L. Mao Zedong Emerges

Sun Yat-sen died from cancer in 1925. The government gained several important victories over various warlords by the Whampoa-led armies and the Soviet advisors particularly at the military academy showed pleasure. In 1926 an incident with a gunboat commanded by a CCP officer occurred. Chiang was alarmed and arrested the officer and thirty Russian advisors. He also held a number of senior CCP commissars for "retraining". He forbade any CCP members to hold office and demanded a list of CCP member to be turned over to the government.

A series of incidents showed that the Chinese had become irritated enough at the foreign influence that they would riot in defense. At that time, the foreign powers also showed that they would fire upon Chinese crowds and the Americans would shell Chinese cities. At that time, the foreigners had 22,000 troops in Shanghai along with 42 warships at anchor with 129 additional warships in Chinese waters.