By 1919, the influence of Chinese Civil War had spread to Sarawak when the Kuomintang set up its first branches in Sibu and Kuching. The Rajah at the time, Charles Brooke opposed such political activity by the local Chinese and had expelled several local Kuomintang leaders. However, his son, Charles Vyner Brooke, was more receptive of such activities by the local Chinese people, who had also participated in a donation drive to aid the Kuomintang in its fight against Japanese invasion on the Chinese mainland. After World War II ended, local Kuomintang leaders supported the cessation of Sarawak to the British as a Crown Colony, which was met with opposition from the local communist leaders. Clashes between the communists and Kuomintang supporters were common. The Kuomintang branches in Sarawak were finally dissolved in 1949 when the party lost the Chinese Civil War to the Communist Party and retreated to Taiwan. However, clashes between the both sides continued until 1955 when the Kuomintang's newspaper was banned by the colonial British government in May 1951; while the communists' newspaper ceased to exist in 1955 due to financial difficulties.