154 Facts About Chiang Kai-shek

Chiang Kai-shek was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and general who led the Republic of China from 1928 until his death in 1975.

Chiang Kai-shek's government was based in mainland China until it was defeated in the Chinese Civil War by the Chinese Communist Party in 1949, after which he continued to lead the Republic of China on the island of Taiwan.

Chiang Kai-shek sought to modernise and unify the ROC during the Nanjing decade, although hostilities with the CCP continued.

In 1936, Chiang Kai-shek was kidnapped by his generals in the Xi'an Incident and forced to form an anti-Japanese Second United Front with the CCP, and between 1937 and 1945 led China in the Second Sino-Japanese War, mostly from the wartime capital of Chongqing.

In 1949, Chiang Kai-shek's government was defeated and retreated to Taiwan, where he imposed martial law and the White Terror, a campaign of mass political repression; they lasted until 1987 and 1992, respectively.

Chiang Kai-shek was considered the legitimate leader of China by the United Nations until 1971, when the ROC's seat was transferred to the People's Republic of China.

Chiang Kai-shek is credited with safeguarding Forbidden City treasures during the wars with Japan and the CCP, eventually relocating some of the best to Taiwan, where he founded the National Palace Museum.

In 1903, the 16-year-old Chiang Kai-shek went to Ningbo as a student, and chose a "school name".

The school name that Chiang Kai-shek chose for himself was Chih-ch'ing.

Jieshi is the pinyin romanization of this name, based on Standard Chinese, but the most recognized romanized rendering is Chiang Kai-shek which is in Cantonese romanization.

Chiang Kai-shek's name is written in the free area of the Republic of China as "The Late President Honorable Chiang", where the one-character-wide space in front of his name known as Nuo tai shows respect.

Chiang Kai-shek was born on 31 October 1887, in Hsikow, a town in Fenghua, Zhejiang, China, about 30 kilometers west of central Ningbo.

Chiang Kai-shek was the third child and second son of his father Chiang Chao-Tsung and the first child of his father's third wife Wang Tsai-yu who were members of a prosperous family of salt merchants.

Chiang Kai-shek's father died when he was eight, and he wrote of his mother as the "embodiment of Confucian virtues".

The young Chiang Kai-shek was inspired throughout his youth by the realization that the reputation of an honored family rested upon his shoulders.

In early 1906, Chiang Kai-shek cut off his queue, the required hairstyle of men during the Ch'ing dynasty, and had it sent home from school, shocking the people in his hometown.

Chiang Kai-shek grew up at a time in which military defeats, natural disasters, famines, revolts, unequal treaties and civil wars had left the Manchu-dominated Ch'ing dynasty unstable and in debt.

Chiang Kai-shek used the story as an example of how the common man in 1969 Taiwan had not developed the spirit of public sanitation that Japan had.

Chiang Kai-shek began his military training at the Baoding Military Academy in 1906, the same year Japan left its bimetallic currency standard, devaluing the Japanese yen.

Chiang Kai-shek left for Tokyo Shinbu Gakko, a preparatory school for the Imperial Japanese Army Academy intended for Chinese students, in 1907.

Chiang Kai-shek befriended Chen Qimei, and in 1908 Chen brought Chiang into the Tungmenghui, an important revolutionary brotherhood of the era.

Chiang Kai-shek served in the revolutionary forces, leading a regiment in Shanghai under his friend and mentor Chen Qimei, as one of Chen's chief lieutenants.

Tao sought to avoid escalating the quarrel by hiding in a hospital, but Chiang Kai-shek discovered him there.

Chiang Kai-shek became a founding member of the Nationalist Party after the success of the 1911 Revolution.

In Shanghai, Chiang Kai-shek cultivated ties with the city's underworld gangs, which were dominated by the notorious Green Gang and its leader Du Yuesheng.

Chiang Kai-shek then succeeded Chen as leader of the Chinese Revolutionary Party in Shanghai.

In 1917, Sun Yat-sen moved his base of operations to Canton, where Chiang Kai-shek joined him in 1918.

Chiang Kai-shek later sent his eldest son, Chiang Kai-shek Ching-Kuo, to study in Russia.

When Chiang Kai-shek returned in 1924 Sun appointed him Commandant of the Whampoa Military Academy.

Chiang Kai-shek resigned after one month in disagreement with Sun's close cooperation with the Comintern, but returned at Sun's demand, and accepted Chou En-lai as his political commissar.

The early years at Whampoa allowed Chiang Kai-shek to cultivate a cadre of young officers loyal to both the KMT and himself.

Wang Ching-wei, who had succeeded Sun as chairman of the Canton regime, seemed ascendant but was forced into exile by Chiang Kai-shek following the Canton Coup.

Chiang Kai-shek initially considered fleeing Guangdong and even booked passage on a Japanese steamer but then decided to use his military connections to declare martial law on 20 March 1926 and to crack down on Communist and Soviet influence over the National Revolutionary Army, the military academy, and the party.

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 Kai-shek himself led in the middle route, planning to take Nanjing before pressing ahead to capture Beijing.

Chiang Kai-shek asked Chen Guofu to purchase a photograph that had been taken in Japan c or 1898.

On 12 April 1927, Chiang Kai-shek carried out a purge of thousands of suspected Communists and dissidents in Shanghai, and began large-scale massacres across the country collectively known as the "White Terror".

One of the most famous quotes from Chiang Kai-shek was, that he would rather mistakenly kill 1,000 innocent people, than allow one Communist to escape.

Chiang Kai-shek allowed Soviet agent and advisor Mikhail Borodin and Soviet general Vasily Blucher to "escape" to safety after the purge.

Chiang Kai-shek made great efforts to gain recognition as the official successor of Sun Yat-sen.

Chiang Kai-shek 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 Kai-shek 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.

On 10 October 1928, Chiang Kai-shek was named director of the State Council, the equivalent to President of the country, in addition to his other titles.

Chiang Kai-shek often resolved issues of warlord obstinacy through military action, but such action was costly in terms of men and material.

In 1931, Hu Hanmin, an old supporter of Chiang Kai-shek, publicly voiced a popular concern that Chiang Kai-shek's position as both premier and president flew in the face of the democratic ideals of the Nationalist government.

Chiang Kai-shek had Hu put under house arrest, but Hu was released after national condemnation.

The New Life Movement, initiated by Chiang Kai-shek, was based upon Confucianism mixed with Christianity, nationalism, and authoritarianism that have some similarities to fascism.

Chiang Kai-shek sponsored the creation of the Blue Shirts Society, in conscious imitation of the Blackshirts in the Italian Fascist Party and the Sturmabteilung of the Nazi Party.

Chinese Communists and many conservative anti-communist writers have argued that Chiang Kai-shek was pro-capitalist based on the alliance thesis.

However, Chiang Kai-shek antagonized the capitalists of Shanghai by often attacking them and confiscating their capital and assets for government use even while he denounced and fought against communists.

Chiang Kai-shek continued the anti-capitalist rhetoric of Sun Yat-sen and directed the Kuomintang media to attack the capitalists and capitalism openly.

Chiang Kai-shek 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.

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

Chiang Kai-shek, requiring support, tolerated corruption with people in his inner circles, as well as high-ranking nationalist officials, but not of lower-ranking officers.

Chiang Kai-shek then ordered a thorough investigation of the Central Daily News to find the source.

Chiang Kai-shek wanting to avoid an international response and so jailed Lu instead.

Chiang Kai-shek realized the widespread problems that corruption was creating, so he undertook several anti-corruption campaigns before and after World War II with varying success.

Chiang Kai-shek, 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.

Chiang Kai-shek 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.

In 1932, while Chiang Kai-shek was seeking first to defeat the Communists, Japan launched an advance on Shanghai and bombarded Nanjing.

In December 1936, Chiang Kai-shek 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 Kai-shek'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.

The Second United Front had a commitment by Chiang Kai-shek that was nominal at best and was all but dissolved in 1941.

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

Chiang Kai-shek moved the government inland first to Wuhan and later to Chongqing.

Chiang Kai-shek died in 1944, a year before the end of World War II.

In 1942 Chiang Kai-shek went on tour in northwestern China in Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, and Qinghai, where he met the Muslim Generals Ma Buqing and Ma Bufang.

Chiang Kai-shek met the Muslim Generals Ma Hongbin and Ma Hongkui separately.

Chiang Kai-shek ordered Ma Bufang to put his Muslim soldiers on alert for an invasion of Tibet in 1942.

Chiang Kai-shek threatened the Tibetans with aerial bombardment if they worked with the Japanese.

Chiang Kai-shek was even named the Supreme Commander of Allied forces in the China war zone.

Chiang Kai-shek was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in 1942.

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 Kai-shek's subordinates refused to take air base construction seriously until enough capital had been delivered to permit embezzlement on a massive scale.

Chiang Kai-shek argued that the United States, and Stillwell in particular, were at fault for the failure because they had moved too many Chinese troops into the Burma campaign.

Chiang Kai-shek tried to balance the influence of the Soviets and the Americans in China during the war.

Chiang Kai-shek 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 Kai-shek used American support and military power in China against Soviet ambitions to dominate the talks.

Chiang Kai-shek threatened the French with war in response to maneuvering by the French and Ho Chi Minh's forces against each other and forced them to come to a peace agreement.

Chiang Kai-shek said he would be agreeable to joint occupation and administration by China and the United States.

Chiang Kai-shek 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 Kai-shek, 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.

Reportedly, Chiang Kai-shek seriously considered accepting this offer but declined only because he knew that the United States would certainly be outraged by the gesture.

Chiang Kai-shek 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.

Taylor has noted that Chiang Kai-shek had a superstitious belief in holding Manchuria.

Li agreed to return if Chiang Kai-shek surrendered most of the gold and US dollars in his possession that belonged to the central government, and Chiang Kai-shek stopped overriding Li's authority.

Chiang Kai-shek hoped that he could concentrate all available defenses on the smaller area, which would be more easily defensible.

Chiang Kai-shek did not reassume the presidency until 1 March 1950.

In January 1952, Chiang Kai-shek 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".

Chiang Kai-shek relieved Li of the position as vice-president of the National Assembly in March 1954.

Chiang Kai-shek moved the government to Taipei, Taiwan, where he resumed his duties as president on 1 March 1950.

Chiang Kai-shek was re-elected by the National Assembly to be the President of the Republic of China on 20 May 1954, and again in 1960,1966, and 1972.

Chiang Kai-shek continued to claim sovereignty over all of China, including the territories held by his government and the People's Republic, as well as territory the latter ceded to foreign governments, such as Tuva and Outer Mongolia.

Chiang Kai-shek 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.

Chiang Kai-shek financed armed groups in mainland China, such as Muslim soldiers of the ROC Army who had been left in Yunnan under Li Mi and continued to fight.

Chiang Kai-shek promoted the Uyghur Yulbars Khan to governor during the Islamic insurgency on the mainland for resisting the Communists even though the government had already evacuated to Taiwan.

Chiang Kai-shek planned an invasion of the mainland in 1962.

Additionally, Chiang Kai-shek sought to root out corrupt officials and establish a meritocratic system, mandating that government positions be filled primarily by technocrats selected from top universities.

The Temporary Provisions allowed Chiang Kai-shek to remain as president beyond the two-term limit in the Constitution.

Chiang Kai-shek was re-elected by the National Assembly as president four times: in 1954,1960,1966, and 1972.

Chiang Kai-shek promoted a mixed economy of state and private ownership with economic planning.

Chiang Kai-shek promoted a nine-year free education and the importance of science in Taiwanese education and values.

Chiang Kai-shek had the personal power to review the rulings of all military tribunals, which during the martial law period tried civilians as well.

Chiang Kai-shek reviewed the sentences of all three and ordered them executed instead.

Chiang Kai-shek sentenced them to death after he had reviewed the case.

Chiang Kai-shek was suspicious that covert operatives of the United States were plotting a coup against him.

In 1950, Chiang Kai-shek Ching-kuo became director of the secret police, which he remained until 1965.

Chiang Kai-shek was suspicious of politicians who were overly friendly to the United States and considered them his enemies.

Chiang Kai-shek reorganized and Sovietized the political officer corps and propagated Kuomintang ideology throughout the military.

In 1975,26 years after Chiang Kai-shek had come to Taiwan, he died in Taipei at the age of 87.

The response by Japanese media was swift and shaped by a respect for Chiang Kai-shek, who had been trained in Japanese military schools and shared a particular fondness for the Japanese Empire.

Chiang Kai-shek's body was put in a copper coffin and temporarily interred at his favorite residence in Cihu, Daxi, Taoyuan.

Chiang Kai-shek's funeral was attended by dignitaries from many nations, including US Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, South Korean Prime Minister Kim Jong-pil, and two former Japanese prime ministers: Nobusuke Kishi and Eisaku Sato.

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

Chiang Kai-shek's portrait hung over Tiananmen Square until 1949, when it was replaced with Mao's portrait.

Portraits of Chiang Kai-shek were common in private homes and in public on the streets.

Chiang Kai-shek was popular among many people and dressed in plain, simple clothes, unlike contemporary Chinese warlords who dressed extravagantly.

Chiang Kai-shek believed that these martyrs witnessed events on Earth from heaven after their deaths.

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, the traditional Chinese Confucian influence on Chiang Kai-shek's ideology is much stronger.

Chiang Kai-shek rejected the Western progressive ideologies of individualism, liberalism, and the cultural aspects of Marxism.

Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek is generally more culturally and socially conservative than Sun Yat-sen.

Chiang Kai-shek considered both Han Chinese and all ethnic minorities of China, the Five Races Under One Union, as descendants of the Yellow Emperor, the mythical founder of the Chinese nation, and belonging to the Chinese Nation Zhonghua Minzu.

Chiang Kai-shek introduced this into Kuomintang ideology which was propagated into the educational system of the Republic of China.

For some, Chiang Kai-shek's legacy was as a national hero who achieved unification as leader of the Northern Expedition and as the leader against Japan's invasion, and for enduring without major aid, as Chiang Kai-shek called on his countrymen to fight to the "bitter end" until their ultimate victory against Japan in 1945.

Chiang Kai-shek was champion of anti-communism during the formative years of the World Anti-Communist League.

Chiang Kai-shek was often perceived as "the man who lost China," 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.

The historian Rudolph Rummel documented that Chiang Kai-shek's decisions led to millions of excess deaths from calamities such as persecution against actual or perceived communists and its conscription of soldiers, confiscation of food, and flooding of downstream regions of the Yellow River during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Chiang Kai-shek's government was accused of being corrupt and allying with known criminals such as Du Yuesheng for political and financial gains, and his critics often accuse him of fascism.

Unlike Chiang's son Chiang Ching-kuo, who is respected across the political spectrum, Chiang Kai-shek's image is perceived rather negatively in Taiwan.

Chiang Kai-shek was rated the lowest in two opinion polls about the perception of former presidents.

Chiang Kai-shek had been portrayed as a villain and a "bourgeoisie reactionary lackey" who fought against the "liberation" of China by the communists, but since the 2000s, the media and popular culture have depicted him in a less negative manner.

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".

In recent years, Chiang Kai-shek'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.

In 1901, in an arranged marriage at age 14, Chiang Kai-shek was married to Mao Fumei, an illiterate villager five years his senior.

Chen claiming that, by the time she married Chiang Kai-shek, he had already divorced Yao, and that Chen was therefore his wife.

Chiang Kai-shek had met Chen Jieru when she was only aged 13, and had attempted to molest her.

Chiang Kai-shek 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.

Chiang Kai-shek's great-grandfather was Chiang Qi-zeng, his grandfather was Chiang Si-qian, his uncle was Chiang Zhao-hai, and his father was Chiang Zhao-cong.

Chiang Kai-shek personally dealt extensively with religions, power figures, and factions in China during his regime.

Chiang Kai-shek was born and raised as a Buddhist, but became a Methodist upon his marriage to his fourth wife, Soong Mei-ling.

Chiang Kai-shek became a sworn brother of the Chinese Muslim general Ma Fuxiang and appointed him to high ranking positions.

Chiang Kai-shek addressed Ma Fuxiang's son Ma Hongkui as Shao Yun Shixiong Ma Fuxiang attended national leadership conferences with Chiang Kai-shek during battles against Japan.

When Chiang Kai-shek became President of China after the Northern Expedition, he carved out Ningxia and Qinghai out of Gansu province, and appointed Muslim generals as military governors of all three provinces: Ma Hongkui, Ma Hongbin, and Ma Qi.

Chiang Kai-shek called on the three and their subordinates to wage war against the Soviet peoples, Tibetans, Communists, and the Japanese.

Chiang Kai-shek continued to appoint Muslims as governors of the three provinces, including Ma Lin and Ma Fushou.

Chiang Kai-shek appointed Hui general Bai Chongxi as the Minister of National Defence of the Republic of China, which controlled the ROC military.

Chiang Kai-shek supported the Muslim General Ma Zhongying, whom he had trained at Whampoa Military Academy during the Kumul Rebellion, in a jihad against Jin Shuren, Sheng Shicai, and the Soviet Union during the Soviet Invasion of Xinjiang.

Chiang Kai-shek designated Ma's Muslim army as the 36th Division and gave his troops KMT flags and uniforms.

Chiang Kai-shek then supported Muslim General Ma Hushan against Sheng and the Soviet Union in the Xinjiang War.

Chiang Kai-shek sent Muslim students abroad to study at places like Al-Azhar University and Muslim schools throughout China that taught loyalty to his regime.

Chiang Kai-shek's government donated money to build the Taipei Grand Mosque on Taiwan.

Chiang Kai-shek fought against them in the Sino-Tibetan War, and he supported the Muslim General Ma Bufang in his war against Tibetan rebels in Qinghai.

Chiang Kai-shek ordered Ma Bufang to prepare his Islamic army to invade Tibet several times, to deter Tibetan independence, and threatened the Tibetans with aerial bombardment.

Chiang Kai-shek incorporated Methodist values into the New Life Movement under the influence of his wife.

In one incident, several youths splashed acid on people wearing Western clothing, although Chiang Kai-shek was not directly responsible for these incidents.