By the end of 1949, only Taiwan and Hainan were under the Republic of China (R.O.C.) rule. Chiang Kai-shek often lamented that the R.O.C. still controlled two-third of Chinese territories at the early 1949 and the loss of territories took place exponentially throughout the particular year of 1949.
He made too many mistakes in 1946, 1947, and 1948. Fairbank (1982) commented that economic mismanagement such as hyperinflation were the key cause of the fall of the R.O.C., and Chiang should have consolidated his forces in Zhejiang region, and not being contented to enjoy symbolic unification by holding many provincial capitals. These provincial capitals, which were usually held by nationalist cliques, quickly fell once they were besieged by the communist who controlled the surrounding rural areas. And even in Taiwan, until his death in 1975, he still continued to make mistakes like the White Terror, which undermined the legitimacy of the R.O.C. rule in Taiwan and inspired the Taiwanese Independence Movement from the R.O.C. Mao outlived him until 1976.
Even Chiang's mentor, Dr. Sun Yat-sen was also full of complaints: "How come the influence of the Nationalist Party of China was especially strong among overseas Chinese, but not in domestic China?" ---> Chiang added: "...and in domestic China, the party members only cared about their personal profit and not the ROC, which were established after the party had struggled so hard in order to remove the Manchu emperor and the remaining defiant warlords." <---
