Talk:Three Principles of the People

General Review

My evaluation would probably be as follows.

First, the lead section is, unfortunately, a little bit of a disappointment. While it does hit most of the basics in a very concise manner (good), its summary seems a little inadequate - it only claims that the Kuomintang "claimed" the Three Principles of the People (henceforth 3PP) as the "cornerstone of the nation's policy", obscuring the fact that the KMT claims this because Sun Yat-sen, its founder, defined the 3PP's implementation as one of the party's main objectives for the creation of a proper republic as Sun defined it. Also, the lead does seem not to include some of the sections concerning the Three Principles' legacy among other political parties, including the CCP.

In general, the article's content is generally fine. It provides a fairly decent basic introduction to the various principles as Sun defined them, the vicissitudes of their political reception both by the KMT and by non-KMT political entities, including not just the CCP but organizations in Vietnam, Singapore, and other places. In general, the article seems very well-balanced; there doesn't seem to be any sectarian warfare or ideological agitprop, despite the obvious political dimensions of this particular article (since Sun Yat-sen's ideology was a major inspiration for the KMT's program, and thus implicates the KMT's historic rivals). Alas, it fails, I'm afraid, to adequately discuss what the "canon" of the Principles is - I wish they would talk more about Sun's various writings on the subject, their reception and status. For instance, they devote only a paragraph to the origins of Sun's Principles. Why did he only have two principles, and on the other hand where did he acquire them? This is not thoroughly explained. (Also, I don't think they really mention the 3PP's formal constitutional role in the ROC, under the 1947 Constitution.)

The sources themselves are fine, but there's not enough of them (as noted by a flag, a section on the "Five Races, One Union" ideology has no citations whatsoever). Nonetheless, the sources which are cited all seem fairly credible and even neutral, which is a plus. Not only does it cite some obviously relevant primary sources (e.g. Sun himself, Mao, e.t.c.), it cites a far amount of what seem on first inspection to be serious academic sources (viz. monographs and published articles). They could do much better than citing the Encyclopedia Britannica as a source on the Five-Power Constitution, however.

The article is well-organized; it is not well-written, however. There are some inconsistencies in capitalization, and the overall tone just seems stilted and stiff (though this is probably because the majority of editors are second-language English speakers, and probably mostly from Taiwan or the Chinese mainland). The images, I believe, are all fairly appealing, and to my knowledge all are in copyright.

In general I think the article's status as a "start-basis" article is richly deserved. It has some obvious strengths - viz. mostly professional citations, passable descriptions of the content, a high level of neutrality - but also some clear flaws, especially in terms of prose and comprehensiveness. I believe the article can be improved, first by adding more information, and also by improving (tremendously) the quality of writing.

-Unusual recriminations (talk) 05:00, 8 February 2026 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: History of Modern East Asia

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 7 January 2026 and 30 April 2026. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): BennyLLam, Unusual recriminations (article contribs). Peer reviewers: FinneaKohtz, Qihang Cheng, Damingwangchao1566, Winnniehan.

— Assignment last updated by Winnniehan (talk) 14:56, 3 April 2026 (UTC)