CHIANG KAI-SHEK, otherwise CHIANG CHUNG-CHENG (1886— ), Chinese General, a native of Ningpo, Province of Chekiang. At an early age he joined the Kuomintang and in 192o became Head of the Whampoa Military Academy, then lately founded under the advice of Michael Borodin, unofficial agent of the Soviet Government. Under Borodin's ascendancy Sun Yat-sen and the Kuomintang leaders obtained control of the government of Canton and, with Soviet training and assistance, the Whampoa cadets developed into the mainstay of Sun's Army. At Sun's death in March, 1925, Canton City and neighbourhood were completely under the control of the Kuomintang Army, and in September Chiang secured the appointment of Commander-in chief, with the Soviet General Galen as his unofficial Chief of Staff. By the end of the year, having defeated Chen Chiung-ming, he had brought Kwangtung and Kwangsi Provinces under the control of the Kuomintang "Executive Committee." This body, a development due to Borodin's remodelling of the party on Soviet lines, converted Sun's former semblance of government into the eventually successful Nationalist Government of China.
In 1926 Chiang made his amazing advance through Hunan to the Yangtsze and established an administration at Wuchang. Thereafter a break with the extremists of the party caused the transfer of the seat of government to Nanking. Early in 1927 Chiang Kai-shek, restive under growing Soviet domination, em barked upon an anti-communist campaign throughout central and southern China. The result was the complete withdrawal of Boro din, Galen and the other Russian advisers. In August, 1927, he announced his retirement and later in the year visited Japan. In December he married Miss Mayling Soong, the sister-in-law of Sun Yat-sen, thus identifying himself with the constitutional element in the Kuomintang. Early in 1928 he resumed his post at the head of the Nanking Army, which bore its part in the northern advance, and final occupation of Peking. On Oct. 1o, 1928, the 17th anniversary of the outbreak of the revolution, Chiang Kai shek was inaugurated president of the Chinese National Govern ment, with a cabinet of ten. In 1931 he was succeeded as presi dent by Lin Sen. (W. E. L.)