Blue Shirts Society

Common card · No. 264546

The Blue Shirts Society (BSS; Chinese: 藍衣社; pinyin: Lányī Shè) was a secret ultranationalist faction in the Kuomintang inspired by German and Italian fascists. The Blue Shirts Society, which was primarily composed of military officers, and the CC Clique, which was dominated by civilian bureaucrats, remained engaged in an intense factional struggle within the Kuomintang. In 1938, with the creation of the Three Principles of the People Youth Corps as an organization operating outside of direct party control, Chiang Kai-shek placed the Corps largely under the influence of the Blue Shirts Society. This shift allowed the Blue Shirts to expand their political role at the expense of the CC Clique. After the Second World War, many leading figures of the Blue Shirts Society, such as Kang Tse, Liu Chien-chun, and Ni Wen-ya, were incorporated into the faction led by Chen Cheng, commonly known as the Tsotanhui Clique. The rise and fall of the Blue Shirt Society was rapid, but obscure, and it was seldom...

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