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Kuomintang

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. | 2011 | Copyright

Kuomintang [Chin.,=national people's party] (KMT), Chinese and Taiwanese political party. Sung Chiao-jen organized the party in 1912, under the nominal leadership of Sun Yat-sen , to succeed the Revolutionary Alliance. The original Kuomintang program called for parliamentary democracy and moderate socialism. In 1913, Yüan Shih-kai , the president of China, suppressed the Kuomintang although it held a majority in the first national assembly. Under Sun Yat-sen, the party established unrecognized revolutionary governments at Guangzhou in 1918 and 1921 and even sent a delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference. Sun accepted aid from the USSR, and after 1922 many Comintern agents, notably Michael Borodin and V. K. Blücher, helped reorganize the Kuomintang. At the party congress in 1924 at Guangzhou, a coalition including Communists adopted Sun's political theory, which included the Three People's Principles (San Min Chu I), namely, nationalism, democracy, and the people's livelihood. Sun, who died in 1925, thought that Chinese national reconstruction must follow a progression of stages: military government, tutelage under the Kuomintang, and popular sovereignty.

In 1926, Kuomintang general Chiang Kai-shek launched the Northern Expedition , advancing north from Guangzhou against the Beijing government. After halting temporarily in 1927, when the Communists were purged and the civil war between the two factions began, Kuomintang forces finally captured Beijing in 1928. The Kuomintang government at Nanjing received diplomatic recognition in 1928 and began the period of tutelage. After several Kuomintang military campaigns, the Communists were forced (1934–35) to withdraw from their bases in S and central China and establish new strongholds in the northwest. The Kuomintang continued to war against the Communists, ignoring the growing Japanese threat until N China was invaded by the Japanese in 1937. Although plagued by bureaucratic inefficiency and corruption, it controlled the Chinese central government until 1947, when it permitted some participation by minor liberal parties. Its control at the provincial and local level, however, was never complete.

Full-scale civil war, further complicated by inflation, characterized the years from 1945 to 1949. The power of the Kuomintang steadily declined, and by the end of 1949 the Communists controlled the mainland. The Kuomintang, forced from the mainland, remained in power in Taiwan , first under Chiang, then under his son, Chiang Ching-kuo , and Lee Teng-hui . In 1991, Lee ended emergency rule, which had permitted the domination of Taiwan's national assembly by mainland delegates elected in 1947. During the 1990s the major opposition party gained a number of seats in the assembly; in the 1996 presidential elections, President Lee, who was opposed by the Beijing government, won a landslide victory. In 1999 a split developed in the party when James Soong challenged the official candidate for the 2000 presidency race, Vice President Lien Chan, and was expelled; the opposition candidate, Chen Shui-bian , won the election, and Lien placed third behind Soong. Shortly thereafter Lee Teng-hui resigned as Kuomintang chairman. Lee was expelled from the party the following year when he accused its leaders of selling out Taiwan to Beijing when they pursued a less confrontational relationship with the mainland. Although the factions united to oppose Chen's reelection in 2004, he narrowly defeat Lien Chan. In 2005, Lien visited China, becoming the first KMT leader to meet with a Chinese Communist party leader since World War II. Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou succeeded Lien as party leader in 2005 (except during 2007–9) and was elected president of Taiwan in 2008.

Bibliography: See G. T. Yu, Party Politics in Republican China: The Kuomintang, 1912–1924 (1966); Hsieh Jan-chih, ed., The Kuomintang (1970).

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Kuomintang

A Dictionary of World History | 2000 | Copyright

Kuomintang (or Guomindang; Chinese, ‘National People's Party’) Chinese political party. Originally a revolutionary league, it was organized in 1912 by Song Jiaoren and SUN YAT-SEN as a republican party along democratic lines to replace the Revolutionary Alliance which had emerged from the overthrow of the QING dynasty. Suppressed in 1913 by Yuan Shikai, it was reformed in 1920 by Sun and reorganized with COMINTERN assistance in 1923 in an arrangement that allowed individual communists to become members. At the party congress in 1924 it formally adopted the ‘Three Principles of the People’: nationalism, democracy, and ‘people's livelihood’. In 1926 its rise to power began in earnest with the commencement of CHIANG KAI-SHEK's Northern Campaign. The communists were purged in 1927 and the capture of Beijing in 1928 brought international recognition for its Nanjing-based Nationalist Government. It fought the CHINESE CIVIL WAR with the communists and retreated to Chongqing after the Japanese invasion of 1937. After World War II, the civil war recommenced, and by 1949 the Kuomintang's forces had been decisively defeated and forced to retreat to TAIWAN, where it still continues to form the government of Taiwan (the Republic of China), having won the country's first multiparty elections in 1991. Further elections, in 1995, saw the Kuomintang narrowly retain its majority, yet with its lowest vote (46%) since 1945.

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Kuomintang

World Encyclopedia | 2005 | Copyright

Kuomintang Nationalist Party in China, the major political force during and after the creation of a republic in 1911. It was first led by Sun Yat-sen. It cooperated with the Communist Party until 1927, when Sun's successor, Chiang Kai-shek, turned against the communists, initiating a civil war. Cooperation was renewed in order to repel the Japanese (1937–45), after which the civil war was resumed. With the communists victorious, Chiang set up a rump state on the island of Taiwan, where the Kuomintang survives.

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Kuomintang

The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military | 2001 | Copyright

Kuomintang KMT the Nationalist Party of China. A highly centralized, hierarchical, and authoritarian party/government, the Kuomintang, led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, ruled China from the 1930s through World War II. Defeated by the Chinese Communists led by Mao Zedong in the civil war which ended in 1949, the vestiges of the Kuomintang withdrew to the island of Taiwan and there reestablished the government of the Republic of China.

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"Kuomintang." The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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Kuomintang

The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable | 2006 | | Copyright

Kuomintang a nationalist party founded in China under Sun Yat-sen in 1912, and led by Chiang Kai-shek from 1925. It held power from 1928 until the Communist Party took power in October 1949 and subsequently formed the central administration of Taiwan.

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ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Kuomintang." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Kuomintang." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-Kuomintang.html

ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Kuomintang." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-Kuomintang.html

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Kuomintang

The Oxford Companion to World War II | 2001 | | Copyright

Kuomintang, Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Party of China. See China, 3(a).

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I. C. B. DEAR and M. R. D. FOOT. "Kuomintang." The Oxford Companion to World War II. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

I. C. B. DEAR and M. R. D. FOOT. "Kuomintang." The Oxford Companion to World War II. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O129-Kuomintang.html

I. C. B. DEAR and M. R. D. FOOT. "Kuomintang." The Oxford Companion to World War II. 2001. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O129-Kuomintang.html

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Kuomintang

A Dictionary of Contemporary World History | 2004 | | Copyright

Kuomintang (KMT), see Guomindang

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JAN PALMOWSKI. "Kuomintang." A Dictionary of Contemporary World History. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

JAN PALMOWSKI. "Kuomintang." A Dictionary of Contemporary World History. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O46-Kuomintang.html

JAN PALMOWSKI. "Kuomintang." A Dictionary of Contemporary World History. 2004. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O46-Kuomintang.html

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Kuomintang

Kuomintang •bang, Battambang, bhang, clang, Da Nang, dang, fang, gang, hang, harangue, kiang, Kuomintang, Kweiyang, Laing, Luang Prabang, meringue, Nanchang, Pahang, pang, parang, Penang, prang, Pyongyang, rang, sang, satang, Shang, shebang, Shenyang, slambang, slang, spang, sprang, Sturm und Drang, tang, thang, trepang, twang, vang, whang, Xizang, yang, Zaozhuang •Xinjiang, Zhanjiang, Zhenjiang •Palembang • whiz-bang • charabanc •pressgang • chaingang • Wolfgang •strap-hang • ylang-ylang • boomslang •Semarang • boomerang • linsang •Sittang • mustang

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"Kuomintang." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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