(Redirected from Chiang Ching-Kuo)
'Chiang Ching-kuo' () (
April 27 1,
1910 –
January 13,
1988),
Kuomintang (KMT)
politician and leader, was the son of
President Chiang Kai-shek and held numerous posts in the government of the
Republic of China (ROC). He succeeded his father to power, serving as
Premier of the Republic of China from 1972 to 1978, and
President of the Republic of China from 1978 until his death in 1988. Under his tenure, the government of the Republic of China, although still
authoritarian, became much more open and tolerant of
political dissent. Towards the end of his life, Chiang relaxed government controls on the press and
speech and put native Taiwanese in positions of power, including his successor
Lee Teng-hui who furthered the course of democratic reforms.
Early life
The son of
Chiang Kai-shek and his first wife
Mao Fumei, Chiang Ching-kuo was born in
Fenghua,
Zhejiang and had the
courtesy name of 'Jiànfēng' (建豐). He had an adopted brother,
Chiang Wei-kuo.
In 1925, he went to
Moscow to study
communism on his own volition; his father agreed, since it seemed a sensible thing to do at the time because the
Kuomintang and
Communist Party of China were allied in the
First United Front in preparation for the
Northern Expedition. In Moscow, he was given the Russian name 'Nikolaj Vladimirovič Elizarov' (Николай Владимирович Елизаров) and put under the tutelage of
Karl Radek at the
Communist University of the Toilers of the East. He was noted for having an exceptional grasp of international politics. His classmates included other children of influential Chinese families, most notably the future Chinese Communist party leader,
Deng Xiaoping. In Moscow, the younger Chiang became an enthusiastic student of Communist ideology, particularly
Trotskyism. Following the
Great Purge,
Joseph Stalin privately met with Chiang and ordered him to denounce Trotskyism. Chiang even applied to be a member of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union, although his request was denied.
In April 1927, however, Chiang Kai-shek purged the leftists and Communists from the
KMT and expelled his
Soviet advisers. Following this event, Chiang Ching-kuo wrote an editorial, harshly criticizing his father's actions. The Soviet government then sent Chiang Ching-kuo to work in the Ural Heavy Machinery Plant, a
steel factory in
the Urals,
Ekaterinburg, where he met Faina Ipat'evna Vakhreva, a native
Belarusian. They married on
March 15 1935, and she would later become known as
Chiang Fang-liang. In December of that year, a son,
Hsiao-wen was born. A daughter,
Hsiao-chang, was born the next year.
Stalin allowed Chiang Ching-kuo to return to China with his Russian wife and two children in April 1937 after living in Russia for 12 years. The Communists under Chairman
Mao Zedong and the Nationalists still under Chiang's father had signed a ceasefire and formed a
Second United Front to counter the Japanese invasion of
Manchuria. Stalin hoped the Chinese would keep Japan from invading of the Soviet Pacific coast, and he hoped to form an anti-Japanese alliance with the senior Chiang.
Back in China, Chiang and his wife eventually had two more sons,
Hsiao-wu and
Hsiao-yung. Out of his affair with
Chang Ya-juo, Chiang also had two twin sons in 1941:
Chang Hsiao-tz'u and
Chang Hsiao-yen. (Note the identical
generation name of ''Hsiao'' between all sons, legitimate or not.)
Shanghai
During the
Chinese Civil War, Chiang Ching-kuo briefly served as a liaison administrator in
Shanghai and tried to crackdown the corruption and
hyperinflation that plagued the city. He was determined to do this because of the fears arising from the Nationalists' increasing lack of popularity during the Civil War. He was given the task to arrest dishonest businessmen who hoarded supplies for profit during the inflationary spiral. To assuage the business community, he explained that his team would only go after big war profiteers, but not small business owners who suffered just as much as the general population. His efforts were beginning to show success until he went after the family of his stepmother
Soong Mei-ling. Soong told Ching-kuo's father
Chiang Kai-shek to force Ching-kuo to back off. Although Ching-kuo backed off, Soong Mei-ling and Ching-kuo remained on bad terms perhaps for the rest of their lives.
Political career in Taiwan
Chiang Ching-kuo followed his father and the retreating Nationalist forces to
Taiwan after the Nationalists lost control of
mainland China to the Communists in the
Chinese Civil War. On
December 8,
1949, the capital was moved from
Nanjing to
Taipei. In early morning
December 10,
1949, Communist troops laid siege to
Chengdu, the last
KMT controlled city on 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; they would never again return to mainland China.
In 1950, Chiang's father appointed him director of the
secret police, better known as the "Blue Shirts", where he remained until 1965. As the director of the Blue Shirts, Chiang orchestrated the controversial court-martial and arrest of General
Sun Li-jen, in August 1955, for allegedly plotting a coup d'etat against his father. General Sun was a popular Chinese war hero from the
Burma Campaign against the Japanese and remained under house arrest until Chiang Ching-kuo's death in 1988. Chiang Ching-kuo's activities as director of the secret police have been widely criticized as heralding an era of
human rights abuses in Taiwan, including the mysterious disappearances of both documents and people that seemed to oppose the Nationalist government.
From 1955 to 1960, Chiang administered the construction and completion of the Taiwan's highway system. Chiang's father elevated him to high office when he was appointed as the ROC Defense Minister in 1965, where he remained until 1969. He was the nation's Vice Premier between 1969 and 1972, during which he survived an assassination attempt while visiting the U.S. in 1970. Afterwards, he was the nation's Premier between 1972 and 1978. In Chiang Kai-shek's final years, he gradually gave more responsibilities to his son. Chiang Kai-shek died, in April 1975, and was succeeded to the presidency by
Yen Chia-kan while Chiang Ching-kuo succeeded to the leadership of the
Kuomintang (opting to take the title "Chairman" rather than the elder Chiang's title of "Director-General").
Presidency
Chiang was officially elected President of the Republic of China by the
National Assembly after the end of the term of President
Yen Chia-kan on
May 20,
1978. He was reelected to another term in 1984. At that time, the National Assembly consisted mostly of "thousand year" legislators who had been elected in 1947-48 before the fall of the mainland.
Chiang maintained many of his father's autocratic policies during the early years of his term in office. He continued to rule Taiwan as a military state under
martial law, as it had been since the Nationalists re-established its capital on Taiwan, in anticipation of an imminent invasion by the
People's Republic of China. For this reason, the United States maintained a permanent military presence on the island to defend its World War II and Cold War ally.
Chiang launched the "Fourteen Major Construction Projects" and "
Ten Major Construction Projects and the Twelve New Development Projects" contributing to the "Taiwan miracle." Among his accomplishments were accelerating the process of modernization to give Taiwan a 13% growth rate, $4,600 per capita income, and the world's second largest
foreign exchange reserves.
However, in December 1978, U.S. President,
Jimmy Carter made the shocking announcement that the United States would no longer recognize the ROC as the legitimate government of China. Under the
Taiwan Relations Act, the United States would continue to sell weapons to Taiwan. However, the TRA was purposely vague in any promise of defending Taiwan in the event of an invasion. But the United States would now end all official contact with the Chiang's government and withdraw its troops from the island. Carter was so eager to make the announcement that the American ambassador had to wake Chiang up in the middle of the night to inform him of the decision.
In 1987, Chiang ended
martial law and allowed family visits to the
Mainland China. His administration saw a gradual loosening of political controls and opponents of the Nationalists were no longer forbidden to hold meetings or publish papers. Opposition political parties, though still illegal, were allowed to form. When the
Democratic Progressive Party was established in 1986, President Chiang decided against dissolving the group or persecuting its leaders, but its candidates officially ran in elections as independents in the
Tangwai movement.
In an effort of bringing more Taiwan-born citizens into government services, Chiang Ching-kuo hand-picked
Lee Teng-hui as vice-president of the Republic of China, first-in-the-line of succession to the presidency. However, it is unclear whether he was in favor of having Lee succeeding him as Chairman of the Nationalist Party.
Death and legacy
Chiang died of
heart failure and
hemorrhage in
Taipei at the age of 78. Like his father, he was interred "temporarily" in Daxi (Tahsi) Township,
Taoyuan County, but in a separate
mausoleum in Touliao, a mile down the road from his father's burial place. The hope was to have both buried at their birthplace in Fenghua once the mainland was recovered. In January 2004,
Chiang Fang-liang asked that both father and son be buried at
Wuchih Mountain Military Cemetery in
Hsichih,
Taipei County. The state funeral ceremony was initially planned for Spring 2005, but was eventually delayed to winter 2005. It may be further delayed due to the recent death of Chiang Ching-kuo's oldest daughter-in-law, who had served as the de-facto head of the household since Chiang Fang-liang's death in 2004. Chiang Fang-liang and Soong May-ling had agreed in 1997 that the former leaders be first buried, but still be moved to mainland China in the event of reunification.
In contrast to his father
Chiang Kai-shek, Chiang Ching-kuo built himself a folksy reputation and remains a generally popular figure among the Taiwanese electorate, particularly those who support
Chinese reunification. His memory and image is frequently invoked by the Kuomintang, which is unable to base their electoral campaign on Chiang's successor as President and
KMT Chairman
Lee Teng-hui because of Lee's stand in support of
Taiwan independence. Chiang Ching-kuo said that he was also a "Taiwanese".
Among the
Tangwai and later the
Pan-Green Coalition, opinions toward Chiang Ching-kuo are more reserved. While long-time supporters of political liberalization do give Chiang Ching-kuo credit for relaxing authoritarian rule, they point out that Taiwan was still quite authoritarian in the early years of his rule. Nonetheless, as with Pan-Blue followers, many still think rather highly of him for his efforts in domestic developments.
Under President
Chen Shui-bian, pictures of Chiang Ching-kuo and his father have gradually disappeared from public buildings. The AIDC, the ROC's air defense company, has nicknamed its
AIDC F-CK Indigenous Defense Fighter the ''Ching Kuo'' in his memory.
All of his legitimate children studied abroad and two of his children married in the
United States. Only two remain living:
John Chiang is a prominent
KMT politician and Chiang Hsiao-chang and her children and grandchildren reside in the United States.
See also
★
Chiang Kai-shek
★
History of the Republic of China
★
Military of the Republic of China
★
President of the Republic of China
★
Politics of the Republic of China
★
Madame Chiang Kai-shek
★
Second Sino-Japanese War
★
National Revolutionary Army
★
Kuomintang
★
Sino-German cooperation
Notes
#Many sources, even Taiwanese official ones, give
March 18,
1910 as his birthday, but this actually refers to the traditional Chinese
lunar calendar
References
★ Taylor, Jay. ''The Generalissimo's Son: Chiang Ching-Kuo and the Revolutions in China and Taiwan''. ISBN 0-674-00287-3
External links
★
ROC Government biography
★
Remembering Chiang Ching-kuo
★
1981 GIO video: Hello, Mr. President-Chiang Ching-kuo and His People
★
Kuomintang Official Website
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