Editing Hong Kuo-shu (section)

==Republican Politics==
In 1923, Hong was appointed as Director of the National Rural Reconstruction Administration, responsible for rural development and [[Land use in Laeral|land reform]]. Although perhaps the position was intended to marginalize him, particularly at the behest of his rival General Yang Ching-tsan, the land reform program was wildly popular and Hong made himself a household name nationwide through his skill at self-promotion. In 1927, Hong's reputation as an efficient administrator led him to be named Interior Minister, responsible for rural development, public lands, and internal security. From this position, Hong began to develop a network of followers within the military and state apparatus; for instance, his brother Hong Shou-hsun was appointed as governor of [[Jianguo]]. After suppressing an uprising in [[Cenefort]], Hong assumed military leadership in 1929 as Chief of the General Staff, the military's highest ranking officer, replacing his rival Yang Ching-tsan. 

In 1932, Hong was appointed as the Social Democratic Party's leading candidate in the 1932 legislative election and assumed the role of Prime Minister. In this role, he sought to expand the SDP into a mass party and pursue collectivization of economic enterprises, as well as carrying out President J.P. Salaun's anti-clerical measures. He disliked the prime ministership's distance from his rural base of support and felt marginalized by Salaun and Vice-President Sun Jia-wei, and by 1937 at the Fourth SDP Congress, he engineered his own selection as Vice-President. By 1937, Hong had become a full member of the informal clique of SDP leaders which became known as the [[Gang of Five]], which made collective decisions on the nation's course during the 1930s and 40s.

By 1942, having served five years as vice-president, Hong anticipated that he would be selected as Salaun's successor at the Fifth SDP Congress. However, his rivals in the party's moderate wing began a rumor campaign that Hong was morally dissolute and aimed to concentrate power among his own followers, successfully ensuring the selection of Zhou Wei-lin as president and Alban Hamel as vice-president. Hong was forced to accept a relative demotion as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense in Tsai Ming-yan's government, although true power in that cabinet was generally considered to rest with Hong. With influential followers such as [[Fai Chao-ming]], whom Hong engineered as leader of the powerful Social Democratic Internal Investigations Office, Hong's power grew to rival that of President Zhou.

1923-1927: Director of the National Rural Reconstruction Administration
1927-1929: Interior Minister
1929-1932: Chief of the General Staff
1932-1937: Prime Minister
1937-1942: Vice-President
1942: defeated in bid for presidency by Zhou Wei-lin
1942-1947: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense
1947: defeated in bid for presidency by Sun Jia-wei
1947-1952: Deputy Prime Minister and SDP Party Secretary
1952: defeated in bid for presidency by Sun Jia-wei; Bloody Summer coup attempt


Former president [[René Gramont]], meanwhile, had at this time distanced himself from internal party politics, instead concerning himself with cultural endeavors and his theoretical texts. In 1947, at the Sixth Social Democratic Party Congress, Hong's influence in the party meant that Zhou's renomination as president was blocked, yet, unable to engineer his own elevation to the presidency, Hong instead secured the position of Party Secretary. Coining the maxim "the conductor is the train's helmsman and the wheels only its base," Hong argued for the Party's reassertion of control over Laeralian public life.