Republic of China (1925–1949) Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, the
Kuomintang, also known as the Chinese Nationalist Party, led by
Chiang Kai-shek, was ruling
China and strongly opposed the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP). On 12 April 1927, Chiang Kai-shek purged the communists in what was known as the
Shanghai massacre which led to the
Chinese Civil War. The Kuomintang received support from
fascist organizations within China such as the
Blue Shirts Society, as well as external support from powers like
Nazi Germany, which
aided the Kuomintang heavily. The
New Life Movement pushed by the Kuomintang was in opposition to the Communist movement, and had fascist tendencies. Initially, the Kuomintang had success in suppressing the CCP until a
full-scale invasion of China by Japan forced both the Nationalists and the CCP into an
alliance. To suppress CCP activities, Chiang's spymaster
Dai Li employed extrajudicial means including assassination, arbitrary arrests, and torture, with Chiang's explicit or tacit approval. On 28 February 1947 the Kuomintang had cracked down on a Taiwanese anti-government uprising involving some communists, a former
Qing province-turned-
Japanese colony ruled from 1895 to 1945, known as the
February 28 incident and the government began the
White Terror in Taiwan to purge the communist spies to prevent Chinese communist subversion. On July 15, 1947, Document 0744 ordered the CCP and its
People's Liberation Army to be called "
Communist bandits". After the war, the two parties were thrown back into a civil war. The Kuomintang were defeated in the mainland and
retreated to Taiwan while the rest of mainland China became Communist in 1949.
People's Republic of China Democracy movements have been loosely organized in the People's Republic of China. The movement began during the
Beijing Spring in 1978 and it also played an important role in the
1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. The
1959 Tibetan uprising had some anti-communist leanings.
Charter 08 is a
manifesto which was signed by over 303 Chinese intellectuals and human rights activists who seek to promote political reform and democratization in the People's Republic of China. It calls for greater
freedom of expression and
free elections. It was published on 10 December 2008, the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Its name is a reference to
Charter 77 which was issued by dissidents in
Czechoslovakia. Since its release, the charter has been signed by more than 8,100 people both inside and outside of China.
Hong Kong protest advocating quitting the
Chinese Communist Party in Hong Kong, 2005 Before 1997, most of the anti-communists were
supporters of the
Kuomintang. They opposed the CCP's rule in mainland China and its
single party dictatorship. Hong Kong has had numerous anti-CCP protests, supported by political parties of the
pro-democracy camp.
Memorials for the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre have held every year in Hong Kong, but large-scale public commemorations have effectively ceased since the passage of the
2020 Hong Kong national security law. Tens of thousands of people have attended the candlelight vigil. The end of the failed
2014 Hong Kong protests marked a novel and intensified wave of moderate nationalism in the territory.
Localists have fiercely opposed CCP rule since the
transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997, with some calling for
independence from China. This culminated in the
2019–20 Hong Kong protests and the subsequent passing of the
Hong Kong national security law, which continued the gradual integration of Hong Kong with mainland China.
Taiwan (Republic of China, 1949–present) After the Great Retreat, the Republic of China (Taiwan) government remained anti-communist and attempted to
recover the mainland from the Communist forces. During the
Cold War, the
Republic of China was known as
Free China while the People's Republic of China on the mainland China was known as
Red China or
Communist China in the West, to mark the ideological difference between the Free World and Communist Socialist World. The Republic of China government also actively supported anti-communist efforts in Southeast Asia and around the world. This effort did not cease until the death of Chiang Kai-shek in 1975. Even though contacts between Kuomintang and CCP had existed since the 1990s to re-establish
cross-strait relations, the Kuomintang continues to be nominally opposed to
communism, as anti-communism is written under Article 2 of Kuomintang's party charter. == Anti-communist groups ==