Editing History of China (section)

===Republic of China (since 1912)===
{{Main|1911 Revolution|History of the Republic of China|Republic of China (1912–1949)|Taiwan}}
{{See also|History of Taiwan|History of Taiwan (1945–present)|Retreat of the government of the Republic of China to Taiwan}}

[[File:Naval Jack of the Republic of China.svg|thumb|upright=0.8|Flag of the [[First Guangzhou uprising]]]]
[[File:Xinhai Revolution in Shanghai.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Nanjing Road]] during [[Xinhai Revolution]], 1911]]
The [[Provisional Government of the Republic of China (1912)|provisional government of the Republic of China]] was formed in [[Nanjing]] on 12 March 1912. Sun Yat-sen became [[President of the Republic of China]], but he turned power over to [[Yuan Shikai]], who commanded the [[New Army]]. Over the next few years, Yuan proceeded to abolish the national and provincial assemblies, and declared himself as the emperor of [[Empire of China (1915–1916)|Empire of China]] in late 1915, in the style of an [[absolute monarchy]]. Yuan's imperial ambitions were fiercely opposed by his subordinates; faced with the rapidly growing prospect of violent rebellion, he abdicated in March 1916 and died of natural causes in June.

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| caption1          = [[Sun Yat-sen]], the intellectual leader of the Revolution
| image2            = Yuan Shikai2.jpg
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| caption2          = [[Yuan Shikai]], the first official president of the Republic of China
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Yuan's death in 1916 left a power vacuum; the republican government (that had been nearly brought to its knees by his policies) was all but shattered. This opened the way for the [[Warlord Era]], during which much of China was ruled by shifting coalitions of competing provincial military leaders and the [[Beiyang government]], ushering in a short-lived period of uncertainty. Intellectuals, disappointed in the failure of the Republic, launched the [[New Culture Movement]].

[[File:Beijing students protesting the Treaty of Versailles (May 4, 1919).jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Beijing college students rallied during the [[May Fourth Movement]], dissatisfied with Article 156 of the [[Treaty of Versailles]] for China ([[Shandong Problem]]).]]

In 1919, the [[May Fourth Movement]] began as a response to the pro-Japanese terms imposed on China by the [[Treaty of Versailles]] following World War I. It quickly became a nationwide protest movement. The protests were a moral success as the cabinet fell and China refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles, which had awarded German holdings of [[Shandong]] to Japan. Memory of the mistreatment at Versailles fuels resentment into the 21st century.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Foot |first=Rosemary |date=2019 |title=Remembering the past to secure the present: Versailles legacies in a resurgent China |journal=[[International Affairs (journal)|International Affairs]] |volume=95 |issue=1 |pages=143–160|doi=10.1093/ia/iiy211 }}</ref>

Political and intellectual ferment waxed strong throughout the 1920s and 1930s. According to Patricia Ebrey:
:"Nationalism, patriotism, progress, science, democracy, and freedom were the goals; imperialism, feudalism, warlordism, autocracy, patriarchy, and blind adherence to tradition were the enemies. Intellectuals struggled with how to be strong and modern and yet Chinese, how to preserve China as a political entity in the world of competing nations."{{sfn|Ebrey|1999|p=271}}

[[File:Flag of China (1912–1928).svg|thumb|upright=0.8|Flag of the Republic of China from 1912 to 1928]]
[[File:Flag of the Republic of China.svg|alt=Blue Sky White Sun Wholly Red Earth|thumb|upright=0.8|Flag of the Republic of China from 1928 to now]]

In the 1920s Sun Yat-sen established a revolutionary base in Guangzhou and set out to unite the fragmented nation. He welcomed assistance from the [[Soviet Union]] (itself fresh from Lenin's Communist takeover) and he entered into an alliance with the fledgling [[Chinese Communist Party]] (CCP). After Sun's death from cancer in 1925, one of his protégés, [[Chiang Kai-shek]], seized control of the [[Kuomintang|Nationalist Party]] (KMT) and succeeded in bringing most of south and central China under its rule in the [[Northern Expedition]] (1926–1927). Having defeated the warlords in the south and central China by [[National Revolutionary Army|military force]], Chiang was able to secure the nominal allegiance of the warlords in the North and establish the [[Nationalist government]] in Nanjing. In 1927, Chiang turned on the CCP and relentlessly purged the Communists elements in his [[National Revolutionary Army|NRA]]. In 1934, driven from their mountain bases such as the [[Chinese Soviet Republic]], the CCP forces embarked on the [[Long March]] across China's most desolate terrain to the northwest, a feat transformed into legend, where they established a guerrilla base at [[Yan'an]] in Shaanxi. During the Long March, the communists reorganised under a new leader, [[Mao Zedong]] (Mao Tse-tung).

{{multiple image
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| title = [[World War II]]<br/>([[Second Sino-Japanese War]])
| image1 = 轟炸重慶.jpg
| caption1 = [[Bombing of Chongqing]] in 1940
| image2 =Taierzhuang.jpg
| caption2 = Chinese soldiers in house-to-house fighting in the Battle of Tai'erzhuang
| image3 = Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces in Battle of Shanghai 1937.jpg
| caption3 = The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) Special Naval Landing Forces troops in gas masks prepare for an advance in the rubble of Shanghai, China.
| image4 = Jiangjieshi-declare.jpg
| caption4 = Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek announced the Kuomintang policy of resistance against Japan at Lushan on 10 July 1937, three days after the [[Marco Polo Bridge Incident|Seventy-seven Incident]].
}}
The bitter [[Chinese Civil War]] between the Nationalists and the Communists continued, openly or clandestinely, through the 14-year-long Japanese occupation of various parts of the country (1931–1945). The two Chinese parties nominally formed a United Front to oppose the Japanese in 1937, during the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]] (1937–1945), which became a part of [[World War II]], although this alliance was tenuous at best and disagreements, sometimes violent, between the forces were still common. Japanese forces committed numerous [[Japanese war crimes|war atrocities]] against the civilian population, including biological warfare (see [[Unit 731]]) and the [[Three Alls Policy]] (''Sankō Sakusen''), namely being: "Kill All, Burn All and Loot All".<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Fairbank |first1=John King |author-link= John King Fairbank |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nBDC2cqb6I0C&pg=PA320 |title=China: A New History |last2=Goldman |first2=Merle |author2-link=Merle Goldman |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-0674018280 |edition=2nd |page=320}}</ref> During the war, China was recognized as one of the Allied "[[Four Policemen|Big Four]]" in the [[Declaration by United Nations]], as a tribute to its enduring struggle against the invading Japanese.<ref>{{multiref2|{{cite book|title=Yearbook of the United Nations 1946–1947|date=1947|publisher=United Nations|location=Lake Success, NY|oclc=243471225|page=3|chapter-url=http://www.unmultimedia.org/searchers/yearbook/page.jsp?volume=1946-47&page=38|access-date=25 April 2015|chapter=The Moscow Declaration on general security}}|{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/en/about-us/history-of-the-un/preparatory-years|title=1942 Declaration by United Nations|publisher=United Nations|access-date=20 June 2015}} }}</ref> China was one of the four major [[Allies of World War II]], and was later considered one of the primary victors in the war.<ref>{{ multiref2|{{cite book |last1=Hoopes|first1=Townsend|first2=Douglas|last2=Brinkley |title=FDR and the Creation of the U.N.|publisher=Yale University Press|date= 1997}}|{{cite book|first=John Lewis|last=Gaddis|title=The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1941–1947|url=https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesorig0000gadd|url-access=registration|year=1972|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-12239-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesorig0000gadd/page/24 24]–25}} }}</ref>

Following the defeat of Japan in 1945, the war between the Nationalist government forces and the CCP resumed, after failed attempts at reconciliation and a negotiated settlement. By 1949, the CCP had established control over most of the country. [[Odd Arne Westad]] says the Communists won the Civil War because they made fewer military mistakes than Chiang, and because in his search for a powerful centralized government, Chiang antagonised too many interest groups in China. Furthermore, his party was weakened in the war against the Japanese. Meanwhile, the Communists told different groups, such as peasants, exactly what they wanted to hear, and cloaked themselves in the cover of Chinese Nationalism.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Westad |first=Odd Arne |title=Restless Empire: China and the World Since 1750 |date=2012 |page=291 |author-link=Odd Arne Westad}}</ref> During the civil war both the Nationalists and Communists carried out mass atrocities, with millions of non-combatants killed by both sides.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rummel |first=Rudolph |title=Death by Government |date=1994}}</ref> These included deaths from forced conscription and massacres.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Valentino |first=Benjamin A. |title=Final solutions: mass killing and genocide in the twentieth century |date=2005 |publisher=[[Cornell University Press]] |page=88}}</ref>

The Nationalists were slowly routed towards the South. When the Nationalist government forces were defeated by CCP forces in mainland China in 1949, the Nationalist government fled to [[Taiwan]] with its forces, along with Chiang and a large number of their supporters; the Nationalist government had taken effective control of Taiwan at the end of WWII as part of the overall Japanese surrender, when Japanese troops in Taiwan surrendered to the Republic of China troops there.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2 September 1945 |title=Surrender Order of the Imperial General Headquarters of Japan |url=http://www.taiwandocuments.org/ghq.htm}}, "(a) The senior Japanese commanders and all ground, sea, air, and auxiliary forces within China (excluding Manchuria), [[Formosa]], and [[French Indochina]] north of 16 degrees north latitude shall surrender to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek."</ref>

Until the early 1970s the ROC was recognised as the [[China and the United Nations|sole legitimate government of China]] by the United Nations, the United States and most Western nations, refusing to recognise the PRC on account of its status as a communist nation during the Cold War. This changed in 1971 when the [[United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758|PRC was seated in the United Nations]], replacing the ROC. The KMT ruled Taiwan under martial law until 1987, with the stated goal of being vigilant against Communist infiltration and preparing to retake mainland China. Therefore, political dissent was not tolerated during that period, and crackdowns against dissidents were common.

In the 1990s the ROC underwent a major democratic reform, beginning with the 1991 resignation of the members of the [[Legislative Yuan]] and [[National Assembly]] elected in 1947. These groups were originally created to represent mainland China constituencies. Also lifted were the restrictions on the use of Taiwanese languages in the broadcast media and in schools. In 1996, the ROC held [[1996 Taiwanese presidential election|its first direct presidential election]], and the incumbent president, KMT candidate [[Lee Teng-hui]], was elected. In 2000, the KMT status as the ruling party ended when the DPP took power, only to regain its status in the [[2008 Taiwan presidential election|2008 election]] by [[Ma Ying-jeou]].

Due to the controversial nature of [[Political status of Taiwan|Taiwan's political status]], the ROC is currently recognised by [[Foreign relations of Taiwan|merely 12 UN member states and the Holy See]] {{as of|lc=y|2024}} as the legitimate government of "China".