On this day 67 years ago, Chiang Kai-shek was elected chairman of the Nationalist Government of China, having been acting in that capacity since the death of his predecessor the previous month. The Second World War was in progress, and the Japanese were occupying most of China’s eastern seaboard, and within China there was an ongoing struggle between the Nationalists and the Communists.
Chiang’s forces were greatly weakened by the fighting against the Japanese as well as by internal corruption, and after the Japanese surrendered in 1945 there followed a period of civil war between Chiang’s Nationalists and Mao Zedong’s People’s Liberation Army. A new constitution was adopted in 1947 and Chiang was elected the President of the Republic of China in 1948 but was forced to resign the following year as the power of the communists grew.
In December 1949 Chiang was evacuated to the island of Taiwan and resumed duties as the President of the Republic of China in 1950; however, the reality was that the only part of China that he had power over was Taiwan, the rest having been ceded to the People’s Republic of China. He died in 1975, but the standoff between Taiwan and the rest of China continues to this day.