Chiang Kai-Shek was a Chinese political leader who led the Guomintang Army and became the national leader of the Republic of China in 1928. He was unable to control China enough to keep it safe from invading Japanese during the Japan-China War that began in 1937. He fled to Taiwan in 1949 and continued to serve as president until his death in 1975.
Chiang Kai-Shek is a Chinese political leader best remembered for being the national leader of China during the brutal Japan-China War that began in 1937. He led the Guomintang Army before becoming the leader of the Republic of China in 1928. The His government fled to Taiwan in 1949, but he continued to serve as president from 1950 until his death in 1975.
Born on October 31, 1887 in Xikou, Zhejiang Province, China, Chiang grew up in a home that was struggling financially, but with his ancestral ties tied to Hequiao in Jiangsu Province, he was socially considered to be of middle-class origin. His father, Chiang Zhaocong, died when Chiang was only three years old. After a Japanese military education, he spent some years in the Imperial Japanese Army. He was married to Mao Fumei in an arranged marriage which produced a son and a daughter.
Chiang Kai-Shek successfully demonstrated his leadership potential in the Guomintang Army. He was so respected for his military skills, that he surpassed many other qualified candidates to be selected to replace Sun Yat-Sen as leader of the Guomintang after Sun Yat-Sen’s death in 1925. Chiang became the national leader of the Republic of China ( ROC) in 1928. The Chinese Civil War had begun in 1927, the year before he took office, and Chiang wanted to eliminate the Communists.
Much of Chiang’s leadership over China was ineffective because he could not control the country enough to keep it safe from invading Japanese. In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria and in 1937 carried out the attack that led to the Japan-China War. Chiang’s Guomindang Army was unprepared to resist the Japanese and China soon lost its capital, Nanjing/Nanking. Later referred to as “The Rape of Nanking” and “The Nanking Massacre”, the Japanese army stormed the city and raped and killed large numbers of Chinese people with mass firing squads. The estimated number of casualties varies, but many historians believe that some 300,000 or more Chinese died in the raid.
Despite the dire results of the war between Japan and China, Chiang Kai-Shek was credited with using the strategy to gain Western military support for China, even though this lengthened the war. At the time of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, China was an allied power with Great Britain, Russia and the United States. Once the war ended, however, the Chinese Civil War flared up again, with Communist forces eventually forcing Chiang and his allies out. He moved to Taiwan and resumed his presidency, intending to reconquer the mainland. This never happened, however, and Chiang died in Taipei in 1975 at the age of 87 of kidney failure.
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