Abstract: In the 1920s, Guangzhou witnessed a period of great changes, the political situation changed so frequently that the commercial economic field was often affected. When the government of the Republic China in Guangzhou was established, it put forward a series of related measures to practice Sun Yat-sen’s Three People’s Principles, including the implementation of urban land tax to achieve the thought of equalization of land ownership, controlling capital and so on, so as to achieve the original intention of narrowing the social gap between the rich and the poor. But the implementation of the land tax met with fierce opposition from the merchant groups, thus a considerable resistance was formed, and there was a game between the government and the businessmen. After several times of contest and interaction, taking into account the tax collection, business and political problems and other factors, ultimately both of them made a concession to end the dispute. The result of the businessmen’s compromise was generally accepting the tax rules of the government, while the result of the government was the removal of the resistance from the business sector, finally the implementation of Guangzhou urban land tax was carried out smoothly.

Key words: urban land tax; merchant groups; game