Chen Lifu
During the early to mid-1930s Chiang was busy carrying out his suppression of the CCP's Red Army in the countryside. With his permission, the BSS took over the defense of Nanking. Most of the prominent Whampoa graduates now got promotions as commanders and became BSS members. Besides increasing its influence in the army, the BSS infiltrated the police and security services in major cities, and recruited members in the KMT youth league. The BSS now had influence in China's military, labor unions, publishing houses and schools. A new structure of power had emerged, with the BSS at the core of the Whampoa Clique, coexisting and competing against the two better known cliques: the CC Clique, led by Chen Lifu (陳立夫) and Chen Guofu (陳果夫), whose remit was dealing with party issues, and; the Politics Research Group (政學系) led by Yang Yongtai (楊永泰) and Zhang Qun (張群), whose remit was the day-to-day running of the KMT government.