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Nationalist government

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Republic of China
中華民國
Zhōnghuá mínguó
1925–1948
Anthem: 中華民國國歌
Zhōnghuá mínguó guógē
"National Anthem of the Republic of China" (1937–1948)
Flag anthem: 中華民國國旗歌
Zhōnghuá míngúo gúoqígē
"National Flag Anthem of the Republic of China"
(1947–1948)
National seal
中華民國之璽

(1929–1949)
Land controlled by the Republic of China (1945) shown in dark green; land claimed but uncontrolled shown in light green.
Land controlled by the Republic of China (1945) shown in dark green; land claimed but uncontrolled shown in light green.
De facto administration map of the Republic of China during early 1930s.
De facto administration map of the Republic of China during early 1930s.
Capital
Largest cityShanghai
Official languagesStandard Chinese
Demonym(s)Chinese
Government
Chairman 
• 1928
Tan Yankai (first)
• 1943–1948
Chiang Kai-shek (last)
Generalissimo 
• 1931–1946
Chiang Kai-shek
Premier 
• 1928–1930
Tan Yankai (first)
• 1947–1948
Zhang Qun (last)
LegislatureNational Assembly
Control Yuan
Legislative Yuan
History 
• Established in Guangzhou
1 July 1925
1926–1928
• Reset in Nanjing
18 April 1927
1927–1936, 1946–1950
7 July 1937 – 2 September 1945
• Admitted to the United Nations
24 October 1945
• Retrocession of Taiwan and the Pescadores[a]
25 October 1945
28 February 1947
25 December 1947
20 May 1948
Area
• Total
8,368,561 km2 (3,231,119 sq mi)
Currency
ISO 3166 codeCN
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Army and Navy Marshal stronghold of the Republic of China
Beiyang China
Government of the Republic of China
Today part of

The Nationalist government, officially the National Government of the Republic of China (Chinese: 中華民國國民政府; pinyin: Zhōnghuá mínguó guómín zhèngfǔ), refers to the government of the Republic of China from 1 July 1925 to 20 May 1948, led by the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) party.

Following the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution on 10 October 1911, revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen was elected Provisional President and founded the Provisional Government of the Republic of China. To preserve national unity, Sun ceded the presidency to military strongman Yuan Shikai, who established the Beiyang government. After a failed attempt to install himself as Emperor of China, Yuan died in 1916, leaving a power vacuum which resulted in China being divided into several warlord fiefdoms and rival governments. They were nominally reunified in 1928 under the Nanjing-based government led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, which after the Northern Expedition governed the country as a one-party state under the Kuomintang, and was subsequently given international recognition as the legitimate representative of China. The Nationalist government would then experience many challenges such as the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the Chinese Civil War. The government was in place until it was replaced by the current Government of the Republic of China in the newly promulgated Constitution of the Republic of China of 1948.

History

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Republic of China
"Republic of China" in Traditional (top) and Simplified (bottom) Chinese characters
Traditional Chinese中華民國
Simplified Chinese中华民国
PostalChunghwa Minkuo
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinZhōnghuá mínguó
Gwoyeu RomatzyhJonghwa Min'gwo
Wade–GilesChung1-hua2 min2-kuo2
IPA[ʈʂʊ́ŋxwǎ mǐn.kwǒ]
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationJūng'wàh Màhn'gwok
Southern Min
Hokkien POJTiong-hoâ Bîn-kok
Tâi-lôTiong-huâ bîn-kok

The oldest surviving republic in East Asia, the Republic of China was formally established on 1 January 1912 in mainland China following the Xinhai Revolution, which itself began with the Wuchang Uprising on 10 October 1911, replacing the Qing dynasty and ending nearly three thousand years of imperial rule in China. Central authority waxed and waned in response to warlordism (1915–28), Japanese invasion (1937–45), and the Chinese Civil War (1927–49), with central authority strongest during the Nanjing Decade (1927–37), when most of China came under the control of the Kuomintang (KMT) under an authoritarian one-party state.[1]

At the end of World War II in 1945, the Empire of Japan surrendered control of Taiwan and its island groups to the Allies, and Taiwan was placed under the Republic of China's administrative control. The legitimacy of this transfer is disputed and is another aspect of the disputed political status of Taiwan.

After World War II, the civil war between the ruling Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) resumed, despite attempts at mediation by the United States. The Nationalist Government began drafting the Constitution of the Republic of China under a National Assembly, but was boycotted by the CCP. With the promulgation of the constitution, the Nationalist Government abolished itself and was replaced by the Government of the Republic of China. Following their loss of the Civil War, the Nationalist Government retreated and moved their capital to Taipei while claiming that they were the legitimate government of the mainland.

Founding

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After Sun's death on 12 March 1925, four months later on 1 July 1925, the National Government of the Republic of China was established in Guangzhou.

The following year, as Generalissimo of the National Revolutionary Army, Chiang Kai-shek became the de facto leader of the Kuomintang (KMT), or Chinese Nationalist Party. He especially headed the right-wing of the Nationalist Party, while the Communists formed part of the Party's left-wing. Chiang led the Northern Expedition through China with the intention of defeating the warlords and unifying the country. The National Revolutionary Army received significant aid from the Soviet Union; Chiang himself was surrounded by Soviet military advisors. Much of the Nationalist Party, however, became convinced, not without reason, that the Communists, under recent orders from the Comintern, wanted to break from the United Front and get rid of the KMT.[2]

Chiang decided to strike first and purged the Communists, killing thousands of them. At the same time, other violent conflicts took place in the south of China where peasant associations supported by the CCP were attacking landlords and local gentry, who formed a base of political support for the KMT right-wing and recruitment for Nationalist soldiers. These events eventually led to the Chinese Civil War between the Nationalist Party and the CCP. Chiang Kai-shek pushed the CCP into the interior as he sought to destroy them, and moved the Nationalist Government to Nanjing in 1927.[3] Leftists within the KMT still allied to the CCP, led by Wang Jingwei, had established a rival Nationalist Government in Wuhan two months earlier, but soon joined Chiang in Nanjing in August 1927. By the following year, Chiang's army had captured Beijing after overthrowing the Beiyang government and unified the entire nation, at least nominally, marking the beginning the Nanjing Decade.

Nanjing Decade and War with Japan

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Organisational chart of the KMT regime (1934).

According to Sun Yat-sen's "Three Stages of Revolution" theory, the KMT was to rebuild China in three phases: the first stage was military unification, which was carried out with the Northern Expedition; the second was "political tutelage [zh]" which was a provisional government led by the KMT to educate people about their political and civil rights, and the third stage would be constitutional government.(Fung 2000, p. 30) By 1928, the Nationalists claimed that they had succeeded in reunifying China and were beginning the second stage, the period of so-called "tutelage".[4] In 1931, they promulgated a provisional constitution that established the one-party rule of the KMT and promised eventual democratization.[5] In practice, this meant that Chiang Kai-Shek was able to continue authoritarian rule.

Even had it been the KMT's intention, historians such as Edmund Fung argue that they may not have been able to establish a democracy under the circumstances of the time.(Fung 2000, p. 30) Despite nominal reunification, the Chiang's Nationalist Government relied heavily on the support of warlords such as Ma Hushan, Yan Xishan, and Zhang Xueliang to exert control on the provinces.[6][7][8] The loyalty of these figures was often highly suspect, and they frequently engaged in acts of open defiance, as in the Xi'an Incident of 1936, or even rebellion. In alliance with local landlords and other power-brokers, they blocked moderate land reforms that might have benefits the rural poor.[9] Instead, the poor peasants remained a consistent source of recruits for the Communist Party. While weakened by frequent massacres and purges—historian Rudolph Rummel estimated that 1,654,000 people were killed by the KMT in anti-Communist purges during this period—the Communists were able to survive and posed a major latent threat to the regime.[10] However, perhaps the biggest challenges came from within the administration itself. As Chiang Kai-Shek told the state council: "Our organization becomes worse and worse ... many staff members just sit at their desks and gaze into space, others read newspapers and still others sleep."[11] Corruption was endemic at all levels of government.[12] The tension between Chiang's centralizing tendencies and the warlords who supported him led to friction and inconsistent direction. Even the KMT itself was disunified, with the pro-Chiang factions of the CC Clique, Political Study Clique, and fascist-inspired Blue Shirts Society opposed by a left-wing faction under Wang Jingwei and a right-wing faction influenced by Hu Hanmin. To control the opposing KMT factions, Chiang relied increasingly on the National Revolutionary Army.[12]

Economic growth and social improvements were mixed. The Kuomintang supported women's rights and education, the abolition of polygamy, and foot binding. The government of the Republic of China under Chiang's leadership also enacted a women's quota in the parliament with reserved seats for women. During the Nanjing Decade, the spread of education increased the literacy rate across China and promoted the ideals of Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People of democracy, republicanism, science, constitutionalism, and Chinese Nationalism based on the Political Tutelage of the Kuomintang.[13][14][15][16][17][18] However, periodic famines continued: in Northern China from 1928 to 1930, in Sichuan from 1936 to 1937, and in Henan from 1942 to 1943. In total, these famines cost at least 11.7 million lives.[19][20][21][22] GDP growth averaged 3.9 per cent a year from 1929 to 1941 and per capita GDP about 1.8 per cent.[23] Among other institutions, the Nationalist Government founded the Academia Sinica and the Central Bank of China. In 1932, China for the first time sent teams to the Olympic Games.

War Declaration against Japan by the Chongqing Nationalist Government on 9 December 1941

The Nationalists faced a new challenge with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, with hostilities continuing through the Second Sino-Japanese War, part of World War II, from 1937 to 1945. The government of the Republic of China retreated from Nanjing to Chongqing. In 1945, after the war of eight years, Japan surrendered and the Republic of China, under the name "China", became one of the founding members of the United Nations. The government returned to Nanjing in 1946.

Post-World War II

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After the defeat of Japan during World War II, Taiwan was surrendered to the Allies, with ROC troops accepting the surrender of the Japanese garrison. The government of the ROC proclaimed the "retrocession" of Taiwan to the Republic of China and established a provincial government on the island. The military administration of the ROC extended over Taiwan, which led to widespread unrest and increasing tensions between local Taiwanese and mainlanders.[24] The shooting of a civilian on 28 February 1947 triggered an island-wide unrest, which was brutally suppressed with military force in what is now known as the February 28 Incident. Mainstream estimates of casualties range from 18,000 to 30,000, mainly Taiwanese elites.[25][26] The 28 February Incident has had far-reaching effects on subsequent Taiwanese history.

From 1945 to 1947, under United States mediation, especially through the Marshall Mission, the Nationalists and Communists agreed to start a series of peace talks aiming at establishing a coalition government. The two parties agreed to open multiparty talks on post-World War II political reforms via a Political Consultative Conference. This was included in the Double Tenth Agreement. This agreement was implemented by the Nationalist Government, who organized the first Political Consultative Assembly from 10 to 31 January 1946. Representatives of the Kuomintang, CCP, Chinese Youth Party, and China Democratic League, as well as independent delegates, attended the conference in Chongqing. However, shortly afterward, the two parties failed to reach an agreement and the civil war resumed.[27] In the context of political and military animosity,[citation needed] the National Assembly was summoned by the Nationalists without the participation of the CCP and promulgated the Constitution of the Republic of China. The constitution was criticized by the CCP,[28] and led to the final break between the two sides.[29] The full-scale civil war resumed from early 1947.[30]

After the National Assembly election, the drafted Constitution was adopted by the National Assembly on 25 December 1946, promulgated by the National Government on 1 January 1947, and went into effect on 25 December 1947. The Constitution was seen as the third and final stage of Kuomintang reconstruction of China. Chiang Kai-shek was also elected as the 1st President of the Republic of China under the constitution by the National Assembly in 1948, with Li Zongren being elected as vice-president. The Nationalist Government was abolished on 20 May 1948, after the Government of the Republic of China was established with the presidential inauguration of Chiang. The CCP, though invited to the convention that drafted it, boycotted and declared after the ratification that not only would it not recognize the ROC constitution, but all bills passed by the Nationalist administration would be disregarded as well. Zhou Enlai challenged the legitimacy of the National Assembly in 1947 by accusing the KMT of hand-picking the members of the National Assembly 10 years earlier; claiming they thus could not legitimately represent the Chinese people.

Government

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Headquarters of the National Government in Nanjing

The National Government governed under a dual-party state apparatus under the ideology of Dang Guo, effectively making it a one-party state; however, existing parties continued to operate and new ones formed. After the end of the Second World War, and particularly after the passage of the constitution in 1946, the National Government was reconstituted to include multiple parties, in preparation for a full democratic government to come.

In February 1928, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 2nd Kuomintang National Congress held in Nanjing passed the Reorganization of the National Government Act. This act stipulated the national government was to be directed and regulated under the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang, with the Committee of the National Government being elected by KMT Central Committee. Under the national government was seven ministries – Interior, Foreign Affairs, Finance, Transport, Justice, Agriculture and Mines, and Commerce. There were also additional institutions such as the Supreme Court, Control Yuan, and the General Academy.

With the promulgation of the Organic Law of the National Government in October 1928, the government was reorganized into five different branches or Yuan, namely the Executive Yuan, Legislative Yuan, Judicial Yuan, Examination Yuan as well as the Control Yuan. The Chairman of the National Government was to be the head-of-state and commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army. Chiang Kai-shek was appointed as the first Chairman of the National Government, a position he would retain until 1931. The Organic Law also stipulated that the Kuomintang, through its National Congress and Central Executive Committee, would exercise sovereign power during the period of political tutelage, and the KMT's Political Council would guide and superintend the National Government in the execution of important national affairs and that the council has the power to interpret or amend the organic law.[31]

Authority within the Nationalist government ultimately lay with Chiang Kai-shek.[32]: 43  All major policy changes on military, diplomatic, or economic issues required his approval.[32]: 156  According to historian Odd Arne Westad, "no other leader within the GMD had the authority to force through even the simplest decisions.[32]: 156 The practical power of high-ranking officials like ministers or the head of the Executive Yuan was more closely tied to their relationship with Chiang than with the formal authority of their position.[32]: 43  Chiang created multiple layers of power in his administration which he sometimes played off each other to prevent individuals or cliques from gathering power that could oppose his authority.[32]: 93–94 

The Nationalist government exercised relatively little control in China's border regions, where the political fragmentation along ethnic lines that began after the fall of the Qing dynasty continued.[33]: 110 

Military

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The NRA during World War II
KMT troops rounding up Communist prisoners for execution

The National Revolutionary Army (NRA) (traditional Chinese: 國民革命軍; simplified Chinese: 国民革命军; pinyin: Guómín Gémìng Jūn; Wade–Giles: Kuo-min Ke-ming Chün), pre-1928 sometimes shortened to 革命軍 or Revolutionary Army and between 1928 and 1947 as 國軍 or National Army was the Military Arm of the Kuomintang (KMT) from 1925 until 1947, as well as the national army of the Republic of China during the KMT's period of party rule beginning in 1928.

Originally organized with Soviet aid as a means for the KMT to unify China against warlordism, the National Revolutionary Army fought major engagements in the Northern Expedition against the Chinese Beiyang Army warlords, in the Second Sino-Japanese War against the Imperial Japanese Army, and in the Chinese Civil War against the People's Liberation Army.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the armed forces of the CCP were nominally incorporated into the National Revolutionary Army (while retaining separate commands), but broke away to form the People's Liberation Army shortly after the end of the war. With the promulgation of the Constitution of the Republic of China in 1947 and the formal end of the KMT party-state, the National Revolutionary Army was renamed the Republic of China Armed Forces, with the bulk of its forces forming the Republic of China Army, which retreated to Taiwan in 1949.

Forced conscription campaigns were conducted by the military; they are described by Rudolph Rummel as such:[10]

Then there was the process of conscription. This was a deadly affair in which men were kidnapped for the army, rounded up indiscriminately by press-gangs or army units among those on the roads or in the towns and villages, or otherwise gathered together. Many men, some the very young and old, were killed resisting or trying to escape. Once collected, they would be roped or chained together and marched, with little food or water, long distances to camp. They often died or were killed along the way, sometimes less than 50 percent reaching camp alive. Then recruit camp was no better, with hospitals resembling Nazi concentration camps like Buchenwald. Probably 3,081,000 died during the Sino-Japanese War; likely another 1,131,000 during the Civil War – 4,212,000 dead in total. Just during conscription.

Because of the Nationalist government's increasing inability to fund the military, especially after Japan's success in Operation Ichigo, Nationalist authorities overlooked military corruption and smuggling.[32]: 24–25  The Nationalist army increasingly turned to raiding villages to press-gang peasants into service and force marching them to assigned units.[32]: 25 

Economy

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A currency bill from 1930, early ROC
The Bund of Shanghai in the 1930s

After the Kuomintang reunified the country in 1928, China entered a period of relative prosperity despite civil war and Japanese aggression. In 1937, the Japanese invaded and laid China to waste in eight years of war. The era also saw additional boycott of Japanese products.

Chinese industries continued to develop in the 1930s with the advent of the Nanjing decade in the 1930s when Chiang Kai-shek unified most of the country and brought political stability. China's industries developed and grew from 1927 to 1931. Though badly hit by the Great Depression from 1931 to 1935 and Japan's occupation of Manchuria in 1931, industrial output recovered by 1936. By 1936, industrial output had recovered and surpassed its previous peak in 1931 prior to the Great Depression's effects on China. This is best shown by the trends in Chinese GDP. In 1932, China's GDP peaked at US$28.8 billion, before falling to $21.3 billion by 1934 and recovering to $23.7 billion by 1935.[34] By 1930, foreign investment in China totaled $3.5 billion, with Japan leading ($1.4 billion) and the United Kingdom at 1 billion. By 1948, however, the capital stock had halted with investment dropping to only $3 billion, with the US and Britain leading.[35]

However, the rural economy was hit hard by the Great Depression of the 1930s, in which an overproduction of agricultural goods lead to massive falling prices for China as well as an increase in foreign imports (as agricultural goods produced in western countries were "dumped" in China). In 1931, imports of rice in China amounted to 21 million bushels compared with 12 million in 1928. Other goods saw even more staggering increases. In 1932, 15 million bushels of grain were imported compared with 900,000 in 1928. This increased competition leads to a massive decline in Chinese agricultural prices (which were cheaper) and thus the income of rural farmers. In 1932, agricultural prices were 41 percent of 1921 levels.[36] Rural incomes had fallen to 57 percent of 1931 levels by 1934 in some areas.[36] Under this peculiar context for rural China, the Chinese Rural Reconstruction Movement was implemented by some social activists who graduated as professors of the United States with tangible but limited progress in modernizing the tax, infrastructural, economical, cultural, and educational equipment and mechanisms of rural regions. The social activists actively coordinated with the local governments in towns and villages since the early 1930s. However, this policy was subsequently neglected and canceled by the Nationalist government due to rampant wars and the lack of resources following the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Second Chinese Civil War.[37][38]

In 1937, Japan invaded China and the resulting warfare laid waste to China. Most of the prosperous east China coast was occupied by the Japanese, who carried out various atrocities such as the Rape of Nanjing in 1937 and random massacres of whole villages. In one anti-guerrilla sweep in 1942, the Japanese killed up to 200,000 civilians in a month. The war was estimated to have killed between 20 and 25 million Chinese and destroyed all that Chiang had built up in the preceding decade.[39] Development of industries was severely hampered after the war by devastating conflict as well as the inflow of cheap American goods. By 1946, Chinese industries operated at 20 percent capacity and had 25 percent of the output of pre-war China.[40]

One effect of the war was a massive increase in government control of industries. In 1936, government-owned industries were only 15% of GDP. However, the ROC government took control of many industries in order to fight the war. In 1938, the ROC established a commission for industries and mines to control and supervise firms, as well as instilling price controls. By 1942, 70 percent of the capital of Chinese industry was owned by the government.[41]

Following the war with Japan, Chiang acquired Taiwan from Japan and renewed his struggle with the Communists. However, the corruption of the KMT, as well as hyperinflation as a result of trying to fight the civil war, resulted in mass unrest throughout the Republic and sympathy for the communists.[42] Nearly all studies of the collapse of the Nationalist government identify hyperinflation as a major factor in the government's failure.[32]: 5 

The communist land redistribution movement was an important factor in the Nationalists' defeat, particularly because it linked the interests of peasants in the north and northeast to the Communists' success.[43]

In 1949, the People's Liberation captured Beijing and later Nanjing as well. The People's Republic of China was proclaimed in Beijing on 1 October 1949. The Republic of China central government relocated to Taipei on 7 December 1949, to Taiwan where Japan had laid an educational groundwork.[44]

Former sites

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Almost all of the former sites of the nationalist government are headquartered in the city of Nanjing, the capital at the time, with only one exception.

Name Image Location Construction Date Description
Headquarters of the Nationalist Government No.292 Changjiang Road, Xuanwu District, Nanjing 1870-1930s The complex served as Viceroy of Liangjiang's Office in Qing dynasty, and as the Presidential Palace in 1948.
Executive Yuan (1928) No.19 Dongjian Road, Xuanwu District, Nanjing 1920s The building, serving as the Executive Yuan from 1928 to 1937, is now a part of the Presidential Palace complex.
Executive Yuan (1946) No.252-254 Zhongshan North Road, Gulou District, Nanjing 1930 The building was the headquarter of the Ministry of Railways at first, then the site of Executive Yuan from 1946 to 1949. After the communists took over Nanjing, it became a building of PLA Nanjing Political College.
Executive Yuan (1949) Zhongshan East Road, Xuanwu District, Nanjing 1929 It was the site of Lizhi She in the 1930s. In 1949, the Nationalist Government decided to move the Executive Yuan into this building. The building now served as a part of Zhongshan Hotel.
Legislative Yuan (1928) No.273 Baixia Road, Qinhuai District, Nanjing It was the site of the "Mistress House". The Nationalist Government chose the house to become the seat of Legislative Yuan in 1928.
Legislative Yuan (1946) & Control Yuan No.105 Zhongshan North Road, Gulou District, Nanjing 1935 The building was Nanjing City Hall during the Japanese occupation. After the Second World War, it became the offices of Legislative Yuan and Control Yuan. Now it is Nanjing Soldiers' Club.
Judicial Yuan's Entrance No.251 Zhongshan Road, Gulou District, Nanjing 1935 The building was destroyed by fire in April 1949. Only the gate remains.
Examination Yuan No.41-43 Beijing East Road, Xuanwu District, Nanjing 1930s The building is now served as Nanjing City Government Offices and the Committee of Nanjing, CPPCC.
Supreme Court No.101 Zhongshan North Road, Gulou District, Nanjing 1933 The building was also served as the Supreme Prosecutor Office
Military Affairs Commission No.292 Changjiang Road, Xuanwu District, Nanjing 1870s This house was built in 1870s, after Taiping Rebellion. In the 1930s, Chiang Kai-shek chose it to be one of the headquarters of the Military Affairs Commission. The house is located in the Presidential Palace complex and becoming a popular tourist attraction now.
National Resource Commission No.200 Zhongshan North Road, Gulou District, Nanjing 1947 The building is now an office building of Nanjing Tech University
Ministry of Economic Affairs No.145 Zhongshan East Road, Xuanwu District, Nanjing The building is now served as the office of Nanjing Sports Bureau.
Central Bank No.15 East-1 Zhongshan Rd, Huangpu District, Shanghai 1899–1902 This was the only institution not headquartered in the city of Nanjing. Once being the Shanghai branch of Russo-Chinese Bank, this building now becomes Shanghai Foreign Exchange Trading Center.
Ministry of Health No.305 Zhongshan East Road, Xuanwu District, Nanjing 1931 The building was in the site of the National Central Hospital complex. It is Nanjing General Hospital of Nanjing Military Command now.
Ministry of Education Chengxian Street, Xuanwu District, Nanjing The building is now occupied by some governmental officials.
Ministry of Transportation & Communications No.303-305 Zhongshan North Road, Gulou District, Nanjing 1932–1934 Opposite was the site of the Executive Yuan. After the communists took over Nanjing, it became a building of PLA Nanjing Political College.
National Assembly Hall (1936) No.2 Sipailou, Xuanwu District, Nanjing 1930s Before the National Theatre of Drama and Music was completed, the National Assembly was held in the Auditorium of National Central University.
National Assembly Hall (1946) No.264 Changjiang Road, Xuanwu District, Nanjing 1935 The building was served as the National Theatre of Drama and Music. After the World War II, it became the meeting place of the National Assembly. It was the site of 1948 presidential election and the birthplace of the Constitution. So this building played an important role in the modern history of China.
Residence of the Chairman (1946) Purple Mountain, Xuanwu District, Nanjing 1931–1934 Also known as "the Red Hill Mansion" and "Mei-ling Villa", the building was one of the main residences of Chiang & Soong in Nanjing after WWII. And it became one of the official residences of the President of the ROC from 1948 to 1949.

When the city of Nanjing was not captured by the Nationalist Government, they chose the following buildings as their headquarters.

Name Image Location Construction Date Description
Nationalist Government in Canton (1925) No.118 Yuehua rd, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou In 1925, the Nationalist Government was established here. Today, all the buildings inside were demolished except the gate.
Nationalist Government in Wuhan (1926) No.708, Zhongshan Avenue, Wuhan 1917–1921 It was also called Nanyang Tobacco Building. In 1926, the National Revolutionary Army took control of Wuhan. Then, the officials of KMT chose Nanyang Tobacco Building to become the seat of the Nationalist Government.
Nationalist Government in Chongqing (1939) Yuzhong District, Chongqing In the period of the Second Sino-Japanese War, this building was served as the headquarters of the Nationalist Government until they moved back to Nanjing. The building was demolished in the 1980s.
Nationalist Government in Hankow (1927) Wuchang Uprising Memorial Building 1927 During the Wuhan Nationalist Government and during the Battle of Wuhan, This was the main government administration building. Nanyang Tobacco Building however, was the main administration during the Wuhan Nationalist Government. This building used to serve as the Headquarters of the Hubei Provincial Government during the Qing Dynasty and now serves as the Wuchang Uprising Memorial Building.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Interpretations on whether this entails a complete transfer of the territory's sovereignty to the Republic of China vary. Japan renounced the claims to Taiwan and Pescadores in the Treaty of San Francisco in 1952. See Retrocession Day, Theory of the Undetermined Status of Taiwan and political status of Taiwan.

References

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Citations

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  1. ^ Roy, Denny (2003). Taiwan: A Political History. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. pp. 55, 56. ISBN 0-8014-8805-2.
  2. ^ Fenby 2009
  3. ^ "南京市". 重編囯語辭典修訂本 (in Traditional Chinese). Ministry of Education, ROC. Archived from the original on 3 January 2020. Retrieved 15 December 2011. 民國十六年,國民政府宣言定為首都,今以臺北市為我國中央政府所在地。(In the 16th Year of the Republic of China [1927], the National Government established [Nanking] as the capital. At present, Taipei is the seat of the central government.)
  4. ^ Chen, Lifu; Myers, Ramon Hawley (1994). Chang, Hsu-hsin; Myers, Ramon Hawley (eds.). The storm clouds clear over China: the memoir of Chʻen Li-fu, 1900–1993. Hoover Press. p. 102. ISBN 0-8179-9272-3. After the 1930 mutiny ended, Chiang accepted the suggestion of Wang Ching-wei, Yen Hsi-shan, and Feng Yü-hsiang that a provisional constitution for the political tutelage period be drafted.
  5. ^ 荆, 知仁. 中华民国立宪史 (in Chinese). 联经出版公司.
  6. ^ Li, Xiaobing, ed. (2012). "Zhang Xueliang (Chang Hsueh-liang) (1901–2001)". China at War: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 531.
  7. ^ "Zhōngguó Guómíndǎng Gémìng Wěiyuánhuì Jiǎnjiè" 中国国民党革命委员会简介 [Introduction to the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang]. RCCK. 9 April 2018. Archived from the original on 12 November 2018. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  8. ^ Forbes, Andrew D. W. (1986). Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia. Cambridge, England: CUP Archive. ISBN 978-0-521-25514-1.
  9. ^ Fitzgerald, John (1997). "Warlords, Bullies, and State Building in Nationalist China: The Guangdong Cooperative Movement, 1932–1936". Modern China. 3 (24): 420–458. doi:10.1177/009770049702300403. JSTOR 189394. S2CID 146794107. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
  10. ^ a b Rummel, Rudolph. "Estimates, Sources, And Calculations, 1929 To June, 1937". China's Bloody Century. Transaction Publishers. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
  11. ^ (Fung 2000, p. 5) "Nationalist disunity, political instability, civil strife, the communist challenge, the autocracy of Chiang Kai-shek, the ascendancy of the military, the escalating Japanese threat, and the "crisis of democracy" in Italy, Germany, Poland, and Spain, all contributed to a freezing of democracy by the Nationalist leadership."
  12. ^ a b Teon, Aris (28 February 2018). "Why Did Chiang Kai-shek Lose China? The Guomindang Regime And The Victory Of The Chinese Communist Party". The Greater China Journal. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
  13. ^ "禁纏足、興女學:南京國民政府在興女權上做出巨大努力 – 雪花新闻".
  14. ^ Chang-Ling Huang. "Gender Quotas in Taiwan" (PDF). 2.igs.ocha.ac.jp. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
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  20. ^ Li, Lillian M. (2007). Fighting Famine in North China: State, Market, and Environmental Decline, 1690s–1990s (PDF). Stanford: Stanford University Press. pp. 303–307. In Gansu the estimated mortality was 2.5 to 3 million [...] In Shaanxi, out of a population of 13 million, an estimated 3 million died of hunger or disease
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  28. ^ 评马歇尔离华声明,周恩来选集上卷,1947-1-10
  29. ^ "首都卫戍司令部、淞沪重庆警备司令,分别致电函京沪渝中共代表,所有中共人员限期全部撤退". 大公报. Chongqing. 1 March 1947.
  30. ^ Westad, Odd Arne (2003). Decisive encounters: the Chinese Civil War, 1946–1950. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-4478-5.
  31. ^ Wilbur, Clarence Martin. The Nationalist Revolution in China, 1923–1928. Cambridge University Press, 1983, p. 190.
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  33. ^ Qian, Ying (2024). Revolutionary Becomings: Documentary Media in Twentieth-Century China. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231204477.
  34. ^ Sun Jian, pp. 1059–1071
  35. ^ Sun Jian, p. 1353.
  36. ^ a b Sun Jian, p. 1089.
  37. ^ http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/acd/cg/lt/rb/608/608PDF/cyo.pdf [bare URL PDF]
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  40. ^ Sun Jian, p. 1319
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  42. ^ Sun Jian, pp. 617–618
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  44. ^ Davison, Gary Marvin (2003). A short history of Taiwan: the case for independence. Praeger Publishers. p. 64. ISBN 0-275-98131-2. Basic literacy came to most of the school-aged populace by the end of the Japanese tenure on Taiwan. School attendance for Taiwanese children rose steadily throughout the Japanese era, from 3.8 percent in 1904 to 13.1 percent in 1917; 25.1 percent in 1920; 41.5 percent in 1935; 57.6 percent in 1940; and 71.3 percent in 1943.

Sources

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    • Boorman, Howard L. "Sun Yat-sen" in Boorman, ed. Biographical Dictionary of Republican China (1970) 3: 170–189, complete text online
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[edit]
Preceded by
Beiyang government
(1912–1928)
Nationalist government
1927–1948
Succeeded by