Chiang Kai-shek

Chiang Kai-shek}} (31 October 18875 April 1975) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and military commander who was the leader of the Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) party and commander-in-chief and Generalissimo of the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) from 1926, and leader of the Republic of China (ROC) in mainland China from 1928. After Chiang was defeated in the Chinese Civil War by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1949, he continued to lead the Republic of China on the island of Taiwan until his death in 1975. He was considered the legitimate head of China by the United Nations until 1971.

Born in Zhejiang, Chiang received a military education in China and Japan and joined Sun Yat-sen's Tongmenghui revolutionary organization in 1908. After the 1911 Revolution, he was a founding member of the KMT, becoming one of Sun's closest lieutenants and head of the Whampoa Military Academy. After Sun's death in 1925, Chiang became commander-in-chief of the NRA, and led the Northern Expedition from 1926 to 1928, which nominally reunified China under a Nationalist government in Nanjing. During the campaign, the KMT–CCP alliance broke down in 1927 and Chiang massacred the communists in Shanghai, triggering the Chinese Civil War.

As the leader of the ROC during the Nanjing decade, Chiang sought to modernise and unify the nation, although hostilities with the CCP continued. After the Mukden Incident, whereby Japan took over Manchuria, Chiang's government tried to avoid a war with Japan while presiding over economic and social reconstruction. In 1936, he was kidnapped in the Xi'an Incident by Zhang Xueliang, who obliged him to form an anti-Japanese Second United Front with the CCP. Over the next eight years, Chiang led the war of resistance against Japan, mostly from Chongqing. As the leader of a major Allied power, Chiang attended the Cairo Conference to discuss terms for the Japanese surrender, including the return of Taiwan, where he sent troops to suppress the uprising in the February 28 incident.

When the Second World War ended, the civil war with the Communists (led by Mao Zedong) resumed; in 1949, Chiang's government was defeated and retreated to Taiwan, where he imposed martial law and the White Terror, which lasted until his death. Presiding over economic reforms and rapid growth, starting in 1948 Chiang won five elections to six-year terms as President of the ROC. He was also Director-General of the KMT until his death in 1975, and was succeeded by his son Chiang Ching-kuo, who became president in 1978.

Like Mao, Chiang is a controversial figure. Supporters credit him with unifying the nation and ending the century of humiliation, leading the resistance against Japan, fostering economic development and promoting Chinese culture in contrast to Mao’s Cultural Revolution. He is also credited with protecting the national treasures from the Forbidden City during the wars with Japan and the CCP, eventually bringing them to Taiwan, where he established the National Palace Museum. Critics fault him for his early pacifism toward Japan's occupation of Manchuria, flooding of the Yellow River, cronyism and corruption with the Four Big Families, and his right-wing dictatorship on both mainland China and Taiwan. Provided by Wikipedia