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    Madame Sun Yat-Sen

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    Lucy Moore
    After Sun Yat-Sen's death, his widow Soong Ching-Ling issued a public statement defending the Chinese Communist Party and critiquing the Nationalist faction led by Chiang Kai-Shek. Soong argued that the Nationalists had betrayed Sun's ideology and Three People's Principles of Nationalism, Democracy, and People's Livelihood. She believed the Communists better upheld Sun's vision and were gaining popular support. Soong called on Sun's followers to reclaim his legacy from the Nationalists who she said had degraded it and turned into a "semi-feudal remnant."

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    Madame Sun Yat-Sen

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    Lucy Moore
    86 views2 pages
    After Sun Yat-Sen's death, his widow Soong Ching-Ling issued a public statement defending the Chinese Communist Party and critiquing the Nationalist faction led by Chiang Kai-Shek. Soong argued that the Nationalists had betrayed Sun's ideology and Three People's Principles of Nationalism, Democracy, and People's Livelihood. She believed the Communists better upheld Sun's vision and were gaining popular support. Soong called on Sun's followers to reclaim his legacy from the Nationalists who she said had degraded it and turned into a "semi-feudal remnant."

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    After Sun Yat-Sen's death, his widow Soong Ching-Ling issued a public statement defending the Chinese Communist Party and critiquing the Nationalist faction led by Chiang Kai-Shek. Soong argued that the Nationalists had betrayed Sun's ideology and Three People's Principles of Nationalism, Democracy, and People's Livelihood. She believed the Communists better upheld Sun's vision and were gaining popular support. Soong called on Sun's followers to reclaim his legacy from the Nationalists who she said had degraded it and turned into a "semi-feudal remnant."

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    86 views2 pages

    Madame Sun Yat-Sen

    Uploaded by

    Lucy Moore
    After Sun Yat-Sen's death, his widow Soong Ching-Ling issued a public statement defending the Chinese Communist Party and critiquing the Nationalist faction led by Chiang Kai-Shek. Soong argued that the Nationalists had betrayed Sun's ideology and Three People's Principles of Nationalism, Democracy, and People's Livelihood. She believed the Communists better upheld Sun's vision and were gaining popular support. Soong called on Sun's followers to reclaim his legacy from the Nationalists who she said had degraded it and turned into a "semi-feudal remnant."

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    Lucy Moore

    Modern Asian History

    Charles Marcotte

    October 16, 2018

    Madame Sun Yat-Sen Defends The Left

    After Sun Yat-Sen’s death, China was at a crossroads. The Guomindang still retained

    power, but the Chinese Communist Party was steadily gaining influence within the Guomindang

    and among the Chinese people. Both the Communist and the Nationalist factions claimed to be

    the heirs to Sun’s legacy. In 1927, Chiang Kai-Shek, the Nationalist faction leader, began

    suppressing the CCP, much to the disgust of Soong Ching-Ling, Sun’s widow. Soong issued a

    public statement declaring her support for the Communist Party of China and her intention to

    further negotiate with the Soviet Union. As Soong believed that the Nationalists had betrayed

    Sun Yat-Sen’s ideology, she thus based her critique of the Nationalists on this framework.

    Soong began her statement by giving a brief overview of the situation in China and

    stating that China needed a revolution in order to survive as a nation. According to Soong,

    modernization via gradual reforms was impossible because it required time that China did not

    have due to internal conflicts from within and foreign imperialism from outside. She went on to

    state that Sun Yat-Sen’s Three People’s Principles, Three Stages of Revolution and

    reorganization of the Guomindang were the blueprints “to forge a fit instrument of revolution”

    (Soong, page 1). With that in mind, she based her defense of the CCP and critique of the

    Nationalists along that blueprint.


    Soong then justified her position using Sun’s life and works, applying it to the current

    situation in China. She outlined how Sun upheld the Three Principles and Three Stages and how

    the Communists fit into that framework and continued it after its death. She particularly noted

    that the Communists had popular support among the people that the Nationalists lacked. Next,

    she went on to critique the Nationalists. Soong believed that the Nationalists had destroyed the

    prestige that the Guomindang had attained under Sun by turning it into yet another “semi-feudal

    remnant” (Soong, page 2). Additionally, she criticized the Nationalists for murdering the

    Communist forces “who labored in order that Guomindang power might reach the Yangtze”

    (Soong, page 2).

    Finally, she called for Sun’s followers to reclaim his legacy from those who degraded it,

    i.e. the “militarist cliques”. However, she did not clarify who the “semi-feudal remnants in the

    North” that the Nationalists were supposedly akin to were, so it was hard to understand why they

    were like those semi-feudal forces in the first place. She also did not specify how his “true

    followers” could go about rescuing his legacy from the Nationalists, or even how they differed

    from the Nationalists. After all, the Nationalists considered themselves true followers of Sun

    Yat-sen’s beliefs and legacy.

    Soong’s statement was biased in favor of the left wing of the Guomindang. She favored

    an alliance with the Chinese Communist Party but under Guomindang leadership. Her primary

    sources for the military and political history was Sun Yat-sen’s work and possibly her own

    observations of the Chinese political situation. Soong offered an incomplete view of the

    complexities of early 20th century Chinese politics, but her statement will be of interest to

    anyone interested in the military and political history of China.

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