The Government of the People's Republic of China has ruled mainland China since 1949. The sole major political party is the Communist Party of China. For more, see:

The Kuomintang of China (abbreviation KMT) [1], also often translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party, is a political party in the Republic of China (ROC), now on Taiwan, and is currently the largest political party in terms of seats in the Legislative...

Democratic Progressive Party - established in 1986

List of political parties in the People's Republic of China

List of political parties in the Republic of China

List of political parties in Hong Kong

Index of political parties to browse parties by name

List of political parties

List of political parties in Macau

List of political parties by ideology to browse parties by name

The first major political party in China was the Kuomintang which has been restricted to Taiwan since 1949. It was founded in Guangdong Province on August 25, 1912 from a union of several revolutionary groups. The Republic of China was founded by Kuomintang's leader Dr. Sun Yat-sen later that year. In 1921, The Communist Party of China (CPC) was founded by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao in Shanghai as a study society, and an informal political network. During the Chinese Civil War, under the CPC's leadership, the People's Liberation Army defeated the Kuomintang's National Revolutionary Army in 1949. As a last resort, the Kuomintang leadership left mainland China, and moved to Taiwan. Since then, there have been two very different Chinese political entities, one ruling mainland China, and the other ruling Taiwan.

The Government of the Republic of China ruled the entire China before 1949 and has been confined to Taiwan after 1949. Major parties prior to 1949 were:

Hong Kong and Macau were both European colonies until the late 1990's, and, as a a result, both special administrative regions have different political party histories. For more, see: