Wuhan Nationalist Government
우한 국민정부
The Kuomintang left-led government that existed from December 1926 to September 1927 after the Kuomintang centre and Nationalist Government moved from Guangzhou to Wuhan during the Northern Expedition. Led by Wang Jingwei, Borodin and the Communists, it confronted Chiang Kai-shek's Nanjing government after the April 12 Incident (the Ning–Han split). Stalin backed it as "the centre of the revolutionary movement in China", but it broke with the Communists on 15 July 1927 and merged with Nanjing in September.
In depth
After the National Revolutionary Army took Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang between August and October 1926, unions spread rapidly in the merged city of Wuhan, reaching some 300,000 members by the end of the year. The Kuomintang centre and government left Guangzhou for Wuhan in December, while Chiang stayed at his headquarters in Nanchang. In January 1927 crowds occupied the British concessions at Hankou and Jiujiang and the foreign minister Eugene Chen won their return, and in March the Kuomintang's Third Plenum at Hankou, dominated by the left and the Communists, curtailed Chiang's powers. The government also granted most demands of the women's associations, among them an end to foot-binding and freedom of marriage and divorce.
Its base soon gave way. As the workers' and peasants' movements drove out merchants and foreign firms and the countryside passed into peasant self-rule, officers from landlord families turned against it. With the banks' dealings cut off, by May 1927 it was spending ten million dollars against revenue of 1.8 million. Xia Douyin's revolt and the Horse Day Incident at Changsha followed in May, and when Wang Jingwei saw Stalin's "May Instructions" through Roy on 1 June he took them for a plan to destroy the Kuomintang. In June Feng Yuxiang joined Chiang at Xuzhou and demanded Borodin's dismissal and the Communists' expulsion, isolating Wuhan militarily as well.
On 15 July Wang disclosed the May Instructions at a meeting and gave Communists the choice of leaving the CCP or suspension. Borodin left Wuhan at the end of July, and the Communists rose at Nanchang on 1 August. Wuhan reconciled with Nanjing on condition of Chiang's resignation, and Chiang stepped down on 12 August. On 21 September the Wuhan Political Council announced its move to Nanjing and the government ceased to exist. Its short history was the test of a Comintern line that staked the revolution on alliance with the Kuomintang left.