from his dual post of president and premier. Civil war was averted by the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Hu continued to rule southern China, the heartland of the KMT, with the help of Chen Jitang and the New Guangxi clique. There he tried to create a model government, free of corruption and cronyism, to discredit Chiang's Nanjing regime. Hu was an advocate of action against Japanese aggression, criticising Chiang Kai-shek for "his spineless failure to adopt a strong policy towards the foreign power which has torn and ravaged our homeland!" Hu visited Europe and ceased his political attack on Chiang Kai-shek in June 1935. At the first session of the Kuomintang's Fifth Conference in December 1935, he was elected Chairman of the Central Committee for Common Affairs in absentia. Hu returned to China in January 1936 and lived in Guangzhou until he died of a cerebral haemorrhage on 12 May 1936. His death sparked a crisis. Chiang wanted to replace Hu with loyalists in southern China and end the autonomy the south had enjoyed under Hu. In response, Chen and the New Guangxi clique conspired to remove Chiang from office. In the so-called "Liangguang Incident", Chen was forced to resign as governor of Guangdong after Chiang bribed many of Chen's officers to defect and the conspiracy collapsed. Hu's political philosophy was that one's individual rights were a function of one's membership of a nation. References External links Hu Han-ming (Hu Hanmin) 胡漢民 from Biographies of Prominent Chinese c.1925. Chinese revolutionaries 1879 births 1936 deaths Comintern people Hakka politicians Members of the Kuomintang People from Panyu District People of the 1911 Revolution Political philosophers Politicians from Guangzhou Presidents of the Legislative Yuan Tongmenghui members