A report on Chiang Kai-shek and First United Front

Chiang in 1943
Chiang Kai-shek in 1907
Sun Yat-sen and Chiang at the 1924 opening ceremonies for the Soviet-funded Whampoa Military Academy
Chiang in the early 1920s
Chiang (right) together with Wang Jingwei (left), 1926
Chiang and Feng Yuxiang in 1928
Chiang during a visit to an air force base in 1945
Chiang and Soong on the cover of Time magazine, 26 October 1931
Nationalist government of Nanking – nominally ruling over entire China in 1930s
After the breakout of the Second Sino-Japanese War, The Young Companion featured Chiang on its cover.
Chiang with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in Cairo, Egypt, November 1943
Chiang and his wife Soong Mei-ling sharing a laugh with U.S. Lieutenant General Joseph W. Stilwell, Burma, April 1942
Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong in 1945
Chiang with South Korean President Syngman Rhee in 1949
Map of the Chinese Civil War (1946–1950)
Chiang with Japanese politician Nobusuke Kishi, in 1957
Chiang presiding over the 1966 Double Ten celebrations
Chiang with U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower in June 1960
The National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall is a famous monument, landmark, and tourist attraction in Taipei, Taiwan.
Chiang's portrait in Tiananmen Rostrum
Chinese propaganda poster proclaiming "Long Live the President"
A Chinese stamp with Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek and Winston Churchill heads, with Nationalist China flag and Union Jack
Statue of Chiang Kai-shek in Yangmingshan National Park, Taiwan
Duke of Zhou
Chiang Kai-shek with the Muslim General Ma Fushou
Chiang Kai-shek as Knight of the Royal Order of the Seraphim
Mao Fumei (毛福梅, 1882–1939), who died in the Second Sino-Japanese War during a bombardment, is the mother of his son and successor Chiang Ching-kuo
Yao Yecheng (姚冶誠, 1889–1972), who came to Taiwan and died in Taipei
Chen Jieru (陳潔如, "Jennie", 1906–1971), who lived in Shanghai, but moved to Hong Kong later and died there
Soong Mei-ling (宋美齡, 1898–2003), who moved to the United States after Chiang Kai-shek's death, is arguably his most famous wife even though they had no children together

Midway through the Northern Expedition, the KMT–CCP alliance broke down and Chiang massacred communists inside the party, triggering a civil war with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), which he eventually lost in 1949.

- Chiang Kai-shek

In 1927, KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek purged the Communists from the Front while the Northern Expedition was still half-complete.

- First United Front
Chiang in 1943

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Overall
Clockwise from top-left: Chiang inspecting soldiers of the National Revolutionary Army; NRA troops marching north; an NRA artillery unit in combat; civilians showing support for the NRA; peasants volunteering to join the expedition; NRA soldiers preparing to launch an attack.

Northern Expedition

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Military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army of the Kuomintang (KMT), also known as the "Chinese Nationalist Party", against the Beiyang government and other regional warlords in 1926.

Military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army of the Kuomintang (KMT), also known as the "Chinese Nationalist Party", against the Beiyang government and other regional warlords in 1926.

Clockwise from top-left: Chiang inspecting soldiers of the National Revolutionary Army; NRA troops marching north; an NRA artillery unit in combat; civilians showing support for the NRA; peasants volunteering to join the expedition; NRA soldiers preparing to launch an attack.
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, commander-in-chief of the NRA, emerged from the Northern Expedition as the leader of the KMT and China.
Chiang Kai-shek prepares to leave Guangzhou. Those pictured include Mikhail Borodin, on the far left, Vasily Blyukher in military uniform on the right, and Chiang himself in uniform, to the right of Blyukher.
NRA troops preparing to attack Wuchang
NRA forces enter the British concession at Hankou, October 1926
Routes of the Northern Expedition
Members of the National Pacification military government, from left to right: Pan Fu, Gungsangnorbu, Wu Junsheng, Sun Chuanfang, Zhang Zuoxiang, and Zhang Zongchang
Mikhail Borodin making a speech in Wuhan, 1927
Feng Yuxiang meets with Chiang Kai-shek in Xuzhou on 19 June 1927
Shanxi warlord Yan Xishan started to fight the NPA in October 1927, strengthening the KMT military position
Beiyang warlord soldiers retreating by railway
When Zhang Xueliang (right) decided to make peace with the nationalist government, his former subordinates Zhang Zongchang (middle) and Chu Yupu (left) unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow him.
The leaders of the Northern Expedition gather on 6 July 1928 at Sun Yat-sen's mausoleum in the Temple of Azure Clouds, Beijing, to commemorate the completion of their mission.

The expedition was led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, and was divided into two phases.

The split was partially motivated by Chiang's purging of communists within the KMT, which marked the end of the First United Front.

Kuomintang

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Major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan).

Major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan).

The Revolutionary Army attacking Nanjing in 1911
The KMT reveres its founder, Sun Yat-sen, as the "Father of the Nation"
Venue of the 1st National Congress of Kuomintang in 1924
Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Kuomintang after Sun's death in 1925
KMT flag displayed in Lhasa, Tibet in 1938
The National Revolutionary Army soldiers marched into the British concessions in Hankou during the Northern Expedition
The KMT in Tihwa, Sinkiang in 1942
Nationalist soldiers during the Second Sino-Japanese War
The retrocession of Taiwan in Taipei on 25 October 1945
The former KMT headquarters in Taipei City (1949–2006), whose imposing structure, directly facing the Presidential Office Building, was seen as a symbol of the party's wealth and dominance
Pan-blue supporters at a rally during the 2004 presidential election
Kuomintang public service center in Shilin, Taipei
Lien Chan (middle) and Wu Po-hsiung (second left) and the KMT touring the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing, People's Republic of China when the Pan-Blue coalition visited the mainland in 2005
KMT headquarters in Taipei City before the KMT Central Committee moved in June 2006 to a much more modest Bade building, having sold the original headquarters to private investors of the EVA Airways Corporation
KMT Kinmen headquarters office in Jincheng Township, Kinmen County
KMT Building in Vancouver's Chinatown, British Columbia, Canada
KMT branch office in Pingzhen District, Taoyuan City
The KMT maintains offices in some of the Chinatowns of the world and its United States party headquarters are located in San Francisco Chinatown, on Stockton Street directly across the Chinese Six Companies
KMT Eastern U.S. headquarters is in New York Chinatown
KMT office of Australasia in Sydney, Australia
From left to right, KMT members pay tribute to the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Beijing in 1928 after the success of the Northern Expedition: Generals Cheng Jin, Zhang Zuobao, Chen Diaoyuan, Chiang Kai-shek, Woo Tsin-hang, Yan Xishan, General Ma Fuxiang, Ma Sida and General Bai Chongxi
Malaysian Chinese Association
Vietnamese Kuomintang
People's Action Party of Vietnam
Taipei Grand Mosque
The KMT reveres its founder, Sun Yat-sen, as the "Father of the Nation"
Venue of the 1st National Congress of Kuomintang in 1924

From 1926 to 1928, the KMT under Chiang Kai-shek successfully led the Northern Expedition against regional warlords and unified the fragmented nation.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was under Comintern instructions to cooperate with the KMT, and its members were encouraged to join while maintaining their separate party identities, forming the First United Front between the two parties.

Clockwise from top: communist troops at the Battle of Siping; Muslim soldiers of the NRA; Mao Zedong in the 1930s; Chiang Kai-shek inspecting soldiers; CCP general Su Yu inspecting the troops shortly before the Menglianggu campaign

Chinese Civil War

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Fought between the Kuomintang -led government of the Republic of China (ROC) and forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), lasting intermittently after 1927.

Fought between the Kuomintang -led government of the Republic of China (ROC) and forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), lasting intermittently after 1927.

Clockwise from top: communist troops at the Battle of Siping; Muslim soldiers of the NRA; Mao Zedong in the 1930s; Chiang Kai-shek inspecting soldiers; CCP general Su Yu inspecting the troops shortly before the Menglianggu campaign
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, Commander-in-Chief of the National Revolutionary Army, emerged from the Northern Expedition as the leader of the Republic of China.
NRA soldiers marching
NRA troops firing artillery at Communist forces
Japanese occupation (red) of eastern China near the end of the war, and Communist bases (striped)
Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong met in Chongqing in 1945.
Shangdang Campaign, September–October 1945
Map showing Three Campaigns during the Chinese Civil War
Nationalist warplanes being prepared for an air raid on Communist bases
The PLA enters Beijing in the Pingjin Campaign.
Chinese FT tanks
The Nationalists' retreat to Taipei: after the Nationalists lost Nanjing (Nanking) they next moved to Guangzhou (Canton), then to Chongqing (Chungking), Chengdu (Chengtu) and finally, Xichang (Sichang) before arriving in Taipei.
Mao Zedong's proclamation of the founding of the People's Republic in 1949
Communist conquest of Hainan Island in 1950
"Forget not that you are in Jǔ"--a rock in Quemoy Island with Chiang Kai-shek's calligraphy signifying the retaking of one's homeland
Monument in memory of the crossing of the Yangtze in Nanjing
Lockheed U-2C 56-6691 wreckage (pilot Chang Liyi) on display at the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution, Beijing
Map of the Chinese Civil War (1946–1950)
The situation in China in 1929: After the Northern Expedition, the KMT had direct control over east and central China, while the rest of China proper as well as Manchuria was under the control of warlords loyal to the Nationalist government.
Map showing the communist-controlled Soviet Zones of China during and after the encirclement campaigns
Route(s) taken by Communist forces during the Long March
A Communist leader addressing survivors of the Long March
Situation in 1947
Situation in the fall of 1948
Situation in the winter of 1948 and 1949
Situation in April to October 1949
Taiwanese side "Reunification under the Three Principles of the People“.
thumb|The Soviet Red Army invaded Manchuria in August 1945.
Chinese Communist soldiers march north to occupy rural Manchuria, 1945.

The war is generally divided into two phases with an interlude: from August 1927 to 1937, the KMT-CCP Alliance collapsed during the Northern Expedition, and the Nationalists controlled most of China.

In 1923, Sun sent Chiang Kai-shek, one of his lieutenants, for several months of military and political study in Moscow.

Sun Yat-sen

Sun Yat-sen

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Chinese statesman, physician, and political philosopher, who served as the first provisional president of the Republic of China and the first leader of the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party of China).

Chinese statesman, physician, and political philosopher, who served as the first provisional president of the Republic of China and the first leader of the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party of China).

Sun Yat-sen
Photograph of Sun Yat-sen, c. 1911
Silver coin: 1 yuan - Sun Yat Sen, 1927
Sun Yat-sen (back row, fourth from right) and his family
Sun (second from left) and his friends the Four Bandits: Yeung Hok-ling (left), Chan Siu-bak (middle), Yau Lit (right), and Guan Jingliang (關景良, standing) at the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, circa 1888
Plaque in London marking the site of a house at 4 Warwick Court, WC1 where Sun Yat-sen lived while in exile
Letter from Sun Yat-sen to James Cantlie announcing to him that he has assumed the Presidency of the Provisional Republican Government of China, dated 21 January 1912
A letter with Sun's seal commencing the Tongmenghui in Hong Kong
Interior of the Wan Qing Yuan featuring Sun's items and photos
The Sun Yat-sen Museum in George Town, Penang, Malaysia, where he planned the Xinhai Revolution.
The Revolutionary Army of the Wuchang uprising fighting in the Battle of Yangxia
"Portrait of Sun Yat-sen" (1921) Li Tiefu Oil on Canvas 93×71.7cm
(L-R): Liao Zhongkai, Chiang Kai-shek, Sun Yat-sen and Soong Ching-ling at the founding of the Whampoa Military Academy in 1924
Sun Yat-sen (seated) and Chiang Kai-shek
Sun (seated, right) and his wife Soong Ching-ling (seated next to him) in Kobe, Japan in 1924
Chinese generals at the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in 1928 after the Northern Expedition. From right: Cheng Jin (何成浚), Zhang Zuobao (張作寶), Chen Diaoyuan (陳調元), Chiang Kai-shek, Woo Tsin-hang, Yan Xishan, Ma Fuxiang, Ma Sida (馬四達), and Bai Chongxi.
Statue in the Mausoleum, Kuomintang flag on the ceiling
Lu Muzhen (1867–1952), Sun's first wife from 1885 to 1915
Kaoru Otsuki, Sun's Japanese wife
Fumiko, the daughter of Sun and Kaoru
Aerial perspective of Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall in central Singapore. Taken in 2016
Sun Yat-Sen monument in Chinatown area of Los Angeles, California
Sun Yat-Sen plaza in the Chinese Quarter of Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Sun Yat-sen tribute in Tiananmen Square, 2010
Mausoleum of Sun Yat-sen, Nanjing.
Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Guangzhou.
Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Taipei
Sun Yat-sen Memorial Centre, George Town, Penang, Malaysia
A marker on the Sun Yat-sen Historical Trail on Hong Kong Island

In 1923, he invited representatives of the Communist International to Canton (Guangzhou) to re-organize his party and formed a brittle alliance with the Chinese Communist Party.

He did not live to see his party unify the country under his successor, Chiang Kai-shek, in the Northern Expedition.

The Beiyang Army in training

Warlord Era

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Period in the history of the Republic of China when control of the country was divided among former military cliques of the Beiyang Army and other regional factions from 1916 to 1928.

Period in the history of the Republic of China when control of the country was divided among former military cliques of the Beiyang Army and other regional factions from 1916 to 1928.

The Beiyang Army in training
Zhang Zuolin (left) and Wu Peifu (right), two of the most powerful strongmen of the Warlord Era
Control of railroads was of great importance to the warlords.
Zhang Zongchang, one of the most infamous Chinese warlords
Bandits in northwestern China, around 1915
Warlord soldiers train with dao swords sometime in the 1920s. Some warlord armies, especially those in southern China, were badly armed, paid and supplied, and often lacked even basic necessities, such as guns, ammunition, and food.
Zhang Zuolin with two of his sons, both wearing expensive miniature uniforms
Renault FT of the Fengtian clique during Northern Expedition
This military symbol was based on the Five Races Under One Union flag.
The party emblem of the Kuomintang
Map of the campaigns of the Northern expedition of the Kuomintang
In course of the Central Plains War, several warlords attempted to overthrow Chiang Kai-shek's newly formed Nationalist government; despite the defeat of the anti-Kuomintang forces, warlords continued to remain in power in much of China until the 1940s

The Warlord Era ended in 1928 when the Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-shek officially unified China through the Northern Expedition, marking the beginning of the Nanjing decade.

The party was reorganized along Leninist democratic centralism, and the alliance with the Chinese Communist Party came to be known as First United Front.

Communists being rounded up during the purges

Shanghai massacre

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Communists being rounded up during the purges
Chiang Kai-shek at the beginning of the Northern Expedition in 1926.
Public beheading of a communist in Shanghai
Nanking Nationalist Government was established in 4.18, the head of government was Chiang Kai-shek.

The Shanghai massacre of 12 April 1927, the April 12 Purge or the April 12 Incident as it is commonly known in China, was the violent suppression of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organizations and leftist elements in Shanghai by forces supporting General Chiang Kai-shek and conservative factions in the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party, or KMT).

By 15 July 1927, the Wuhan regime had expelled the Communists in its ranks, effectively ending the First United Front, a working alliance of both the KMT and CCP under the tutelage of Comintern agents.

Flag of the National Revolutionary Army (known as the Republic of China Army after the 1947 Constitution)

National Revolutionary Army

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The military arm of the Kuomintang (KMT, or the Chinese Nationalist Party) from 1925 until 1947 in China.

The military arm of the Kuomintang (KMT, or the Chinese Nationalist Party) from 1925 until 1947 in China.

Flag of the National Revolutionary Army (known as the Republic of China Army after the 1947 Constitution)
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, Commander-in-Chief of the National Revolutionary Army, emerged from the Northern Expedition as the leader of China.
NRA troops against Sun Chuanfang's private army preparing to defend Shanghai.
National Revolutionary Army soldiers marched into the British concessions in Hankou during the Northern Expedition.
The NRA during World War II
A Chinese propaganda poster depicting the National Revolutionary Army.
Elite German-trained divisions of National Revolutionary Army before the Battle of Wuhan
A platoon of the National Revolutionary Army marching in British helmets during a parade in Burma in 1943.
A Chinese Nationalist soldier, age 10, member of a Chinese division from the X Force, boarding planes in Burma bound for China, May 1944.
Chinese suicide bomber putting on an explosive vest made out of Model 24 hand grenades to use in an attack on Japanese tanks at the Battle of Taierzhuang.
A Chinese Nationalist Army soldier equipped with a German M35 helmet and a ZB vz. 26.
German-equipped Chinese troops practicing a march at the Chinese Military Academy at Chengtu in 1944.
US-equipped Chinese Army in India marching.

A large number of the Army's officers passed through the Whampoa Military Academy, and the first commandant, Chiang Kai-shek, became commander-in-chief of the Army in 1925 before launching the successful Northern Expedition.

In 1927, after the dissolution of the First United Front between the Nationalists and the Communists, the ruling KMT purged its leftist members and largely eliminated Soviet influence from its ranks.

Second United Front

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The alliance between the Chinese Nationalist Party and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to resist the Japanese invasion during the Second Sino-Japanese War, which suspended the Chinese Civil War from 1937 to 1945.

The alliance between the Chinese Nationalist Party and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to resist the Japanese invasion during the Second Sino-Japanese War, which suspended the Chinese Civil War from 1937 to 1945.

A Communist soldier waving the Nationalists' flag of the Republic of China after a victorious battle against the Japanese during the Second Sino-Japanese War
In July 1937, the Presidium of the Central Military Commission issued an order for the Red Army to reorganize into the National Revolutionary Army and stand by for the anti-Japanese front line.

In 1927 the Chinese Communists retaliated against Kuomintang following a betrayal of its members in Shanghai by National Revolutionary Army commander Chiang Kai-shek, which marked the end of the KMT's four-year alliance with the Soviet Union and its cooperation with the CCP during the Northern Expedition (aka First United Front) to defeat warlords and unify China.

Chiang Kai-shek leading the Northern Expedition in 1926.

Canton Coup

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Chiang Kai-shek leading the Northern Expedition in 1926.
A model of the Zhongshan.
The Zhongshan Warship Museum in Wuhan.
The restored warship.
Guangzhou ("Canton") in the 1920s.

The Canton Coup of 20 March 1926, also known as the Zhongshan Incident or the March 20th Incident, was a purge of Communist elements of the Nationalist army in Guangzhou (then romanized as "Canton") undertaken by Chiang Kai-shek.

At the time of the incident, the Nationalist and Communist parties of China were working together as part of the First United Front, allied against the local warlords who were carving the country into fiefdoms.