The Chinese Nationalist Party Reform Movement In The Early .1950 's Study

The failure of ruling the party was an important reason which led to KMT's defeat in mainland. Before and after retreating to Taiwan, the KMT, from the leaders to ordinary members, launched a relatively profound reflection. On the eve of the total failure of military, Chiang Kai-shek gradually made the determination of reform definite. He organized a brain trust to help him develop a concrete plan, eliminated resistance, and propelled the discussions of reform program which was relatively radical. After the Korean War breaking out, Chiang Kai-shek took the opportunity to stop the Sixth Central Committee's function, and organized other group—the Central Reform Committee which mainly consisted of middle-aged pro-Chiang scholars as the core of power, and launched reformation officially. Reform movement covered all aspects of party affairs—from the call for rejoining the party, recruiting new party members, purging movement and self-cleaning movement aiming at the individual to the reconstruction and strengthening of organizations at all levels; from the moving down of grass-roots and new functions given to the recovery and establishment of the Department of Overseas; from emphasis on the duties of party members to paying attention to organizational life; from advocacy of the mass line to the development of the popular movement; from the establishment of various systems to the training of party cadres of all levels; from the using of a variety of forms of propaganda to a systematic research of policy and theory; from the implementation of party reform to the carrying out of political, economic, social, and cultural transformation and so on. This article introduces the background, outcome and bacis content of the KMT's reform movement in early 1950s, and points out that the three major contributions of the reform was successful in establishing the"Chiang's Party"and consolidating the central power, in adjusting the relation between the party and the"government", and in establishing the management systems. Different from other researches before, the article puts particular emphasis on the analysis of the reaction in the lower level and the problems in actual operation, and points out that the reform solved the faction problem partially, and improves the organization and the quality of party members to a certain extent, but there were many problems failed to solve, too, for example the style of work, mentality, the effect of the work, the efficiency of grass roots and social infrastructure. Then it selects sevel new measures—relocating of party affairs in the army and schools, keeping secret in the organization under county level, changing the measure of dividing grass roots organizations and setting up social survey work—to analyse particularly. And it discusses the features of system of KMT ruling the party and the"country", the characteristics of social composition and the social classes represented and other issues in reform period from an overall point of view, and probes into the role of Chiang Kai-shek in the reform movement, and gives a comprehensive evaluation of the movement in conclusion. The thesis figures that in the background of the time, there was necessity of reform, otherwise its practical effects were not so ideal as the research existing or the documents and reports stating.