first leader of the nationalist party in china
Sun Yat-sen
title: Nationalist government text: legitimate representative of China. The oldest surviving republic in East Asia, the Republic of China was formally established on 1January 1912 in mainland China following the Xinhai Revolution, which itself began with the Wuchang Uprising on 10October 1911, replacing the Qing Dynasty and ending over two thousand years of imperial rule in China. Central authority waxed and waned in response to warlordism (1915–28), Japanese invasion (1937–45), and the Chinese Civil War (1927–49), with central authority strongest during the Nanjing Decade (1927–37), when most of China came under the control of the Kuomintang (KMT) under an authoritarian one-party state. At the title: Nationalist government text: Provisional President and founded the Provisional Government of the Republic of China. To preserve national unity, Sun ceded the presidency to military strongman Yuan Shikai, who established the Beiyang government. After a failed attempt to install himself as Emperor of China, Yuan died in 1916, leaving a power vacuum which resulted in China being divided into several warlord fiefdoms and rival governments. They were nominally reunified in 1928 by the Nanjing-based government led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, which after the Northern Expedition governed the country as a one-party state under the Kuomintang, and was subsequently given international recognition as the title: Nationalist government text: the promulgation of the constitution, the Nationalist Government abolished itself and was replaced by the Government of the Republic of China. Following their loss of the Civil War, the Nationalist Government retreated moved their capital to Taiwan while claiming that they were the legitimate government of the mainland. After Sun's death on , four months later on , the National Government of the Republic of China was established in Guangzhou. The following year, Chiang Kai-shek became the de facto leader of the Kuomintang (KMT), or Chinese Nationalist Party. Chiang led the Northern Expedition through China with the intention of defeating title: History of the Republic of China text: associates envisaged evolved slowly. Although there were many political parties vying for supremacy in the legislature, the revolutionists lacked an army, and soon Yuan Shikai's power began to outstrip that of parliament. Yuan revised the constitution on his own and became dictatorial. In August 1912 the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) was founded by Song Jiaoren, one of Sun's associates. It was an amalgamation of small political groups, including Sun's Tongmenghui. In the national elections held in February 1913 for the new bicameral parliament, Song campaigned against the Yuan administration, whose representation at the time was largely by the Republican Party, led title: History of Beijing text: Yuan Shikai and a crowd of thousands. At the Huguang Guild Hall, the Revolutionary Alliance ("Tongmenghui") led by Sun, Huang Xing and Song Jiaoren joined several smaller parties to form the Chinese Nationalist Party ("Guomindang"). The first national assembly elections were held from December 1912 to January 1913. Adult males over the age of 21 who were educated or owned property and paid taxes and who could prove two-year residency in a particular county could vote. An estimated 4–6% of China's population were registered for the election. The Nationalist Party won a majority in both houses of the National Assembly,