China Essay Research Paper Chiang KaishekChou Enlai

China Essay, Research Paper

Chiang Kai-shek:

Chou En-lai (Zhou Enlai): 1898-1975 One of the leaders of the Communist Party of China, and prime minister of the Chinese People’s Republic from its inception in 1949 until his death, born in Huaian, Kiangsu Province, China. In 1927 he became a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China, and in 1932 was appointed to succeed Mao Zedong as political commissar of the Red Army, but after 1935, following Mao’s elevation, he served him faithfully, becoming the Party’s chief negotiator and diplomat. As minister of foreign affairs (and concurrently prime minister) he vastly increased China’s international influence. Perhaps his greatest triumph of mediation was in the Cultural Revolution in China, when he worked to preserve national unity and the survival of government against the forces of anarchy.

Chiang Kai-shek [chang kiy shek] (, or *Jiang Jieshi*) :1887 — 1975 Revolutionary leader of 20th-c China, the effective head of the Nationalist Republic (1928–49), and head thereafter of the emigr Nationalist Party regime in Taiwan, born into a merchant family in Zhejiang. He interrupted his military education in Japan to return to China and join the Nationalist revolution. In 1918 he joined the separatist revolutionary government of Sun Yixian (Sun Yat-sen) in Canton, where he was appointed commandant of the new Whampoa Military Academy. After Sun’s death (1925), he launched an expedition against the warlords and the Beijing government, entering Beijing in 1928, but fixed the Nationalist capital at Nanjing (Nanking). During the ensuing decade the Nationalist Party steadily lost support to the Communists. When Japan launched a campaign to conquer China (1937), Nationalist resistance was weak. Defeated by the Communist forces, he was forced to retreat to Taiwan (1949), where he presided over the beginnings of Taiwan’s “economic miracle”.

Confucius: 551BC — 479 Chinese philosopher, born in the state of Lu (modern Shantung). Largely self-educated, he married at 19, became a local administrator, and in 531 BC began his career as a teacher. In 501BC he was appointed Governor of Chung-tu, then minister of works, and later minister of justice. His ideas for social reform made him the idol of the people; but his enemies caused him to leave Lu, and he travelled widely, followed by many disciples. He later edited the ancient writings, and the Confucian Analects, memorabilia compiled soon after his death, are a collection of his sayings and doings. His moral teaching stressed the importance of the traditional relations of filial piety and brotherly respect

Deng Xiaoping (, or Teng Hsiao-p’ing): 1904 — 1997 Leader of the Chinese Communist Party, after 1978 the dominant figure in Chinese politics, born in Sichuan province, China. He studied in France, where he joined the Communist Party, and in the Soviet Union, and became associated with Mao Zedong during the period of the Jiangxi Soviet (1928–34). In 1954 he became secretary-general of the Chinese Communist Party, but reacted strongly against the excesses of the Great Leap Forward (1958–9). When Mao launched the Cultural Revolution (1966), Deng was criticized and purged along with Liu Shaoqi, but retained the confidence of Premier Zhou Enlai and was restored to power in 1974. Again dismissed in 1976, after the death of Mao he was restored once more to power, and from 1978 had taken China through a rapid course of pragmatic reforms.

Jiang Zemin : 1926 — Chinese president (1993– ), born in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, China. An electrical engineer, he became commercial counsellor at the Chinese embassy in Moscow (1950–6) and during the 1960s and 1970s held a number of posts in the ministries of heavy industry and power. He was elected to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) central committee in 1982, and appointed Mayor of Shanghai in 1985. A cautious reformer, loyal to the Party, he was inducted into the Politburo in 1987, and following the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy massacre and the dismissal of Zhao Ziyang, was elected Party leader (1989), and chairman of the Central Military Commission (1990). He has pledged to maintain China’s “open door’ economic strategy.

Genghis Khan (, also spelled Jingis or Chingis Khan (”Very Mighty Ruler’), originally Temujin) : 1162/7 — 1227 Mongol conqueror, born in Temujin on the R Onon. He succeeded his father at 13, and struggled for many years against hostile tribes, subjugating the Naimans, conquering Tangut, and receiving the submission of the Turkish Uigurs. In 1206 he changed his name to the one by which he is now known, and from 1211, in several campaigns, he overran the empire of N China, the Kara-Chitai empire, the empire of Kharezm, and other territories. By his death the Mongol empire stretched from the Black Sea to the Pacific.

Kublai Khan: 1214 — 1294 Mongol emperor of China (1279–94), the grandson of Genghis Khan. An energetic prince, he suppressed his rivals, adopted the Chinese mode of civilization, encouraged men of letters, and made Buddhism the state religion. He established himself at Cambaluc (modern Beijing), the first foreignerever to rule in China, and ruled an empire which extended as far as the R Danube. The splendour of his court was legendary.

Kangxi (, also spelled K’ang-hsi, originally Xuanye): 1654 — 1722 Fifth emperor of the Manchurian Qing dynasty, and the s