First United Front The First United Front ( a . k . a . the KMT – CPC Alliance ) of the Kuomintang ( KMT ) and the Communist Party of China ( CPC ) was formed in 1922 as an alliance to end warlordism in China . Together , they formed the National Revolutionary Army and set out in 1926 on the Northern Expedition . The CPC joined the KMT as individuals , making use of KMT ' s superiority in numbers to help spread communism . The KMT , on the other hand , wanted to control the communists from within . Both parties had their own aims and the Front was unsustainable . In 1927 , Nationalist Field Marshal ( " Generalissimo " ) Chiang Kai - shek purged the Communists from the Front while the Northern Expedition was still half - complete . This initiated a civil war between the two parties which lasted until the Second United Front was formed in 1936 to prepare for the coming Second Sino - Japanese War . The resurrection of Kuomintang . During the time of warlords Sun Yat - sen kept the idea of a united Chinese republic alive . Sun ' s goal was to establish a rival government in Guangzhou , southern China , and go from there to fight against the warlords in the North and their Beiyang government . Upon his return from exile in 1917 , Sun revived his banned nationalist party , the Kuomintang , but this time he gave it the new name , the Kuomintang of China . His plan was that after defeating the warlords the party would guide China until the country would be ready to move to democracy . The rival government led by Sun , however , was at a disadvantage against the warlords from a military point of view . Despite his requests for aid from the West , the badly needed financial and arm support never arrived in the country . In the 1920s the Kuomintang eventually received helped from a surprising source : the Russian Bolsheviks . Material aid from Russia was good enough for Sun , who had previously shown flexibility when the question was about the promotion of the republic . He had neither sympathy towards Marxism , nor did he see communism as a solution to China ' s problems . In Sun ' s view China was not of the rich and the poor , rather , it was the country of the poor and the poorer . The guidelines of the Kuomintang were based on Sun ' s “ three principles of the people ” : nationalism , democracy and public welfare . The Kuomintang gradually became a powerful and disciplined party under Russian guidance . The decisive factor was the Bolshevik assistance to the Kuomintang in the formation of its own army , the National Revolutionary Army . In order to train the army the Whampoa Military Academy was established near Guangzhou . As its director , Sun appointed his loyal supporter , Chiang Kai - shek , who received his military and political education in Moscow . Financially the Whampoa Military Academy operated with the support of the Soviet Union . The quality of education was guaranteed by regularly visiting Russian officers . Many of the leaders of both the Kuomintang and the Chinese communist party graduated from the academy . Also , the chief commander of the People ' s Liberation Army , Lin Biao graduated from Whampoa . Zhou Enlai , who later became prime minister had worked for the academy as well . Together against the warlords and imperialists . China ' s coming Prime Minister , Zhou Enlai at the Whampoa Military Academy in 1924 . ( Source : Wikipedia ) The Soviet Union had its own interests in supporting the Kuomintang . The Bolsheviks , in exchange for the help , demanded the Kuomintang to form an alliance with the Chinese communists . Moscow was not convinced that the communist party alone would be able to complete the revolution in the country , which was thought to be ready for communism right after the bourgeoisie felled the old Chinese dynastic system . China ' s newly founded communist party had only a few hundred members at the beginning of the 1920s , whereas the Kuomintang had over fifty thousand . The idea was , that the communists would gain broader support by joining the common front with the nationalists , after which they would eventually take over from the Kuomintang . At the request of the Russians , the Chinese communists – among them Mao Zedong – became the members of the Kuomintang , and thus the first coalition of the two parties was born . With the help of the Soviet Union the Kuomintang did succeed in gaining more support and with renewed vehemence it continued to vigorously pursue its goal , the foundation of the republic . Securing its strong hold on Southern China , the Kuomintang was ready to unite the country by launching a military campaign against the North . The coalition with the communists , however , was a forced union , held together only by their common enemies - the warlords and imperialism . After the death of Sun Yatsen in 1925 the cooperation began to weaken , and the right wing of the Kuomintang soon put an end to the brotherhood with the Soviet Union and the Chinese communists . Fall . The First United Front was formed so the KMT and the CCP could join together to help China . The initial aim was to help defeat the warlord threat ( through the northern expedition , 1926 – 28 ) , but both parties actually had ulterior motives with this alliance . The CCP formed it mainly so they could spread Communism through the KMT ' s numbers , whilst Chiang ' s aim for this formation was to help control the Communist party from the inside . Having said that , Chiang was also the main reason the relationship fell apart due to his desire to control the Communist party , ultimately leading to the disintegration of the United Front . All of this was further by Chiang ' s decision to kill a large amount of Communist forces in mid - 1927 , which is aptly called the Shanghai massacre . The Shanghai massacre was considered a purge initiated by Chiang , which was also halfway through the Northern Expedition . Chiang wanted to control all of China , controlling the Communist party would make this a lot easier for him . Also , note that this United Front was first formed when Sun Yat - sen was still alive , in 1923 ( died March 1925 ) . Sun mainly agreed to this so he could receive aid from the Soviet Union . But Chiang ultimately ruined this by purging the communists , which resulted in a civil war that ended when they formed the Second United Front to combat the Japanese .