Was the kuomitang fascist?

I always wondered that, according to wikipedia on that matter, the Kuomitang was a authoritarian one party state (while fascism is totalitarian), and according again to wikipedia Kai Shek adopted a one party state by copying the soviet model

The Kuomitang also was anti capitalist, but closer to the planned economy than to fascist corporatism, but they still ruled as a authoritarian nationalist one party state and had a closer cooperation with germany until the german government recognized Manchukuo and withdrew support

What is your opinion on that matter?


5771290786_f43701c9b3_b.jpg

I found this national revolutionary army poster on the internet, this is what sparked my doubt
 

NoMommsen

Donor
I always wondered that, according to wikipedia on that matter, the Kuomitang was a authoritarian one party state (while fascism is totalitarian), and according again to wikipedia Kai Shek adopted a one party state by copying the soviet model...
What makes a ruling system 'fascist', what distinguishes a
- 'totalitarian' one-party state, that controls nearly every aspects of its citizens life
from a
- 'authoritarian' one-party state, that controls nearly every aspects of its citizens life
(as the Komintag controlled Taiwan was for ... decades)
?
 
What makes a ruling system 'fascist', what distinguishes a
- 'totalitarian' one-party state, that controls nearly every aspects of its citizens life
from a
- 'authoritarian' one-party state, that controls nearly every aspects of its citizens life
(as the Komintag controlled Taiwan was for ... decades)
?

Authoritarian: "Look, say whatever you want at home or think what you want; we don't care. But if you ever start to challenge us, we'll show you who's boss." (South American Banana Republics, most of the Cold War Eastern bloc, most African dictatorships)

Totalitarian: "All dissent must be purged to create a new society. All aspects of life must be controlled and regulated to create a new world." (Stalin's USSR, Nazi Germany, North Korea, the Khemer Rouge)
 
Technically, the structure of the Chinese Republic under Chiang could be interpreted either as fascistic OR as that of a developing nation aspiring to Westernize according to a European model but under TREMENDOUS stress. But the fact of unremitting (and in my opinion EXTREMELY SHORT-SIGHTED AND INEXCUSABLY RACIST) hostility to Chiang on the part of the Empire of Nippon made a Chiang alliance with the general ideological flow of Fascism impossible and the Communist Revolution in several ways (but among several available forms) inevitable.
 
Authoritarian yes; totalitarian even when Chiang fled to Taiwan. But Fascist? No way.
had a closer cooperation with germany until the german government recognized Manchukuo and withdrew support
IIRC Sino-German cooperation stretched all the way back till the Weimar Republic, and isn't a show of support for the Nazis and their ideology. Alexander von Falkenhausen, who was in charge of Sino-German cooperation wasn't really a Nazi either.
 
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This thread is an example of just how meaningless the term "fascism" is.

Now, ROC was authoritarian on the continent because there were so many challenges to the central authority, and authoritarian on the island because it was basically a government in exile under siege. To try and pass that off as "fascist" completely ignores the background of the political structure as well as make a mockery of what the term "fascism" is.
 
The KMT had several different factions. This is probably over-generalising, but Chiang, overall, led the 'right-wing' of the party, which, as mentioned above, was more authoritarian. I believe there was a more totalitarian faction within the KMT that Chiang flirted with at times. The Left-wing KMT was, early on, represented by Wang Jingwei and was more pro-democracy and socialist.

Basically, the different factions all had different interpretations of Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles and his legacy. Right-KMT often undermined the Democracy and Socialism/Social welfare principles and put more emphasis on Nationalism and, as previously mentioned, the idea of 'tutelage' before democracy, while Left-KMT was arguably more 'purist' towards the Three Principles.

At least, this is what I got from my limited research on the subject.
 
This thread is an example of just how meaningless the term "fascism" is.

Now, ROC was authoritarian on the continent because there were so many challenges to the central authority, and authoritarian on the island because it was basically a government in exile under siege. To try and pass that off as "fascist" completely ignores the background of the political structure as well as make a mockery of what the term "fascism" is.

I think what's so confusing about fascism to people is a lack of understand of what it is. It's really hard to actually nail down what fascism is but, to be as broad as possible about the specific aspects that make up a fascism, I see it as a combination of nationalism, nativism (an outright hatred for a terrifying "other" that is either not real or exaggerated), a cult of personality to the level of worship (in a creepy surrogate father way), a rejection of the most basic principles of liberty and democracy (generally from living in a democracy that is failing), and a desire of restoring old glory with a new age (this is where it seems to get confusing to some people, mixing traditional elements of national symbols and history with a new ideology and style of governance).

Fascism is quite hard to pin down. Was the KMT fascist? I would say no. Could they have become fascist? I think so. Actually, if they had won the Chinese Civil War, I think they very well could have gone down quite a similar path to the WW2 fascist nations. To be brief, I think they would have cracked down on communists and put them in forced labor camps as political prisoners and then started conflicts with Tibet, Kashgar, and Mongolia, claiming all of those lands as a core part of China. The relationship between China and the USSR would be explosively hostile and China would have been under an iron grip for decades.
 
It probably changed a bit during its history. And I imagine that there might have been some issues with the one party state description, if only for... I don't know, taking into account all the autonomous warlord and clique held areas swearing fealty to them? Really, I would like to look up and find what other parties were around. Their name translates to the Chinese Nationalist Party, so perhaps it was an umbrella organization. I recall that their founder (loved by both Taiwain and mainland China) was for bring communists and socialists together with their party and moved aside so a somewhat right winger could take power to keep the party together. Perhaps it was like a coalition? It really is intriguing and I would like to discover more through this thread.

And getting over the issue of nationalism and fascism... Would the Koumintang be fascist just because it was anti-foreignor to an extent? Most of China had been to some degree due to invasions, economic exploitation, long-held views on Sinacentrism, plus plain old regional loyalty that a centralized ant-Japanese/Western state could use to rebuild itself around. I feel that unless China had unified we wouldn't have been able to see just how Fascist the KMT would be when rearranging Chinese society and administration. On Taiwan? Definitely Fascist I would say.
 
They were close, but not quite. As for Sino-German cooperation, that dated from Weimar, due to how Germany was the one power with no colonial ambitions in China, unlike the others.
 
Authoritarian: "Look, say whatever you want at home or think what you want; we don't care. But if you ever start to challenge us, we'll show you who's boss." (South American Banana Republics, most of the Cold War Eastern bloc, most African dictatorships)

Totalitarian: "All dissent must be purged to create a new society. All aspects of life must be controlled and regulated to create a new world." (Stalin's USSR, Nazi Germany, North Korea, the Khemer Rouge)

Nailed it
 
They were close, but not quite. As for Sino-German cooperation, that dated from Weimar, due to how Germany was the one power with no colonial ambitions in China, unlike the others.

If that is one of the main reasons, that's absolutely hilarious.

The only reason Germany didn't have colonial ambitions in China is that their Chinese territory was taken and given to Japan at the end of WW1.

Funny how things like that seem to work out.
 
If that is one of the main reasons, that's absolutely hilarious.

The only reason Germany didn't have colonial ambitions in China is that their Chinese territory was taken and given to Japan at the end of WW1.

Funny how things like that seem to work out.
It actually was, yeah. Their reasoning was something along the lines of "They have no land here, so they can't be worse than the other guys."
 
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