China

Reorganization of the KMT

The KMT held its First National Congress in Guangzhou on Jan. 20–30, 1924. Borodin, who had reached Guangzhou in October 1923, began to advise Sun in the reorganization of the party. He prepared a constitution and helped draft a party program as a set of basic national policies. Delegates from throughout China and from overseas branches of the party adopted the program and the new constitution. The program announced goals of broad social reform and a fundamental readjustment of China’s international status. Its tone was nationalistic, identifying China’s enemies as imperialism and militarism. It singled out farmers and labourers as classes for special encouragement but also appealed to intellectuals, soldiers, youth, and women. The program threatened the position of landlords in relation to tenants and of employers in relation to labour, and Western privileges were openly menaced.

The constitution described a centralized organization, modeled on the Soviet Communist Party, with power concentrated in a small, elected group and with a descending hierarchy of geographical offices controlled by executive committees directed from above. Members were pledged to strict discipline and were to be organized in tight cells. Where possible they were to penetrate and try to gain control of such other organizations as labour unions, merchant associations, schools, and parliamentary bodies at all levels. Sun was designated as leader of the party and had veto rights over its decisions. The congress elected a central executive committee and a central supervisory committee to manage party affairs and confirmed Sun’s decision to admit communists, though this was opposed by numerous party veterans, who feared the KMT itself might be taken over. A few communists, including Li Dazhao, were elected to the executive committee.

The executive committee set up a central headquarters in Guangzhou. It also decided to strengthen the party throughout the country by deputizing most of its leaders to manage regional and provincial headquarters and by recruiting new members. A military academy was planned for training a corps of young officers, loyal to the party, who would become lower level commanders in a new national revolutionary army that was to be created. Borodin provided funds for party operations, and the Soviet Union promised to underwrite most of the expenses of, and to provide training officers for, the military academy. Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi), who had become a close associate of Sun, was chosen to be the first commandant of the academy, and Liao Zhongkai (Liao Chung-k’ai) became the party representative, or chief political officer.

From February to November 1924, Sun and his colleagues had some success in making the KMT’s influence felt nationally; they also consolidated the Guangzhou base, although it still depended on mercenary armies. The military academy was set up at Whampoa (Huangpu), on an island south of Guangzhou, and the first group of some 500 cadets was trained. In September Sun began another northern campaign in alliance with Zhang Zuolin against Cao Kun and Wu Peifu (Wu P’ei-fu), who now controlled Beijing. The campaign was interrupted, however, when Wu’s subordinate, Feng Yuxiang (Feng Yü-hsiang), betrayed his chief and seized Beijing on October 23, while Wu was at the front facing Zhang Zuolin. Feng and his fellow plotters invited Sun to Beijing to participate in the settlement of national affairs, while Feng and Zhang invited Duan Qirui to come out of retirement and take charge of the government. Sun accepted the invitation and departed for the north on November 13. Before he arrived in Beijing, however, he fell gravely ill with incurable liver cancer. He died in Beijing on March 12, 1925.

Sun Yat-sen (Sun Zhongshan) and his wife, Song Qingling (Soong Ch'ing-ling), enroute to Beijing in late 1924.Bettmann/Corbis