Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi; 1887-1975), major political figure in twentieth-century China. Commander of the military forces of China's Nationalist government, he dominated the Guomindang (Kuomintang, KMT, or Nationalist Party) regime from 1928 until 1949, when he became president of the Taiwan-based Republic of China (ROC).

Chiang Kai-shek was born in Fenghua, Zhejiang Province, into the family of a salt merchant who died when Chiang was still a child. Chiang attended school in Ningbo and Fenghua and developed a strong interest in the military. After a brief trip to Japan from 1906 to 1907, he enrolled in the Chinese government's military academy at Baoding. From 1908 to 1911 Chiang studied at a military school in Tokyo.

Chiang began his political career during the Tokyo years. He became a protégé of Chin Qimei, who introduced Chiang to the revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen. Chiang became a member of Sun's Tongmenghui in 1908. When the 1911 Revolution developed, Chiang left Japan for Shanghai to serve under Chen, who led revolutionary forces in Shanghai. Chen's military success permitted the establishment of the provisional government in Nanjing.

After Yuan Shikai defeated the revolutionaries in the "second revolution," Chiang followed Chen to Japan, where both men joined Sun Yat-sen's reorganized Gemingdang (Revolutionary Party). Chiang made return trips to Shanghai to assist in the anti-Yuan cause. Chen's assassination in May 1916 by Yuan's agents was a blow to Chiang, although he had already solidified a position in the revolutionary movement. Through his patron Chen he had formed ties with Sun Yat-sen and senior leader Zhang Renjie. Chen's two nephews Chen Guofu and Chen Lifu also became lifelong supporters and friends.

Early Career. Chiang's activities during the next several years are somewhat obscure. He remained in Shanghai during much of the time, occasionally traveling south to assist Sun. He was sometimes assigned to the staff of Chen Jiongming, the principal military backer of Sun's Canton (Guangzhou) governemnt until their break in 1922. Chiang accompanied Sun in June 1922, when Chen ejected the KMT leader from Canton. During his time in Shanghai, Chiang apparently became involved in stock market speculation. Zhang Renjie had important ties with leading Shanghai capitalists, giving Chiang access to the business world. Chiang also developed connections with the powerful Green Gang, an underworld organization.

Sun Yat-sen meanwhile began discussions with Comintern representatives to establish a KMT-Soviet tie, culminating in the Sun-Joffe declaration of January 1923. Sun then dispatched a study delegation to the Soviety Union in August 1923 headed by Chiang Kai-shek. After several weeks in Russia, Chiang returned to Canton just as the KMT was being reorganized under the tutelage of Comintern agent Michael Borodin.

A major attraction of the Soviet link was financial and military aid, as well as military advisers, to assist Sun in building a KMT army, a step that Sun felt necessary if the party were to unite China. In the spring of 1924 Sun created the Whampoa Military Academy near Canton to train officers. He appointed Chiang director. Liao Zhongkai, a KMT leftist, headed the political education program, and several members of the Chinese Communist party (now also KMT members) served on the staff.

Chiang's appointment as commander of the academy was the turning point in his career. Over the next few months he produced several classes of military officers who became the leaders of the KMT army. Many became loyal followers of Chiang, forming the so-called "Whampoa clique." The army grew rapidly in size, aided by the influx of Soviet money, arms, and instructors. Chiang also directed military operations to secure the party's base in Canton between 1924 and 1925. Chiang thus became the dominant figure within the KMT military, a base from which he extended his political power.

In March 1925 Sun Yat-sen died of cancer in Beijing, creating a political crisis within his Canton government. Despite Chiang's military power, his political standing within the KMT was relatively low; yet over the next few months he eliminated most of the obstacles to power. Many conservative stalwarts had objected to Sun Yet-sen's alliance with the Soviets. One such group formed the "Western Hills faction" and departed Canton for Shanghai. In August 1925 leftist Liao Zhongkai was assassinated and blame fell on the conservatives. Rightist Hu Hanmin, a major contender for party leader, left China under a cloud.

Rise to Power. In the wake of these events the KMT was dominated by leftist Wang Jingwei, Borodin, and Chiang, considered pro-Soviet at the time. Actually, Chiang was unhappy with the leftist bent of the Canton regime but still required Soviet aid, precluding a total break with Moscow. Nonetheless, on 20 March 1926 Chiang precipitated a near coup, the Zhongshan Incident, in which he imposed martial law and arrested many leftists and communists. Although distraught at the turn of events, Borodin felt the KMT link was crucial and accepted Chiang's fait accompli. Wang Jingwei left China and activities of the Chinese Communist Party memebers were restricted. Chiang's patron, Zhang Renjie, became chairman of the Standing Committee of the Central Executive Committee of the KMT, and Chen Guofu took over the organizational department of the party. Chiang's star was in ascendancy.

In July 1926 Chiang Kai-shek served as commander in chief for the long-discussed Northern Expedition. Amid a military and political crusade, the party forces moved into Hunan and Hubei. The expedition exacerbated the struggle between left and right in the party. KMT-organized movements of peasants and urban workers mushroomed during the crusade and these were led primarily by leftists and Communists. When the civilian government moved from Canton to Wuhan in January 1927, Borodin and the leftists came to the fore, shortly to be joined by Wang Jingwei. After conquering Shanghai and Nanjing in March 1927, Chiang decided on a total break with the Wuhan group. Using his old connections in Shanghai, he obtained funds from banking and business leaders sufficient to finance his army without Soviet aid. Allied with his Green Gang cronies, Chiang launched a violent attack on the Communists and labor unions in Shanghai on 12 April 1927. Within a week Chiang created his own KMT regime in Nanjing, supported by many conservatives.

The Nanjing and Wuhan regimes attacked each other while both came unraveled. Wang Jingwei broke with Borodin and the Communists, while in Nanjing Chiang was beset with dissension and military defeats. He resigned in August and traveled to Japan, where he married Soong Mei-ling (Song Mei-ling). Chiang Kai-shek retained the loyalty of the core of the KMT's army and had thus become indispensable to a functioning party government. In January 1928 he resumed leadership in Nanjing as head of the party and military. In June 1928 KMT forces captured Beijing, completing the Northern Expedition.

The Nanjing Decade. The next decade, from 1928 to 1937, was the golden age of Chiang Kia-shek's rule in China. The Nanjing regime achieved international recognition. Problems, however, were severe. The civil war with the Communists continued. They established a base in Jiangxi in the early 1930s and later made their famous Long March to the northwest. Furthermore, Chiang had completed the Northern Expedition by allying with regional warlords such as Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang, and the Guangxi clique. In the early years of the Nanjing period, Chiang fought costly civil wars with all of these leaders. His superior financial base in Shanghai enabled him to keep his opponents divided, although residual regionalism only gradually diminished.

Chiang faced challenges within the party. His rise had been sudden, creating bitterness among many senior leaders. In the spring of 1931, when Chiang broke with Hu Hanmin, the old rightist with whom he had allied in 1928, his opponents bolted from the government and formed a rival KMT regime in Canton. Japan invaded Manchuria in September 1931, an incident that placed great pressure on both sides to resolve the crisis short of civil war. Chiang resigned briefly in late 1931 but returned to power in January 1932 after his opponents failed to create a viable government. This time Chiang allied with the old leftist Wang Jingwei.

Despite these conflicts, Chiang dominated the Nanjing government. His titles occasionally changed but not his authority. A remote, almost regal figure, he cultivated the formation of various cliques such as the CC group, the Blue Shirt fascist group, the Political Study clique, and the Whampoa military group within the party. Chiang played one group off against another while holding ultimate power himself. He also relied on family members for many tasks, and placed great trust in his German military advisers.

Japan persisted in pressing Chiang Kai-shek. Following the attack on Manchuria in 1931, Japan pressured North China. Chiang tried to appease Japan and avoid war, a stand that was widely unpolular. In December 1936 Chiang was kidnapped at Xi'an by his commander Zhang Xueliang, who favored a policy of resistance. Chiang finally agreed to suspend the civil war and seek a united front with the Communist Party against the Japanese.

War with Japan. War erupted between China and Japan after 7 July 1937. Chiang's forces fought valiantly at Shanghai but were decimated. The Nanjing government retreated first to Wuhan and then to Chongqing, following a scorched-earth policy. After 1938 the war settled into a long and costly stalemate, the Japanese unable to secure victory, the Chinese unable to mount a meaningful offensive. Tokyo tried to undercut the Chongqing government by establishing a puppet KMT regime in Nanjing, and they attracted Wang Jingwei, who defected to the Japanese in December 1938. The puppet regime, however, acquired little support among Chinese.

Chiang's government was devastated by the war. Although his formal titles multiplied during these years, the base of his power—the army—had been mangled. The central forces were thus weaker compared to the regional militarists of the southwest. The retreat inland had also deprived Chiang's trasury of its economic base, the rich lower Yangtze River area. Chongqing responded by printing money and creating hyperinflation, which devastated morale in the government and army and stimulated corruption. Little outside aid was available. The German link was broken and only partially replaced by Soviet aid. After Pearl Harbor, American assistance was forthcoming but logistical difficulties were staggering. American aid also brought political difficulties; Chiang had strained relations with America's representative, General Joseph Stilwell.

The morass in Chongqing contrasted vividly with the growing strength of the Communists, Chiang's nominal allies. A barter economy and guerrilla-style organization gave the Communist forces a decided advantage over the KMT in wartime conditions. By 1945 Mao's government in Yan'an had vastly increased its power and was ready to challenge the KMT.

Ironically, Chiang Kai-shek's international status reached its peak just as his domestic power sank. Franklin D. Roosevelt insisted that Chiang be elevated to "Big Four" status in the war, with Churchill, Stalin, and himself. At Cairo in late 1943 Chiang met with Churchill and Roosevelt. He obtained agreements ending extraterritoriality and most other provisions of the unequal treaties that dated back to the opium wars of a century earlier. China's "Big Four" status was belid by events on the battlefield, however, where China ceased to be a major factor. A japanese offensive late in the war caused a near collapse of the KMT position, and the Allies placed little faith in China.

When Japan surrendered, Chiang's government was ill-equipped to reassert its authority in eastern China. Only with American assistance and sometimes that of puppet and Japanese troops could it reoccupy the coastal cities. The countryside in the North was largely under the control of the Communists, whose forces were better motivated and disciplined than those of the KMT. Although the United States tried to negotiate a settlement between the two parties, civil war was inevitable. After some early successes, the KMT position collapsed in late 1948 to early 1949. Chiang resigned in January 1949, avoiding the onus of presiding over the final collapse.

Chiang's career was not ended. In December of 1949 he established a government in exile in Taiwan, pledging to retake the mainland. After the outbreak of the Korean War the United States began to pour economic and military aid into Taiwan, which it recognized as the government of all of China. Following his death in 1975, Chiang's son Chiang Ching-kuo (Jiang Jingguo) succeeded him as leader of the Republic of China on Taiwan.