ABSTRACT
The Nationalist Party (GMD) founded the Three People's Principles Youth Corps (SQT) in 1938. Initially designed to eliminate factionalism in the GMD, Chiang Kaishek proclaimed the SQT to be central to the GMD's survival in the context of the Second Sino-Japanese War. But less than a year after its establishment, the SQT's mission shifted to indoctrinating and controlling youth; it thus became simply another vehicle in Chiang's longstanding efforts at “controlled popular mobilization” of the Chinese people. As with the CYL, ideology was not an appealing cause and in most of China, youth were frustrated with the GMD's stifling control.
