The social and political situation continued to be unstable in China. On 4th
May 1919, people demonstrated in Beijing to protest against the decisions of the
Versailles peace conference. Even though China was an ally of the victorious side
led by Britain in the world war, it did not get back the territories taken away
by Japan. This protest turned into a movement, called the “May Fourth Movement”.
A whole generation of people came together to attack the old traditions and to
save China through modern science, democracy and nationalism. Revolutionaries
wanted the foreigners to leave China because they were controlling the country’s
resources. They also wanted to remove inequalities and reduce poverty from the
Chinese society. They advocated many changes in society such as use of simple
language and script, abolishing the subordination of women and the practice of
foot-binding (a cruel practice of not allowing women to have fully grown feet).
They also demanded for equality in marriage, and economic development to end
poverty

After the republican revolution, the country entered a period of great
disturbance. The Guomindang (the National People’s Party also called as
Kuo-Min-Tang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) emerged as two major
parties. Both the parties wanted to unite the country and bring stability. The
Kuo-Min-Tang followed the political philosophy based on Sun Yat-sen’s ideas.
They identified the ‘four great needs’ as clothing, food, housing and
transportation. After the death of Sun, Chiang-Kai-Shek (1887-1975) emerged as
the leader of the Guomindang. He launched a military campaign in China to
control the ‘warlords’ and to eliminate the communists. Warlords were regional
leaders who had forcefully taken control and authority. Chiang also wanted to
militarise the nation. He said that the people must develop a ‘habit and
instinct for unified behaviour’.