Chiang Kai-shek

Chiang Kai-shek, or Chiang Chung-cheng, Chiang Chieh-shih or Jiang Jieshi, is the leader of the Kuomintang as the Chairman of the Military Affairs Commission and Generalissimo of the Nationalist army. Chiang's staunch anti-Communism resulted in the tensions between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China, tensions which eventually led to the destabilisation of the Republic's government and the invitation for the Japanese occupation of Manchuria. When the Civil War kicked off in 1925, Chiang was one of the Kuomintang's key leaders, before eventually amounting to the position of Generalissimo.

Recently, however, Chiang Kai-shek has had a stroke of bad luck, one after the other. With the establishment of Manchukuo, and the rising Communist power with help from the German Socialist Republic and the Soviet Union, the Kuomintang has been largely backed into a corner. Furthermore, despite appealing for aid, the Council of Allies backs the Japanese option more than the Kuomintang.

Chiang, as leader, can either stay fighting as the leader of the Kuomintang and try and pull a miracle victory in the Civil War, or can potentially make a deal with the Japanese to unite the countries under a staunch anti-Communist banner. This can lead to a coup by Li Zongren, however, who despises the collaboration option. But a strong China with Japanese influence, with Chiang Kai-shek still in a good seat of power, could be what is necessary for the Communists to be stopped.