Chinese Kuomintang statesman, provisional President of the Republic of China (1911–12) and President of the Southern Chinese Republic (1923–25). Generally regarded in the West as the father of the modern Chinese state, he spent the period 1895–1911 in exile after an abortive attempt to overthrow the Manchus. During this time he issued an early version of his influential ‘Three Principles of the People’ (nationalism, democracy, and the people’s livelihood) and set up a revolutionary society, which became the nucleus of the Kuomintang. He returned to China to play a vital part in the revolution of 1911 in which the Manchu dynasty was overthrown. After being elected provisional President, Sun Yat-sen resigned in 1912 in response to opposition from conservative members of the government and established a secessionist government at Guangzhou. He reorganized the Kuomintang along the lines of the Soviet Communist Party and began a period of uneasy cooperation with the Chinese Communists before dying in office.