Friday, October 17, 2008

Winston Chang

Winston Hsiao-tzu Chang was a president of in Taipei.

Biography


He and his twin brother, John Chang, were born the sons of Chiang Ching-kuo and Chang Ya-juo in Guilin, but took their mother's surname as they were born out of wedlock, although they both were given the generation name of ''Hsiao'' shared by all of Chiang Ching-kuo's children, legitimate or otherwise. Chang Ya-juo died when the brothers were one in August 1942, and they were raised by his Chang Ya-juo's younger brother, Chang Hau-juo and his wife Chi Chen . Their uncle and aunt were listed as their parents on official documents until December 2002.

The brothers fled to Hsinchu, Taiwan in 1949 and both studied law in Soochow University. Winston Chang received his master's from Southern Methodist University, and his doctorate from Tulane University. After returning to Taiwan, he was mostly involved in teaching and research. He later became the chairman of the Soochow University College of Law as well as the president in 1992.

On August 20, 1993, he visited his mother's tomb in Guilin and attended a cross-straits Buddhist conference. In late 1994, Chang suffered a stroke in Beijing and entered into a coma. He was flown back to Taiwan via Hong Kong in his comatose condition. Despite the fact that he never recovered from the coma, he continued to officially serve as president on medical leave until his death two years later.

With Chao Chung-te , Chang had a son, Ching-sung , and a daughter, Yu-chu .

Mao Fumei

Mao Fumei 毛福梅 was the first wife of Chiang Kai-shek, and the mother of Chiang Ching-Kuo. She was born in Fenghua, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, and married Chiang Kai-Shek in an arranged marriage.She died in the Second Sino-Japanese War during a bombardment.

John Chiang (Taiwan)

John Hsiao-yen Chiang , formerly surnamed Chang , is a Kuomintang politician in Taiwan.

Biography


He and his twin brother, Winston Chang, both illegitimate, were born the sons of Chiang Ching-kuo and his mistress Chang Ya-juo in Guilin amid the . Since they were born out of wedlock, the twins took their mother's surname, Chang, though they were given the Chiang generation name of ''Hsiao'' shared by all children of Chiang Ching-kuo.

Chang Ya-juo died when the brothers were one year old in August 1942, and they were raised by Chang Ya-juo's younger brother, Chang Hau-juo and his wife Chi Chen . Their uncle and aunt were listed as their natural parents on official documents until December 2002, when the true parents were listed. Chou Chin-hua , the boys' maternal grandmother, and the 7-year-old brothers moved to Taiwan amid the Chinese Civil War. The Chang Brothers went to at the same time. John also obtained a M.S. from Georgetown University.

Chiang began his career in the foreign service, serving in the ROC embassy in Washington, DC from 1974 to 1977. In the 1980s, he held various administrative posts in the ROC Foreign Ministry specializing in North American Affairs. He was Administrative Vice Minister from 1986 to 1990, Director General, of the Overseas Affairs Department in 1990, and Political Vice Minister from 1990 to 1993. In 1993 he was appointed to the -level post of Chairman of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission and served as a member of the KMT Central Standing Committee. He was seleced a member of the in 1996.

He was from 1996 to 1997, vice premier in 1997, and Secretary-General of the from 1999 to 2000. He was speculated as a potential running mate for Lien Chan on the KMT ticket in the until a sex scandal involving a mistress caused him to briefly remove himself from the political scene. Since 2002, he has been a member of the Legislative Yuan. He represented the constituency of Taipei City South from 2002 to 2005 and has represented Taipei City North since 2005. He is the Chairman of Interior Affairs Committee in the legislature.

With Helen H. Huang , he has two daughters, Hui-lan and Hui-yun , and a son, Wan-an . In March 2005, he officially changed his surname to "Chiang", saying, "The change represents a respect for history, a return to the facts, and a realization of my parents' wishes." He also announced that his children would follow suit.

In 2006, Chiang ran for the KMT nomination for the Taipei Mayorship election, but withdrew from the race.

At the end of March 2007, Chiang staged a rally at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in support of his grandfather, late President Chiang Kai-shek. The Memorial hall was later renamed, in a hotly controversial move, by the Executive Yuan, to the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall, striking out the name of Chiang Kai-Shek.

In the January 2008 ROC Legislative Elections, John Chiang won re-election in his district in Taipei City. All of the DPP candidates failed to secure a seat in Taipei City's 8 legislative election districts.

Demos Chiang

Demos Yu-bou Chiang is a Taiwanese businessman. He founded DEM Inc. , a popular design studio in Taiwan in July 2003 and has served as its chairman since then. He is also known for being the great-grandson of the late Republic of China President Chiang Kai-shek and the grandson of late President Chiang Ching-kuo.

Born to Chiang Ching-kuo's third son Chiang Hsiao-yung, Demos Chiang was raised in Taipei until his grandfather's death in 1988. After his grandfather's death, Chiang's parents sent him to live in Canada and later the United States, though he still retained his ROC nationality. Chiang received a bachelors degree in Information Management from New York University in late 1990s. After graduating, Chiang worked in the entertainment and fashion industries in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, until founding DEM Inc. in 2003.

In Spring 2001, Chiang began a relationship with local starlet Lin Heng-yi , the daughter of Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital's then president Lin Hsin-jung. The couple married in February 2003 and now have a daughter born in 2003 and a son born in 2005.

Despite his pedigree and celebrity identity, Demos Chiang has repeatedly announced in recent years that he is not interested in political affairs. He has also accused both the Kuomintang and the Democratic Progressive Party for "poor political tactics", especially for utilizing Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo as figures of worship or denigration. In contrast to other prominent members of the Chiang family, such as John Chiang and his mother Chiang Fang Chi-yi, Demos Chiang has expressed his belief that the controversies of his ancestors should be faced fairly and left to history. He started a personal blog in January 2008 to further explain his beliefs.

Chiang Kai-shek

Chiang Kai-shek , , served as Generalissimo of the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China from 1928 to 1948. He was sometimes referred to simply as "the Generalissimo". When Sun Yat-sen died in 1925, Chiang took control of the Kuomintang . To end the Warlord era and unify China, Chiang led nationalist troops in the . He became the overall leader of the ROC in 1928. Chiang led China in the Second Sino-Japanese War, during which the Nationalist Government's power severely weakened, but his prominence grew. During after the Japanese surrender in 1945, he attempted to eradicate the but ultimately failed, forcing his KMT government to retreat to Taiwan, where he continued the struggle against the communist regime. Serving as the President of the Republic of China and Director-General of the KMT, Chiang died in 1975.

Early life


Chiang Kai-shek was born in Xikou, a town that is approximately southwest of downtown Ningbo, in Fenghua , Ningbo , Zhejiang . However, his ancestral home, a concept important in Chinese society, was the town of Heqiao in Yixing County, Wuxi Prefecture, Jiangsu Province .

His father, Chiang Zhaocong, and mother, Wang Caiyu, were members of an upper to upper-middle-class family of salt merchants. His father died when Kai-shek was only eight years of age, and he wrote of his mother as the "embodiment of Confucian virtues." In an arranged marriage, Chiang was married to a fellow villager by the name of Mao Fumei. Chiang and Mao had a son and a daughter Chien-hua.

Chiang grew up in an era in which military defeats and civil wars among warlords had left China destabilized and in debt, and he decided to pursue a military career to save China. He began his military education at the Baoding Military Academy, in 1906. He left for a preparatory school for Chinese students to enter Rikugun Shikan Gakko in Japan in 1907. There he was influenced by his compatriots to support the revolutionary movement to overthrow the Manchu Qing Dynasty and to set up a Chinese Republic. He befriended fellow Zhejiang native Chen Qimei, and, in 1908, Chen brought Chiang into the Tongmenghui, a precursor organization of the Kuomintang. Chiang served in the Imperial Japanese Army from 1909 to 1911.

Chiang returned to China in 1911 after learning of the outbreak of the Wuchang Uprising, intending to fight as an artillery officer. He served in the revolutionary forces, leading a regiment in Shanghai under his friend and mentor Chen Qimei. The which aimed at the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty ultimately succeeded. Chiang became a founding member of the Kuomintang.

After the takeover of the Republican government by Yuan Shikai and the failed Second Revolution, Chiang, like his Kuomintang comrades, divided his time between exile in Japan and havens in Shanghai's foreign concession areas. In Shanghai, Chiang also cultivated ties with the underworld gangs dominated by the notorious Green Gang and its leader Du Yuesheng.On February 15, 1912 a few KMT members, including Chiang, killed Tao Chengzhang, the leader of the Restoration Society, in a Shanghai French Concession hospital, thus ridding Sun Yat-sen of his chief rival.

On May 18, 1916 agents of Yuan Shikai assassinated Chen Qimei, one of Yat-sen's chief lieutenants. Chiang succeeded Chen as leader of the Chinese Revolutionary Party in Shanghai. Sun Yat-sen's career was at the lowest point then, with most of his old Revolutionary Alliance comrades refusing to join him in the exiled Chinese Revolutionary Party.

In 1917, Sun Yat-sen moved his base of operations to Guangzhou and Chiang joined him in 1918. Sun, at the time was largely sidelined and, without arms or money, was soon expelled from Guangzhou in 1918 and exiled again to Shanghai, but was restored again with mercenary help in 1920. However, a rift had developed between Sun, who sought to militarily unify China under the KMT, and Guangdong Governor Chen Jiongming, who wanted to implement a federalist system with Guangdong as a model province. On June 16, 1923 Chen attempted to assassinate Sun from Guangzhou and had his residence shelled. Sun and his wife Soong Ching-ling narrowly escaped under heavy machine gun fire and were rescued by gunboats under Chiang's direction. The incident earned Chiang Sun Yat-sen's trust.


Sun regained control in Guangzhou in early 1924 with the help of mercenaries from Yunnan province, and accepted aid from the Comintern. He then undertook a reform of the Kuomintang and established a revolutionary government aimed at unifying China under the KMT. That same year, Sun sent Chiang Kai-shek to spend three months in Moscow studying the Soviet political and military system. During his trip in Russia, Chiang met Trotsky and other Soviet leaders, but Chiang quickly drew the conclusion that the bolshevik's way did not suit China. Chiang Kai-shek returned to Guangzhou and in 1924 was appointed Commandant of the Whampoa Military Academy by Sun Yat-sen. Chiang, who had once resigned from the office for one month because he did not agree with Sun's too close cooperation with the Comintern, returned later at Sun's demand. The early years at Whampoa allowed Chiang to cultivate a cadre of young officers loyal to KMT and himself. However, the academy was rife with communists, many of whom later became leaders of the chinese Red Army including Zhou Enlai, who was selected to be Whampoa's deputy Political Commissar. Chiang was deeply critical of the Kuomintang-Communist Party United Front, foreseeing the Communists' plan to take over the KMT from within. By 1925, Chiang's proto-army was scoring victories against local rivals in Guangdong province.

Throughout his rise to power, Chiang Kai-shek also benefited from membership of the nationalist Tiandihui fraternity, to which Sun Yat-Sen also belonged, and which remained a source of support during his leadership of China and later Taiwan.

Succession of Sun Yat-sen


Sun Yat-sen died on March 12, 1925, creating a power vacuum in the KMT. A contest ensued between Chiang, who leaned towards the right wing of the KMT, and Sun Yat-sen's close comrade-in-arms Wang Jingwei, who leaned towards the left wing of the party. Though Chiang ranked relatively low in the party's internal hierarchy, and Wang had succeeded Sun as Chairman of the National Government, Chiang's military power and political maneuvering following the Zhongshan Warship Incident led him to emerge victorious. Chiang, who became Commander-in-Chief of the National Revolutionary Army in 1925, launched the on July 27, 1926, a military campaign to defeat the warlords controlling northern China and unify the country under the KMT.

The National Revolutionary Army branched into three divisions—to the west, Wang Jingwei led a column to take Wuhan; to the east, Bai Chongxi led another column to take Shanghai; while Chiang led in the middle to take Nanking before they were to press ahead to take Beijing. However, in January 1927, allied with the Chinese Communists and Agent Mikhail Borodin, Wang Jingwei and his KMT leftist allies having taken the city of Wuhan amid much popular mobilization and fanfare, declared the National Government to have moved to Wuhan. After taking Nanking in March , Chiang was forced to halt his campaign and decided to first clean house and break with the leftists.

On April 12, Chiang . He then established a National Government in Nanking, supported by conservative allies including Hu Hanmin. The communists were purged from the KMT and the Soviet advisers were expelled, which led to the beginning of the Chinese Civil War. Wang Jingwei's National Government, which was unpopular with the masses, was weak militarily and was soon overtaken by Chiang with a local warlord . Eventually, Wang and his leftist party surrendered to Chiang and joined him in Nanking. Finally, the warlord capital of Beijing was taken in June 1928 and in December the Manchurian warlord Zhang Xueliang pledged allegiance to Chiang's government.

Chiang made gestures to cement himself as the successor of Sun Yat-sen. In a pairing of much political significance, Chiang married, on December 1, 1927, Soong May-ling, the younger sister of Soong Ching-ling, Sun Yat-sen's widow in Japan and thus positioned himself as Sun Yat-sen's brother-in-law. To please Soong's parents, Chiang had to first divorce his first wife and concubines and promise eventually to convert to Christianity. He was baptized in the Methodist church in 1929. Upon reaching Beijing, Chiang paid homage to Sun Yat-sen and had his body moved to the capital Nanking to be enshrined in a .

Tutelage over China


Chiang Kai-shek gained control of China, and his party enjoyed popular support; however, there were still "surrendered" warlords who were autonomous within their own regions. In 1928, Chiang was named Generalissimo of all Chinese forces and Chairman of the National Government, a post he held until 1932. According to Sun Yat-sen's plans, the Kuomintang was to rebuild China in three steps: military rule, political tutelage, and constitutional rule. The ultimate goal of the Kuomintang revolution was democratic rule, which was not feasible in China's fragmented state. Since the Kuomintang had completed the first step of the revolution through its seizure of power in 1928, Chiang's rule thus began the period of political tutelage under the guidance of the Kuomintang, to prepare China for the final transition to constitutional democracy. During this period, many features of a modern, functional Chinese state emerged and developed.



The decade of 1928 to 1937 was one of consolidation and accomplishment for Chiang's government. Some of the harsh aspects of foreign concessions and privileges in China were moderated through diplomacy. The government acted energetically to modernize the legal and penal systems, stabilize prices, amortize debts, reform the banking and currency systems, build railroads and highways, improve public health facilities, legislate against traffic in narcotics, and augment industrial and agricultural production. Great strides also were made in education and, in an effort to help unify Chinese society, the New Life Movement was launched to stress Confucian moral values and personal discipline. Standard Mandarin, then known as ''Guoyu'', was promoted as a . The widespread establishment of communications facilities further encouraged a sense of unity and pride among the people.

These successes, however, were met with constant upheavals with need of further political and military consolidation. Though much of the urban areas were now under the control of his party, the countryside still lay under the influence of severely-weakened yet undefeated warlords and communists. The warlords' unwillingness to drop their arms forced Chiang to resolve the issue through military, with one northern rebellion – against the warlords Yen Hsi-shan and Feng Yuxiang – in 1930 during the Central Plains War. The war almost bankrupted the government and cost almost 250,000 casualties on both sides. When Hu Han-min established a rival government in Guangzhou in 1931 Chiang was forced to fight another battle . A complete eradication of the Communist Party of China eluded Chiang. The Communists regrouped in Jiangxi and established the Chinese Soviet Republic. Chiang's anti-communist stance and the help of foreign military advisers allowed Chiang's fifth campaign to defeat the Communists in 1934. He surrounded the Red Army and allowed the Communists to escape through the epic Long March to Yan'an. Many said it was Chiang's plan to let the communists run through the warlord-controlled regions so that Chiang could have the warlords fight against the communists to try to "kill two birds with one stone", but the plan did not work, as warlords refused to fight with the communists and just let them run through their land.

Wartime leader of China


After Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931, Chiang resigned as Chairman of the National Government. He returned shortly, adopting a slogan "first internal pacification, then external resistance", which meant that the government would first attempt to defeat the Communists before engaging the Japanese directly. But Japan's on Shanghai and bombardment of Nanjing in 1932 disrupted Chiang Kai-shek's offensives against Communists. Even though on the surface Chiang seemed more preoccupied with eradicating the communists first, Chiang was preparing to fight an eventual showdown with Japan. During the period from 1931 to the beginning of full-scale war in 1937, the central government under Chiang worked assiduously to expand and modernize its armed forces, build fortifications and communication lines around the country, and develop a viable military industry capable of supporting the war effort. All these war preparations required temporary peace with Japan, which was precisely what Chiang sought in his policy. Any premature act of war before the country was ready would likely spell disaster for China. However, this policy of avoiding a frontal war was widely unpopular.

In December 1936, Chiang flew to Xi'an to coordinate a major assault on forces holed up in Yan'an. However, Chiang's allied commander Chang Hsueh-liang, whose forces were to be used in his attack and whose homeland of Manchuria had been invaded by the Japanese, had other plans. On December 12, Chang Hsueh-liang and several other previously surrendered warlords kidnapped Chiang Kai-shek for two weeks in what is known as the Xi'an Incident. They forced Chiang into making a "Second United Front" with the Communists against Japan. The rising tide of Chinese nationalism and the cessation of warfare against the communists propelled Chiang Kai-shek in the pinnacle of his political career. He was the only leader with both the popular support and international recognition to be capable of leading the nation into a war against Japan.


The Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in July 1937. In August of the same year, Chiang sent 600,000 of his best-trained and -equipped soldiers to . With over 200,000 Chinese casualties, Chiang lost his political base of -trained officers. Although Chiang lost militarily, the battle dispelled Japanese claims that it could conquer China in three months and demonstrated to the Western powers that the Chinese would not surrender under intense Japanese fire. This was skillful diplomatic maneuvering on the part of Chiang, who knew the city would eventually fall, but wanted to make a strong gesture in order to secure Western military aid for China. By December, the capital city of Nanjing had fallen to the Japanese, and Chiang moved the government inland first to Wuhan and later to Chongqing. Devoid of economic and industrial resources, Chiang masterfully used the tactic of "using space to trade for time" to prolong the war as long as possible; his strategy succeeded in stretching Japanese supply lines and bogging down Japanese soldiers in the vast Chinese interior, who would otherwise have been sent to conquer southeast Asia and the Pacific islands. Communist guerrilla bases behind the Japanese front lines also drew plenty of Japanese troops.

With the Attack on Pearl Harbor and the opening of the Pacific War, China became one of the . During and after World War II, Chiang and his American-educated wife Soong May-ling, commonly referred to as "Madame Chiang Kai-shek", held the unwavering support of the United States China Lobby which saw in them the hope of a and democratic China. Chiang was even named the Supreme Commander of allied forces of China Warzone .



Losing Mainland China


In 1945 when , Chiang's Chongqing government was ill-equipped and damaged from fighting the Japanese, which made it difficult to reassert its authority in eastern China. Sometimes it gained cities that were formerly held by Japanese troops, which was a deeply unpopular course of action. With American help, it was able to reclaim the coastal cities, but the Communists tricked the US into helping them airlift political leaders out to different parts of China to plant seeds of rebellion.

Following the war, the United States encouraged peace talks between Chiang and Communist leader Mao Zedong in Chongqing. Due to concerns about widespread corruption in Chiang's government, the U.S. suspended aid to Chiang Kai-shek for much of the period of 1946 to 1948, in the midst of fighting against the People's Liberation Army led by Mao Zedong. In the 1950s, allegations of assistance to communist interests in China surfaced involving the withholding of funds for the stabilization of the Chinese currency by certain U.S. officials, including senior U.S. Treasury Department officials and alleged Soviet spies Harry Dexter White, Frank Coe, Solomon Adler, and others, in order to destabilize Chiang's Nationalist government during the Civil War.

Though Chiang had achieved status abroad as a world leader, his government was deteriorating as a result of corruption and inflation. In his diary on June 1948, Chiang wrote that the Kuomintang had failed, not because of external enemies but because of disintegration and rot from within; and it was this, more than any alleged foreign intrigue, that contributed to his defeat. The war had severely weakened the Nationalists both in terms of resources and popularity, while the Communists were strengthened by aid from Stalin, and guerrilla organizations extending throughout rural areas. The Nationalists initially had superiority in arms and men; but their lack of popularity, heavy infiltration by communist agents in the nationalist government, and apparent disorganization soon allowed the Communists to gain the upper hand.


Meanwhile, a new was promulgated in 1947, and Chiang was elected by the to be President. This marked the beginning of the 'democratic constitutional government' period in KMT political orthodoxy, but the Communists refused to recognise the new Constitution and its government as legitimate. Chiang resigned as President on January 21, 1949, as KMT forces suffered massive losses against the communists. Vice-President Li Tsung-jen took over as Acting President, but his relationship with Chiang soon deteriorated. Li fled to the United States under the pretense of seeking medical treatment. He absconded with millions of dollars of government money, and was later formally impeached by the Control Yuan.

In the early morning of December 10 1949, Communist troops laid siege to Chengdu, the last KMT occupied city in mainland China, where Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo directed the defense at the Chengdu Central Military Academy. The aircraft ''May-ling'' evacuated them to Taiwan on the same day, forever removing them from the Chinese mainland.

Presidency in Taiwan



Chiang moved the government to Taipei, Taiwan, where he formally resumed his duties as president on March 1, 1950. Chiang was reelected by the National Assembly to be the President of the ROC on May 20, 1954 and again in 1960, 1966, and 1972. He continued, as the President of the Republic of China, to claim sovereignty over all of China. In the context of the Cold War, most of the Western world recognized this position and the ROC represented China as a whole and other international organizations until the 1970s.

Despite the democratic constitution, the government under Chiang was a single-party state, consisting almost completely of non-Taiwanese mainlanders; the "Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion" greatly enhanced executive powers and the goal of "retaking the mainland" allowed the KMT to maintain its monopoly on power and to outlaw opposition parties. The government's official line for these martial law provisions stemmed from the claim that emergency provisions were necessary, since the Communists and KMT were still technically under a state of war, without any cease-fire signed, after Chiang retreated to Taiwan. His government sought to impose Chinese nationalism and, to some extent, repressed local culture, such as forbidding the use of Taiwanese in mass media broadcasts or in schools.

The government offered limited , economic freedom, property rights , among other liberties which permitted free debate within the confines of the legislature, but jailed dissidents who were labelled as supporters of either or Taiwan independence. His son, Chiang Ching-kuo, and Chiang Ching-kuo's successor, Lee Teng-hui, would, in the 1980s and 1990s, increase native Taiwanese representation in the government and loosen the many authoritarian controls of the early ROC-on-Taiwan era.

Since new elections could not be held in Communist-occupied constituencies, the National Assembly, Legislative Yuan, and Control Yuan members held their posts indefinitely. It was also under the Temporary Provisions that Chiang was able to bypass term limits to remain as president. He was reelected by the National Assembly as president four times—in 1954, 1960, 1966, and 1972.

After losing the mainland to the Communists, Chiang attempted to purge crookedness by dismissing members of the KMT previously accused of corruption; major figures in the previous mainland government such as H.H. Kung and T.V. Soong exiled themselves to the United States. Though the government was, to some extent, politically authoritarian and controlled government-owned industries, it encouraged economic development, especially in the export sector. A popular sweeping Land Reform Act, as well as American foreign aid during the 1950s, laid the foundation for Taiwan's economic success, becoming one of the East Asian Tigers.

Death and legacy



In 1975, 26 years after Chiang fled to Taiwan, he died in Taipei at the age of 87. He had suffered a major and pneumonia in the months before and died from renal failure aggravated with advanced cardiac malfunction at 23:50 on April 5.

A month of mourning was declared, during which the Taiwanese people were asked to put on black armbands. On the mainland, however, Chiang's death was met with little apparent mourning and Communist state-run newspapers gave the brief headline "Chiang Kai-shek Has Died." Chiang's corpse was put in a copper coffin and temporarily interred at his favorite residence in Tzuhu , , . When his son Chiang Ching-kuo died in 1988, he was also entombed in a separate mausoleum in nearby Touliao . The hope was to have both buried at their birthplace in Fenghua if and when the mainland was recovered. In 2004, Chiang Fang-liang, the widow of Chiang Ching-kuo, asked that both father and son be buried at Wuchih Mountain Military Cemetery in Hsichih, Taipei County. His ultimate funeral ceremony became a political battle issue.

Chiang was succeeded as President by Vice President Yen Chia-kan and as KMT party leader by his son Chiang Ching-kuo, who retired Chiang Kai-shek's title of Director-General and instead assumed the position of Chairman. Yen Chia-kan's presidency was interim; Chiang Ching-kuo, who was the prime minister became President after Yen's term ended three years later.

Chiang's legacy has been target of heated debates among Taiwanese people because of the different views among traditional-conservative voters and liberals. For some, Chiang was a champion of anti-communism, as he was a key figure during the formative years of the World Anti-Communist League. During the Cold War, he was also seen as the leader who led "Free China", and the bulwark against a possible communist invasion. However, Chiang has also been accused of abusing his political power through his party's dominance over the media and public sector. His opponents thought Chiang efforts in reconstructing Taiwan was mostly to make the island a strong base to return to mainland.

Today, Chiang Kai-shek's popularity in Taiwan is divided among political lines, enjoying greater support among KMT voters, and the mainlander population. He is largely unpopular among voters and supporters. In sharp contrast to his son, Chiang Ching-kuo, and to Dr. Sun Yat-sen, his memory is rarely invoked by current political parties, including the Kuomintang. Lately, the DPP President Chen Shui-bian renamed a number of former Chiang places to further dilute his image.

The Chiang Kai-shek Cultural Center , located in Kaohsuing, had the largest statue of Chiang Kai-shek removed from its premises despite large protests by the opposition Kuomintang.

Names



Like many other Chinese historical figures, Chiang Kai-shek used several names throughout his life. That inscribed in the genealogical records of his family is Jiang Zhoutai . This so-called "register name" is the one under which his extended relatives knew him, and the one he used in formal occasions, such as when he got married. In deference to tradition, family members did not use the register name in conversation with people outside of the family. In fact, the concept of real or original name is not as clear-cut in China as it is in the Western world.

In honor of tradition, Chinese families waited a number of years before officially naming their offspring. In the meantime, they used a "milk name" , given to the infant shortly after his birth and known only to the close family. Thus, the actual name that Chiang Kai-shek received at birth was Jiang Ruiyuan .

In 1903, the 16-year-old Chiang Kai-shek went to Ningbo to be a student, and he chose a "school name" . This was actually the formal name of a person, used by older people to address him, and the one he would use the most in the first decades of his life . The school name that Chiang Kai-shek chose for himself was Zhiqing . For the next fifteen years or so, Chiang Kai-shek was known as Jiang Zhiqing. This is the name under which Sun Yat-sen knew him when Chiang joined the republicans in Guangzhou in the 1910s.

In 1912, when Chiang Kai-shek was in Japan, he started to use as a pen name for the articles that he published in a Chinese magazine he founded .
. In mainland China, ''Jiang Jieshi'' is the name under which he is commonly known today.


Jieshi soon became his . Some think the name was chosen from the classic Chinese book the ''Book of Changes''; other note that the first character of his courtesy name is also the first character of the courtesy name of his brother and other male relatives on the same generation line, while the second character of his courtesy name ''shi'' suggests the second character of his "register name" ''tai'' . Courtesy names in China often bore a connection with the personal name of the person. As the courtesy name is the name used by people of the same generation to address the person, Chiang Kai-shek soon became known under this new name.

Sometime in 1917 or 1918, as Chiang became close to Sun Yat-sen, he changed his name from Jiang Zhiqing to Jiang Zhongzheng . By adopting the name Chung-cheng , he was choosing a name very similar to the name of Sun Yat-sen, who was known among Chinese as Zhongshan , thus establishing a link between the two. The meaning of uprightness, rectitude, or orthodoxy, implied by his name, also positioned him as the legitimate heir of Sun Yat-sen and his ideas. Not surprisingly, the Chinese Communists always rejected the use of this name and it is not well-known in mainland China. However, it was readily accepted by members of the and is the name under which Chiang Kai-shek is still commonly known in Taiwan. Often the name is shortened to Chung-cheng only . For many years passengers arriving at the Chiang Kai-shek International Airport were greeted by signs in Chinese welcoming them to the "Chung Cheng International Airport." Similarly, the monument erected to Chiang's memory in Taipei known in English as Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall was literally named "Chung Cheng Memorial Hall" in Chinese.

His name is also written in Taiwan as "The Late President Lord Chiang" , where the one-character-wide space known as nuo tai shows respect; this practice has lost some popularity. However, he is still known as ''Lord Chiang'' , along with the similarly positive-sounding name ''Chiang Chung-cheng'', in Taiwan.

Chiang was also nicknamed "the Gimo" by some English-speaking foreigners, especially by Americans during World War II. Other derogatory nicknames included "Cash-my-check" , and "Peanut" .

Wives

Chiang Hsiao-yung

Chiang Hsiao-yung was a politician of the Republic of China.

Biography


Chiang was born in Shanghai, China in 1948. He was the third son of Chiang Ching-kuo, the President of the Republic of China in Taiwan from 1978 to 1988. His mother was Faina Ipatyevna Vakhreva, also known as Chiang Fang-liang. He had two older brothers, and , and one older sister, , with whom he shared the same parents. He had two half-brothers, Winston Chang and , with whom he shared the same father.

After a brief political career in the Kuomintang in 1988, he emigrated to Canada with his family. In 1996, he died in Taiwan at the Taipei Veterans General Hospital as a result of esophageal cancer, aged 48. He was survived by his wife Chiang Fang Chi-yi and three sons.

Currently, Chiang Fang Chi-yi is an active Kuomintang political figure while his eldest son Demos Chiang is a successful businessman.

Chiang Hsiao-wu

Chiang Hsiao-wu , was the second son of Chiang Ching-kuo, the President of the Republic of China in Taiwan from 1978 to 1988. His mother is Faina Ipatyevna Vakhreva, also known as Chiang Fang-liang. He had one older brother, , one older sister, , and one younger brother, , with whom he shared the same parents. He had two half-brothers, Winston Chang and , with whom he shared the same father. He died at the age of 46, on July 1 1991, at the Taipei Veterans General Hospital in Taiwan as a result of congestive heart failure. He was survived by the two children he had with his first wife.

Chiang Hsiao-wen

Chiang Hsiao-wen was the eldest son of Chiang Ching-kuo, the President of the Republic of China in Taiwan from 1978 to 1988. His mother is Faina Ipatyevna Vakhreva, also known as Chiang Fang-liang. He had one younger sister, , and two younger brothers, and . He had two half-brothers, Winston Chang and , with whom he shared the same father.

Chiang Hsiao-chang

Chiang Hsiao-chang is the only daughter of Chiang Ching-kuo, the President of the Republic of China in Taiwan from 1978 to 1988. Her mother is Faina Ipatyevna Vakhreva, also known as Chiang Fang-liang. She had one older brother, , and two younger brothers, and , with whom she shared the same parents. She is the only living member of Chiang Ching-kuo's legitimate children, and was the only one among the siblings who could converse in with their mother.
She also has two half-brothers, Winston Chang and , with whom she shares the same father.

Chiang Fang-liang

Faina Chiang Fang-liang was the wife of Chiang Ching-kuo and served as First Lady of the Republic of China on Taiwan from 1978 to 1988.

Biography


Born Faina Ipat'evna Vakhreva in a family which had migrated to Yekaterinburg, during World War I, she was orphaned at a young age and raised by her older sister Anna. An outspoken member of the Soviet Union's , Vakhreva, at the age of 16, met Chiang Ching-kuo at the and they married two years later on 15 March 1935. Chiang had been exiled to work in Siberia after his father, Chiang Kai-shek, had purged the leftists from the Kuomintang . The couple's first child, a son originally named ?rik but better known by his Chinese name , was born on December 1935. The couple had two more sons, and , and a daughter, .

In December 1936, Stalin finally granted Chiang's return to China. After the couple was received by Chiang Kai-shek and Soong May-ling in Hangzhou, they travelled to the Chiang home in Xikou, Zhejiang where they held a second marriage ceremony. Chiang Fang-liang stayed behind to live with Chiang Ching-kuo's mother, Mao Fumei. She was assigned a tutor to learn Mandarin Chinese, but she learned the local Ningbo form of Wu Chinese instead. She reportedly got along well with Mao Fumei and did her own housework.

When Chiang Ching-kuo became , Fang-liang rarely performed the traditional roles of First Lady. During his entire political career, she largely stayed out of the public spotlight and little was ever known of her because it was not politically wise to emphasize on a Russian figure amidst an anti-communist atmosphere in the government. She never returned to Russia, and travelled abroad only three times in the last 50 years of her life, all to visit her children and their families. In 1992, she received a visit from a delegation including the mayor of Minsk, the capital of Belarus. It was the first and only time that she made contact with anyone from her homeland.

All the children went abroad to study -- Hsiao-wu in West Germany and the remaining children in the United States. All three sons died shortly after Ching-kuo's death in 1988: Hsiao-wen in April 1989, Hsiao-wu in July 1991, and Hsiao-yung in December 1996. Fang-liang lived in the suburbs of Taipei with a few servants from mainland China, supported by the Presidential Office. She received occasional visitors, such as some prominent politicians who went to pay her respect every several years. In Taiwanese media, if she ever received coverage , she was depicted as a virtuous wife who never complained and swallowed the loneliness with dignity.

She died of respiratory and cardiac failure in the Taipei Veterans General Hospital at the age of 88 . Her funeral was held on 27 December 2004, with President Chen Shui-bian and Vice President Annette Lu in attendance. Kuomintang politicians Wang Jin-pyng, Lin Cheng-chih, P. K. Chiang, and Ma Ying-jeou draped her casket with the and Kuomintang party elders Lee Huan, Hau Pei-tsun, Chiu Chuang-huan, and Shih Chi-yang draped her casket with the . She was cremated and her ashes taken to her husband's temporary mausoleum in Touliao, Taoyuan County. In 2006, they were both be buried in the Wuchih Mountain Military Cemetery. As of 2006, she is survived by her daughter Hsiao-chang who had emigrated to the United States.

Chen Jieru

Chen Jieru was the second wife of Chiang Kai-shek.

Chen's ancestral hometown was Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, and she was born in Shanghai. She wrote a memoir which Chiang successfully suppressed during his lifetime.
It was finally published in 1993, in an edition edited by Lloyd E.
Eastman: ; Boulder: Westview Press, 1993.

Chang Ya-juo

Chang Yajuo was the mistress of Chiang Ching-kuo and bore two sons for him, Winston Chang and in 1941. The twins took their mother's surname as they were born out of wedlock. Chang died under mysterious circumstances in 1942 and the twins were raised by Chang's brother.