(31 October 1887 - 5 April 1975), was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the ROC. Known as Jiang Jieshi on the mainland, he rose to prominence as chief of the military academy established at Whampoa in Guangzhou. After the death of Sun Yat-sen in 1925 and the Northern Expedition to break the power of the warlords. He then split with the KMT's Communist wing in 1927, ordering the massacre of Communists in Shanghai and establishing a government in Nanjing. In 1928 he put down a Communist uprising but his subsequent efforts to establish control over the country and carry out a programme of reform were hindered by the growing aggression of the Japanese. Incidents in Xi'an in 1936, he was forced to enter into an alliance with them against the Japanese. When the Japanese launched an all-out war on China in 1937, Chiang moved his base to Chongqing. Throughout the Second World War he received substantial amounts of American aid but made little headway against the Japanese. The Allies treated him as the leader of a great power but after 1945 American efforts to broker a peace and create a democracy in China failed. Chiang fought the civil war and in 1949 retreated to Taiwan with part of his army and many followers. There he established a military dictatorship. After his death in 1975, he was succeeded by his son, Chiang Ching-kuo.