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| “ | We must use every inch of our blood to take back every inch of our land. | „ |
| ~ Chiang Kai-shek |
Chiang Kai-shek was the ruler of China from 1928 to 1949 (after being deposed by Mao Zedong), and ruler of Taiwan (also known as the Republic of China) from 1950 until his death in 1975.
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.
At the onset of the Second Sino-Japanese War, which later became the Chinese theater of World War II, Marshal Zhang Xueliang kidnapped Chiang and obliged him to establish a Second United Front with the CCP. After the defeat of the Japanese, the American-sponsored Marshall Mission, an attempt to negotiate a coalition government, failed in 1946. The Chinese Civil War resumed, with the CCP led by Mao Zedong defeating the KMT and declaring the People's Republic of China in 1949. Chiang's government and army retreated to Taiwan, where Chiang imposed martial law and persecuted critics in a period known as the "White Terror". After evacuating to Taiwan, Chiang's government continued to declare its intention to retake mainland China. Chiang ruled Taiwan securely as President of the Republic of China and Director-General of the Kuomintang until his death in 1975, just one year before Mao's death.
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.