Chiang Kai-shek

Chiang Kai-shek

In 1912, when Chiang was in Japan, he started to use the name Chiang Kai-shek (Chinese: 蔣介石; pinyin: Jiǎng Jièshí; Wade–Giles: Chiang³ Chieh⁴-shih²) as a pen name for the articles that he published in a Chinese magazine he founded: Voice of the Army (軍聲). Jieshi is the pinyin romanization of this name, based on Standard Chinese, but the most recognized romanized rendering is Kai-shek which is in Cantonese^[3] romanization. Because the Republic of China was based in Canton (a Cantonese-speaking area, now known as Guangdong), Chiang (who never spoke Cantonese but was a native Wu speaker) became known by Westerners under the Cantonese romanization of his courtesy name, while the family name as known in English seems to be the Mandarin pronunciation of his Chinese family name, transliterated in Wade–Giles.

"Kai-shek"/"Jieshi" soon became Chiang's courtesy name (

In this context, his surname "Chiang" in this article is spelled using the Wade–Giles system of transliteration for Standard Chinese as opposed to Hanyu Pinyin[4] though the latter was adopted by the Republic of China government in 2009 as its official romanization.

Early life

Chiang was born on 31 October 1887, in

As you all know I was an orphan boy in a poor family. Deprived of any protection after the death of her husband, my mother was exposed to the most ruthless exploitation by neighbouring ruffians and the local gentry. The efforts she made in fighting against the intrigues of these family intruders certainly endowed her child, brought up in such an environment, with an indomitable spirit to fight for justice. I felt throughout my childhood that my mother and I were fighting a helpless lone war. We were alone in a desert, with no available or possible assistance could we look forward to. But our determination was never shaken, nor was hope abandoned.[10]

In early 1906, Chiang cut off his queue, the required hairstyle of men during the Qing dynasty, and had it sent home from school, shocking the people in his hometown.^[11]

Education in Japan

Chiang grew up at a time in which military defeats, natural disasters, famines, revolts,

Chiang's friendship with Chen Qimei signaled an association with Shanghai's criminal syndicate (the Green Gang headed by Du Yuesheng and Huang Jinrong). During Chiang's time in Shanghai, the Shanghai International Settlement police observed him and eventually charged him with various felonies. These charges never resulted in a trial, and Chiang was never jailed.^[16]

Chiang became a founding member of the Nationalist Party (a forerunner of the KMT) after the success (February 1912) of the

Sun regained control of Guangdong in early 1923, again with the help of mercenaries from

Throughout his rise to power, Chiang also benefited from membership within the nationalist Tiandihui fraternity, to which Sun Yat-sen also belonged, and which remained a source of support during his leadership of the Kuomintang.^[25]

Rising power

Sun Yat-sen died on 12 March 1925,

On 5 June 1926, he was named commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army [NRA] ^[31] and, on 27 July, he finally launched Sun's long-delayed Northern Expedition, aimed at conquering the northern warlords and bringing China together under the KMT.

The NRA branched into three divisions: to the west was the returned Wang Jingwei, who led a column to take Wuhan; Bai Chongxi's column went east to take Shanghai; Chiang himself led in the middle route, planning to take Nanjing before pressing ahead to capture Beijing. However, in January 1927, Wang Jingwei and his KMT leftist allies took the city of Wuhan amid much popular mobilization and fanfare. Allied with a number of Chinese Communists and advised by Soviet agent Mikhail Borodin, Wang declared the national government as having moved to Wuhan.

In 1927, when he was setting up the Nationalist government in Nanjing, he was preoccupied with "the elevation of our leader Dr. Sun Yat-sen to the rank of 'Father of our Chinese Republic'. Dr. Sun worked for 40 years to lead our people in the Nationalist cause, and we cannot allow any other personality to usurp this honored position". He asked Chen Guofu to purchase a photograph that had been taken in Japan c. 1895 or 1898. It showed members of the Revive China Society with Yeung Ku-wan as president, in the place of honor, and Sun, as secretary, on the back row, along with members of the Japanese Chapter of the Revive China Society. When told that it was not for sale, Chiang offered a million dollars to recover the photo and its negative, "The party must have this picture and the negative at any price. They must be destroyed as soon as possible. It would be embarrassing to have our Father of the Chinese Republic shown in a subordinate position".^[32]

On 12 April 1927, Chiang carried out

The NRA formed by the KMT swept through southern and central China until it was checked in Shandong, where confrontations with the Japanese garrison escalated into armed conflict. The conflicts were collectively known as the Jinan incident of 1928.

Now with an established national government in Nanjing, and supported by conservative allies including Hu Hanmin, Chiang's expulsion of the Communists and their Soviet advisers led to the beginning of the Chinese Civil War. Wang Jingwei's National Government was weak militarily, and was soon ended by Chiang with the support of a local warlord (Li Zongren of Guangxi). Eventually, Wang and his leftist party surrendered to Chiang and joined him in Nanjing. However, the cracks between Chiang and Hu's traditionally Right-Wing KMT faction, the Western Hills Group, began to show soon after the cleansing against the communists, and Chiang later imprisoned Hu.

Though Chiang had consolidated the power of the KMT in Nanjing, it was still necessary to capture Beijing to claim the legitimacy needed for international recognition. Beijing was taken in June 1928, from an alliance of the warlords

After the Northern Expedition ended in 1928, Yan, Feng, Li Zongren and Zhang Fakui broke off relations with Chiang shortly after a demilitarization conference in 1929, and together they formed an anti-Chiang coalition to openly challenge the legitimacy of the Nanjing government. In the Central Plains War, they were defeated.

Chiang made great efforts to gain recognition as the official successor of Sun Yat-sen. In a pairing of great political significance, Chiang was Sun's brother-in-law. He had married Soong Mei-ling, the younger sister of Soong Ching-ling, Sun's widow, on 1 December 1927. Originally rebuffed in the early 1920s, Chiang managed to ingratiate himself to some degree with Soong Mei-ling's mother by first divorcing his wife and concubines and promising to sincerely study the precepts of Christianity. He read the copy of the Bible that May-ling had given him twice before making up his mind to become a Christian, and three years after his marriage he was baptized in the Soong's Methodist church. Although some observers felt that he adopted Christianity as a political move, studies of his recently opened diaries suggest that his faith was strong and sincere and that he felt that Christianity reinforced Confucian moral teachings.^[37]

Upon reaching Beijing, Chiang paid homage to Sun Yat-sen and had his body moved to the new capital of Nanjing to be enshrined in a mausoleum, the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum.

In the West and in the Soviet Union, Chiang Kai-shek was known as the "Red General".^[38] Movie theaters in the Soviet Union showed newsreels and clips of Chiang. At Moscow, Sun Yat-sen University portraits of Chiang were hung on the walls; and, in the Soviet May Day parades that year, Chiang's portrait was to be carried along with the portraits of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and other Communist leaders.^[39] The United States consulate and other Westerners in Shanghai were concerned about the approach of "Red General" Chiang as his army was seizing control of large areas of the country in the Northern Expedition.^[40][41]

Rule

Having gained control of China, Chiang's party remained surrounded by defeated warlords who remained relatively autonomous within their own regions. On 10 October 1928, Chiang was named director of the State Council, the equivalent to President of the country, in addition to his other titles.^[42] As with his predecessor Sun Yat-sen, the Western media dubbed him "generalissimo".^[31]

According to Sun Yat-sen's plans, the KMT was to rebuild China in three steps:

Despite being a conservative, Chiang supported modernization policies such as scientific advancement, universal education, and women's rights. The Kuomintang supported women's suffrage and education and the abolition of polygamy and foot binding. Under Chiang's leadership, the Republic of China government also enacted a women's quota in the parliament, with reserved seats for women. During the Nanjing Decade, average Chinese citizens received education that they had been denied by the dynasties. That increased the literacy rate across China and also promoted the ideals of Tridemism of democracy, republicanism, science, constitutionalism, and Chinese nationalism based on the Dang Guo of the KMT.^{[47][48][49][50][51]}

Any successes that the Nationalists achieved, however, were met with constant political and military upheavals. Many of the urban areas were now under the control of the KMT, but much of the countryside remained under the influence of weakened-but -undefeated warlords, landlords, and Communists. Chiang often resolved issues of warlord obstinacy through military action, but such action was costly in terms of men and material. The Central Plains War alone nearly bankrupted the Nationalist government and caused almost 250,000 casualties on both sides. In 1931, Hu Hanmin, an old supporter of Chiang, publicly voiced a popular concern that Chiang's position as both premier and president flew in the face of the democratic ideals of the Nationalist government. Chiang had Hu put under house arrest, but Hu was released after national condemnation. Hu then left Nanjing and supported a rival government in Canton. The split resulted in a military conflict between Hu's Guangdong government and Chiang's Nationalist government.

Throughout his rule, complete eradication of the Communists remained Chiang's dream. After he had assembled his forces in

Authority within the Nationalist government ultimately lay with Chiang.[65]^: 43 All major policy changes on military, diplomatic, or economic issues required his approval.^[65]: 156 According to historian Odd Arne Westad, "no other leader within the [KMT] had the authority to force through even the simplest decisions.^[65]: 156 The practical power of high-ranking officials like ministers or the head of the Executive Yuan was more closely tied to their relationship with Chiang than with the formal authority of their position.^[65]: 43 Chiang created multiple layers of power in his administration which he sometimes played off against each other to prevent individuals or cliques from gathering power that could oppose his authority.^{[65]: 93–94}

Contrary to the critique that Chiang was highly corrupt, he was not involved in corruption himself.

Chiang, who viewed all of the foreign great powers with suspicion, wrote in a letter that they "all have it in their minds to promote the interests of their own respective countries at the cost of other nations" and saw it as hypocritical for any of them to condemn one another's foreign policy.[77]^[78] He used diplomatic persuasion on the United States, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union to regain lost Chinese territories, as he viewed all foreign powers as imperialists that were attempting to exploit China.^[79]

First phase of Chinese Civil War

During April 1931, Chiang Kai-shek attended a national leadership conference in Nanjing with Zhang Xueliang and General

In December 1936, Chiang flew to Xi'an to co-ordinate a major assault on the Red Army and the CPC, which had retreated into Yan'an. However, Chiang's allied commander Zhang Xueliang, whose forces were used in his attack and whose homeland of Manchuria had been recently invaded by the Japanese, did not support the attack on the Communists. On 12 December, Zhang and several other Nationalist generals, headed by Yang Hucheng of Shaanxi kidnapped Chiang 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. After releasing Chiang and returning to Nanjing with him, Zhang was placed under house arrest, and the generals who had assisted him were executed. The Second United Front had a commitment by Chiang that was nominal at best and was all but dissolved in 1941.

Second Sino-Japanese War

The Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in July 1937, and in August, Chiang sent 600,000 of his best-trained and equipped soldiers to

Having lost most of China's economic and industrial centers, Chiang withdrew into the hinterlands, stretched the Japanese supply lines, and bogged down Japanese soldiers in the vast Chinese interior. As part of a policy of protracted resistance, Chiang authorized the use of scorched-earth tactics, which resulted in many civilian deaths. During the Nationalists' retreat from Zhengzhou, the dams around the city were deliberately destroyed by the National Revolutionary Army to delay the Japanese advance, and the subsequent 1938 Yellow River flood killed 800,000^[82] to one million people.^[68]: 40 Four million Chinese were left homeless.^[68]: 40 Chiang and the KMT were slow to provide disaster relief.^[68]: 40

After heavy fighting, the Japanese occupied Wuhan in the fall of 1938, and the Nationalists retreated farther inland to Chongqing. En route to Chongqing, the Nationalist Army intentionally started the

The Japanese, controlling the puppet state of Manchukuo and much of China's eastern seaboard, appointed Wang Jingwei as a puppet ruler of the occupied Chinese territories around Nanjing. Wang named himself President of the Executive Yuan and chairman, and he led a surprisingly large minority of anti-Chiang and anti-Communist Chinese against his old comrades. He died in 1944, a year before the end of World War II.

The Hui Xidaotang sect pledged allegiance to the Kuomintang after the party's rise to power, and Hui general Bai Chongxi acquainted Chiang with the Xidaotang Juaozhu Ma Mingren in 1941 in Chongqing.^[85]

In 1942 Chiang went on tour in northwestern China in Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, and Qinghai, where he met the Muslim Generals Ma Buqing and Ma Bufang.^[86] He also met the Muslim Generals Ma Hongbin and Ma Hongkui separately.

A border crisis erupted with Tibet in 1942. Under orders from Chiang, Ma Bufang repaired Yushu Airport to prevent Tibetan separatists from seeking independence.^[87] Chiang also ordered Ma Bufang to put his Muslim soldiers on alert for an invasion of Tibet in 1942.^[88] Ma Bufang complied and moved several thousand troops to the Tibetan border.^[89] Chiang also threatened the Tibetans with aerial bombardment if they worked with the Japanese. Ma Bufang attacked the Tibetan Buddhist Tsang monastery in 1941.^[90] He also constantly attacked the Labrang Monastery.^[91]

After the attack on Pearl Harbor and the opening of the

General Joseph Stilwell, an American military advisor to Chiang during World War II, strongly criticized Chiang and his generals for what Stilwell saw as their incompetence and corruption.^[93] In 1944, the United States Army Air Corps commenced Operation Matterhorn to bomb Japan's steel industry from bases to be constructed in mainland China. That was meant to fulfill US President Franklin D. Roosevelt's promise to Chiang to begin bombing operations against Japan by November 1944. However, Chiang's subordinates refused to take air base construction seriously until enough capital had been delivered to permit embezzlement on a massive scale. Stilwell estimated that at least half of the $100 million spent on construction of air bases was embezzled by Nationalist party officials.^[94]

The poor performance of Nationalist forces during the Japanese

After the Japanese surrender, Chiang had to rely on the assistance of the United States in order to transport his troops to regain control of occupied areas.[65]^: 3 Non-Chinese found the behavior of these troops and accompanying officials as undercutting Nationalist legitimacy, as Nationalist forces engaged in a "botched liberation" characterized by corruption, looting, and inefficiency.^[65]: 3

Chiang tried to balance the influence of the Soviets and the Americans in China during the war. He first told the Americans that they would be welcome in talks between the Soviet Union and China and then secretly told the Soviets that the Americans were unimportant and that their opinions would not be considered. Chiang also used American support and military power in China against Soviet ambitions to dominate the talks. That stopped the Soviets from taking full advantage of the situation in China by the threat of American military action against them.^[95]

Chiang's Nationalist government made laws on

President Roosevelt, through General Stilwell, privately made it clear that he preferred for the French not to reacquire French Indochina (now Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos) after the war was over. Roosevelt offered Chiang control of all of Indochina. It was said that Chiang replied in English, "Under no circumstances!"^[97]

After the war, 200,000 Chinese troops under General

According to Republic of China's notes of a dinner meeting during the Cairo Conference in 1943, Roosevelt asked Chiang whether China desired the Ryukyu Islands as territories restored from Japan. Chiang said he would be agreeable to joint occupation and administration by China and the United States.^[105]

Second phase of Chinese Civil War

Treatment and use of Japanese soldiers

Because of Chiang's focus on his communist opponents, he allowed some Japanese forces and forces from the Japanese puppet regimes to remain on duty in occupied areas in an effort to prevent the communists from accepting their surrender.^[65]: 3

American troops and weapons soon bolstered the Nationalist forces, which allowed them to reclaim the cities. The countryside, however, remained largely under Communist control. Chiang implemented his war-time phrase "repay evil with good" and made a huge effort to protect elements of the Japanese invading army.

Many top Nationalist generals, including Chiang, had studied and trained in Japan before the Nationalists had returned to the mainland in the 1920s and maintained close personal friendships with top Japanese officers. The Japanese general in charge of all forces in China, General Okamura had personally trained officers who later became generals in Chiang's staff. Reportedly, Chiang seriously considered accepting this offer but declined only because he knew that the United States would certainly be outraged by the gesture. Even so, armed Japanese troops remained in China well into 1947, with some non-commissioned officers finding their way into the Nationalist officer corps.[108] The Japanese in China came to regard Chiang as a magnanimous figure to whom many of them owed their lives and livelihoods; that fact was attested by both Nationalist and Communist sources.^[109]

Conditions during Chinese Civil War

Chiang did not de-mobilize his troops after the defeat of the Japanese, instead remaining on a war footing to prepare for the resumption of civil war against the Communists.^[65]: 85 This further strained the economy of Nationalist era China, worsening deficits.^{[65]: 84–85} A significant body of evidence suggests that much of the Nationalist military budget in this period was wasted.^[65]: 86 One factor in military budget waste included that troop counts were inflated above actual head counts and that officers embezzled the salaries of the non-existent soldiers.^[65]: 86 Another was the power of military commanders over local branches of the Bank of China, which they could require to provide currency outside of the normal budget process.^{[65]: 86–87}

Although Chiang had achieved status abroad as a world leader, his government deteriorated as the result of corruption and hyperinflation. In his diary in June 1948, Chiang wrote that the KMT had failed not because of external enemies but because of rot from within.^[110] The war had severely weakened the Nationalists, and the Communists were strengthened by their popular land reform policies^[111][112] and by a rural population that supported and trusted them. The Nationalists initially had superiority in arms and men, but their lack of popularity, infiltration by Communist agents, low morale, and disorganization soon allowed the Communists to gain the upper hand in the civil war.

After World War II, the United States encouraged peace talks between Chiang and the Communist leader, Mao Zedong, in Chongqing. Concerns about widespread and well-documented corruption in Chiang's government throughout his rule made the US government limit aid to Chiang for much of the period of 1946 to 1948 despite the fighting against Mao's Red Army. Alleged infiltration of the US government by CCP agents may have also played a role in the suspension of American aid.^[113]

Chiang's right-hand man, the secret police chief Dai Li, was anti-American and anti-Communist and a self-declared fascist.^[114] Dai ordered Kuomintang agents to spy on American officers.^[115] Earlier, Dai had been involved with the Blue Shirts Society, a fascist-inspired paramilitary group within the Kuomintang that wanted to expel Western and Japanese imperialists, crush the Communists, and eliminate feudalism.^[116] Dai Li died in a plane crash, which some suspect to be an assassination orchestrated by Chiang;^[117] however, the assassination was also rumoured to have been arranged by the American Office of Strategic Services because of Dai's anti-Americanism and since it happened on an American plane.^[118]

Conflict with Li Zongren

A

Shortly after Chiang's resignation, the Communists halted their advances and attempted to negotiate the Nationalists' virtual surrender. Li tried to negotiate milder terms to end the civil war but had no success. When it became clear that Li was unlikely to accept Mao's terms, the Communists issued an ultimatum in April 1949 that warned that they would resume their attacks if Li did not agree within five days. Li refused.[120]

Li's attempts to carry out his policies faced varying degrees of opposition from Chiang's supporters and were generally unsuccessful. Taylor has noted that Chiang had a superstitious belief in holding Manchuria. After the Nationalist military defeat in the province, Chiang lost faith in winning the war and started to prepare for the retreat to Taiwan. Chiang especially antagonized Li by taking possession of and moving to Taiwan US$200 million of gold and US dollars that belonged to the central government. Li desperately needed them to cover the government's soaring expenses. When the Communists captured the Nationalist capital of Nanjing in April 1949, Li refused to accompany the central government as it fled to Guangdong and instead expressed his dissatisfaction with Chiang by retiring to Guangxi.^[121]

The former warlord Yan Xishan, who had fled to Nanjing only one month earlier, quickly insinuated himself within the Li-Chiang rivalry and attempted to have Li and Chiang reconcile their differences in the effort to resist the Communists. At Chiang's request, Yan visited Li to convince Li not to withdraw from public life. Yan broke down in tears while he talked of the loss of his home province of Shanxi to the Communists, and he warned Li that the Nationalist cause was doomed unless Li went to Guangdong. Li agreed to return if Chiang surrendered most of the gold and US dollars in his possession that belonged to the central government, and Chiang stopped overriding Li's authority. After Yan communicated those demands and Chiang agreed to comply with them, Li departed for Guangdong.^[121]

In Guangdong, Li attempted to create a new government composed of both supporters and opponents of Chiang. Li's first choice of premier was Chu Cheng, a veteran member of the Kuomintang who had been virtually driven into exile for his strong opposition to Chiang. After the Legislative Yuan jas rejected Chu, Li was obliged to choose Yan Xishan instead. By then, Yan was well known for his adaptability, and Chiang welcomed his appointment.^[121]

The conflict between Chiang and Li persisted. Although he had agreed to do so as a prerequisite of Li's return, Chiang refused to surrender more than a fraction of the wealth that he had sent to Taiwan. Without being backed by gold or foreign currency, the money that was issued by Li and Yan quickly declined in value until it became virtually worthless.^[122] Although he did not hold a formal executive position in the government, Chiang continued to issue orders to the army, and many officers continued to obey Chiang, rather than Li. The inability of Li to co-ordinate KMT military forces led him to put into effect a plan of defense that he had contemplated in 1948. Instead of attempting to defend all of southern China, Li ordered what remained of the Nationalist armies to withdraw to Guangxi and Guangdong. He hoped that he could concentrate all available defenses on the smaller area, which would be more easily defensible. The object of Li's strategy was to maintain a foothold on the Chinese mainland in the hope that the United States would eventually be compelled to enter the war in China on the Nationalist side.^[122]

Final Communist advance

Chiang opposed Li's plan of defense because it would have placed most of the troops who were still loyal to Chiang under the control of Li and Chiang's other opponents in the central government. To overcome Chiang's intransigence Li began ousting Chiang's supporters within the central government. Yan Xishan continued in his attempts to work with both sides, which created the impression among Li's supporters that he was a stooge of Chiang, and those who supported Chiang began to bitterly resent Yan for his willingness to work with Li. Because of the rivalry between Chiang and Li, Chiang refused to allow Nationalist troops loyal to him to aid in the defense of Guangxi and Canton. That let Communist forces occupy Canton in October 1949.^[123]

After Canton fell to the Communists, Chiang relocated the government to Chongqing, and Li effectively surrendered his powers and flew to New York for treatment of his chronic duodenum illness at the Hospital of Columbia University. Li visited President Truman, and denounced Chiang as a dictator and an usurper. Li vowed that he would "return to crush" Chiang once he returned to China. Li remained in exile and did not return to Taiwan.^[124]

In the early morning of 10 December 1949, Communist troops laid siege to Chengdu, the last KMT-controlled city in mainland China, where Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo directed the defense at the Chengtu Central Military Academy. Flying out of Chengdu Fenghuangshan Airport, father and son were evacuated to Taiwan via Guangdong on the aircraft May-ling and arrived the same day. Chiang Kai-shek would never return to the mainland.^[125]

Historian Odd Arne Westad says the Communists won the Civil War because they made fewer military mistakes than Chiang had. Also, his search for a powerful centralized government made Chiang antagonize too many interest groups in China. Furthermore, his party was weakened by the war against Japan. Meanwhile, the Communists told different groups, such as peasants, exactly what they wanted to hear and cloaked themselves in the cover of Chinese nationalism.^{[126][need quotation to verify]}

Chiang did not reassume the presidency until 1 March 1950. In January 1952, Chiang commanded the Control Yuan, now in Taiwan, to impeach Li in the "Case of Li Zongren's Failure to carry out Duties due to Illegal Conduct" (李宗仁違法失職案). Chiang relieved Li of the position as vice-president of the National Assembly in March 1954.

In Taiwan

Preparations to retake the mainland

Chiang moved the government to

During his presidency on Taiwan, Chiang continued making preparations to take back mainland China. He developed the JROTC army to prepare for an invasion of the mainland and to defend Taiwan in case of an attack by the Communist forces. He also financed armed groups in mainland China, such as Muslim soldiers of the ROC Army who had been left in Yunnan under

The first decades after the Nationalists had moved the seat of government to the province of Taiwan are associated with the organized effort to resist Communism, which was known as the "White Terror"; about 140,000 Taiwanese were imprisoned for their real or perceived opposition to the Kuomintang.^[133] Most of those prosecuted were labeled by the Kuomintang as "bandit spies" (匪諜), meaning spies for Chinese Communists, and punished as such or "Taiwanese Separatists" (台獨分子).^[134]

Under the pretext that new elections could not be held in Communist-occupied constituencies, the National Assembly, Legislative Yuan, and Control Yuan members held their posts indefinitely. The Temporary Provisions also allowed Chiang to remain as president beyond the two-term limit in the Constitution. He was re-elected by the National Assembly as president four times: in 1954, 1960, 1966, and 1972.^[135]

Believing that corruption and the lack of morals were key reasons that the KMT had lost mainland China to the Communists, Chiang attempted to purge corruption by dismissing members of the KMT who were accused of graft. Some major figures in the previous mainland Chinese government, such as Chiang's brothers-in-law

After the government of the Republic of China had moved to Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek's economic policy turned towards to economic liberalism and used Sho-Chieh Tsiang and other liberal economists to promote economic liberalization reforms in Taiwan.^[137]

However, Taylor has noted that the developmental model of Chiangism in Taiwan still had elements of socialism, and the

After the democratization of Taiwan, it began to slowly drift away from the Chiangist economic policy to embrace a more free market system, as part of the economic globalization process under the context of neoliberalism.^[138]

Chiang had the personal power to review the rulings of all military tribunals, which during the martial law period tried civilians as well. In 1950, Lin Pang-chun and two other men were arrested on charges of financial crimes and sentenced to 3–10 years in prison. Chiang reviewed the sentences of all three and ordered them executed instead. In 1954, the Changhua monk Kao Chih-te and two others were sentenced to 12 years in prison for providing aid to accused communists. Chiang sentenced them to death after he had reviewed the case. That control over the decision of military tribunals violated the ROC constitution.^[139]

After Chiang's death, the next president, his son, Chiang Ching-kuo, and Chiang Ching-kuo's successor, Lee Teng-hui, a native Taiwanese, would in the 1980s and 1990s increase native Taiwanese representation in the government and loosen the many authoritarian controls of the early era of ROC control in Taiwan, paving way for the democratization process.^[140]

Relations with Japan

In 1971, the former Australian opposition leader

Although Japan recognized the People's Republic in 1972, shortly after Kakuei Tanaka had succeeded Sato as Prime Minister of Japan, the memory of the relationship was strong enough to be reported by The New York Times (15 April 1978) as a significant factor inhibiting trade between Japan and the mainland. There is speculation that a clash between Communist forces and a Japanese warship in 1978 was caused by Chinese anger by Japanese Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda attending Chiang's funeral. Historically, Japan's attempts to normalize its relationship with the People's Republic were met with accusations of ingratitude in Taiwan.^[141]

Relations with United States

Chiang was suspicious that

Chiang Ching-kuo orchestrated the controversial court-martial and arrest of General Sun Li-jen in August 1955 for plotting a coup d'état with the CIA against his father, Chiang Kai-shek, and the Kuomintang. The CIA allegedly wanted to help Sun take control of Taiwan and declare its independence.^[142][144]

Death

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Translation:Will of Chiang Kai-shek

In 1975, 26 years after Chiang had come to Taiwan, he died in Taipei at the age of 87.^[145][146] He had suffered a heart attack and pneumonia in the foregoing months, and died from kidney failure aggravated by advanced heart failure on 5 April. Chiang's funeral was held on 16 April.^[147]

A month of mourning was declared. The Chinese music composer

The response by Japanese media was swift and shaped by a cult of personality around Chiang Kai-shek. Japanese conservatives had long promoted to counter the China policy and the historical narratives of their leftist pro-PRC opponents. The nationalist leader of Taiwan had been trained in Japanese military schools and shared a particular fondness for the Japanese Empire.[148]

When his son, Chiang Ching-kuo, died in 1988, he was entombed in a separate mausoleum in nearby

Chiang was succeeded as president by Vice President Yen Chia-kan and as Kuomintang party ruler by his son Chiang Ching-kuo, who retired Chiang Kai-shek's title of Director-General and instead assumed the position of chairman. Yen's presidency was interim; Chiang Ching-kuo, who was the Premier, became president after the end of Yen's term three years later.

Cult of personality

Chiang's portrait hung over Tiananmen Square until 1949, when it was replaced with Mao's portrait.^[149] Portraits of Chiang were common in private homes and in public on the streets.^{[150][151][152]} After his death, the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Song was written in 1988 to commemorate Chiang Kai-shek. In Cihu, there are several statues of Chiang Kai-shek.

Chiang was popular among many people and dressed in plain, simple clothes, unlike contemporary Chinese warlords who dressed extravagantly.^[153]

Quotes from the Quran and hadith were used by Muslims in the Kuomintang-controlled Muslim publication, the Yuehua, to justify Chiang Kai-shek's rule over China.^[154] When the Muslim general and warlord Ma Lin was interviewed, he was described as having "high admiration for and unwavering loyalty to Chiang Kai-shek".^[155]

Philosophy

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Works Analects Classic of Filial Piety Farewell to Revolution
Politicians Chiang (Ching-kuo) Chiang (Kai-shek) Chiang (Wan-an) Chu Chui Han Ho (Edmund) Ho (Iat Seng) Hu Hung Ip (Kwok-him) Ip (Regina) Jaw Lam Lee (John) Lee (Starry) Leung Li Liao Lin Ma Soong Jiang Sun (Fo) Tsang Tung Wang Yuan Xi
Extant parties Mainland China (neoauthoritarian) Chinese Communist Party (alleged) Hong Kong (pro-Beijing) Business and Professionals Alliance Civil Force Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress Kowloon West New Dynamic Liberal Party New People's Party New Territories Association of Societies Politihk Social Strategic Silent Majority Hong Kong (pro-ROC) Hong Kong and Kowloon Trades Union Council Macau (pro-Beijing) Alliance for Change Macau-Guangdong Union United Citizens Association Women's Association Republic of China (Taiwan) Chinese Nationalist Party Chinese New Party Chinese Unification Promotion Party For Public Good Party Patriot Alliance Association People First Party Young China Party
Historical parties Progressive Party Republican Party Royalist Party Unity Party Hong Kong (pro-Beijing) Co-operative Resources Centre Federation for the Stability Hong Kong Alliance of Chinese and Expatriates Hong Kong Progressive Alliance Liberal Democratic Federation New Hong Kong Alliance Professional Forum Progressive Hong Kong Society Republic of China (Taiwan) Congress Party Alliance The Motorists' Party of ROC Republican Party
Alliances Pro-Kuomintang camp Republic of China mainland China Hong Kong Pro-Beijing camp Hong Kong Macau
Organisations Blue Shirts Society Group of 89 Kuomintang Youth League Western Hills Group
Media Mainland China (neoauthoritarian) Global Times Guancha Hong Kong (pro-Beijing) Headline Daily Hong Kong Economic Times Oriental Daily News Sing Tao Daily Republic of China (Taiwan) Chung T'ien Television China Television China Times Commercial Times TVBS United Daily News Overseas The Epoch Times Former Central Daily News Shen Bao
By region Hong Kong Taiwan (Republic of China) Sinicization of Tibet
Variants and movements Anti-communism Baizuo Conservative localism in Hong Kong New Confucianism Pro-Beijing radicals
Related topics Anti-Americanism Anti-Japanese sentiment Chinese expansionism Dang Guo Han chauvinism Hui pan-nationalism History of the Kuomintang Settler colonialism Three Principles of the People United front Hong Kong Taiwan Waishengren (Taiwan)
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The Kuomintang used traditional Chinese religious ceremonies, and promulgated martyrdom. Kuomintang ideology subserved and promulgated the view that the souls of Party martyrs who died fighting for the Kuomintang, the revolution, and the party founder Sun Yat-sen were sent to heaven. Chiang Kai-shek believed that these martyrs witnessed events on Earth from heaven after their deaths.^{[156][157][158][159]}

Unlike Sun's original Tridemist ideology that was heavily influenced by Western enlightenment theorists such as Henry George, Abraham Lincoln, Bertrand Russell, and John Stuart Mill,^[160] the traditional Chinese Confucian influence on Chiang's ideology is much stronger. Chiang rejected the Western progressive ideologies of individualism, liberalism, and the cultural aspects of Marxism. Therefore, Chiang is generally more culturally and socially conservative than Sun Yat-sen. Jay Taylor has described Chiang Kai-shek as a revolutionary nationalist and a "left-leaning Confucian-Jacobinist".

When the Northern Expedition was complete, Kuomintang Generals led by Chiang Kai-shek paid tribute to Sun's soul in heaven with a sacrificial ceremony at the Xiangshan Temple in Beijing in July 1928. Among the Kuomintang Generals present were the Muslim Generals Bai Chongxi and Ma Fuxiang.^[161]

Chiang Kai-shek considered both Han Chinese and all ethnic minorities of China, the

Chiang, as a Chinese nationalist and a Confucian, was against the iconoclasm of the May Fourth Movement. Motivated by his sense of nationalism, he viewed some Western ideas as foreign and believed that the great introduction of Western ideas and literature, which the May Fourth Movement promoted, was not beneficial to China. He and Sun criticized the May Fourth intellectuals as corrupting the morals of China's youth.^[165]

Chiang Kai-shek once said:

If when I die, I am still a dictator, I will certainly go down into the oblivion of all dictators. If, on the other hand, I succeed in establishing a truly stable foundation for a democratic government, I will live forever in every home in China.^[166]

Contemporary perception

Chiang's legacy has been subjected to heated debates. For some, Chiang was a national hero who led the victorious Northern Expedition against the Beiyang warlords in 1927 and helped achieve

Mitter further observed that, ironically, today's China is closer to Chiang's vision than to Mao's and wrote, "One can imagine Chiang Kai-shek's ghost wandering round China today nodding in approval, while Mao's ghost follows behind him, moaning at the destruction of his vision".[178]^[179] Liang Shuming opined that Chiang Kai-shek's "greatest contribution was to make the CCP successful. If he had been a bit more trustworthy, if his character was somewhat better, the CCP would have been unable to beat him".^[180] Some Chinese historians argue that the main determinants for Chiang's defeat were not corruption or the lack of US support, but his decision to start the civil war with 70% of government expenditures in the military, his overestimation of the Nationalist forces equipped with US arms, and the loss of popularity and morales of his soldiers.^[181] Other historians argue that his failure was largely caused by external factors outside of Chiang's control. They include the refusal of the Truman administration to support Chiang by withdrawing aid, the foisting of an arms embargo by George C. Marshall, the failed pursuit of a détente between the nationalists and the communists, the American push for a coalition government with the CCP, and the USSR's consistent aid and support for the CCP during the civil war.^{[112][182][183][184]}

In the United States and Europe, Chiang was often perceived negatively as the one who lost China to the communists. His persistent demands for United States support and funding also prompted jokes from American officials that Chiang's name was actually General "Cash-My-Check".^[65]: 33 He has also been criticized for his poor military skills, such as issuing unrealistic orders and persistently attempting to fight unwinnable battles, leading to the loss of his best troops.^[185] In recent years, Chiang's image has been somewhat rehabilitated, and he has been increasingly perceived as a man overwhelmed by the events in China, having to fight the communists, Japanese, and provincial warlords simultaneously while trying to reconstruct and unify the country. His sincere, albeit often unsuccessful attempts to build a more powerful and modern nation have been noted by scholars such as Jonathan Fenby, Rana Mitter, and biographer Jay Taylor.^[186]

Family

Wives

• 
  Mao Fumei (1882–1939), who died in the Second Sino-Japanese War during a bombardment, is the mother of his son and successor Chiang Ching-kuo
• 
  Yao Yecheng (1889–1972), who came to Taiwan and died in Taipei
• 
  Chen Jieru ("Jennie", 1906–1971), who lived in Shanghai, but moved to Hong Kong later and died there
• 
  Soong Mei-ling (1898–2003), who moved to the United States after Chiang Kai-shek's death, is arguably his most famous wife even though they had no children together

In 1901, in an arranged marriage at age 14,^[187] Chiang was married to Mao Fumei, an illiterate villager five years his senior.^[188] While married to Mao, Chiang adopted two concubines (concubinage was still a common practice for well-to-do, non-Christian males in China): he took Yao Yecheng (姚冶誠, 1887–1966) as concubine in late 1912^[189] and married Chen Jieru (1906–1971)^[190] in December 1921. While he was still living in Shanghai, Chiang and Yao adopted a son, Wei-kuo Chen adopted a daughter in 1924, named Yaoguang, who later adopted her mother's surname. Chen's autobiography refuted the idea that she was a concubine.^[191] Chen claiming that, by the time she married Chiang, he had already divorced Yao, and that Chen was therefore his wife. Chiang and Mao had a son, Ching-kuo.

According to the memoirs of Chen Jieru, Chiang's second wife (Chen Jieru) contracted gonorrhea from Chiang soon after their marriage. He told her that he acquired this disease after separating from his first wife and living with his concubine Yao Yecheng, as well as with many other women he consorted with. His doctor explained to her that Chiang had sex with her before completing his treatment for the disease. As a result, both Chiang and Chen Jieru believed that they had become sterile; however, a purported miscarriage by Soong Mei-ling in August 1928 would, if it actually occurred, cast serious doubt on whether this was true.^[40][192]

Family tree

The Xikou Chiangs were descended from Chiang Shih-chieh, who during the 1600s moved there from Fenghua district, and whose ancestors in turn came to southeastern China's Zhejiang (Chekiang) province after moving out of Northern China in the 13th century CE. The 12th century BCE Duke of Zhou's (Duke of Chou) third son was the ancestors of the Chiangs.^{[193][194][195][196][197]}

His great-grandfather was Chiang Qi-zeng, his grandfather was

Chiang developed relationships with other generals. Chiang became a sworn brother of the Chinese Muslim general Ma Fuxiang and appointed him to high ranking positions. Chiang addressed Ma Fuxiang's son Ma Hongkui as Shao Yun Shixiong^[201] Ma Fuxiang attended national leadership conferences with Chiang during battles against Japan.^[202] Ma Hongkui was eventually scapegoated for the failure of the Ningxia Campaign against the Communists, so he moved to the US instead of remaining in Taiwan with Chiang.

When Chiang became President of China after the Northern Expedition, he carved out

During Chiang's rule, attacks on foreigners and ethnic minorities by the allied warlords of the Nationalist government such as the Ma Clique flared up in several incidents. One of these was the Battle of Kashgar where a Muslim army loyal to the Kuomintang massacred 4,500 Uyghurs, and killed several Britons at the British consulate in Kashgar.^[203]

Hu Songshan, a Muslim Imam, backed Chiang Kai-shek's regime and gave prayers for his government. ROC flags were saluted by Muslims in Ningxia during prayer along with exhortations to nationalism during Chiang's rule. Chiang sent Muslim students abroad to study at places like Al-Azhar University and Muslim schools throughout China that taught loyalty to his regime.

The Yuehua, a Chinese Muslim publication, quoted the Quran and hadith to justify submitting to Chiang Kai-shek as the leader of China, and as justification for Jihad in the war against Japan.^[204]

The

Chiang incorporated Methodist values into the New Life Movement under the influence of his wife. Dancing and Western music were discouraged. In one incident, several youths splashed acid on people wearing Western clothing, although Chiang was not directly responsible for these incidents. Despite being a Methodist, he made reference to the Buddha in his diary, and encouraged the establishment of a Buddhist political party under Master Taixu.

According to Jehovah's Witnesses' magazine The Watchtower, some of their members travelled to Chongqing and spoke to him personally while distributing their literature there during World War II.^[210]

Honours