Kuomintang

Political party · 1912–present

The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan), founded by Sun Yat-sen in 1894 in Honolulu as the Revive China Society. It was the sole ruling party of mainland China from 1928 to 1949, having unified China in the 1926-1928 Northern Expedition under Chiang Kai-shek, until it relocated to Taiwan in December 1949 following its defeat by the Chinese Communist Party in the Chinese Civil War. From 1949 to 1987 the KMT ruled Taiwan as a one-party state under martial law, a period known as the White Terror. It is a centre-right to right-wing party whose guiding ideology is Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People, and as of 2025 it is the largest single party in Taiwan's Legislative Yuan.