page_title: Nationalist government
section_title: Nanjing Decade and War with Japan
hierarchical_section_title: Nationalist government / History / Nanjing Decade and War with Japan
caption_attribution_description: English: Organisational structure of the Kuomintang regime in Nanking (1928-37). Deutsch: Schema der Organisationsstruktur des Kuomintang-Regimes in Nanking (1928-37).
context_page_description: The Nationalist government, officially the National Government of the Republic of China, also known as Second Republic of China but most commonly known as the Republic of China, refers to the government of the Republic of China between 1 July 1925 and 20 May 1948, led by the Kuomintang. The name derives from the Kuomintang's translated name "Nationalist Party". The government was in place until it was replaced by the current Government of the Republic of China in the newly promulgated Constitution of the Republic of China.
  After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution on 10 October 1911, revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen was elected Provisional President and founded the Provisional Government of the Republic of China. To preserve national unity, Sun ceded the presidency to military strongman Yuan Shikai, who established the Beiyang government. After a failed attempt to install himself as Emperor of China, Yuan died in 1916, leaving a power vacuum which resulted in China being divided into several warlord fiefdoms and rival governments.
context_section_description: 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" which was a provisional government led by the KMT to educate people about their political and civil rights, and the third stage was constitutional government.  By 1928, the Nationalists, having taken over power militarily and reunified China, started the second phase, promulgating a provisional constitution and beginning the period of so-called "tutelage".  The KMT was criticized for instituting authoritarianism, but claimed it was attempting to establish a modern democratic society.
  Among other institutions, they created at that time the Academia Sinica, the Central Bank of China, and other agencies.  In 1932, China sent a team for the first time to the Olympic Games. Historians, such as Edmund Fung, argue that establishing a democracy in China at that time was not possible. The nation was at war and divided between Communists and Nationalists. Corruption within the government and lack of direction also prevented any significant reform from taking place. Chiang realized the lack of real work being done within his administration and 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."  The Nationalist government wrote a draft constitution on 5 May 1936.  Mass killing under the nationalists were common with millions of people killed. Notable mass killings include deaths from forced army conscription and the White Terror.
  The Nationalists faced a new challenge with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, with hostilities continuing through the Second Sino-Japanese War, part of World War II, from 1937 to 1945. The government of the Republic of China retreated from Nanjing to Chongqing. 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 the United Nations.  The government returned to Nanjing in 1946.
caption: Organisational chart of the KMT regime (1934).
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