Descriptions of three collections, totaling more than 33,000 entries, have been added to the Kuomintang (KMT) database. This Chinese-language, searchable database guides researchers to relevant reels of KMT microfilm. The microfilm is available in the Hoover Archives reading room.
The new collections are
- Central Political Council Archives, 1924–49 (ZHENG 1–11, 75 microfilm reels) This collection includes Central Executive Committee records, council meeting minutes, work reports, and other materials relating to Chinese national and foreign affairs. The records cover three periods: the first involves the council's establishment in Canton with Sun Yat-sen as its first chairman (1924–26), the second involves the Northern Expedition, during which Nanjing was made the capital of the Republic of China (1926–28), and the third covers the period from the July 7 Marco Polo Bridge Incident (1937), which marked the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War, to the end of the Chinese Civil War (1949). Other topics addressed by the documents are national security and military affairs, such as the Sino-German joint aircraft manufacturing contract and the Sino-American aviation and airmail contract.
- Five Departments Archives, 1924–27 (WUBU, 134 microfilm reels) Material concerning the five government units in operation before the Central Executive Committee was formed is included in this collection. The five departments were dedicated to labor unions, peasants, youth groups, women’s groups, and business groups.
- Special Archives of the KMT Party Affairs, 1931–47 (TE 1–33, 123 microfilm reels) This collection contains confidential records created during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The material is arranged in broad subject areas. Examples of the many subjects are Central Training Squadron, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chinese Youth Party, central and provincial party affairs, overseas party affairs, and wartime foreign relations with Vietnam, Malaysia, India, Burma, Thailand, Korea, Singapore, the Philippines, Okinawa, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.
Through the Hoover-Kuomintang microfilming collaboration, official party records are microfilmed in Taipei, with a use copy of the microfilm deposited at the Hoover Institution. As more collections are microfilmed and received by the Hoover Archives, information describing them is added to the database. The KMT materials are formally cataloged as the Zhongguo guo min dang records.
