Kuomintang
The Kuomintang or KMT (in traditional Chinese, 中國國民黨; in Chinese Simplified, 中国国民党; pinyin, Zhōngguó Guómíndǎng; Wade-Giles, Chung- kuo Kuo-min-tang; literally, 'Chinese Nationalist Party') is a Chinese nationalist political party of the Republic of China founded after the Xinhai Revolution of 1911. The Kuomintang has It is based in Taipei and is currently an opposition political party in the Legislative Yuan.
The Kuomintang's predecessor, the Revolutionary Alliance, or Tongmenghui, was a leading proponent of the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty and the subsequent 1911 declaration that led to the establishment of the ROC. Song Jiaoren and Sun Yat-sen founded the KMT shortly after the Xinhai Revolution in 1911. Sun was the interim president of the Republic, but later handed over the presidency to Yuan Shikai. Later, led by Chiang Kai-shek, the KMT formed the National Revolutionary Army and succeeded in its Northern Expedition to unify much of mainland China between 1927 and 1928, ending the chaos of the Age of the Lords of the Land. War. It was the ruling party in mainland China until 1949, when it lost the Chinese Civil War against the Communist Party of China and its troops. The KMT fled to Taiwan, where it continued to rule as a one-party authoritarian state until 1987. This government retained China's seat in the UN (with considerable international support, especially from Western countries) until 1971.
As of 1987, Taiwan is no longer a one-party state, and political reforms beginning in the 1990s have loosened the KMT's grip on power. However, the KMT remains one of the major Taiwanese political parties, with Ma Ying-jeou elected president in 2008 and re-elected in 2012, making him the seventh KMT member to serve as ROC President. However, in the 2016 general and presidential elections, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) gained control of both the Legislative Yuan and the presidency (Tsai Ing-wen).
The party's guiding ideology is the Three People's Principles, advocated by Sun Yat-sen. The KMT is a member of the International Democratic Union. Together with the People First Party and the New Party, the KMT forms what is known as Taiwan's Pan-Blue Coalition, which supports eventual unification with the mainland. However, the KMT has been forced to moderate its stance in defending the political and legal status quo of modern Taiwan, as political realities make China's reunification unlikely. The KMT upholds the "one China principle": it officially considers that there is only one China, but that the ROC, rather than the PRC, is its legitimate government under the 1992 Consensus. To ease tensions with the People's Republic of China, the KMT has since 2008 supported the policy of "Three Negations" as defined by Ma Ying-jeou: no unification, no independence, no use of force.
History
Foundation and era of Sun Yat-sen
The Kuomintang has its ideological and organizational roots in the work of Sun Yat-sen, an advocate of Chinese nationalism and democracy[citation needed], who founded the Society for the Regeneration of China in the capital of the Republic of Hawaii, Honolulu, on November 24, 1894. In 1905, Sun joined forces with other anti-monarchist societies in Tokyo to form the Tongmenghui on August 20 of that year, a group committed to the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty and the establishment of a republican government.
The group planned and supported the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 and the founding of the Republic of China on January 1, 1912. However, Sun had no military power and handed over the provisional presidency to Yuan Shikai, who ordered Sun's abdication. Puyi, the last Chinese emperor, on February 12.
On August 25, 1912, the Kuomintang established itself in the Huguang Guild Hall in Beijing, where the Tongmenghui and five smaller revolutionary parties merged to contest the first national elections.(Strand, 2002, pp. 59-60) Sun was elected party chairman with Huang Xing as his vice-chairman.
The most influential member of the Kuomintang was the third in the hierarchy, Song Jiaoren, who mobilized massive support from the nobility and merchants for the nationalists to advocate constitutional parliamentary democracy.[citation needed ] The party opposed the constitutional monarchists and tried to check the power of Yuan Shikai. The Nationalists won an overwhelming majority of the first National Assembly elections in December 1912.
However, Yuan soon began to ignore Parliament when making presidential decisions. Song Jiaoren was assassinated in Shanghai in 1913. Members of the Nationalists led by Sun Yat-sen suspected Yuan of being behind the plot and therefore organized the Second Revolution in July 1913, a poorly planned and poorly supported armed uprising. to overthrow Yuan, for which he failed. Yuan, claiming subversion and treason, expelled the KMT supporters from Parliament. Yuan dissolved the Nationalists in November (whose members had fled into exile in Japan) and dissolved Parliament in early 1914.
Yuan Shikai proclaimed himself Emperor of China in December 1915. While in exile in Japan in 1914, Sun established the Chinese Revolutionary Party on July 8 of that same year, but many of his former fellow revolutionaries, including Huang Xing, Wang Jingwei, Hu Hanmin or Chen Jiongming refused to join him or support his efforts to incite an armed uprising against the new emperor. To join the Kuomintang, members had to take an oath of personal allegiance to Sun, which many former revolutionaries considered undemocratic and contrary to the spirit of the revolution. As a result, he was largely marginalized within the Republican movement during this period.
Sun returned to China in 1917 to set up a military junta in Canton, in opposition to the Beiyang government, but was soon ousted from office and exiled to Shanghai. There, with renewed support, he resurrected the KMT on October 10, 1919 as the Kuomintang of China (in traditional Chinese, 中國國民黨< /span>) and established its headquarters in Canton in 1920.
In 1923 the KMT and its Canton-based government accepted aid from the Soviet Union after being denied recognition by Western powers. Soviet advisers, the most prominent of whom was Mikhail Borodin, a Comintern agent, arrived in China in that year to help reorganize and consolidate the KMT along the lines of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, establishing a structure of leninist party. That lasted until the 1990s. The Communist Party of China (CCP) was under instructions from the Comintern to cooperate with the KMT, and its members were encouraged to join while maintaining their separate party identities, forming the First United Front among nationalists. and communists. Mao Zedong and the early CCP members also joined the KMT in 1923.
Soviet advisers also helped the KMT establish a political institute to train propagandists in mass mobilization techniques, and in 1923 Chiang Kai-shek, one of Sun's lieutenants from the Tongmenghui days, was sent to Moscow to several months of military and political studies. At the KMT First Congress held in 1924 in Guangzhou, which included non-KMT delegates, as well as CCP members, they adopted Sun's political theory, which included the Three People's Principles: nationalism, democracy, and livelihood.
Under Chiang Kai-shek in mainland China
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When Sun Yat-sen died in 1925, the political leadership of the KMT fell to Wang Jingwei and Hu Hanmin, respectively the party's left and right leaders. The real power, however, was in the hands of Chiang Kai-shek, who, as superintendent of the Whampoa Military Academy, was in almost complete control of the military. With his military superiority, the KMT confirmed his rule in Canton, the Kwangtung provincial capital. The Guangxi warlords pledged allegiance to the KMT. The KMT now became a rival government in opposition to the Beijing-based Beiyang warlord government.
Chiang assumed the leadership of the KMT on July 6, 1926. Unlike Sun Yat-sen, whom he greatly admired, and who forged all his political, economic, and revolutionary ideas primarily from what he had learned in Hawaii and indirectly through British Hong Kong and the Empire of Japan under the Meiji Restoration, Chiang knew relatively little about the West. He, too, studied in Japan, but was firmly rooted in his ancient Han Chinese identity and steeped in Chinese culture. As his life progressed, he became more and more attached to ancient Chinese cultures and traditions. His few trips to the West confirmed his pro-ancient Chinese outlook and he assiduously studied ancient Chinese classics and ancient Chinese history.In 1924, Sun Yat-sen sent Chiang to spend three months in Moscow studying the political system. and military of the Soviet Union. Chiang met Leon Trotsky and other Soviet leaders, but quickly came to the conclusion that the Soviet communist, Marxist and socialist model of government was not suitable for China. This laid the beginning of his lifelong antagonism against communism.
Chiang was also particularly committed to Sun's idea of 'political tutelage'. Sun believed that the only hope for a better and unified China lies in a military conquest, followed by a period of political tutelage that would culminate in a transition to democracy. Using this ideology, Chiang became the dictator of the ROC, both on the Chinese mainland and when the national government moved to Taiwan.
After the death of Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek emerged as the leader of the KMT and launched the Northern Expedition to defeat the northern warlords and unite China within the party. With his power confirmed in the southeast, the Nationalist government appointed Chiang Kai-shek commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army (ENR), and began the Northern Expedition to suppress the warlords. Chiang had to defeat three separate warlords and two independent armies. Chiang, with Soviet supplies, conquered the southern half of China in nine months.
However, a split arose between the Chinese Communist Party and the KMT, which threatened the Northern Expedition. Wang Jing Wei, who led the KMT's leftist allies, seized the city of Wuhan in January 1927. With the support of Soviet agent Mikhail Borodin, Wang declared that the National Government had moved to Wuhan. After taking Nanjing in March, Chiang halted his campaign and staged a violent break with Wang and his communist allies. The expulsion of Chiang and his Soviet advisers from the CCP, marked by the Shanghai massacre on April 12, led to the start of the Chinese Civil War. Wang finally handed over the power of him to Chiang. Joseph Stalin ordered the Chinese Communist Party to obey the KMT leadership. Once this split had been healed, Chiang resumed his Northern Expedition and succeeded in taking Shanghai.
During the Nanking Incident in March 1927, the ENR raided the consulates of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Empire of Japan, looted foreign property, and nearly murdered the Japanese consul. One American, two Britons, one Frenchman, one Italian and one Japanese were killed. These looters also raided millions of dollars in British concessions in Hankou, refusing to return them to the UK. Both Nationalist and Communist soldiers within the Army participated in the riots and looting of foreign residents in Nanjing.
The ENR captured Beijing in 1928. The city was the internationally recognized capital, although it was previously controlled by warlords. This event allowed the KMT to receive wide diplomatic recognition in the same year. The capital was moved from Peking to Nanjing, the original capital of the Ming dynasty and thus a symbolic purge of the final Qing elements. This period of KMT rule in China between 1927 and 1937 was relatively stable and prosperous and is still known as the Nanjing decade.
After the Northern Expedition in 1928, the nationalist government under the KMT declared that China had been exploited for decades under unequal treaties signed between foreign powers and the Qing Dynasty. The KMT government demanded that foreign powers renegotiate treaties on equal terms.
Prior to the Northern Expedition, the KMT began as a ragtag group advocating American-inspired federalism and provincial autonomy. However, the KMT under Chiang's leadership aimed to establish a one-party centralized state with one ideology. This was even more evident after Sun's elevation into a cult figure after his death. Control by a single party began the period of "political tutelage," under which the party was to lead the government while instructing the people on how to participate in a democratic system. The issue of reorganizing the military, raised at a military conference in 1929, sparked the Central Plains War. The cabals, some of them former warlords, demanded to keep their military and political power within their own territories. Although Chiang ultimately won the war, the conflicts between the cliques would have a devastating effect on the survival of the KMT. Muslim generals in Kansu waged war against the Guominjun in favor of the KMT during the conflict in Gansu in 1927-1930.
Although the Second Sino-Japanese War officially broke out in 1937, Japanese aggression began in 1931 when they staged the Mukden Incident and occupied Manchuria. At the same time, the CCP had been secretly recruiting new members within the KMT government and military. Chiang was alarmed by the expansion of communist influence. He believed that in order to fight foreign aggression, the KMT must first resolve its internal conflicts, so he began his second attempt to exterminate CCP members in 1934. On the advice of German military advisers, the KMT forced the communists to withdraw from their bases in southern and central China in the mountains in a massive military withdrawal known as the Long March. Less than 10% of the communist army survived the long retreat to Shaanxi province, but they quickly reestablished their military base with the help of the Soviet Union.
The KMT was also known to have used terror tactics against suspected communists, through the use of a secret police force, which was employed to maintain surveillance on suspected communists and political opponents. In The Birth of Communist China, C.P. Fitzgerald describes China under KMT rule as follows: "the Chinese people groaned under a fascist regime in all qualities except efficiency".
Zhang Xueliang, who believed that the Japanese invasion was a greater threat, was persuaded by the CCP to take Chiang hostage during the Xi'an Incident in 1937 and forced Chiang to agree to an alliance with them. in the all-out war against the Japanese. However, in many situations, the alliance was in name only; after a brief period of cooperation, the armies began fighting the Japanese separately, rather than as coordinated allies. Conflicts between KMT and CPC were still common during the war, and documented claims of CCP attacks on KMT forces and vice versa abound.
While the KMT military took heavy casualties in the fight against the Japanese, the CCP expanded its territory through guerrilla tactics inside Japanese-occupied regions, leading to some claims that the CCP often refused to support the Japanese. the KMT troops, choosing to withdraw and letting the KMT troops bear the brunt of the Japanese attacks.
After Japan's surrender in 1945, Taiwan was returned to the ROC on October 25, 1945. The brief period of celebration was soon overshadowed by the possibility of civil war between the KMT and the CCP. The Soviet Union declared war on Japan just before it surrendered and occupied Manchuria, the northeastern part of China. The Soviet Union denied the KMT military the right to enter the region and allowed the CCP to take control of Japanese factories and their supplies.
Large-scale civil war between the communists and the nationalists (KMT) broke out in 1946. The Chinese communist armies, the People's Liberation Army (PLA), formerly a minor faction, rapidly grew in influence and power due to various mistakes by the KMT. First, the KMT reduced troop levels precipitously after the Japanese surrendered, leaving large numbers of trained and skilled men-of-war who were left unemployed and disgusted with the KMT as prime recruits for the PLA. Second, the KMT government proved totally incapable of managing the economy, allowing hyperinflation to take place. Among the most despicable and ineffective efforts he undertook to contain inflation was the conversion to the gold standard for the national treasury and to the Gold Standard Scrip in August 1948, prohibiting private ownership of gold, silver, and currency, collecting all such precious metals and currencies of the people and issuing the Gold Standard Scrip in exchange. As most of the farmland in the north was under CCP control, KMT-ruled cities lacked food supplies and this added to hyperinflation. The new vouchers became worthless in just ten months and greatly reinforced the national perception of the KMT as a corrupt or, at best, inept entity. Third, Chiang Kai-shek ordered his forces to defend the built-up cities. This decision gave the CCP the opportunity to move freely in the countryside. At first, the KMT had the upper hand with the help of weapons and ammunition from the United States. However, with the country suffering from hyperinflation, widespread corruption, and other economic ills, the KMT continued to lose popular support. Some of the KMT's top officials and military leaders amassed US-provided military materiel, weaponry, and aid funds. This became a problem that proved to be an obstacle to his relationship with the United States government. United States President Harry S. Truman wrote that "the Chiangs, the Kungs and the Soongs (were) all thieves", having taken $750 million in aid from the United States.
At the same time, the suspension of US aid and tens of thousands of abandoned or discharged soldiers who were conscripted into the PLA caused power to shift rapidly to the side of the CCP, and overwhelming popular support for the CCP in most of the country it made it nearly impossible for KMT forces to carry out successful assaults against the communists.
By the end of 1949, the CCP controlled almost all of mainland China, while the KMT retreated to Taiwan with a significant number of China's national treasures and 2 million people, including military forces and refugees. Some party members stayed on the mainland and broke away from the main KMT to found the Kuomintang Revolutionary Committee, which still exists as one of the eight registered minor parties of the PRC.
In Taiwan since 1945
In 1895, Formosa (now called Taiwan), including the Penghu Islands, became a Japanese colony through the Treaty of Shimonoseki after the First Sino-Japanese War. After Japan's defeat at the end of World War II in 1945, General Order No. 1 ordered Japan to hand over its troops in Taiwan to Chiang Kai-shek. On October 25, 1945, KMT General Chen Yi acted on behalf of the Allied Powers to accept Japan's surrender and proclaimed that day Taiwan's Retrocession Day.
Tensions between local Taiwanese and those from mainland China escalated in the intervening years, culminating in a flash point on February 27, 1947, in Taipei, when a dispute between a cigarette vendor and a warfare officer against smuggling at the Tianma Tea House sparked civil disorder and protests that lasted for days. The uprising turned bloody and was put down by the ROC Army in the incident on February 28. As a result of the February 28, 1947 incident, Taiwanese suffered what is called the "White Terror," a KMT-led political crackdown that resulted in the death or disappearance of more than 30,000 intellectuals, Taiwanese activists and people suspected of opposing the KMT.
After the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC) on October 1, 1949, commanders of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) believed that Kinmen and Matsu should be brought before a final assault on Taiwan. The KMT fought in the Battle of Guningtou on October 25-27, 1949 and stopped the PLA invasion. The KMT headquarters was established on 10 December 1949 at 11 Zhongshan South Road. In 1950, Chiang took office in Taipei under the Temporary Provisions Effective during the Period of Communist Rebellion. The provision declared martial law in Taiwan and halted some democratic processes, including presidential and parliamentary elections, until the mainland could recover from the CCP. The KMT estimated that it would take 3 years to defeat the communists. The slogan was 'prepare in the first year, start fighting in the second, and conquer in the third year'. Chiang also started the National Glory Project to retake the mainland in 1965, but finally withdrew in July 1972 after many failed attempts.
However, various factors, including international pressure, are believed to have prevented the KMT from engaging the CCP militarily on a large scale. The KMT backed former NRA Muslim insurgents during the 1950–1958 KMT Islamic insurgency in mainland China. A cold war with a couple of minor military conflicts ensued in the early years. The various government bodies formerly in Nanjing, which were re-established in Taipei as the KMT-controlled government, actively claimed sovereignty over all of China. The ROC on Taiwan retained China's seat in the United Nations until 1971.
Until the 1970s, the KMT successfully pushed through land reforms, developed the economy, implemented a democratic system at a lower level of government, improved relations between Taiwan and the mainland, and created Taiwan's economic miracle. However, the KMT controlled the government under an authoritarian one-party state until reforms in the late 1970s through the 1990s. The ROC in Taiwan was once referred to as synonymous with KMT and known simply as "Nationalist China" by his ruling party. In the 1970s, the KMT began to allow "supplementary elections" in Taiwan to fill the seats of aging National Assembly representatives.
Although opposition parties were not allowed, Tangwai (or "non-KMT") representatives were tolerated. In the 1980s, the KMT focused on transforming rule from a one-party system to a multi-party democratic one and embracing 'Taiwanization'. With the founding of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on September 28, 1986, the KMT began to compete against the DPP in parliamentary elections.
In 1991, martial law ended when President Lee Teng-hui ended the temporary provisions in place during the period of the communist rebellion. All parties were allowed to compete at all levels of the elections, including the presidential election. Lee Teng-hui, the first democratically elected president of the ROC and the leader of the KMT in the 1990s, announced his defense of "special state-to-state relations" with the People's Republic of China. The PRC associated this idea with the independence of Taiwan.
The KMT faced a split in 1993 that led to the formation of the New Party in August 1993, allegedly as a result of the "corrupt style of government" from Lee. The New Party, since the Lee purge, has largely reintegrated into the KMT. A much more serious split in the party occurred as a result of the 2000 presidential election. Upset by the choice of Lien Chan as the party's presidential candidate, former party general secretary James Soong launched an independent candidacy, which resulted in the ouster of Soong and his supporters and in the formation of the People First Party (PFP) on March 31, 2000. The KMT candidate came third behind Soong in the election. After the election, Lee's strong relationship with the opponent became apparent. In order to prevent defections to the PFP, Lien moved the party away from Lee's pro-independence policies and became more favorable to Chinese reunification. This change led to Lee's expulsion from the party and the formation of the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) by Lee supporters on July 24, 2001.
Prior to this, the party's voters had defected from both the PFP and the TSU, and the KMT fared poorly in the December 2001 legislative elections and lost its position as the largest party in the Legislative Yuan. However, the party performed well in the 2002 municipal and municipal local government elections with Ma Ying-jeou, its Taipei mayoral candidate winning re-election over a landslide and its Kaohsiung mayoral candidate losing. barely, but surprisingly well. Since 2002, the KMT and PFP have coordinated electoral strategies. In 2004, the KMT and PFP submitted a joint presidential ticket, with Lien running for president and Soong running for vice president.
The 2004 presidential election loss to DPP Chairman Chen Shui-bian by just over 30,000 votes was a bitter disappointment for party members, leading to large-scale meetings for several weeks in protest of alleged voter fraud and "strange circumstances" of the shooting of Chairman Chen. However, the party's fortunes improved greatly when the KMT performed well in the December 2004 legislative elections by maintaining its support in southern Taiwan, winning a majority for the Pan-Blue Coalition.
Shortly after the election, there seemed to be a falling out with the KMT's junior partner, the People's First Party, and talk of a merger seemed to be over. This division seemed to widen in early 2005, as PFP leader James Soong appeared to be reconciling with President Chen Shui-Bian and the Democratic Progressive Party. Many PFP members, including legislators and municipal leaders, have defected from the KMT, and the PFP is seen as a fading party.
In 2005, Ma Ying-jeou became the KMT chairman by defeating orator Wang Jin-pyng in the first public election for the KMT chairmanship. The KMT won a decisive victory in 3 local elections on December 1, 2005, replacing the DPP as the largest party locally. This was seen as a major victory for the party ahead of the legislative elections in 2007. There were elections for the two ROC municipalities, Taipei and Kaohsiung in December 2006. The KMT won a clear victory in Taipei, but lost to the DPP in the southern city of Kaohsiung by the slim margin of 1,100 votes.
On February 13, 2007, the Taiwan High Prosecutor's Office indicted Ma on charges of allegedly embezzling approximately NT$11 million (US$339,000), related to the issue of "special expenses" while he was mayor of Taiwan. Taipei. Shortly after the indictment, he tendered his resignation as KMT chairman at the same press conference in which he formally announced his candidacy for ROC president. Ma argued that it was customary for officials to use the special expense fund for personal expenses incurred in the course of their official duties. In December 2007, Ma was cleared of all charges and immediately filed a lawsuit against prosecutors. In 2008, the KMT won a landslide victory in the ROC Presidential Election on March 22, 2008. The KMT fielded former Taipei Mayor and former KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou to run against DPP's Frank Hsieh. Ma won by a 17% advantage against Hsieh. Ma took office on May 20, 2008, with vice-presidential candidate Vincent Siew, ending 8 years of the DPP chairmanship. The KMT also won a landslide victory in the 2008 legislative elections, winning 81 of 113 seats, or 71.7% of the seats in the Legislative Yuan. These two elections gave the KMT firm control of both the executive and legislatures.
On June 25, 2009, Chairman Ma launched his candidacy to regain the KMT leadership and registered as the sole candidate for the KMT presidential election. On July 26, Ma won 93.87% of the vote, became the new KMT Chairman, and took office on October 17, 2009. This officially allows Ma to meet with Xi Jinping, the Party's General Secretary. Communist of China and other PRC delegates, as he can represent the KMT as the leader of a Chinese political party, rather than as the head of state of a political entity not recognized by the PRC.
On November 29, 2014, the KMT suffered a heavy loss in municipal elections to the DPP, winning only 6 municipalities and counties, up from 14 in the previous elections in 2009 and 2010. Ma Ying-jeou subsequently resigned from the party chairmanship on December 3 and replaced by acting chairman Wu Den-yih. The presidential election was held on January 17, 2015, and Eric Chu was chosen to become the new president. It was inaugurated on February 19.
Ideology in mainland China
Chinese nationalism
The KMT was a nationalist revolutionary party that had been supported by the Soviet Union. It was organized according to the Leninist principle of organization, democratic centralism.
The KMT had several influences on its ideology by revolutionary thought. The KMT and Chiang Kai-shek used the words "feudal" and "counter-revolutionary" as synonyms for evil and backwardness, and proudly proclaimed themselves revolutionaries. Chiang called the warlords feudalists, and also called for the KMT to remove the feudalism and counter-revolutionaries. Chiang displayed extreme anger when he was called a warlord, due to the negative and feudal connotations. Ma Bufang was forced to defend himself against the accusations, telling the media that his army was part of the "national army, the power of the people".
Chiang Kai-shek, the head of the KMT, warned the Soviet Union and other foreign countries against interfering in Chinese affairs. He was personally angry at the way China was being treated by foreigners, primarily the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and the United States. He and his New Life Movement called for the crushing of Soviet, Western, American, and other influences. countries in China. Chen Lifu, a member of the CC Clique in the KMT, said that "communism originated from Soviet imperialism, which has invaded our country." It was also noted that "the North Pole white bear is known for its viciousness and cruelty".
The Blue Shirt Society, a fascist paramilitary organization within the KMT that drew its inspiration from Mussolini's black shirts, was anti-foreign and anti-communist, and claimed its agenda was to expel foreign imperialists (Japanese and Western) from China, crush communism, and eliminate feudalism. In addition to being anti-communist, some members of the KMT, such as Chiang Kai-shek's right-hand man Dai Li, were anti-American and wanted to drive out American influence.
KMT leaders across China embraced nationalist rhetoric. Chinese Muslim general Ma Bufang of Qinghai presented himself as a Chinese nationalist to the people of China, fighting against British imperialism, to deflect criticism from opponents that his government was a feudal and oppressed minority like the Tibetans and Buddhist Mongols.. He used his Chinese nationalist credentials to his advantage to stay in power.
The KMT pursued a policy of sinicization, stating that "the time had come to establish the business of making all the natives Chinese or out" by foreign observers of KMT politics. It was noted that "Chinese colonization" from "Mongolia and Manchuria" led to "a conviction that the day of the barbarian was over."
New Guangxi Clique
The KMT branch in Guangxi province, led by the New Guangxi clique of Bai Chongxi and Li Zongren, implemented anti-imperialist, anti-religious and anti-foreign policies.
During the 1926 Northern Expedition in Guangxi, Muslim general Bai Chongxi led his troops in destroying most of the Buddhist temples and destroying idols, turning the temples into schools and KMT headquarters. Bai led an anti-foreigner wave in Guangxi, attacking American, European and other foreigners and missionaries, and generally making the province unsafe for non-natives. Westerners fled the province, and some Chinese Christians were also targeted as imperialist agents.
The leaders clashed with Chiang Kai-shek, leading to the Central Plains War, where Chiang defeated the cabal.
Socialism and anti-capitalist agitation
The KMT had a left and a right wing, the left was more radical in its pro-Soviet policies, but both wings equally persecuted the merchants, accusing them of being counter-revolutionaries and reactionaries. The right under Chiang Kai-shek prevailed and continued radical policies against private merchants and industrialists, even as they denounced communism.
Dr. Sun Yat-sen defined one of the KMT's "Three Principles of the People," Mínshēng, as socialism. He defined this principle in his last days 'his socialism and his communism'. The concept can also be understood as social welfare. Sun understood it as an industrial economy and equal land for Chinese peasants. Here he was influenced by the American thinker Henry George (see Georgism) and the German thinker Karl Marx; the land value tax in Taiwan is a legacy of it. He divided livelihoods into four areas: food, clothing, housing, and transportation; and he planned how an ideal (Chinese) government can take care of this for his people.
The KMT was referred to as having a socialist ideology. The "equalization of land rights" was a clause included by Dr. Sun in the original Tongmenhui. The revolutionary ideology of the KMT in the 1920s incorporated unique Chinese socialism as part of its ideology. The Soviet Union trained KMT revolutionaries at Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow. In the West and in the Soviet Union, Chiang was known as the 'Red General'. Movie theaters in the Soviet Union showed Chiang's newsreels and clips at Moscow's Sun Yat-sen University. Chiang's portraits were hung on the walls and in the Soviet May Day parades that year and was to be worn along with portraits of Karl Marx, Lenin, Stalin and other socialist leaders.
The KMT tried to tax merchants in Guangzhou, and the merchants resisted by raising an army, the Merchant Volunteer Corps. Dr. Sun initiated this anti-trade policy, and Chiang Kai-shek enforced it, Chiang led his army of Whampoa Military Academy graduates to defeat the army of merchants. Chiang was assisted by Soviet advisers, who supplied him with weapons, while dealers received weapons from Western countries. The KMT was accused of leading a "Red Revolution" in Canton. The merchants were conservative and reactionary, and their leader, Chen Lianbao, was a prominent comprador merchant.
The merchants were supported by foreign Western imperialists, such as the British, who led an international flotilla to support them against Dr. Sun. Chiang seized the weapons supplied by the Western merchants and fought against them. A KMT general executed several merchants, and the KMT formed a Soviet-inspired Revolutionary Committee. The British Communist Party congratulated Dr. Sun on his war against imperialists and foreign capitalists.
In 1948, when the KMT attacked Shanghai merchants again, Chiang Kai-shek sent his son Chiang Ching-kuo to restore economic order. Ching-kuo copied Soviet methods, which he learned during his stay there, to start a social revolution by attacking middle-class merchants. He also enforced low prices on all goods to gain the support of the proletariat.
When riots broke out and savings were ruined, bankrupting shop owners, Ching-kuo began attacking the wealthy, seizing assets and placing them under arrest. The gangster's son Du Yuesheng was arrested by him. Ching-kuo ordered KMT agents to raid the warehouses of the Yangtze Development Corporation, which was privately owned by H.H. Kung and his family. H.H.Kung's wife was Soong Ai-ling, Soong Mei-ling's sister who was Ching-kuo's stepmother. H.H.Kung's son David was arrested, the Kungs responded by blackmailing the Chiangs, threatening to divulge information about them, he was eventually released after negotiations, and Ching-kuo resigned, ending the terror against the Shanghai merchants.
The KMT also promotes government-owned corporations. KMT founder Sun Yat-sen was heavily influenced by the economic ideas of Henry George, who believed that rents extracted from natural monopolies or land use belonged to the public. Dr. Sun advocated Georgism and stressed the importance of a mixed economy, which he termed 'The Minsheng Principle'. in his Three Principles of the People. "The railways, public services, canals and forests must be nationalized, and all revenues from land and mines must be in the hands of the State. With this money in hand, the state can finance social welfare programs".
Ningxia's KMT Muslim Governor Ma Hongkui promoted state monopolies. His government had one company, Fu Ning Company, which had a monopoly on trade and industry in Ningxia.Corporations such as CSBC Corporation Taiwan, CPC Corporation Taiwan, and Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation are state-owned in the ROC.
Marxists also existed in the KMT. They viewed the Chinese revolution in different terms than the Communist Party of China (CCP), claiming that China is past its feudal stage and in a period of stagnation rather than another mode of production. These KMT Marxists opposed the CCP ideology.
Election results
Presidential Elections
| Election | Candidate | Formula Companion | Total votes | Percentage of votes | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1948 | Chiang Kai-shek | Li Zongren | 2.430 | 90.03% | Winner  Yes. |
| 1954 | Chiang Kai-shek | Chen Cheng | 1.507 | 96.91% | Winner Yes. |
| 1960 | Chiang Kai-shek | Chen Cheng | 1.481 | 93.97% | Winner Yes. |
| 1966 | Chiang Kai-shek | Yen Chia-kan | 1.405 | 98.60% | Winner Yes. |
| 1972 | Chiang Kai-shek | Yen Chia-kan | 1.308 | 99.39% | Winner Yes. |
| 1978 | Chiang Ching-kuo | Hsieh Tung-ming | 1.184 | 98.34% | Winner Yes. |
| 1984 | Chiang Ching-kuo | Lee Teng-hui | 1.012 | 95.11% | Winner Yes. |
| 1990 | Lee Teng-hui | Lee Yuan-tsu | 641 | 95.96% | Winner Yes. |
| 1996 | Lee Teng-hui | Lien Chan | 5.813.699 | 54.00% | Winner Yes. |
| 2000 | Lien Chan | Vincent Siew | 2.925.513 | 23.10% | Lost  No. |
| 2004 | Lien Chan | James Soong | 6.442.452 | 49.89% | Lost No. |
| 2008 | Ma Ying-jeou | Vincent Siew | 7.659.014 | 58.45% | Winner Yes. |
| 2012 | Ma Ying-jeou | Wu Den-yih | 6.891.139 | 51.60% | Winner Yes. |
| 2016 | Eric Chu | Wang Ju-hsuan | 3.813.365 | 31.00% | Lost No. |
| 2020 | Han Kuo-yu | Chang San-cheng | 5.522.119 | 38.61% | Lost No. |
Parliamentary elections
| Year | Leader | Votes | % | Scalls | +/- | Position | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1948 | Chiang Kai-shek | 716/759 | 1.♪ place | |||||
| 1969 | Chiang Kai-shek | 2.675.910 |
| 8/11 | 1.♪ place | |||
| 1972 | Chiang Kai-shek | 3.590.344 |
| 41/51 |  33
| 1.♪ place | ||
| 1975 | Chiang Ching-kuo | 4.942.461 |
| 42/52 | 1
| 1.♪ place | ||
| 1980 | Chiang Ching-kuo | 4.721.301 |
| 56/70 | 14
| 1.♪ place | ||
| 1983 | Chiang Ching-kuo | 83/98 | 27
| 1.♪ place | ||||
| 1986 | Chiang Ching-kuo | 5.194.259 |
| 79/100 |  4
| 1.♪ place | ||
| 1989 | Lee Teng-hui | 5.402.922 |
| 94/130 | 15
| 1.♪ place | ||
| 1992 | Lee Teng-hui | 5.030.725 |
| 95/161 | 1
| 1.♪ place | ||
| 1995 | Lee Teng-hui | 4.349.089 |
| 85/164 | 10
| 1.♪ place | ||
| 1998 | Lee Teng-hui | 4.659.679 |
| 123/225 | 38
| 1.♪ place | ||
| 2001 | Lien Chan | 2.949.371 |
| 68/225 | 55
| 2.o place | ||
| 2004 | Lien Chan | 3.190.081 |
| 79/225 | 11
| 2.o place | ||
| 2008 | Wu Poh-hsiung | 5.559.083 |
| 81/113 | 2
| 1.♪ place | ||
| 2012 | Ma Ying-jeou | 5.863.379 |
| 64/113 | 17
| 1.♪ place | ||
| 2016 | Eric Chu | 3.280.949 |
| 35/113 | 29
| 2.o place | ||
| 2020 | Han Kuo-yu | 4.723.504 |
| 38/113 | 3
| 2.o place |
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