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National Revolutionary Army Commander-in-Chief 1926-29

China

by Miles Li

National Revolutionary Army Commander in Chief

National Revolutionary Army Commander in Chief

China of the 1920s was divided by numerous warlords. Dr Sun Yat-Sen, founder of the original Republic of 1911, was keen to reunify the country. His first step was to establish the Chinese Military Academy in Whampoa, near Canton (Guangzhou) in Southern China, in 1924. It adopted a red flag with the white sun on a blue disc at the flag's centre. (It is still used by the ROC Military Academy.)

Dr Sun appointed a thirty-something career soldier known as Chiang Kai-Shek as the Academy's Commandant (Headmaster). Chiang succeeded Dr Sun after the latter's death in 1925, and embarked on a military expedition to reunify the country. In 1926 Chiang became the Commander-in-Chief of the National Revolutionary Army, and he had a flag which was similar to the then Nationalist Chinese / now Taiwanese Army Flag, but with a white border on all sides except the hoist, and a vertical white strip in the red near the hoist bearing black ideograms reading 'National Revolutionary Army Commander-in-Chief'. Above it was a small triangular white flag (right-angled at the lower hoist) bearing the red ideogram 'Chief'. Both flags were sewn onto the same piece of white sleeve. The flag is now on display at the Museum of Military History in Taipei, Taiwan.
Miles Li, 3 April 2004