World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseChen Jitang was born into an ethnic Hakka family in Fangcheng, Guangxi, China. He joined the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance in 1908 and participated in the 1911 Xinhai Revolution. In 1920, he joined the regional army in Guangdong Province, China, and was made the commanding officer of the 11th Division of the 4th Army in 1925; the division moved to Qinzhou in his home province, Guangxi, in 1926. In 1928, he was named the commanding officer of the 4th Route Army. Between 1929 and 1936, he held the concurrent post of the Chairman of Guangdong Province; in this role he was credited with the significant growth and modernization during that period. Between 1931 and 1936, he held command of the 1st Army Group. In 1931, he turned against Chiang Kaishek, but the two quickly resolved the potential conflict due to the Mukden Incident which aligned many Chinese factions together to face the growing Japanese threat. During the fifth campaign against Communist forces in Jiangxi Province in the 1930s, Chen commanded the Southern Front, which had over 300,000 men, or 30% of the total strength mobilized for the campaign; his personal suspicion of Chiang led to his conservative deployment during this campaign and his secret talks with the Communists to minimize casualties on either side during the Communist retreat from the region. In 1936, Chen challenged Chiang's authority once again, calling for Chiang to be overthrown due to Chiang's inability to deal with Japanese aggression. The lack of success led to Chen fleeing to Hong Kong. When the war began in 1937, he returned to the Nationalist forces once again and became a member of the Supreme National Defense Commission and the Strategic Commission, as well as civilian postings in agriculture and forestry. After the war, he was named the governor of Hainan Island, Guangdong, China. He fled to the island of Taiwan in Apr 1950 after the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War and was named an advisor to Chiang Kaishek. He passed away in 1954.

Photographs

Chen Jitang Timeline