A more left wing KMT during WW2

As I understand it, the KMT was a "left" organization. Chaing Kai Shek represented the "right"
wing of the KMT. Is it possible to have a social democrat or socialist KMT? I am not talking about the CCP, Mao or Maoist ideology. Who could be a "pink" socialist leader?

Ris4History
 
Chiang Kai-shek on the mainland wasn't really right-wing in terms of domestic policy. He was a socialist and anti-imperialist who is only considered right-wing because how he governed from Taipei (and there were still socialist elements of his rule over Taiwan including land redistribution) and his hatred of Communism (and until some time before 1927, he saw Communists as allies). There were KMT conservatives who opposed Chiang. You could actually make Chiang Kai-shek a "pink" socialist leader with an early enough POD.

But you're probably thinking about someone like Wang Jingwei, who was a left-wing opponent of Chiang and could very well have taken control of the party from him. Only issue with Wang is that he eventually sold out to Japan, but with a POD in the 1920s or '30s you can butterfly this away.
 
At https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/chiang-kai-shek-killed-in-burma-1942.420847/ I mention possible succesors to Chaing Kai-shek if he were killed; probably the most "liberal" of them was Sun Fo:

"Sun Fo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Fo Superficially, had impressive credentials: son of Sun Yat-sen, leading figure in the liberal wing of the Kuomintang, President of the Legislative Yuan, and briefly Premier (in 1931-2 and 1948-9). OTOH, his 1931-2 government (after one of Chiang's periodic resignations) was hardly successful, and the British journalist Arthur Ransome once described him as being "like many sons of famous fathers, an undistinguished personality, although decidedly intelligent." He might make a good choice for figurehead president, but could hardly be anything more, given his lack of base in the military and the minority status of his sympathizers in the KMT."
 
... you're probably thinking about someone like Wang Jingwei, who was a left-wing opponent of Chiang and could very well have taken control of the party from him. Only issue with Wang is that he eventually sold out to Japan, but with a POD in the 1920s or '30s you can butterfly this away.

had a scenario where Germans & Vichy regime conspire to back Wang Jingwei (he was in Indochina at some point) to stymie Japan moving on French (and Dutch) colonies, also restore Sino-German cooperation.
 

raharris1973

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I wonder what Wang's handling of the Japanese would be like if he and his left-leaning factional supporters had been at the top of the KMT.

On the one hand, with different political possibilities and responsibilities, he could be forced to lead the country in an anti-Japanese coalition, even if he has doubts. Or he could try to cling to appeasement or passivity for longer than Chiang did. The longer he persists in that though the greater the risk of him being assassinated our coup'ed.
 
I wonder what Wang's handling of the Japanese would be like if he and his left-leaning factional supporters had been at the top of the KMT.

On the one hand, with different political possibilities and responsibilities, he could be forced to lead the country in an anti-Japanese coalition, even if he has doubts. Or he could try to cling to appeasement or passivity for longer than Chiang did. The longer he persists in that though the greater the risk of him being assassinated our coup'ed.
My thinking was along these lines too. Maybe Jiang dies or is killed in the Zhongshan warship incident?
 

raharris1973

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My thinking was along these lines too. Maybe Jiang dies or is killed in the Zhongshan warship incident?

Well that could be quite interesting. It could play out many different ways, including a leftist direction.
 

SpookyBoy

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Chiang Kai-shek on the mainland wasn't really right-wing in terms of domestic policy. He was a socialist and anti-imperialist who is only considered right-wing because how he governed from Taipei (and there were still socialist elements of his rule over Taiwan including land redistribution) and his hatred of Communism (and until some time before 1927, he saw Communists as allies). There were KMT conservatives who opposed Chiang. You could actually make Chiang Kai-shek a "pink" socialist leader with an early enough POD.
As much as I hate to be "that" person, socialism isn't just when the government does stuff, and "Minsheng", the Sun Yat-sen Principle that is often translated as "socialism" is more accurately understood as "welfare"

I can see however, a KMT that ends up developing in a sort of social corporatist "class collabaration" direction.
 

raharris1973

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I can see however, a KMT that ends up developing in a sort of social corporatist "class collabaration" direction.

Well, to a degree, he did. In postwar jockeying for position to reclaim Shanghai from occupation the Communists admitted that Chiang had the support of "yellow workers" over "red workers". And the "Green Gang" he worked with the crush the Communists in Shanghai in 1927 was basically the town's longshoreman's union.
 

raharris1973

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Who on the KMT left had the greatest political, administrative, conspiratorial and military skills? Song Qingling seems like a great spokesperson, and could garner wide respect/reverence for being Sun's widow, but I don't know about her practical skill for politics.
 
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