The Kuomintang (Chinese National People's Party) was China's largest revolutionary political organization until the late 1930s. Its main goal was to unite the state under the rule of a republican government. Founded by Sun Yat-sen and his followers in 1912, the Kuomintang was the largest party in both houses of the National Assembly, China's newly formed legislature. But when authoritarian President Yuan Shikai stripped and dissolved the National Assembly, he outlawed the party. The Kuomintang and its leaders began a 15-year struggle to reunify China and restore a genuine republican government. The party created its own armed forces, the National Revolutionary Army, which achieved the reunification of the country in 1927-28. Under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek, the Kuomintang formed a government and led most of China until the Japanese occupation in the late 1930s.
History of the creation of the party
The origins of the Kuomintang are the nationalist political clubs, literary societies, and reformist groups that were active at the end1800s and early 1900s. Inside China, they were few, secretive and, apart from talking, did little. Outside the country, they were more active and visible. Their members were mostly students and expatriates.
The most important two such groups were the Chinese Renaissance Society (Xingzhonghui) of Sun Yat-sen, which called for the expulsion of foreigners and the formation of a unified government, and the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance (Tongmenghui), which advocated the overthrow of the Manchus and land reform.
These associations fueled the political radicalism and nationalism that fueled the 1911 revolution that eventually overthrew the Qing Dynasty. Although the Kuomintang had not yet formed, many of its future members attended the congress in Nanjing in December 1911, where Sun Yat-sen was elected provisional president of the new Republic of China.
Foundation
Officially, the Chinese National People's Party was founded in Beijing at the end of August 1912 by the unification of Tongmenghui and 5 other nationalist groups. It was supposed to become parliamentary and participate in the newly created National Assembly. The chief architect of the organization was Sun Jiaoren, who became its first chairman. But the creator of the Kuomintang party and its ideological mentor was Yatsen. The organization participated in the elections to the National Assembly of the new republic, held in December 1912 and January 1913. By modern standards, these elections were far from democratic. Only allowed to votemen over 21 who either owned property or had completed primary education. Only about 6% of all Chinese were eligible to register as voters. Low turnout in some areas further reduced the number of participants. The members of the Assembly were not directly elected, but chosen by appointed electors. The process was marred by bribery and corruption.
Victory in elections
The Kuomintang Party in both chambers took about 45% of the seats (269 out of 596 in the House of Representatives and 123 out of 274 in the Senate). But soon the National Assembly turned out to be disenfranchised, unable to exercise any powers of authority or control Yuan Shikai's presidential power. Democratic governments, representative assemblies and political parties were new in China and commanded neither trust nor respect. The National Assembly was moved from Nanjing to Beijing, where it was deprived of the support of Kuomintang supporters who lived south of the Yuan-supporting Shikai North. Much of the National Assembly's first term was spent arguing about how to limit the president's powers. In March 1913, Sun Jiaoren, the parliamentary leader of the Kuomintang and an outspoken critic of Yuan Shikai, was shot dead at a railway station in Shanghai. The assassination was almost certainly ordered by the president's supporters, if not by himself.
Second Revolution
While the president was embarking on the path of dictatorship, the Kuomintang organizedarmed uprising, which was later called the Second Revolution. In July 1913, party members in four central and southern provinces (Anhui, Jiangsu, Hunan, and Guangdong) declared their independence from Beijing. Shikai responded quickly and brutally, sending troops south to capture Nanjing. Sun Yat-sen was forced to flee to Japan as troops loyal to his party were destroyed or dispersed. In the last weeks of 1913, Shikai ordered that Kuomintang members be stripped of all government positions. Shortly thereafter, the president announced the indefinite dissolution of the National Assembly. The Kuomintang began the transition to a revolutionary movement. Yatsen spent the next 3 years in Japan trying to form a stronger and more disciplined movement. His first attempts were unsuccessful: few people believed that the Kuomintang was a party capable of resisting the president or powerful military leaders. In 1917, shortly after the death of Yuan Shikai, Yatsen returned to southern China, where he continued to fight for the revival of the organization.
Revolutionary Struggle
By 1923, Sun Yat-sen had successfully transformed the Kuomintang from a parliamentary party into an armed revolutionary group. The structure of the organization became less democratic, more hierarchical and disciplined. She also became more authoritarian, as evidenced by the formation of a powerful executive committee and the rise of Sun Yat-sen to the rank of "Grand Marshal". Now leading the party rather than representing its members, he began to forge connections with individuals and groups that could help him reunite China.and restore the Republican government.
Alliance with communists
With the support of southern warlords, the Kuomintang was able to form a republic in Guangdong with Guangzhou as its capital, not far from Hong Kong and Macau. Sun Yat-sen also asked for support from the Russian and Chinese communists. A small group of advisers from the Soviet Union, led by Mikhail Borodin, arrived in Guangzhou in early 1923. They advised the Kuomintang leaders on questions of party discipline, military training, and tactics. The USSR urged to unite with the young Chinese Communist Party based in Shanghai. Yatsen agreed and promoted an alliance between the Kuomintang and the CCP, later known as the First United Front.
Military Academy
The first congress of the Kuomintang took place in early 1924. As might be expected, one of the party's top priorities was to create an armed wing strong enough to crush the dictatorship. In June 1924, with the support of the Chinese and Soviet Communists, the Huangpu Military Academy was opened in Guangzhou. It was a modern educational institution modeled after similar institutions in the Soviet Union. It was intended to create a revolutionary army from scratch. Privates were also trained there, but the main attention was paid to the training of officers. Dozens of academy graduates became well-known commanders in both the National Revolutionary Army (the armed wing of the Kuomintang) and the communist Red Army. Education and training were carried outChinese revolutionaries and Soviet military advisers sent by the Comintern. The first commandant of Huangpu was Yat-sen's young protégé Chiang Kai-shek, while future CCP leader Zhou Enlai headed the political department. By the summer of 1925, the academy had produced enough soldiers to raise a new army. In August, the Nationalists merged it with four other provincial formations loyal to the Kuomintang. This combined force was christened the National Revolutionary Army and placed under the command of Chiang Kai-shek.
Death of party leader
Another problem facing the Kuomintang in 1925 was who would lead the party after Sun Yat-sen. The leader had been diagnosed with liver cancer the previous year, and after months of steadily deteriorating he alth, he died in March 1925. For many years, Yat-sen's leadership and authority played an important role in the unification of the Kuomintang. It was a highly factionalized party, combining all political points of view from communists to liberals, from militarists to neo-fascists. Yatsen's premature death at the age of 58 left the organization without a single figurehead or apparent successor. Over the next two years, the Kuomintang experienced a power struggle between three potential leaders: the leftist Wang Jingwei, the conservative Hu Hanning, and the militarist Chiang Kai-shek.
Power Party
Gradually in 1926-28. the latter gained control of mostChina by eliminating or limiting the regional autonomy of military leaders. Nationalist rule became increasingly conservative and dictatorial, but not totalitarian. The three principles of the Kuomintang formed the basis of its program. It is nationalism, democracy and prosperity. The nationalist ideology of the Kuomintang demanded that China restore equality with other countries, but its opposition to the Japanese invasion in 1931-45. was less decisive than attempts to suppress the Communist Party. Realization of democracy through the successive adoption of the constitution in 1936 and 1946. was also largely a myth. No more effective were attempts to improve the well-being of the people or eradicate corruption. The failure of the Nationalist Party to make such changes itself stems partly from the weakness of the leadership and partly from its unwillingness to radically reform China's centuries-old feudal social structure.
Evacuation
After the defeat of Japan in 1945, the civil war with the communists was resumed with greater force. In 1949-50, after the victory of the latter on the mainland, the army, government officials and refugees in the amount of 2 million people, led by Chiang Kai-shek, crossed to Taiwan. The faction of the Nationalist Party that supported the CCP still exists in the mainland. Taiwan, including several small islands off the coast of China, has become a hugely successful country. Nationalists for many years constituted the only real political force, occupying almost all legislative, executiveand judicial positions. The first legal opposition to the Kuomintang came in 1989, when the Democratic Progressive Party, formed in 1986, won a fifth of the seats in the Legislative Yuan.
Modern Politics
The Nationalists remained in power through the 1990s, but in 2000 DPP presidential candidate Chen Shui-bian defeated Kuomintang candidate Lian Chang, who finished third. In the following year's legislative elections, the party not only lost its majority in the legislature, but lost seats. However, in 2004 the Nationalists and their allies regained control of the legislature, and in 2008 the Kuomintang took almost 3/4 of the seats in the legislature, crushing the DPP. To resolve Taiwan's longstanding differences with China, the party adopted the "Three No's" policy: no unification, no independence, no military confrontation.
