Nationalist Party

Nationalist Party
or Kuomintang or Guomindang

Political party that governed all or part of mainland China from 1928 to 1949 and subsequently ruled Taiwan.

Founded by Song Jiaoren (1882–1913) and led by Sun Yat-sen, it evolved from a revolutionary league working to overthrow the Qing dynasty into a political party. In the early 1920s the party received guidance from the Soviet Bolshevik party; until 1927 it collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party. Sun's program, which stressed nationalism, democracy, and people's livelihood, was ineffectively implemented by his successor, Chiang Kai-shek, who became increasingly conservative and dictatorial. During World War II, Chiang focused on suppressing the Chinese communists at the expense of defending the country from the Japanese; in 1949 the Nationalists were driven from the mainland to Taiwan. There they maintained a monopoly on political power until 1989, when the first legal opposition party won seats in the legislature. The first non-Nationalist president was elected in 2000. See also Wang Jingwei.

* * *

▪ Chinese political party
also called  Kuomintang , Wade-Giles romanization  Kuo-min Tang (KMT; “National People's Party”) 

      political party that governed all or part of mainland China from 1928 to 1949 and subsequently ruled Taiwan under Chiang Kai-shek and his successors for most of the time since then.

      Originally a revolutionary league working for the overthrow of the Chinese monarchy, the Nationalists became a political party in the first year of the Chinese republic (1912). The party participated in the first Chinese parliament, which was soon dissolved by a coup d'état (1913). This defeat moved its leader, Sun Yat-sen, to organize it more tightly, first (1914) on the model of a Chinese secret society and, later (1923–24), under Soviet guidance, on that of the Bolshevik party. The Nationalist Party owed its early successes largely to Soviet aid and advice and to close collaboration with the Chinese communists (1924–27).

      After Sun Yat-sen's death in 1925, leadership of the party passed gradually to Chiang Kai-shek, who brought most of China under its control by ending or limiting regional warlord autonomy (1926–28). Nationalist rule, inseparable from Chiang's, became increasingly conservative and dictatorial but never totalitarian. The party program rested on Sun's Three Principles of the People: (Three Principles of the People) nationalism, democracy, and people's livelihood. Nationalism demanded that China regain equality with other countries, but the Nationalists' resistance to the Japanese invasion of China (1931–45) was less rigorous than their determined attempts to suppress the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The realization of democracy through successive constitutions (1936, 1946) was also largely a myth. Equally ineffective were attempts to improve the people's livelihood or eliminate corruption. The Nationalist Party's failure to effect such changes itself derived partly from weaknesses in leadership and partly from its unwillingness to radically reform China's age-old feudal social structure.

      After the defeat of Japan in 1945, civil war with the communists was renewed with greater vigour. In 1949–50, following the victories of the Chinese communists on the mainland, a stream of Nationalist troops, government officials, and other refugees estimated at some two million persons, led by Chiang, poured into Taiwan; a branch of the Nationalist Party that was opposed to Chiang's policies and aligned itself with the CCP still exists on the mainland. Taiwan became the effective territory, apart from a number of small islands off the mainland China coast, of the Republic of China (ROC). The Nationalists for many years constituted the only real political force, holding virtually all legislative, executive, and judicial posts. The first legal opposition to the Nationalist Party came in 1989, when the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP; established 1986) won one-fifth of the seats in the Legislative Yuan.

      The Nationalists remained in power throughout the 1990s, but in 2000 the DPP's presidential candidate, Chen Shui-bian, defeated the Nationalists' candidate, Lien Chan, who finished third. In legislative elections the following year the Nationalist Party not only lost its majority in the legislature but its plurality in the number of seats (to the DPP). However, in 2004 the Nationalists and their allies regained control of the legislature, and in 2008 the party captured nearly three-fourths of the legislative seats, crushing the DPP. To resolve Taiwan's long-standing differences with China, the party endorsed the policy of the “Three Nots”: not unification, not independence, and not military confrontation.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Nationalist Party — /ˈnæʃnələst pati/ (say nashnuhluhst pahtee) noun an Australian conservative political party formed in 1917 under the leadership of William Morris Hughes; replaced by the United Australia Party in 1931. In November 1916, after the defeat of the… …  

  • Nationalist Party (Malta) — Nationalist Party Partit Nazzjonalista Leader Lawrence Gonzi …   Wikipedia

  • Nationalist Party of the Rif of Melilla — (in Spanish: Partido Nacionalista del Rif de Melilla) is a political party in Melilla, Spain. PNRIF was formed ahead of the 2003 election to the Assembly of Melilla. The founding president of the party is Mimon Kabbur Hussien, a former Partido… …   Wikipedia

  • Nationalist Party (Ireland) — The Nationalist Party was a term commonly used to describe a number of parliamentary political parties and constituency organisations supportive of Home Rule for Ireland from 1874 to 1922. It was also the name of the main Irish nationalist… …   Wikipedia

  • Nationalist Party of Canada — The Nationalist Party of Canada is an unregistered Canadian political party that was founded in 1977 by Don Andrews (born Vilim Zlomislic), who continues as leader of the party. The purported goals of the party are the promotion and maintenance… …   Wikipedia

  • Nationalist Party (Northern Ireland) — The Nationalist Party† was the continuation of the Irish Parliamentary Party, and was formed after partition, by the Northern Ireland based members of the IPP. The Nationalist Party didn t enter the House of Commons of Northern Ireland until 1924 …   Wikipedia

  • Nationalist Party of Australia — Not to be confused with National Party of Australia. Nationalist Party of Australia Leader Billy Hughes, Stanley Bruce, John Latham Founded 1917 Dissolved 1931 Pre …   Wikipedia

  • Nationalist Party (Iceland) — The Nationalist Party (Flokkur Þjóðernissinna) was a minor Icelandic political party that espoused a limited form of Nazism before and during the Second World War. The party was formed in March 1934 through a merger between the Icelandic… …   Wikipedia

  • Nationalist Party (Bolivia) — The Nationalist Party (in Spanish: Partido Nacionalista, PN) was a Bolivian reformist and nationalist political party. The Nationalist Party was founded on 29 December 1926 by Presinent of the Republic Hernando Siles Reyes and a group of young… …   Wikipedia

  • Nationalist Party of Australia — Die Nationalist Party of Australia war eine historische politische Partei in Australien, die von 1917 bis 1931 auf bundesebene aktiv war. Die Partei entstand am 17. Februar 1917 aus einer Fusion zwischen der konservativen Commonwealth Liberal… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”