Succession Battles in the KMT

The Chinese Revolution

Two funerals were held for Sun Yat-sen on the same day. One involved Christian rites by his family, to prove that Sun was not a Bolshevik. The other was organized by the Communist Party and involved the Soviet Ambassador and a loudspeaker playing Sun's message about nationalism. Already there was a fight to claim Sun's legacy.

Sun's widow, Song Qingling, was from a family which had all studied in the United States. Her father had become a Methodist, then entered into business and paid for all his children to study in the USA. One of his daughters had married Sun Yat-sen at age 21. The youngest would later marry Chiang Kai-shek and become China's First Lady.

With Sun's passing, Wang Jingwei became KMT leader. He had the support of his party's left and the Communists. After an assassination of a KMT executive member and some unsuccessful manuevers by the KMT right, the Communists were more important than ever in the KMT. Mao Zedong was in an important role in propaganda for the KMT.

But just when Mikhail Borodin (Grusenberg) thought that Soviet interests were managed, he left Guangzhou and a coup resulted. Communist Party members of the KMT were weakened and the party was re-organized. Chiang Kai-shek went from being Director of the Whampoa Military Academy to Commander-In-Chief. He confused the Soviets and avoided their blame for the coup. He was well positioned, with Soviet and Communist support, to launch the Northern Expedition that Sun Yat-sen had long dreamed of.

Image: "Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall" by Mathias Apitz (München) is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.

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