Tchang Kaï-chek , (in characters Chinese 蔣介石, pinyin Jiang Jieshi) (October 31st 1887 - April 5th 1975) is a soldier, and politicking Chinese which assumed the direction of the Guomindang after the death of Sun Yat-SEN in 1925.

A military chief

Born in Xikou, in the county of Fenghua, prefecture of the town of Ningbo, Province of Zhejiang. It is resulting from a family of tradesmen of the Zhejiang, in which the ancestors are originating in Yixing, prefecture of the town of Wuxi, Province of Jiangsu. It follows a military formation in an academy of the Japan.

Tchang joined the revolutionary Alliance of Sun Yat-SEN via Chen Qimei in 1906. Between 1911 and 1912, it takes part in the combat of Shanghai. It thus climbs the levels of the hierarchy of the party and becomes a collaborator close relation of Zhang Renjie. At that time, Tchang was affiliated at secret societies of Shanghai. It follows then Sun Yat-SEN in its exile to Japan (1914) and with Canton in 1918 joined it. When the Chinese Communist party and Guomindang are combined under the impulse of the Komintern starting from 1922 to fight together against the capacity of the lords of the war and the Westerners, Tchang Kaï-chek is sent in the USSR in 1923 in order to meet the leaders of the Comintern there, to inspect the military academies and the political organization. Starting from 1924, it directs the Military academy of Huangpu, made up with the assistance of Soviet military instructors. This academy will form a military elite which will be always faithful to Tchang. When the commercial rich person of Canton revolt in 1924 against the taxes imposed by the Guomindang, it is him which carries out the engagements against their militia.

The leader of Guomindang

After the death of Sun (1925), he assumes the direction of the party gradually. In 1926, applicant whom the left prepares a plot against the Guomindang, it stops the Communist leaders of Canton and their advisers Soviet. Those were slackened only after having agreed to affiliate themselves with the Guomindang and to give up their political convictions. Having now the control of the armed forces of Guomindang, it decides to launch in July 1926 the Expédition of North against the lords of the war which always controlled most of the country. At the time of this countryside, it takes the party to attack Shanghai, but before its troops do not enter the city, the Communists start a strike and the workmen seize the power while waiting for the arrival of the troops of Tchang. Anxious from the force of the Communists, Tchang concludes from the agreements with the Westerners present in the city (who guarantee their neutrality), the mediums of Chinese businesses (which promise a financial support to him) and with the green Bande, a criminal secret society (which infiltrates the working mediums and provides information to Tchang). The April 12th 1927, the green Band launches an attack generalized against the Communists of Shanghai which will make thousands of dead among the leaders and the workmen. A little later Tchang also authorizes Wang Jingwei to eliminate the Communists from Hankou. In parallel, the Forwarding of North continues and the troops of Tchang progress unceasingly towards Beijing. At the end of 1927, the operations slow down, because Tchang decides to resign with the profit of Wang Jingwei and Hu Hanmin. It is acted in fact of a strategic retirement, because it fears to lose its control on the party. Moreover, he wants to arrange his marriage with the sister-in-law of Sun Yat-SEN, Song Meiling. This is why, after a short passage in its native village, it leaves for Japan in order to negotiate there with its future in-laws, hostile because Tchang is already married and that it is not Christian. End 1927, it can finally marry in Shanghai. It takes again then the direction of the troops and the progression towards Beijing continues easily, in particular thanks to agreements with certain lords of the war. In June 1928, Beijing fall to the hands from the troops from Guomindang. This victory was facilitated by the policy of Japan, which encouraged Zhang Zuolin, the lord of the war which controlled the city, to fold up itself in Mandchourie to preserve the Japanese interests.

President of the Republic of China

Tchang then becomes the leader of the République of China, moves the capital with Nankin and founds a dictatorial mode combining the values of the Confucianisme and the Fascisme. It continues its combat against the Communists, who must finally take refuge with the Shaanxi. On the other hand, it avoids facing the Japanese, whose intrusions in China are however increasingly frequent, because it believes its forces still too weak to be able to leave victorious. It will be necessary that a lord of the war, Zhang Xueliang, which had negotiated with the Communists, tightens a trap to him and retains it as an hostage so that it finally agrees to sign the Accord of Xi' year aiming at constituting an united front with the Communists to fight against Japan. Tchang carried out China at the time of the war of resistance against the Japanese, during whom his position inside the country weakens compared to that of Mao. The extent of the Japanese invasion leads it to move between 1937 and 1939 its capital of Nankin to Wuhan, after the Massacre of Nankin, then with Chongqing. The seat of the government will remain in this last locality until the end of the war, involving an intensive bombardment campaign by the imperial aviation.

On a world level, the influence of Tchang did of it one of the “four large” leaders of Alliés at the time of the International Conferences like the Conférence of Potsdam. July 26th, it signed thus with Truman and Churchill the declaration of Potsdam, by which the allies launched an ultimatum of unconditional rendering to Japan.

The retirement in Taiwan

During the Chinese Civil war, (1926 - 1949), Tchang tried éradiquer the Chinese Communists but did not arrive to its ends, obliging its government to withdraw itself with Taiwan where he became president of the Chinese Republic and remained it until the end of its days.

Tchang moved its government with Taipei, capital of Taiwan, where it took again its president's functions on March 1st, 1950.

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