Studies On The Relationship Between Chiang Kai-shek And The KMT

From the year of 1924 in which Chiang Kai-shek became the Principal of Whampoa Military Academy, all the way to 1949 which witnessed the Kuomintang’s retreat to Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek’s activity was closely related to the KMT. Therefore, it is often the case that Chiang Kai-shek’s personal behavior has often been confused with the activities of the KMT by the people. In fact, the complex relationship between Chiang and the KMT was by no means intimate or mutually representative. The measures of party construction, which was important activity that Chiang promoted in the KMT, can visually present the ture relationship between Chiang and the KMT.As party organization, the KMT was formed of theory, members, small groupings and so on in the macro sense. The Three People’s Principles initiated by Sun Yat-sen was one of the important theories of the KMT, and also the focus of Chiang’s activities of party construction. On the interpretation of the theory, Chiang formed the interpretation system in 1930s which different from Sun Yat-sen’s. Chiang deemed that the Three People’s Principles derived from Chinese traditional culture, and quoted the morality and other traditional concepts into the theory. At the same time, Chiang draw the line between the Three Psople’s Principles and the Communism. Besides, Chiang developed the doctrine of "difficult to know and easy to do", and formed the Philosophy of Practice. Chiang’s interpretation was different from Sun’s, and even had the contrary opinions. However, it didn’t cause large skepticism but spread in all parts of society with Chiang’s speeches. Party member was the cell of the KMT, and also the important object of the activities of party construction. The measures were varied on all party members, the cadres and the elders. For all members, Chiang instilled his will and created the ideal image of members in the form of speech. For the cadres, Chiang quoted the experience of running training mission to train the cadres. And, Chiang also cooperated with the elders to gain political capital. On the party member construction, Chiang quoted the experience of his cultivating morality and running the army, which reflecting the characteristics of Chiang’s governing the party. As time goes on, the measures of party construction developed both in depth and breadth. However, the effect was disappointing. The national congress of the KMT was the legal sovereign organ. The status of Chiang in the national congresses was different, but upward overall. Furthermore, Chiang supported to found small groupings. He convened his students to establish the secret organizations, and supported to establish the public quasi-party organization. Meanwhile, the spy organization existed in 1920s became open and lawful with the support of Chiang. But the personal strife in these groups, and conflicts between these groups and other factions of the KMT made the purpose of founding groups unsuccessful, and also increased internal friction of the KMT.The KMT adopted these measures meant that Chiang’s own will coulded be risen to the will of the party. However, the poor effect showed that there was a certain distance between Chiang and the KMT. By studying the relationship between Chiang and the KMT, and then presenting the asynchronism of Chiang’s personal behavior and the political behavior of the KMT, we might get an access to the comprehensive understanding of Chiang and expand our research areas of history of the KMT.