Chiang Kai-shek



Chiang Kai-shek was the ruler of China from 1928 to 1975, when he was overthrown by Mao Zedong.

From 1928 to 1948, Chiang served as the generalissimo of the National Government of the Republic of China (ROC). Chiang was a nationalist, promoting traditional Chinese culture in the New Life Movement. Unable to maintain Sun's good relations with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Chiang tried to purge them in the 1927 Shanghai Massacre and repressed uprisings at Kwangtung ("Canton" region) and elsewhere.

He is regarded as a controversial figure. Supporters credit him with playing a major part in the Allied victory of World War II and unifying the nation and a national figure of the Chinese resistance against Japan as well as his staunch anti-Soviet and anti-communist stance. Detractors and critics denounce him as a dictator at the front of an authoritarian autocracy who suppressed and purged opponents and critics and arbitrarily incarcerated those he deemed as opposing to the Kuomintang among others.