Chiang Kai Shek

Chiang Kai Shek (1887-1975), Chinese statesman.

Chiang Kai-shek was a follower of Sun Yat-sen who drove out the last emperor of China in 1911 and started a Republic.

For many years afterwards, different groups of Chinese fought against each other.

In 1926 Chiang Kai-shek led the army of the government against rebels in many places.

By 1928 he had control of nearly all of China and became President.

His most dangerous enemies, the Communists led by Mao Tse-tung, had fled to the north-west.

From 1931 China was threatened by Japan and in 1937 the Japanese invaded China.

Chiang joined forces with the Communists to fight the Japanese. The two countries were still at war when the Second World War began and China became one of the Allies, fighting against Germany and Japan.

In 1943, Chiang Kai-shek met Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, and Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Britain, in Cairo, Egypt, and he was looked upon as one of the world's great leaders. But at the end of the war in 1945, Mao Tse-tung led Communist armies against Chiang's and in 1949 Chiang was driven out of China.

He formed Nationalist China on the island of Taiwan (Formosa) which is less than half the size of Scotland. Nationalist China was a member of the United Nations until 1971. It was expelled when The People's Republic of China (Communist China) became a member.

See Jonathan Fenby Chiang Kai Shek