Nanjing Government

*This article is a work in progress and has not been completed by its author(s). This content is not final.*

*See: China Timeline 1927-1931*

**Nanjing Nationalist Government** is the legitimate government of the Republic of China recognized by the Kuomintang (KMT) rightists. It is usually abbreviated to **Nanjing Government**, but will be referred to as **Nanjing** if mentioned together with Wuhan Nationalist Government. Its control range includes most parts of three provinces: Jiangsu (Yantong, Suchang, Jiangning, Huhai), Fujian (except Longting, Xiazhang), and Anhui (Chuzhou, Wandong).

## Brief History

The history of the Nanjing Government can be traced back to the **Guangzhou Nationalist Government** (the predecessor of both Nanjing and Wuhan), which was established by Sun Yat-sen in 1925. With the development of the National Revolution and the Northern Expedition, the friction between Kuomintang rightists and other Chinese leftists in revolution became fiercer, and eventually led to the violent purge on April 12, 1927 (Wuhan Government called it “the 4.12 coup”). On April 18th, the Nanjing Nationalist Government announced its establishment. Since then, the Wuhan Nationalist Government and the Nanjing Nationalist Government didn’t recognize each other’s legitimacy, accused the other of betraying the party, and expelled the other fraction’s leader from the party. However, due to the urgency of the Northern Expedition and those subsequent unsolved internal problems, Nanjing and Wuhan  are currently unable to either eliminate or persuade the other side to complete the reunification. Thus, the situation of “Nanjing-Wuhan split” has continued to this day.

## Ideology

The Nanjing Nationalist Government officially adopts the Three Principles of People. However, since Sun Yat-sen’s Three Principles of People leaves enormous space for various interpretations and he himself is not interested in foreign ideologies, it is hard to define the official ideology of the Nanjing Nationalist Government with one specific ideology.

In general, under the reality that KMT’s right-wing controls the Nanjing Nationalist Government, Nanjing’s ideology leans more towards capitalism, but it includes both the liberal side and the conservative side. In addition, as the survival of Nanjing Nationalist Government depends on the army it controls, the impact of authoritarianism in Nanjing can never be underestimated. It should be said that, the idea of “maintaining the true legitimacy of the party”, rather than an agreement to the ideology, is the biggest common denominator of uniting those powers that will fight against each other one day.

Since the second half of 1927, Nanjing went through a series of disadvantages. On the battlefield, it began to have unsatisfactory progress of the Northern Expedition; politically, first there was a newly revealed plot against the Chiang’s rule by the New Guangxi Clique, then Chiang Kai-shek was forced to and resign due to newly revealed evidences of crimes and the loss on the battle field. The situation in Nanjing was quite critical. In the second half of 1930, Kuomintang veteran Tan Yankai and his successor, Gu Yingfen, who had once stabilized the situation in Nanjing, passed away within one year. Therefore, Nanjing had to accept the conditions proposed by Chiang Kai-shek, who had resigned after the failure of the Battle of Xuzhou: once the situation become stable, he will have a place in the new government. At present, Hu Hanmin and Sun Fo (Sun Ke) are trying their best to barely maintain the normal operation of the Nanjing Government. With the political and economic crises faced by the Wuhan Government becoming increasingly fierce, the voice of Nanjing’s internal demands for launching the Western Expedition to fight against the traitors has become stronger and Chiang Kai-shek also views this as an excellent opportunity for him to return to the political arena. The situation is unprecedentedly stable. However, apart from Chiang and Hu, there are still many forces that can influence the political situation in Nanjing. The Western Hills Group, the local strength faction, and other non-party forces are trying to find their own places. Instead of worrying the upcoming Nanjing-Wuhan War, they are more concerned about the power struggle after it.