Chiang Kai-shek (October 31, 1887 – April 5, 1975) was a Chinese political and military leader who served as the
leader of the Republic of China between 1928 and 1975. He is known as
Chiang Chung-cheng (蔣中正, Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng) or
Chiang Chieh-shih (蔣介石, Jiǎng Jièshí) in
Standard Chinese. Chiang was an influential member of the
Kuomintang (KMT), the Chinese Nationalist Party, and was a close ally of
Sun Yat-sen. He became the
Commandant of the Kuomintang's
Whampoa Military Academy and took Sun's place as leader of the KMT when Sun died in 1925. In 1926, Chiang led the
Northern Expedition to unify the country, becoming China's nominal leader. He served as Chairman of the
National Military Council of the Nationalist government of the
Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 to 1948. Chiang led China in the
Second Sino-Japanese War (the Chinese theater of
World War II), consolidating power from the party's
former regional warlords. Unlike Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek was socially conservative, promoting traditional Chinese culture in the
New Life Movement and rejecting western democracy and the
nationalist democratic socialism that Sun embraced in favour of an authoritarian government.