To what extent was Chaing Kai-sheks leadership a failure?

Chain Kai-Shek’s leadership was not always a failure. Kai-Shek and the GMD (nationalists) did also have many successes. The GMD (nationalist) government aimed and managed to, overthrow the warlords, gain international recognition and started to work towards the creation of a workable governmental and legal system.  Kai-Shek and the GMD government wanted to implement GMD rule as the intermediate stage of China’s modernisation. The GMD government tried to achieve these aims in three main ways, suppression of opposition, the new life movement and five main reforms, which where the legal system, the economic crisis, administrative of the government, diplomatic government and the reform of the military system.    

Chaing Kai-Shek and the GMD, leadership were also clearly corrupted. This is most obviously shown in the way that they operated with foreigners. Kai-Shek knew that he could never completely rid china of foreigners and foreign trade. To deal with the matter he compromised and increased tax on trade in and out of china. In relation to this, progress had been made towards removing foreign dominance from china was undermined by the Japanese occupation of Manchuria that began in 1934. Kai-shek also wanted to liberate china away from the drug opium.  However due to the money made from opium trade, Kai-Shek made opium illegal but also had a part in the marketing of opium to benefit from the income made.  Through this he had betrayed his own sense of moral purpose by supporting some of the worst elements of the Chinese underworld.  It can also be argued that Kai-Shek and the GMD government were far outwaited by failures. The nationalist’s government have proved unable to undertake China’s most urgent social and economic problems.  Kai-Shek had turned to coercion and authoritarianism in order to consolidate his power. In the years of 1934-1935 the GMD government had been powerless to prevent a widespread famine which caused the death of thirty million Chinese people, however many people believe that Kai-Shek did not acknowledge these deaths as important. Kai-Shek’s preoccupation with crushing his communist opponents had divided vital energies away from the structuring of an ordered civil society.

In conclusion, to say the Chaing Kai-Shek and the GMD government were a complete failure is an unfair statement. The GMD/ Nationalist rule over China did have many successes that made China a stronger and more stable country. However, the fact that the GMD government had more failures than successes shows how weak and hypocritical Kai-Shek was. The GMD/ Nationalist government were never going to survive with Kai-Shek as their main ruler.