Building a New Nation State: An Examination of Chiang Kai-Shek's Critical Contribution to the Making of Modern China

Abstract

China Scholars Have long appreciated the critical importance of the twentieth century in modern Chinese history. As the world entered the twenty-first century, they have gained new insights into China's political-institutional, socioeconomic, and ideological developments during the first three quarters of the previous century. Although few scholars have attempted to define precisely what they mean by “modern China” or “modern Chinese nation state,” it is clear that, for much of the twentieth century, modern China or modern Chinese nation state is characterized by the struggle to achieve and maintain national unification and independence, to develop national defense, and to centralize state power and build state institutions. As a major leader of the Nationalist Party and subsequently the leader of the Nationalist Party-State, Chiang Kai-shek was central to, as well as the main actor in, this epic “struggle for modern China”. The purpose of this essay is to analyze how Chiang contributed to the making of modern China and assess the extent to which Jay Taylor succeeds in defining Chiang's role in the making of modern China.