I would maybe argue that the Kuomindang was doing the best it could to free China from western imperialism but suffered from way too many problems that made it impossible. Most notably its corruption, factionalism and the fact that its leadership was the traditional aristocracy and bourgeois of China, who represented a wealthy and influential class but was largely confined to a few large cities along the coast and major rivers. The Kuomindang wanted to model China on the western imperial powers to form it into a modern superpower, but never realized that China was not ready for that.
The Communists under Mao drew upon the true power of China, its absolutely massive agrarian class. While the Kuomindang represented a few million people at most, Mao drew upon hundreds of millions of peasants and managed to get them invested in China's future for the first time (mostly by promising them a better future, a first for Chinese politics). For all his many shortcomings as a dictator (and they are many and big), Mao was a visionary when it came to his understanding of China's true power balance and his ability to make the farmers believe in a political vision that centered upon them as the cornerstone of China's future. Which makes the Great Leap forward all the more tragic, as it is a testament to how Mao forgot his own teachings and sacrificed the very people he claimed to work for.
www.independent.co.uk
en.wikipedia.org
