Li Tsung-jên

Li Tsung-jên

(lē dzo͞ong-jŭn), 1890–1969, Chinese Nationalist general and political leader. For 25 years (1925–49) he was a leader of the military clique that ruled Guangxi prov. The Guangxi army was an important element in the Northern ExpeditionNorthern Expedition,
in modern Chinese history, the military campaign by which the Kuomintang party overthrew the warlord-backed Beijing government and established a new government at Nanjing.
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 (1926–28) of the KuomintangKuomintang
[Chin.,=national people's party] (KMT), Chinese and Taiwanese political party. Sung Chiao-jen organized the party in 1912, under the nominal leadership of Sun Yat-sen, to succeed the Revolutionary Alliance.
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 party, but the Guangxi clique was not close to power in the Nanjing government formed by Chiang Kai-shekChiang Kai-shek
, 1887–1975, Chinese Nationalist leader. He was also called Chiang Chung-cheng.

After completing military training with the Japanese Army, he returned to China in 1911 and took part in the revolution against the Manchus (see Ch'ing).
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. Li led Nationalist forces in central China against the Japanese invaders (1937–45). In 1948 he was elected vice president after defeating Sun Fo, the personal choice of Chiang. Although serving as acting president following the resignation of Chiang in Jan., 1949, Li had little real power. Chiang retained the party leadership and controlled the Nationalist armies through trusted aides. When the Nationalist government moved to Taiwan in Dec., 1949, Li went instead to the United States. He returned to mainland China in 1965.

Bibliography

See his Memoirs (1978); E. F. Carlson, The Chinese Army (1940); E. Snow, The Battle for Asia (1941).

Li Tsung-Jen

 

Born 1892 in Kueilin; died Jan. 30, 1969, in Peking. Chinese military and political figure.

Li Tsung-jen received a military education in Kueilin (province of Kwangsi). During the Chinese Revolution of 1925–27, he occupied important posts in the National Revolutionary Army (including the command of a corps and of an army group). He was a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang. After the defeat of the revolution, he was one of the leaders of the Kwangsi warlords, who competed with Chiang Kai-shek for power and dealt ruthlessly with the revolutionary movement. He commanded a front during the war against Japan from 1937 to 1945. From 1945 to 1948 he was commander in chief of the Kuomintang forces of North China, with headquarters in Peiping (Peking). In April 1948 he was elected vice-president of the Chinese Republic. Resorting to political maneuvering as the regime crumbled, Chiang Kai-shek in January 1949 transferred the post of president to Li Tsung-jen, who at that time pretended to be a liberal and a proponent of ending the civil war.

The Communist Party of China (CPC) declared Li Tsung-jen a major war criminal. After the formation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, Li Tsung-jen fled to the USA. In 1965 he returned to the PRC, where he enjoyed the protection of the CPC and made anti-Soviet pronouncements.