If Taiwan is a separate state from China today, it's because of Chiang Kai-shek

Chiang Kai-shek is the military and political leader of the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) after the death of Sun Yat-sen, who is considered the founder of modern China, in 1925. At the end of the successful expedition in 1928, Chiang Kai-shek moved the capital to Nanking and established a nationalist government under his own presidency. But Chiang Kai-shek, unsuccessful in the civil war against Mao, fled to Taiwan, where he sought to rule under the Nationalist Republic of China.

Who is Chiang Kai-shek? (1887-1975)

He was born on October 31, 1887, in Czechiang Province in Northeast China, and died on April 5, 1975 in Taiwan. He was the son of a middle-class merchant family. He received a classical education with his grandfather, who was one of the few merchants at a young age.

After the Opium War of 1842, as a result of the internal and external crises caused by the capitulations and the war, the Manchu-origin Qing dynasty, which had ruled China since 1644, weakened. Beginning in the 1890s, Chinese nationalism and development movements began, and the idea of ​​nationalism and reform became widespread among the intellectuals and the broad masses.

Chiang Kai-shek was only 7 years old when Sun Yat Sen, who overthrew the Manchus in 1911, founded China's first revolutionary organization (Union for China's Rebirth) in 1894. Chiang Kai-shek entered Pao-t'ing military school in 1906, in the midst of the nationalist movement that later became widespread. He was among the first students to be sent to Japan between 1907 and 1911. The Japanese experience impressed Chiang Kai-shek as much as the younger generations of his time. Throughout his life, he adopted Japanese discipline and ideals and adopted them in World War II. He tried to make it a part of a "state ideology" that he tried to create during the World War II years.

During his years in Japan, he became involved in the Sun Yat Sen supporters' movement. When he heard of the uprisings in China in 1911, he returned to his country and joined the struggle that overthrew the Manchus.

The revolutionaries who founded the Republic of China in 1912 handed over the government to Yuan Shikai, one of the bureaucrats-soldiers of the old order, due to the inadequacy of their political and military power. Yuan, on the other hand, went to Sun Yat to establish his personal administration.

He tried to suppress Sen's party. Chiang and other revolutionaries were compelled to flee to Japan again in 1913. In 1915, Yuan was overthrown by Sun's third revolution. However, the political division in the country, internal conflicts and

The new government, under the pressure of Western states, could not unite the country under its rule. After 1916, China witnessed the rivalry and conflict of military bureaucrat dictators and “warlords” who dominated the regions for many years.

In 1918, Chiang Kai-shek joined Sun Yat Sen's newly formed Koumintang (Kuo Ming-t'ang) party in the South China region, supported by some regional warlords. Attracting attention for his military ability rather than his political thoughts.

Chiang Kai-shek served in the military wing of the KMT. At this time, the KMT government had decided that uniting the country would only be possible with a new and modern army.

In the early 1920s, with a military and political rapprochement between China and the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union began to support the KMT movement as a national liberation movement. Chiang Kai-shek received military training in the Soviet Union at this time. On his return, he took office at the Vampoa Military Academy, where Zhou En-Lai, a member of the Communist Party of China, was the political commissar.

After Sun Yat Sen's death in 1925, Chiang Kai-shek became the leader of the left wing of the KMT. In 1926, he was appointed commander of the Northern War, the forerunner of the wars to unify China. KMT-CCP ​​during the Northern War alliance weakened. After KMT armies entered Shanghai city with the support of CCP-organized strikes, Chiang Kai-shek had the CCP leaders arrested and expelled the CCP from the government in a bloody massacre.

Chiang Kai-Shek maintained his political influence as a soldier during the burgeoning KMT-CCP ​​conflict in the 1930s. Meanwhile, he married the daughter of the famous merchant family Soonglar and became a Christian under his wife's influence. During these years, the KMT administration was weak throughout the country and increasingly losing public support. Against the dominant CCP forces in South and Northwest China, Chiang Kai-shek and the KMT could only survive with the support of the warlords.

In 1931, when Japan began its attempt to conquer the Chinese continent by invading Manchuria, Chiang Kai-shek launched a campaign to crush the CCP instead of fighting Japan. This decision created a reaction against Chiang Kai-shek among the Chinese intellectuals and the public. Fighting intensely against the Japanese in northern China, the CCP pulled Chiang Kai-shek's government to Chunking Province in southern China as it was gaining more and more respect in the eyes of patriots. Here he tried to establish a "state ideology" called "New Life", a mixture of Confucianism and some Japanese moral principles and Western ideas.

Chiang Kai-shek allied with the CCP against Japan in 1936. The abduction of Chiang Kai-shek to Sian by a Manchurian warlord and his release through mediation by the CCP had a positive impact on the establishment of this alliance. Chiang Kai-shek II. During World War II, he became the commander-in-chief of the CCP and KMT united front armies supported by the USA and the USSR.

II. After the end of World War II, positive results could not be obtained from the work done for the CCP and KMT coalition government, and the civil war started again. Chiang Kai-shek was briefly elected by the newly formed national assembly.

Although he was elected the first constitutional president of China, the KMT government could not hold out against the CCP forces in 1949, and Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan Island with members of the government.

When the People's Republic of China was established in 1949, Chiang Kai-shek founded the Nationalist Republic of China in Taiwan. After the United Nations officially recognized the People's Republic of China instead of Taiwan in 1971, Chiang Kai-shek ended his life.

He argued that it was the legitimate government of China. After his death, his son, General Chang Ching-kuo, succeeded him.