In mid-1927, however, the CCP's fortunes were at a low ebb. The Communists had been expelled from Wuhan by their left-wing Kuomintang allies, who in turn were toppled by a military regime. By 1928 all of China was at least nominally under Chiang's control, and the Nanjing government received prompt international recognition as the sole legitimate government of China. The Kuomintang government announced that in conformity with Sun Yat-sen's formula for the three stages of revolution—military unification, political tutelage and constitutional democracy—China had reached the end of the first phase and would embark on the second, which would be under Kuomintang direction.