7 Chiang Kai-shek 7that aroused many protests, especially since a complete vic-
tory over the Communists continued to elude him.
Chiang accelerated his program for unifying and
strengthening China. To give the nation more moral
cohesion, Chiang revived the state cult of Confucius and
in 1934 launched a campaign, the so-called New Life
Movement—a program designed to improve the lot of the
peasants through education, home industries, and self-
help. Its goal was to halt the spread of Communism by
teaching traditional Chinese values.
In December 1936 Chiang was seized by one of his
generals who believed that Chinese forces should concen-
trate on fighting the Japanese instead of the Communists.
Chiang was held captive for some two weeks, and the Xi’an
(Sian) Incident, as it became known, ended after he agreed
to form an alliance with the Communists against the
Japanese invaders. In 1937 the mounting conflict between
the two countries erupted into war. His forces kept most
of China free of Japanese control and managed to move
industries and schools to the interior. After the Allied
forces declared war against Japan during World War II,
Chiang became Allied commander in China. He became
China’s president in 1943. China received economic aid
from the United States, but Chiang did not push economic
or political reforms. Much of his Nationalist government
was corrupt, and inflation brought increasing hardship to
the masses. Civil war recommenced in 1946. By 1949
Chiang had lost continental China to the Communists,
and the People’s Republic of China was established.
Chiang moved to Taiwan with the remnants of his
Nationalist forces, established a relatively benign dicta-
torship over the island with other Nationalist leaders, and
attempted to harass the Communists across the Formosa
Strait. The chastened Chiang reformed the ranks of the
once-corrupt Nationalist Party, and with the help of