Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975) was Chairman of the Republic of China from 1928 to 1931 and from 1943 to 1948, later serving as President of Taiwan from 20 May 1948 to 5 April 1975. Chiang Kai-shek led the powerful Kuomintang party during the civil wars with the Chinese Communist Party and the northern warlords during the 1920s-1930s and the war against Japan in the 1930s-1940s, and he emerged as a national hero. However, he lost the struggle for power with Mao Zedong's communists in the years following World War II, focing him to flee to Taiwan in 1949 and set up a nationalist government-in-exile. He reigned as dictator until his death in 1975, with Yen Chia-kan succeeding him.
Biography[]
Chiang and some officers in 1937.
Chinese military commander Chiang Kai-shek emerged as leader of the Nationalist movement in the 1920s. Fighting campaigns against regional warlords and the communists, he extended his rule over most of China. In 1937 war broke out with Japan. Chiang led resistance to Japan's invasion forces at Shanghai and then, retreating inland, fought a complex series of engagements around Wuhan. Defeated, he withdrew to remote Chongqing. From 1941, as the Second Sino-Japanese War was absorbed into World War II, Chiang received financial and military support from the United States, but frustrated America by preferring to conserve his forces rather than fight Japan.
After the surrender of Japan in 1945, Chiang attempted to restore his rule over China but was defeated by Mao Zedong's communists. In 1949, he took refuge with the remnants of his Nationalist army on Taiwan, ruling as dictator of the Republic of China to his death.