Socialist ideology of the Kuomintang

The former socialist ideology of the Kuomintang is a unique form of socialism and socialist thought developed in China during the Republican era. The Tongmenghui revolutionary organization led by Dr. Sun Yatsen was the first to promote socialist ideology in China.

The Tongmenghui and its successor, the Kuomintang party were the first to develop socialist ideology in China.

One of the Three Principles of the People of the Kuomintang, Mínshēng, was defined as socialism by Dr. Sun Yatsen. He defined this principle by saying in his last days "it's socialism and it's communism". The concept may be understood as social welfare as well. Sun understood it as an industrial economy and equality of land holdings for the Chinese peasant farmers. Here he was influenced by the American thinker Henry George (see Georgism) and German thinker Karl Marx; the land value tax in Taiwan is a legacy thereof. He divided livelihood into four areas: food, clothing, housing, and transportation; and planned out how an ideal Chinese government can take care of these for its people.

The Kuomintang was referred to having a socialist ideology. "Equalization of land rights" was a clause included by Dr. Sun in the original Tongmenhui. The Kuomintang's revolutionary ideology in the 1920s incorporated unique Chinese Socialism as part of its ideology.

The Soviet Union trained Kuomintang revolutionaries in the Moscow Sun Yat-sen University. In the West and in the Soviet Union, Chiang Kai-shek was known as the "Red General". Movie theaters in the Soviet Union showed newsreels and clips of Chiang, at Moscow Sun Yat-sen University Portraits of Chiang were hung on the walls, and in the Soviet May Day Parades that year, Chiang's portrait was to be carried along with the portraits of Karl Marx, Lenin, Stalin and other socialist leaders.

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