Feudal overlord and comprador.

Chiang reportedly claimed kinship with an ancient king of China. In conformity with this pretension he was extremely feudal in outlook. He in fact personified the semifeudal, semicolonial quality of Chinese civilisation. He was the union of the rule of the native landlords and the merchant-industrial class, tied to foreign capital, with the Kuomintang and the army adhering to them and sometimes sitting on top of them. The bourgeois and fuedal elements in Chinese society were always at war with each other and so were the comprador and landlord elements in Chiang's character always fighting one another. The Chinese bourgeoise, tied to foreign capital was infected with feelings of inferiority and anti-foreignism. In the same way, Chiang hated foreigners even while he depended on them. The landlords, the dying, ruling class of China were pervaded by premonitions of early death and were mortally afraid even while they tried to maintain their own attitude of superciliousness. So Chiang Kai-Shek was afraid and tried to rid himself of his fears by an outward show of arrogance. Because the comprador element dominated the fuedal element in the Kuomintang, it also dominated in the character of the country's ruler. The primary traits of a comprador are : 1. Dependence on foreigners and 2. Lack of character. Like any common comprador, Chiang also cherished such dreams, but when it came to a show down, he was seldom able to fight any of his bosses, but manoeuvred among Japan, Russia, the United States and England, serving first one power and then another. Because of the fact that the comprador is not engaged in production, like the ordinary capitalist, he has nothing to sell but tricks. It was the same with Chiang. He was sharp, quick, ruthless and did not hesitate to spend money on huge bribes to win his ends. A comprador is always manoeuvring between between landlords and foreign businessmen, trying to make money from both, and he can never be independant and never have any real character of his own. Chiang operated in the same way, trying to manoeuvre between feudal China and foreign countries. Because he could be loyal neither to the old China nor the new China, Chiang was disliked by foreigners and old-style Chinese.