Republic of China 中華民國
1925–1948
Flag Emblem
Anthem: "National Anthem of the Republic of China"(1930–1948) Flag anthem: "National Flag Anthem of the Republic of China"(1937–1948)
National seal(1929–1949)
Land controlled by the Republic of China in 1945 shown in dark green; uncontrolled claims shown in light green.
Capital	Guangzhou(1925–1926, 1949) Nanjing(1927–1937, 1946–1949) Wuhan(1927, 1937–1938) Luoyang(1932) Chongqing(1938–1946, 1949) Chengdu(1949)
Largest city	Shanghai
Official languages	Standard Chinese
Demonym	Chinese
Government	Provisional government under amilitary dictatorship(1925–1928) One-partydirectorial republic under amilitary dictatorship(1928–1947) Constitutional republic(1947–1948)
De-facto leader[1]
• 1926–1948	Chiang Kai-shek[1]
Premier
• 1928–1930 (first)	Tan Yankai
• 1947–1948 (last)	Zhang Qun
President[a]
• 1928 (first)	Tan Yankai
• 1943–1948 (last)	Chiang Kai-shek
Legislature	National Assembly
• Upper house	Control Yuan
• Lower house	Legislative Yuan
History
• Established in Guangzhou	1 July 1925
• Northern Expedition	1926–1928
• Reset in Nanjing	18 April 1927
• Chinese Civil War	1927–1936, 1946–1950
• Second Sino-Japanese War	7 July 1937 – 2 September 1945
• February 28 incident	28 February 1947
• Constitution adopted	25 December 1947
• Government of the Republic of China established	20 May 1948
Currency	Chinese yuan Old Taiwan dollar (1946–1949)
ISO 3166 code	CN
Preceded by Succeeded by Army and Navy Marshal stronghold of the Republic of China Beiyang government Government of the Republic of China

TheNationalist government,Nationalist regime^[2][3][4] andNationalist China,^[5][6] officially theNational Government of the Republic of China,^[b] refer to the government of theRepublic of China from 1 July 1925 to 20 May 1948, led by the nationalistKuomintang (KMT) underChiang Kai-shek.

Following the outbreak of theXinhai Revolution, revolutionary leaderSun Yat-sen was elected to be China'sprovisional president and founded theProvisional Government of the Republic of China. To preserve national unity, Sun ceded the presidency to military strongmanYuan Shikai, who established theBeiyang government. Aftera failed attempt to install himself asEmperor of China, Yuan died in 1916, leaving a power vacuum which resulted in China being divided into severalwarlord fiefs and rival governments. They were nominallyreunified in 1928 under theNanjing-based government led by Chiang Kai-shek, which after theNorthern Expedition initially governed the country as aone-party state under the Kuomintang, and was subsequently giveninternational recognition as the legitimate representative of China, with Chiang as ade facto leader of the country under amilitary dictatorship. The Nationalist government would then experience many further challenges such as theSecond Sino-Japanese War, and theChinese Civil War. The government was in place until it was replaced by the currentGovernment of the Republic of China in the newly promulgatedConstitution of the Republic of China of 1947.

Republic of China
"Republic of China" in traditional (top) and simplified (bottom) Chinese characters
Traditional Chinese	中華民國
Simplified Chinese	中华民国
Postal	Chunghwa Minkuo
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhōnghuá mínguó Gwoyeu Romatzyh Jonghwa Min'gwo Wade–Giles Chung1-hua2 min2-kuo2 IPA [ʈʂʊ́ŋxwǎ mǐn.kwǒ] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Jūng'wàh Màhn'gwok Southern Min HokkienPOJ Tiong-hoâ Bîn-kok Tâi-lô Tiong-huâ bîn-kok

The oldest surviving republic inEast Asia, the Republic of China was formally established on 1 January 1912 inmainland China following theXinhai Revolution, which itself began with theWuchang Uprising on 10 October 1911, replacing theQing dynasty and ending nearly three thousand years ofimperial rule in China. Central authority waxed and waned in response towarlordism (1915–1928),Japanese invasion (1937–1945), and theChinese Civil War (1927–1949), with central authority strongest during theNanjing Decade (1927–1937), when most of China came under the control of theKuomintang (KMT) under anauthoritarianone-party state.^[7] Despite his varying formal positions in the party, government and the army, the ultimate authority was held byChiang Kai-shek^[1] who transformed the country into amilitary dictatorship.^[8]

At the end ofWorld War II in 1945, theEmpire of Japan surrendered control ofTaiwan and itsisland groups to theAllies, and Taiwan was placed under the Republic of China's administrative control. The legitimacy of this transfer is disputed and is another aspect of the disputedpolitical status of Taiwan.

After World War II, thecivil war between the ruling Kuomintang and theChinese Communist Party (CCP) resumed, despite attempts at mediation by the United States. The Nationalist Government began drafting theConstitution of the Republic of China under a National Assembly, but was boycotted by the CCP. With the promulgation of the constitution, the Nationalist Government abolished itself and was replaced by theGovernment of the Republic of China. Following their loss of the Civil War, the Nationalist Government retreated and moved their capital toTaipei while claiming that they were the legitimate government of the mainland.

After Sun's death on 12 March 1925, four months later on 1 July 1925, the National Government of theRepublic of China was established inGuangzhou.

The following year, as Generalissimo of the National Revolutionary Army,Chiang Kai-shek became thede facto leader of theKuomintang (KMT), or Chinese Nationalist Party. He especially headed the right-wing of the Nationalist Party, while the Communists formed part of the Party's left-wing. Chiang led theNorthern Expedition through China with the intention of defeating thewarlords and unifying the country. The National Revolutionary Army received significant aid from theSoviet Union; Chiang himself was surrounded by Soviet military advisors. Much of the Nationalist Party, however, became convinced, not without reason, that the Communists, under recent orders from the Comintern, wanted to break from theUnited Front and get rid of the KMT.^[9]

Chiang decided tostrike first andpurged the Communists, killing thousands of them. At the same time, other violent conflicts took place in the south of China where peasant associations supported by the CCP were attacking landlords and local gentry, who formed a base of political support for the KMT right-wing and recruitment for Nationalist soldiers. These events eventually led to theChinese Civil War between the Nationalist Party and the CCP. Chiang Kai-shek pushed the CCP into the interior as he sought to destroy them, and moved the Nationalist Government toNanjing in 1927.^[10]Leftists within the KMT still allied to the CCP, led byWang Jingwei, had established arival Nationalist Government inWuhan two months earlier, but soon joined Chiang in Nanjing in August 1927. By the following year, Chiang's army had captured Beijing after overthrowing theBeiyang government andunified the entire nation, at least nominally, marking the beginning theNanjing decade.

According to Sun Yat-sen's "Three Stages of Revolution" theory, the KMT was to rebuild China in three phases: the first stage was military unification, which was carried out with the Northern Expedition; the second was"political tutelage" [zh] which was a provisional government led by the KMT to educate people about their political and civil rights, and the third stage would be constitutional government.(Fung 2000, p. 30) By 1928, the Nationalists claimed that they had succeeded in reunifying China and were beginning the second stage, the period of so-called "tutelage".^[11] In 1929, the KMT first attempted to start the ending of the unequal treaties and regain theextraterritoriality. In 1931, they promulgated a provisional constitution that established theone-party rule of the KMT and promised eventual democratization.^[12] In practice, this meant that Chiang Kai-Shek was able to continueauthoritarian rule.

Even had it been the KMT's intention, historians such as Edmund Fung argue that they may not have been able to establish a democracy under the circumstances of the time.(Fung 2000, p. 30) Despite nominal reunification, the Chiang's Nationalist Government relied heavily on the support of warlords such asMa Hushan,Yan Xishan, andZhang Xueliang to exert control on the provinces.^[13][14][15] The loyalty of these figures was often highly suspect, and they frequently engaged in acts of open defiance, as in theXi'an Incident of 1936, oreven rebellion. In alliance with local landlords and other power-brokers, they blocked moderate land reforms that might have benefits the rural poor.^[16] Instead, the poor peasants remained a consistent source of recruits for the Communist Party. While weakened by frequent massacres and purges—historianRudolph Rummel estimated that 1,654,000 people were killed by the KMT in anti-Communist purges during this period—the Communists wereable to survive and posed a major latent threat to the regime.^[17] However, perhaps the biggest challenges came from within the administration itself. As Chiang Kai-Shek told the state council: "Our organization becomes worse and worse ... many staff members just sit at their desks and gaze into space, others read newspapers and still others sleep."^[18] Corruption was endemic at all levels of government.^[19] The tension between Chiang's centralizing tendencies and the warlords who supported him led to friction and inconsistent direction. Even the KMT itself was disunified, with the pro-Chiang factions of theCC Clique, Political Study Clique, and fascist-inspiredBlue Shirts Society opposed by a left-wing faction underWang Jingwei and a right-wing faction influenced byHu Hanmin. To control the opposing KMT factions, Chiang relied increasingly on theNational Revolutionary Army.^[19]

Economic growth and social improvements were mixed. The Kuomintang supported women's rights and education, the abolition of polygamy, and foot binding. The government of the Republic of China under Chiang's leadership also enacted a women's quota in the parliament with reserved seats for women. During theNanjing Decade, the spread of education increased the literacy rate across China and promoted the ideals of Sun Yat-sen'sThree Principles of the People of democracy, republicanism, science, constitutionalism, andChinese nationalism based on thePolitical Tutelage of the Kuomintang.^{[20][21][22][23][24][25]} However, periodic famines continued:in Northern China from 1928 to 1930, in Sichuan from 1936 to 1937, andin Henan from 1942 to 1943. In total, these famines cost at least 11.7 million lives.^{[26][27][28][29]}GDP growth averaged 3.9 per cent a year from 1929 to 1941 and per capita GDP about 1.8 per cent.^[30] Among other institutions, the Nationalist Government founded theAcademia Sinica and theCentral Bank of China. In 1932, China for the first time sent teams to theOlympic Games.

The Nationalists faced a new challenge with theJapanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, with hostilities continuing through theSecond Sino-Japanese War, part ofWorld War II, from 1937 to 1945. The government of the Republic of China retreated from Nanjing toChongqing. In 1945, after the war of eight years, Japan surrendered and the Republic of China, under the name "China", became one of the founding members of theUnited Nations. The government returned to Nanjing in 1946.

Following the defeat of Japan at the end ofWorld War II, Taiwan was surrendered to theAllies, with ROC troops accepting the surrender of the Japanese garrison. The government of the ROC proclaimed the "retrocession" of Taiwan to the Republic of China and established aprovincial government on the island. The military administration of the ROC extended over Taiwan, which led to widespread unrest and increasing tensions between local Taiwanese and mainlanders.^[31] The shooting of a civilian on 28 February 1947 triggered an island-wide unrest, which was brutally suppressed with military force in what is now known as theFebruary 28 Incident. Mainstream estimates of casualties range from 18,000 to 30,000, mainly Taiwanese elites.^[32][33] The 28 February Incident has had far-reaching effects on subsequentTaiwanese history.

From 1945 to 1947, under United States mediation, especially through theMarshall Mission, the Nationalists and Communists agreed to start a series of peace talks aiming at establishing a coalition government. The two parties agreed to open multiparty talks on post-World War II political reforms via aPolitical Consultative Conference. This was included in theDouble Tenth Agreement. This agreement was implemented by the Nationalist Government, who organized the first Political Consultative Assembly from 10 to 31 January 1946. Representatives of the Kuomintang, CCP,Chinese Youth Party, andChina Democratic League, as well as independent delegates, attended the conference in Chongqing. However, shortly afterward, the two parties failed to reach an agreement and the civil war resumed.^[34] In the context of political and military animosity,^{[citation needed]} the National Assembly was summoned by the Nationalists without the participation of the CCP and promulgated theConstitution of the Republic of China. The constitution was criticized by the CCP,^[35] and led to the final break between the two sides.^[36] The full-scale civil war resumed from early 1947.^[37]

After theNational Assembly election, the drafted Constitution was adopted by theNational Assembly on 25 December 1946, promulgated by the National Government on 1 January 1947, and went into effect on 25 December 1947. The Constitution was seen as the third and final stage of Kuomintang reconstruction of China. Chiang Kai-shek was alsoelected as the 1st President of the Republic of China under the constitution by the National Assembly in 1948, withLi Zongren being elected as vice-president. The Nationalist Government was abolished on 20 May 1948, after the Government of the Republic of China was established with the presidential inauguration of Chiang. The CCP, though invited to the convention that drafted it, boycotted and declared after the ratification that not only would it not recognize the ROC constitution, but all bills passed by the Nationalist administration would be disregarded as well.Zhou Enlai challenged the legitimacy of the National Assembly in 1947 by accusing the KMT of hand-picking the members of the National Assembly 10 years earlier; claiming they thus could not legitimately represent the Chinese people.

The National Government governed under a dual-party state apparatus under the ideology ofDang Guo, effectively making it aone-party state^{[citation needed]} where the ultimate power was wielded by the army and personally byChiang Kai-shek regardless of his formal positions and the relations between the two chambers of parliament, theExecutive Yuan and theLegislative Yuan.^[1] However, existing parties continued to operate and new ones formed. After the end of the Second World War, and particularly after the passage of the constitution in 1946, the National Government was reconstituted to include multiple parties, in preparation for a full democratic government to come.^{[citation needed]}

In February 1928, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 2nd Kuomintang National Congress held in Nanjing passed the Reorganization of the National Government Act. This act stipulated the national government was to be directed and regulated under the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang, with the Committee of the National Government being elected by KMT Central Committee. Under the national government was seven ministries – Interior, Foreign Affairs, Finance, Transport, Justice, Agriculture and Mines, and Commerce. There were also additional institutions such as the Supreme Court, Control Yuan, and the General Academy.^{[citation needed]}

With the promulgation of the Organic Law of the National Government in October 1928, the government was reorganized into five different branches or Yuan, namely theExecutive Yuan,Legislative Yuan,Judicial Yuan,Examination Yuan as well as theControl Yuan. The Chairman of the National Government was to be the head-of-state and commander-in-chief of theNational Revolutionary Army. Chiang Kai-shek was appointed as the firstChairman of the National Government, a position he would retain until 1931. The Organic Law also stipulated that the Kuomintang, through its National Congress and Central Executive Committee, would exercise sovereign power during the period of political tutelage, and the KMT's Political Council would guide and superintend the National Government in the execution of important national affairs and that the council has the power to interpret or amend the organic law.^[38]

Authority within the Nationalist government ultimately lay with Chiang Kai-shek.^[39]: 43 All major policy changes on military, diplomatic, or economic issues required his approval.^[39]: 156 According to historianOdd Arne Westad, "no other leader within the GMD had the authority to force through even the simplest decisions.^{[check quotation syntax][39]: 156}The practical power of high-ranking officials like ministers or the head of the Executive Yuan was more closely tied to their relationship with Chiang than with the formal authority of their position.^[39]: 43 Chiang created multiple layers of power in his administration which he sometimes played off each other to prevent individuals or cliques from gathering power that could oppose his authority.^{[39]: 93–94}

The Nationalist government exercised relatively little control in China's border regions, where the political fragmentation along ethnic lines that began after the fall of the Qing dynasty continued.^[40]: 110

EnglishWikisource has original text related to this article:

Organic Law

TheMinistry of the Navy (海軍部) was a military ministry-level agency established by the National Government of the Republic of China on April 12, 1929, which was independent and existed parallel with theMilitary Affairs Commission at the time of establishment. Therefore, unlike the air force, the navy of the Nationalist Government was a fully independent service branch and was not part of the National Revolutionary Army.

The primary mission of the Ministry of the Navy was to rebuild theRepublic of China Navy and to promote the development of maritime power. By 1937, however, most of the naval forces under its command were nearly annihilated in the early naval battles of the Second Sino-Japanese War by the Imperial Japanese Navy.

On January 1, 1938, with virtually no warships left under its control, the Ministry was dissolved and merged into the Navy Command Headquarters under the Military Affairs Commission of the Nationalist Government.

TheNational Revolutionary Army (NRA;traditional Chinese:國民革命軍;simplified Chinese:国民革命军;pinyin:Guómín Gémìng Jūn;Wade–Giles:Kuo-min Ke-ming Chün), pre-1928 sometimes shortened to Revolutionary Army (革命軍) and between 1928 and 1947 as National Army (國軍), was the Military Arm of theKuomintang (KMT) from 1925 until 1947, commanded by theMilitary Affairs Commission of theChinese Nationalist government. Compared to the Republic of China Navy, the NRA wasmore distinctly party-owned, withtighter political control by the Kuomintang, whereas the Navy retained more characteristics of a state-operated and professionally autonomous force.

Originally organised withSoviet aid as a means for the KMT to unify China againstwarlordism, the National Revolutionary Army fought major engagements in theNorthern Expedition against the ChineseBeiyang Armywarlords.

Beginning in 1928, following theApril 12 Incident and the KMT's split with theCommunist factions, the NRA also launched a series ofEncirclement Campaigns aimed at eradicatingCommunist base areas in the Chinese rural area. The NRA later fought in theSecond Sino-Japanese War against theImperial Japanese Army and theImperial Japanese Navy, and then, in theChinese Civil War, against thePeople's Liberation Army.

The NRA included a largely independent aviation component which was known as theAir Force (空軍), and western historians usually described the air arm as theChinese Nationalist Air Force, additionally it had an independentAir Defense force which was not under the commanding structure of any of those "Land Force" units.

Prior to the War, the NRA also had aMotor Torpedo Boat squadron, co existing with the Navy's torpedo flotilla, which is operated by theSubmarine and Motor Torpedo Boat College, known as theS.M.C..

With the promulgation of theConstitution of the Republic of China in 1947 and the formal end of the KMT party-state, the National Revolutionary Army was renamed theRepublic of China Armed Forces, with the bulk of its forces forming theRepublic of China Army, whichretreated to Taiwan in 1949.

Local Security Forces,Warlord-affiliated troops, andLocal Militias played a significant auxiliary role in the broader military structure of the Nationalist China, especially after the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. While not part of the centralized, regular National Revolutionary Army (NRA), many of these units were nominally incorporated into the NRA system during wartime mobilisation, often retaining their own command structures, political loyalties, and local identities.

• Local Security Forces (保安團) were provincial or county-level garrison forces originally organised for maintaining internal order, later drawn into frontline duties despite limited training and equipment. That said, in wealthier counties or around major cities, some of those Local Security Force Regiments were relatively well-funded and well-equipped, with training, pay, and even armament levels comparable to core NRA (Central Army) units. Their performance and discipline, in such cases, could approach regular army standards.
• Warlord-affiliated troops (雜牌軍), typically former warlord troops integrated through political negotiation rather than military standardisation, were loosely affiliated with the NRA but often operated with minimal coordination or discipline.
• TheLocal Militias (民團) referred to grassroots self-defense militias, often hastily armed and locally raised, who provided rear-area security or guerrilla resistance.

Although included under the broader NRA command on paper, these irregular forces were frequently marked by inconsistent combat effectiveness, poor logistical support, and divergent loyalties, complicating centralized command and control. Nonetheless, they constituted a substantial portion of the Chinese war effort, especially in regional defense and in supplementing the under-resourced central army.

An important exception, among those Warlord-affiliated troops, however, was the troops of theSichuan Clique, known as theSzechwan Troops (川軍) who earned a reputation for their tenacious combat performance, resilience under extreme conditions, and remarkable tolerance for heavy casualties. Due to their consistent battlefield contributions during the Second Sino-Japanese War, most Sichuan clique units were formally recognised as part of the National Revolutionary Army, rather than being treated as auxiliary or irregular forces.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the two armed corps of theChinese Communist were nominally incorporated into the National Revolutionary Army (while retaining separate commands), as theEighth Route Army (八路軍) and theNew Fourth Army (新四軍) respectively. Both broke away to form thePeople's Liberation Army shortly after the end of the war.

Forced conscription campaigns were conducted by the military. In many rural places, military forces employed press-gangs, kidnappings, and mass roundups to meet numerical quotas. In some extreme cases, less than half of conscripts survived to complete basic training.

These harsh practices were especially prevalent among units not directly controlled by the central government, and among rapidly raised local militias and civil defense groups, and described byRudolph Rummel as such:^[17]

Then there was the process of conscription. This was a deadly affair in which men were kidnapped for the army, rounded up indiscriminately by press-gangs or army units among those on the roads or in the towns and villages, or otherwise gathered together. Many men, some the very young and old, were killed resisting or trying to escape. Once collected, they would be roped or chained together and marched, with little food or water, long distances to camp. They often died or were killed along the way, sometimes less than 50 percent reaching camp alive. Then recruit camp was no better, with hospitals resembling Nazi concentration camps like Buchenwald. Probably 3,081,000 died during the Sino-Japanese War; likely another 1,131,000 during the Civil War – 4,212,000 dead in total. Just during conscription.

Because of the Nationalist government's increasing inability to fund the military, especially after Japan's success inOperation Ichigo, Nationalist authorities overlooked military corruption and smuggling.^{[39]: 24–25} The Nationalist army increasingly turned to raiding villages topress-gang peasants into service and force marching them to assigned units.^[39]: 25

After the Kuomintang reunified the country in 1928, China entered a period of relative prosperity despite civil war and Japanese aggression. In 1937, theJapanese invaded and laid China to waste in eight years of war. The era also saw additionalboycott of Japanese products.

Chinese industries continued to develop in the 1930s with the advent of theNanjing decade in the 1930s when Chiang Kai-shek unified most of the country and brought political stability. China's industries developed and grew from 1927 to 1931.

The economy was badly hit by theGreat Depression from 1931 to 1935 andJapan's occupation of Manchuria in 1931. After Japan's invasion of Manchuria, the Republic of China began state-led industrialization policies as a response to the risk of full-scale war with Japan.^[41]: 68 In 1932, it formed a clandestine industrial mobilization government agency, the National Defense Planning Commission (renamed in 1935 to theNational Resources Commission).^[41]: 68 Chinese policymakers drew inspiration from economic models used by the Soviet Union, Japan, and Germany.^[41]: 68

By 1936, industrial output had recovered and surpassed its previous peak in 1931 prior to the Great Depression's effects on China. This is best shown by the trends in ChineseGDP. In 1932, China's GDP peaked at US$28.8 billion, before falling to $21.3 billion by 1934 and recovering to $23.7 billion by 1935.^[42] By 1930,foreign investment in China totaled $3.5 billion, with Japan leading ($1.4 billion) and the United Kingdom at 1 billion. By 1948, however, the capital stock had halted with investment dropping to only $3 billion, with the US and Britain leading.^[43]

However, the rural economy was hit hard by the Great Depression of the 1930s, in which anoverproduction of agricultural goods lead to massive falling prices for China as well as an increase in foreign imports (as agricultural goods produced in western countries were "dumped" in China). In 1931, imports of rice in China amounted to 21 millionbushels compared with 12 million in 1928. Other goods saw even more staggering increases. In 1932, 15 million bushels of grain were imported compared with 900,000 in 1928. This increased competition leads to a massive decline in Chinese agricultural prices (which were cheaper) and thus the income of rural farmers. In 1932, agricultural prices were 41 percent of 1921 levels.^[44] Rural incomes had fallen to 57 percent of 1931 levels by 1934 in some areas.^[44] Under this peculiar context for rural China, the ChineseRural Reconstruction Movement was implemented by some social activists who graduated as professors of the United States with tangible but limited progress in modernizing the tax, infrastructural, economical, cultural, and educational equipment and mechanisms of rural regions. The social activists actively coordinated with the local governments in towns and villages since the early 1930s. However, this policy was subsequently neglected and canceled by the Nationalist government due to rampant wars and the lack of resources following theSecond Sino-Japanese War and theSecond Chinese Civil War.^[45][46]

In 1937, Japan invaded China and the resulting warfare laid waste to China. Most of the prosperous east China coast was occupied by the Japanese, who carried out various atrocities such as theRape of Nanjing in 1937 and random massacres of whole villages. In one anti-guerrilla sweep in 1942, the Japanese killed up to 200,000 civilians in a month. The war was estimated to have killed between 20 and 25 million Chinese and destroyed all that Chiang had built up in the preceding decade.^[47] Development of industries was severely hampered after the war by devastating conflict as well as the inflow of cheap American goods. By 1946, Chinese industries operated at 20 percent capacity and had 25 percent of the output of pre-war China.^[48]

One effect of the war was a massive increase in government control of industries. In 1936, government-owned industries were only 15% of GDP. However, the ROC government took control of many industries in order to fight the war. In 1938, the ROC established a commission for industries and mines to control and supervise firms, as well as instilling price controls. By 1942, 70 percent of the capital of Chinese industry was owned by the government.^[49]

Following the war with Japan, Chiang acquired Taiwan from Japan and renewed his struggle with the Communists. However, the corruption of the KMT, as well ashyperinflation as a result of trying to fight the civil war, resulted in mass unrest throughout the Republic and sympathy for the communists.^[50] Nearly all studies of the collapse of the Nationalist government identify hyperinflation as a major factor in the government's failure.^[39]: 5

The communistland redistribution movement was an important factor in the Nationalists' defeat, particularly because it linked the interests of peasants in the north and northeast to the Communists' success.^[51]

In 1949, the People's Liberation Army captured Beijing and later Nanjing as well. The People's Republic of China was proclaimed inBeijing on 1 October 1949. The Republic of China central government relocated toTaipei on 7 December 1949, to Taiwan where Japan hadlaid an educational groundwork.^[52]

Almost all of the former sites of the nationalist government are headquartered in the city of Nanjing, the capital at the time, with only one exception.

Name	Image	Location	Construction Date	Description
Headquarters of the Nationalist Government		No.292 Changjiang Road,Xuanwu District, Nanjing	1870-1930s	The complex served asViceroy of Liangjiang's Office in Qing dynasty, and as the Presidential Palace in 1948.
Executive Yuan (1928)		No.19 Dongjian Road,Xuanwu District, Nanjing	1920s	The building, serving as the Executive Yuan from 1928 to 1937, is now a part of the Presidential Palace complex.
Executive Yuan (1946)		No.252-254 Zhongshan North Road,Gulou District, Nanjing	1930	The building was the headquarter of the Ministry of Railways at first, then the site of Executive Yuan from 1946 to 1949. After the communists took over Nanjing, it became a building ofPLA Nanjing Political College.
Executive Yuan (1949)		Zhongshan East Road,Xuanwu District, Nanjing	1929	It was the site of Lizhi She in the 1930s. In 1949, the Nationalist Government decided to move the Executive Yuan into this building. The building now served as a part of Zhongshan Hotel.
Legislative Yuan (1928)		No.273 Baixia Road,Qinhuai District, Nanjing		It was the site of the "Mistress House". The Nationalist Government chose the house to become the seat of Legislative Yuan in 1928.
Legislative Yuan (1946) & Control Yuan		No.105 Zhongshan North Road,Gulou District, Nanjing	1935	The building was Nanjing City Hall during the Japanese occupation. After theSecond World War, it became the offices of Legislative Yuan and Control Yuan. Now it is Nanjing Soldiers' Club.
Judicial Yuan's Entrance		No.251 Zhongshan Road,Gulou District, Nanjing	1935	The building was destroyed by fire in April 1949. Only the gate remains.
Examination Yuan		No.41-43 Beijing East Road,Xuanwu District, Nanjing	1930s	The building is now served as Nanjing City Government Offices and the Committee of Nanjing,CPPCC.
Supreme Court		No.101 Zhongshan North Road,Gulou District, Nanjing	1933	The building was also served as the Supreme Prosecutor Office
Military Affairs Commission		No.292 Changjiang Road,Xuanwu District, Nanjing	1870s	This house was built in 1870s, after Taiping Rebellion. In the 1930s, Chiang Kai-shek chose it to be one of the headquarters of the Military Affairs Commission. The house is located in the Presidential Palace complex and becoming a popular tourist attraction now.
National Resource Commission		No.200 Zhongshan North Road,Gulou District, Nanjing	1947	The building is now an office building ofNanjing Tech University
Ministry of Economic Affairs		No.145 Zhongshan East Road,Xuanwu District, Nanjing		The building is now served as the office of Nanjing Sports Bureau.
Central Bank		No.15East-1 Zhongshan Rd,Huangpu District, Shanghai	1899–1902	This was the only institution not headquartered in the city of Nanjing. Once being the Shanghai branch of Russo-Chinese Bank, this building now becomes Shanghai Foreign Exchange Trading Center.
Ministry of Health		No.305 Zhongshan East Road,Xuanwu District, Nanjing	1931	The building was in the site of the National Central Hospital complex. It isNanjing General Hospital of Nanjing Military Command now.
Ministry of Education		Chengxian Street, Xuanwu District, Nanjing		The building is now occupied by some governmental officials.
Ministry of Transportation & Communications		No.303-305 Zhongshan North Road,Gulou District, Nanjing	1932–1934	Opposite was the site of the Executive Yuan. After the communists took over Nanjing, it became a building ofPLA Nanjing Political College.
National Assembly Hall (1936)		No.2 Sipailou,Xuanwu District, Nanjing	1930s	Before the National Theatre of Drama and Music was completed, the National Assembly was held in the Auditorium of National Central University.
National Assembly Hall (1946)		No.264 Changjiang Road,Xuanwu District, Nanjing	1935	The building was served as the National Theatre of Drama and Music. After the World War II, it became the meeting place of theNational Assembly. It was the site of1948 presidential election and the birthplace of theConstitution. So this building played an important role in the modern history of China.
Residence of the Chairman (1946)		Purple Mountain,Xuanwu District, Nanjing	1931–1934	Also known as "the Red Hill Mansion" and "Mei-ling Villa", the building was one of the main residences of Chiang & Soong in Nanjing after WWII. And it became one of the official residences of the President of the ROC from 1948 to 1949.

When the city of Nanjing was not captured by the Nationalist Government, they chose the following buildings as their headquarters.

Name	Image	Location	Construction Date	Description
Nationalist Government in Canton (1925)		No.118 Yuehua rd,Yuexiu District, Guangzhou		In 1925, the Nationalist Government was established here. Today, all the buildings inside were demolished except the gate.
Nationalist Government in Wuhan (1926)		No.708, Zhongshan Avenue, Wuhan	1917–1921	It was also called Nanyang Tobacco Building. In 1926, the National Revolutionary Army took control of Wuhan. Then, the officials of KMT chose Nanyang Tobacco Building to become the seat of the Nationalist Government.
Nationalist Government in Chongqing (1939)		Yuzhong District, Chongqing		In the period of the Second Sino-Japanese War, this building was served as the headquarters of the Nationalist Government until they moved back to Nanjing. The building was demolished in the 1980s.
Nationalist Government in Hankow (1927)		Wuchang Uprising Memorial Building	1927	During the Wuhan Nationalist Government and during theBattle of Wuhan, This was the main government administration building. Nanyang Tobacco Building however, was the main administration during theWuhan Nationalist Government. This building used to serve as the Headquarters of the Hubei Provincial Government during theQing Dynasty and now serves as the Wuchang Uprising Memorial Building.

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