, the status of Taiwan became a contested international issue. The KMT regime was ousted by the UN in 1971 and replaced there by the Communist regime.

Since the 1910s the KMT has received support from the international Chinese diaspora.

The KMT lost power in the 2000 elections to the Democratic Progressive party. It has restructured itself, but continues to represent the descendants of the mainland Chinese who arrived in 1949, as opposed to the native islanders who support the Democratic Progressive party. The KMT is committed to "One China" but the Democratic Progressive party seeks independence, a demand that is fiercely opposed by China, even to the point of military threats. The KMT leader Ma Ying-jeouis is currently well ahead in polls for the presidential elections in March 2008.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Esherick, Joseph W., ed. Lost Chance in China: The World War II Despatches of John S. Service. Random House, 1974. 409 pp.

Online resources

"The Republican Era: 1911-1949", comprehensive bibliography

notes

Kuomintang

Contents

In China

KMT as modernizers

On Taiwan

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online resources

notes

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Kuomintang

In China

KMT as modernizers

On Taiwan

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online resources

notes

Navigation menu

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