member_of_political_party hu lien
Germany , officially the Federal ___MASK33___ of Germany , is a federal parliamentary ___MASK33___ in central - western Europe . It includes 16 constituent states , covers an area of , and has a largely temperate seasonal climate . With about 82 million inhabitants , Germany is the most populous member state of the European ___MASK83___ . After the United States , it is the second most popular immigration destination in the world . Germany ' s capital and largest metropolis is Berlin . Other major cities include Hamburg , Munich , Cologne , Frankfurt , Stuttgart and Düsseldorf . Encirclement Campaigns refers to campaigns launched by forces of the Chinese Nationalist Government against forces of the ___MASK85___ of China during the Chinese Civil War . The campaigns were launched between the late 1920s to the mid - 1930s with the goal of isolating and destroying the developing Chinese Red Army , with the Nationalist forces launched encirclement campaigns against Communist bases in several separate locations in the Republic of China . Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945 , when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the ___MASK17___ ( NSDAP ). Under Hitler ' s rule , Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the ___MASK17___ took totalitarian control over nearly all aspects of life . The official name of the state was " Deutsches Reich " from 1933 to 1943 and " Großdeutsches Reich " (" Greater German Reich ") from 1943 to 1945 . The period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period ( abbreviated as " NS - Zeit "). The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May 1945 , ending World War II in Europe . The attack on Pearl Harbor , also known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor , the Hawaii Operation or Operation AI by the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters , and Operation Z during planning , was a surprise ___MASK2___ strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor , Hawaii Territory , on the morning of December 7 , 1941 . The attack led to the United States ' entry into World War II . The Soviet ___MASK83___ , officially the ___MASK83___ of Soviet Socialist Republics ( USSR " ) was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991 . A ___MASK83___ of multiple subnational republics , its government and economy were highly centralized . The Soviet ___MASK83___ was a one - party federation , governed by the ___MASK85___ with Moscow as its capital . The ___MASK85___ of China ( CPC ) is the founding and ruling political party of the People ' s Republic of China ( PRC ). The CPC is the sole governing party of China , although it coexists alongside eight other legal parties that comprise the United Front ; these parties , however , hold no real power or independence from the CPC . It was founded in 1921 , chiefly by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao . The party grew quickly , and by 1949 the CPC had driven the nationalist ___MASK54___ ( KMT ) government from mainland China after the Chinese Civil War , thus leading to the establishment of the People ' s Republic of China . The CPC is currently the world ' s second largest political party with a membership of 88 . 76 million as of 2016 ( while the Indian Bharatiya Janata Party appears to have remained the largest with a membership of 110 million as of the previous year , 2015 ). It also controls the world ' s largest armed force , the People ' s Liberation Army . The Taiwan Strait , or Formosa Strait , is a wide strait separating the island of Taiwan ( of the ___MASK33___ of China ) from mainland China ( People ' s ___MASK33___ of China ). The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to the East China Sea to the north . The narrowest part is wide . Generalissimo (, , ) is a ___MASK2___ rank of the highest degree , superior to field marshal and other five - star ranks in the countries where they are used . The word " generalissimo " is Italian and is the absolute superlative of " generale " (' general '), thus meaning " the highest - ranking of all generals ". The Invasion of Poland , also known as the September Campaign , or the 1939 Defensive War in Poland ( or " Wojna obronna 1939 roku "), and alternatively the Poland Campaign or " Fall Weiss " in Germany ( Case White ), was a joint invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany , the Free City of Danzig , the Soviet ___MASK83___ , and a small Slovak contingent , that marked the beginning of World War II in Europe . The German invasion began on 1 September 1939 , one week after the signing of the Molotov  Ribbentrop Pact , while the Soviet invasion commenced on 17 September following the Molotov - Tg agreement that terminated the Russian and Japanese hostilities in the east on 16 September . The campaign ended on 6 October with Germany and the Soviet ___MASK83___ dividing and annexing the whole of Poland under the terms of the German - Soviet Frontier Treaty . The ___MASK54___ ( or ; KMT ), often translated as the Nationalist Party of China or Chinese Nationalist Party , also spelled as Guomindang ( GMD ) by its Pinyin transliteration , is a major political party in the Republic of China , currently the second - largest in the country . Manchuria is a modern name , first created by Japanese , given to a large geographic region in Northeast Asia . Depending on the context , Manchuria can either refer to a region that falls entirely within the People ' s ___MASK33___ of China , or a larger region divided between China and Russia . The region that falls entirely within modern China is now usually referred to as Northeast China in China , although " Manchuria " is widely used outside of China to denote the geographical and historical region . This region is the traditional homeland of the Xianbei , Khitan , and Jurchen ( later called Manchu ) peoples , who built several states historically , although no term for " Manchuria " exists in the Manchu language , which originally referred to the area as the " Three Eastern Provinces ". The Marco Polo Bridge Incident , also known by several other names , was a battle between the ___MASK33___ of China ' s National Revolutionary Army and the Imperial Japanese Army . It is often used as the marker for the start of the Second Sino - Japanese War ( 1937  1945 ). Names . In English , the battle is usually known as the " Marco Polo Bridge Incident ". The Marco Polo Bridge is an eleven - arch granite bridge , an architecturally significant structure first erected under the Jin and later restored by the Kangxi Emperor in 1698 . It gained its Western name from its appearance in Marco Polo ' s record of his travels . The name is less often expressed as the The Northern Expedition , was a ___MASK54___ ( KMT ) military campaign , led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai - shek , from 1926  28 . Its main objective was to unify China under its own control by ending the rule of the Beiyang government as well as the local warlords . It led to the end of the Warlord Era , the reunification of China in 1928 and the establishment of the Nanjing government . A civil war , also known as an intrastate war in polemology , is a war between organized groups within the same state or country , or , less commonly , between two countries created from a formerly united state . The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region , to achieve ___MASK19___ for a region or to change government policies . The term is a calque of the Latin " bellum civile " which was used to refer to the various civil wars of the Roman ___MASK33___ in the 1st century BC . World War II ( often abbreviated to WWII or WW2 ), also known as the Second World War , was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945 , although related conflicts began earlier . It involved the vast majority of the world ' s nations  including all of the great powers  eventually forming two opposing ___MASK2___ alliances : the Allies and the Axis . It was the most widespread war in history , and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries . In a state of " total war ", the major participants threw their entire economic , industrial , and scientific capabilities behind the war effort , erasing the distinction between civilian and ___MASK2___ resources . Marked by mass deaths of civilians , including the Holocaust ( in which approximately 11 million people were killed ) and the strategic bombing of industrial and population centres ( in which approximately one million were killed , and which included the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ), it resulted in an estimated 50 million to 85 million fatalities . These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history . The Chinese Civil War was a civil war in China fought between forces loyal to the ___MASK54___ ( KMT )- led government of the Republic of China , and forces loyal to the Communist Party of China ( CPC ). The war began in August 1927 , with Generalissimo Chiang Kai - shek ' s Northern Expedition , and essentially ended when major hostilities ceased in 1950 . It can generally be divided into two stages ; the first being from 1927 to 1937 , and the second being from 1946 to 1950 with the Second Sino - Japanese War separating them . The war was a major turning point in modern Chinese history , with the CPC gaining control of almost the entirety of Mainland China , establishing the People ' s Republic of China ( PRC ) to replace the KMT ' s Republic of China ( ROC ). It also caused a lasting political and military standoff between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait , with the ROC in Taiwan and the PRC in mainland China both officially claiming to be the legitimate government of all of China . A warlord is a leader able to exercise ___MASK2___ , economic , and political control over a subnational territory within a sovereign state due to his ability to mobilize loyal armed forces . These armed forces , usually considered militias , are loyal to the warlord rather than to the state regime . Warlords have existed throughout much of history , albeit in a variety of different capacities within the political , economic , and social structure of states or ungoverned territories . The Beiyang government (  ), also sometimes spelled " Peiyang Government ", refers to the government of the ___MASK33___ of China , which was in place in the capital city Beijing from 1912 to 1928 . It was internationally recognized as the legitimate Chinese government . The name derives from the Beiyang Army , which dominated its politics with the rise of Yuan Shikai , who was a general of the previous imperial Qing government . After his death the army fractured into competing factions . Although the government and the state were nominally under civilian control under a constitution , the Beiyang generals were effectively in charge of it , with various factions vying for power . The government however enjoyed legitimacy abroad along with diplomatic recognition , had access to the tax and customs revenue , and could apply for foreign financial loans . Hu Lien ( traditional Chinese :  ; simplified Chinese :  ; pinyin : Hú Lin ; 1907 -- 1977 ) was a Chinese Nationalist general who participated in the Northern Expedition , anti - communist Encirclement Campaigns , Second Sino - Japanese War and Chinese Civil War . The Second Sino - Japanese War ( September 18 , 1931  September 9 , 1945 ) was a ___MASK2___ conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan from 1931 to 1945 . The First Sino - Japanese War happened in 1894  95 . In January 2017 , the Chinese Government extended their official definition of the Second Sino - Japanese War back to September 18 , 1931  the Invasion of Manchuria by Japan  as opposed to the traditional 1937 start date , defined by the Marco Polo Bridge Incident . China fought Japan , with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States . After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 , the war would merge into the greater conflict of World War II as a major front of what is broadly known as the Pacific War . One could call the Second Sino - Japanese War part of World War II , but the latter conflict is still mainly considered to have started in 1939 when France and the British Empire declared war on Nazi Germany following the invasion of Poland . The Second Sino - Japanese War was the largest Asian war in the 20th century . It accounted for the majority of civilian and ___MASK2___ casualties in the Pacific War , with anywhere between 10 and 25 million Chinese civilians and over 4 million Chinese and Japanese ___MASK2___ personnel dying from war - related violence , famine , and other causes . Mainland China , also known as the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland , is the geopolitical area under the direct jurisdiction of the People ' s ___MASK33___ of China ( PRC ). It generally excludes the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau ; however , it usually includes Hainan . The term " mainland China ", which avoids calling the area simply " China " and thereby recognizing the founding of the PRC as " the " " China ", was coined by the ___MASK54___ ( KMT ) after receiving control of Taiwan from Japan after World War II . By 1949 , the KMT - led ___MASK33___ of China ( ROC ) government was defeated in the Chinese Civil War in mainland China and fled to the island of Taiwan where the KMT pledged to " retake the Mainland ". The KMT considers both sides of the Taiwan Strait ( including Taiwan ), as ( one ) " China " and one country , whereas Taiwan ' s Democratic Progressive Party ( DPP ) considers only mainland China as " China " and Taiwan ( ROC ) as " Taiwan " and maintains that they are different countries . The Warlord Era ( 19161928 ) was a period in the history of the ___MASK33___ of China when the control of the country was divided among its ___MASK2___ cliques in the mainland regions of Sichuan , Shanxi , Qinghai , Ningxia , Guangdong , Guangxi , Gansu , Yunnan and Xinjiang . The Nationalist government , officially the National Government of the ___MASK33___ of China , refers to the government of the ___MASK33___ of China between 1 July 1925 to 20 May 1948 , led by the ___MASK54___ ( KMT , Chinese Nationalist Party ). The name derives from the ___MASK54___ ' s translated name " Nationalist Party ". The government was in place until the Government of the ___MASK33___ of China under the newly promulgated Constitution of the ___MASK33___ of China was established in its place . Nanjing , formerly romanized as Nanking and Nankin , is the city situated in the heartland of lower Yangtze River region in China , which has long been a major centre of culture , education , research , politics , economy , transport networks and tourism . It is the capital city of Jiangsu province of People ' s ___MASK33___ of China and the second largest city in the east China region , with acreage about 6600 square kilometers and a total population of 8 , 230 , 000 . The inner area of Nanjing enclosed by the city wall is Nanjing City (  ), with acreage of 55 km , while Nanjing Metropolitan Region includes surrounding cities and areas , with acreage over 60 thousand km and population over 30 million . Chiang Kai - shek ( October 31 , 1887  April 5 , 1975 ), also romanized as Jiang Jieshi and known as Jiang Zhongzheng , was a Chinese political and ___MASK2___ leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China between 1928 and 1975 . Chiang was an influential member of the ___MASK54___ ( KMT ), the Chinese Nationalist Party , and was a close ally of Sun Yat - sen ' s . He became the Commandant of the ___MASK54___ ' s Whampoa Military Academy and took Sun ' s place as leader of the KMT , following the Canton Coup in early 1926 . Having neutralized the party ' s left wing , Chiang then led Sun ' s long - postponed Northern Expedition , conquering or reaching accommodations with China ' s many warlords . Pearl Harbor is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu , Hawaii , west of Honolulu . Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep - water naval base . It is also the headquarters of the United States Pacific Fleet . The U . S . government first obtained exclusive use of the inlet and ___MASK26___ to maintain a repair and coaling station for ships here in 1887 . The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan on December 7 , 1941 was the immediate cause of the United States ' entry into World War II . World War I ( WWI or WW1 ), also known as the First World War , or the Great War , was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918 . More than 70 million ___MASK2___ personnel , including 60 million Europeans , were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history . Over nine million combatants and seven million civilians died as a result of the war ( including the victims of a number of genocides ), a casualty rate exacerbated by the belligerents ' technological and industrial sophistication , and the tactical stalemate caused by gruelling trench warfare . It was one of the deadliest conflicts in history , and paved the way for major political changes , including revolutions in many of the nations involved .