1887-1975
A short biography
by Soong Shu Kong 

President Chiang Kai Shek, also named Chung Cheng, was a native of Feng-hua, Chekiang province. He received home education under numerous tutors until the age of seventeen, and afterwards he attended a few modern schools: Feng-lu, Chien-chin and Lung-chin. In 1906 he studied at Ching-hua School in Tokyo, and in 1907 he returned to China to attend Pao-ting Military Academy. In 1908 he attended Chen-wu Military Academy in Tokyo and joined the revolutionary organization Tung-meng Society, founded by Sun Yat Sen to overthrow Ching imperial rule. After graduation in 1910 he received training in the Japanese army, and met Sun Yat Sen.

In 1911 revolution took place in China and Chiang Kai Shek became an officer of the revolutionary army. Sun Yat Sen's 1912 transitional presidency of the newly established Republic of China lasted approximately two months, taken over by Yuan Shih Kai who commanded the military force of the Ching dynasty, hence in a position to negotiate the abdication of the last emperor. Chiang left for Japan and joined Chung-hua Ko-min Party, a new militant organization founded by Sun Yat Sen to overthrow Yuan Shih Kai. In 1915 Yuan declared himself emperor, and Chiang joined the military campaigns to topple Yuan who soon died of natural cause in 1916. In 1922 Sun was besieged by a military coup in Canton, and Chiang travelled from Chekiang province to his rescue. He was subsequently appointed chief of staff of Sun's headquarter.

In 1924 Sun established the Military Officers Academy in Canton, and appointed Chiang Kai Shek the principal as well as chief of staff of the Cantonese military headquarter. In 1925 when Sun passed away, Chiang was appointed commander in chief of Tung-cheng Army. In 1926 Chiang was appointed commander in chief of Kuo-min Ko-ming Army to lead the Northern expedition. Since late Ching, China was partitioned by imperial powers, after Yuan Shih Kai died in 1916, the situation deteriorated when his senior officers turned into warlords, who seized different provinces that soon became warring kingdoms. Sun and Chiang both wanted to defeat the warlords and unite China, by way of the Northern Expedition. In April 1927 Nanking was declared capital of the Republic of China. In January 1928 Chiang was appointed commander in chief of the Northern Expedition Army and victory came in June when warlord army finally surrendered Peking. In October 1928, Chiang was appointed one of the seventeen committee members of the Kuo-min ( Nationalist ) Government Council; commander in chief of army, navy and air force; and chairman of the Kuo-min ( Nationalist ) Government. China was finally united under one central government for the first time since the founding of the Republic of China.

During late Ching, a number of imperial powers partitioned parts of China. After the revolution, Japan harboured even greater expansionist ambition to occupy China. In 1915 China was coerced to sign the Twenty One Demands, in 1919 China was forced to give up Ching-tao at the Versailles Treaty, in 1928 Japanese army massacred 3,600 civilians and attacked Chiang's Northern Expedition force in Chi-nan to derail unification of the nation. Total war with Japan was expected, Chiang Kai Shek attempted to defer this imminent day from 1928 to 1937, with the time gained to build a nation better prepared for war.

Russia became a communist country after the October Revolution of 1917, and like Japan harboured great territorial ambition. Her goal was to export communist ideology for revolution and to create a satellite communist government in China. In 1922 Russia sent emissary to visit Sun Yat Sen and persuaded the Kuomintang ( Nationalist ) party to accept communist party members. Soon after Sun died in 1925, the Chinese communist party attempted to take over Kuomintang ( Nationalist ). In 1927 Chiang Kai Shek with a number of senior Kuomintang ( Nationalist ) leaders purged the communists. After 1927 Chinese communists, with the support of the Soviet Union, created a number of military units and Soviet Republics in the country sides of different provinces, as well as underground organizations in different cities. The largest communist base was in Chiang-hsi, where Mao Tse Tung and many senior communist leaders operated. In November 1931 Mao established the Chinese Soviet Republic in Chiang-hsi and became chairman. In the same month Chiang resigned the position of chairman of the Kuo-min ( Nationalist ) Government, Lin Sen was elected and held the post until his death in 1943. In March 1932 Chiang was elected chairman of the Military Council, and remained the de facto leader of China. Between 1930 to 1934, the Kuo-min ( Nationalist ) Government ordered five military campaigns against the communist force in Chiang-hsi, estimated to be 100,000. This resulted in the near annihilation of the communist force, but the situation was reversed by a coup in Hsi-an in 1936 when Chiang was kidnapped and later released under the condition of a truce with the communists.

Despite the concurrent confrontations against Japanese aggression and communist insurgency, from 1928 to 1937 the Kuo-min ( Nationalist ) Government embarked on a number of political and economic reforms to move China forward, to become a modern and democratic country. Policy meetings on national affairs were held with full participation of elected national representatives. Government was structured according to Sun's concept of the five branches: executive, legislature, judicial, examination and supervision, with checks and balances on government powers and civilian rights. Local self governance was introduced to the counties and provinces. On defense, China turned to Germany and away from the Soviet Union for military advice, training and equipment. A 300,000 German equipped army was created. The Air Force Academy was created and 262 airports were built. Conscript system was introduced and arsenals were built. For the economy, tariffs and salt tax were increased to improve finance, military spending was reduced, taxation and banking systems were reformed and expanded. Education was overhauled, in six years universities increased from 74 to 111, secondary schools increased four times and student number increased five times, student number of primary schools increased two and a half times. There were also significant improvements to industrial, mining and agriculture outputs; to the volume of international trading, and to the extension of transportation network. This ten year period is known as the Golden Era of the Republic of China in the mainland, but tragically cut short by the outbreak of the Sino Japanese war.

In 1931, Japanese army occupied Mukden, and in three months occupied the three provinces of Liaoning, Chilin and Heilungchiang, an area totaling approximately 13 % of Chinese territory. In January 1932 Japanese armed forces attacked Shanghai, and in March a puppet government was formed in the north. In 1933 Japanese army attacked Shan-hai-Kuan and Je-ho. On 7th July 1937 Japanese army created an incident outside Wan-ping city, and attacked the Marco Polo Bridge outside Peking. On 17th July 1937 Chiang Kai Shek made the historic speech to rally all citizens of all ages to fight a war of total destruction and precipitated the eight year Sino Japanese War.

China fought under Chiang's leadership, alone with no ally for four and a half years, until Japan attacked Pearl Harbour on 7th December 1941. The Sino Japanese war broke out even two years earlier than the outbreak of the Second World War on 1st September 1939. While Chinese armed forces were overall poorly equipped with few modern weapons, let alone air or sea power, Japan commanded a war machine that rivaled any great power. Yet the war grinded on unabated for eight years, despite sustaining crippling losses and challenged by numerous Japanese supported puppet governments. Chiang's personal will to fight at all cost was instrumental in forging and inspiring the collective determination of the Chinese people. Chiang also set out the successful strategy to start the war in the southern coastal cities, and lured the Japanese army deeper into the more defensible hinterland. To gain perspective of Chinese resistance, in Europe, Germany occupied Poland in one month, Denmark in a few hours, Norway in two month, and France despite her well equipped armed forces in six weeks.

Some statistics can illustrate the magnitude of destructions and sacrifices entailed in the Sino Japanese war. In August 1937, to defend Shanghai for three months, Chiang Kai Shek sent in his best equipped army of 700,000 against a Japanese army of 300,000, ended with 303,500 Chinese killed or wounded against 61,582 Japanese killed or wounded. After the fall of the capital Nanking in December 1937, 300000 civilians were slaughtered and 80000 raped. In July 1938 a Chinese army of 750,000 fought against a Japanese army of 250,000 in Wuhan, ended with approximately 190,000 Chinese killed or wounded against 20,000 Japanese killed or wounded. During the eight year war, 22 large scale battles, 1117 medium scale battles, and 38931 small scale battles were fought. Approximately 3,216,087 Chinese soldiers and 30,000,000 civilians were killed or wounded. At the end of Second World War, Japan surrendered 1,283,240 soldiers in China, and an estimated 789,370 Japanese soldiers were killed there.

After Japan attacked Pearl Harbour, China with the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union became the chief allied powers. In January 1943 the Sino-American Treaty for the Relinquishment of Extraterritorial Rights in China was signed. In February 1943 Madame Chiang Kai Shek was invited by Mrs Eleanor Roosevelt to address both houses of Congress to lobby support for the Republic of China. In November 1943 Chiang Kai Shek attended the Cairo Conference with Franklin Roosvelt and Winston Churchill to discuss post war Asia. In April 1945 the Republic of China, United States of America, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and France founded the United Nations. On 6th and 9th August 1945, the United States detonated atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan declared unconditional surrender on 14th August. In October 1945, Chiang ordered the repatriation of all Japanese soldiers and citizens from China. On 15th November 1946 Chiang addressed the opening ceremony of the People's General Assembly to revise the constitution from wartime governance to post war democracy, and in December 1946 the People's General Assembly approved the revised constitution. In April 1947 Chiang was elected chairman of the Kuo-min ( Nationalist ) Government. Although the Republic of China was established in 1912, decades of internal turmoil and foreign aggression did not allow the normalcy of representative election. It was only until April 1948 when Chiang was finally elected the first president of the Republic of China by the People's General Assembly.

China was laid waste by the war. The Kuo-min ( Nationalist ) Government was also ruined politically as the economy collapsed completely. Then a revitalized communist force emerged. During the eight year war, Chinese communists refrained from military conflicts with the Japanese and vastly expanded the red army from 25,000 to 1,270,000. When Japan surrendered in August 1945, the Soviet army rushed into China and occupied the three provinces of Liaoning, Chilin and Heilungchiang to take over all Japanese armaments and industrial assets, a familiar tactic taken by the Soviet army in Europe. Soviet army withdrew in March 1946, turning over the greater part of the loot to the Chinese communists. The loot included 925 war planes, 369 tanks, 35 armored vehicles, 2662 field guns, 13,825 machine guns, 300000 rifles, and 27689 military vehicles. In May 1947 the Chinese Communist Party and the Soviet Union signed the Harbin Agreement to give away national assets in exchange for diplomatic and military support.

From December 1947 to December 1949, civil war raged, the Chinese communist army defeated the Kuo-min ( Nationalist ) Government army in three large pivotal battles, the battle of Liao-Shen in September 1948, the battle of Hsu-pang in November 1948 and the battle of Ping-chin in December 1948. The last battle involved a 1,000,000 strong communist army against a 500,000 strong Kuo-min（Nationalist ) Government army. In January 1949, Chiang Kai Shek resigned the presidency of the Republic of China under pressure from the sector of the Kuo-min ( Nationalist ) Government who wanted to negotiate a truce with the communists. Chiang was succeeded by vice president Li Tsung Jen, however Li went into hiding in April, while still the president of the Republic of China, left for Hong Kong in November and then fled to the United States. As chairman of the Kuomintang ( Nationalist ) Party, Chiang called on the nation to continue fighting against the communists. In October Mao Tse Tung declared the establishment of the People's Republic of China in Peking. On 7th December 1949 the central government of the Republic of China declared that Taiwan would be the new seat of government. Thus began the long schism between the two sides of the Taiwan strait, Communist China versus Free China, the People's Republic of China versus the Republic of China.

Before mainland China fell, the communists already started the Land Reform Campaign in rural area. From 1947 to 1952, peasants were encouraged to denounce and kill landlords, and an estimated 4.5 million people were killed. From 1950 to 1953, the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries was launched, to eliminate Kuomintang ( Nationalist ) supporters, bussinessmen and intellectuals through mass trials, labor camps and executions. An estimated 2 million people were killed. From 1951 to 1953, the Three Anti Five Anti Campaigns were launched to further weed out opposition. In 1955 the Sufan Movement was launched to purge " hidden counterrevolutionaries " . From 1956 to 1957, the Hundred Flowers Campaign was launched to encourage criticisms, followed by the Anti Rightist Movement from 1957 to 1959 to eliminate dissenters. From 1958 to 1960, the Great Leap Forward was launched which resulted in a famine that killed 36 to 45 million people. From 1958 to 1962, the Four Pests Campaign was launched. From 1963 to 1966, the Four Clean Ups Campaign was launched. From 1966 to 1976 the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was launched, using red guards to enforce communist orthodoxy by eliminating all traditional and cultural elements in society. In 1978 the communist head of state Yeh Chien Ying claimed that the Cultural Revolution killed 20 million people, 100 million people were persecuted, and the nation wasted 8,000,000,000,000 RMB. From 1949 to 1976, it is estimated that the communist regime killed 80 million to 100 million Chinese, roughly three times the number of Chinese killed during the eight years of Sino Japanese War. Chiang Kai Shek retreated to Taiwan with approximately 600,000 soldiers and over 600,000 civilians from all over China, they were either loyal to the Kuo-min ( Nationalist ) Government or opposed to the communist system. These included many officials, generals, intellectuals, teachers, students and businessmen. The existing population of Taiwan was approximately 6.27 million. On 1st March 1950 Chiang was elected president of the Republic of China. Until his death in 1975, Chiang built Taiwan into a modern and powerful province that adhered to the governing ideals of Sun Yat Sen, as a base to challenge and topple the communist regime in mainland China.

When the central government of the Republic of China moved to Taiwan in 1949, the United States and other nations believed that the communists would take over the island in no time. On 25th June 1950 the Korean War started, communist China deployed an army of 1,350,000 to cross the Yalu in October and entered the war. After the Korean War ended on 27th July 1953, communist China attempted a final assault on Taiwan by invading Kinmen on 23rd August 1958. The armed forces of the Republic of China, under Chiang Kai Shek, repelled the communists who continued the bombardment of Kinmen until 1st January1979, when the United States government formally recognized communist China. Communist China and Free China have been at war until 1979, and no truce has been signed to date.

The government under Chiang Kai Shek implemented important financial and economic policies in Taiwan. The gold reserve and foreign exchange reserves originally held in the Central Bank in Shanghai were moved to Taiwan to stabilize the local currency. In 1949 52.44% of Taiwan's total population were farmers. Land reform was undertaken in steps. In April 1949 rent paid by tenant farmers was limited to 37.5% of the annual yield of the main crop. Correct classifications of land and boosting production by 20% ensured landlord's income was not diminished. Public farmland was offered for lease at reduced rentals. In 1953 the government implemented a land to the tiller policy aimed at eradication of the tenancy system and the freeing of capital invested in land to promote industrial and commercial development and the transformation of the economic and social structure. Land reform in communist China and land reform in Free China took divergent paths.

The government under Chiang Kai Shek also undertook important education reforms. In 1950 there were 1,231 primary schools with 906,950 students. In 1968 there were 2,244 primary schools with 2,383,204 students. In 1950 there were 474 secondary schools with 617,225 students. In 1977 there were 624 secondary schools with 1,075,455 students. In 1950 there were 4 universities with 5,379 students. In 1970 there were 22 universities with 97,286 students. In 1950 there was 1 teachers' training college with 983 students. In 1970 there were 11 teachers' training colleges with 22,952 students. In 1950 there were 3 polytechnic colleges with 1,268 students. In 1970 there were 70 polytechnic colleges with 106,187 students. In 1968 mandatory education was extended from 6 years to 9 years. When communist China launched the Cultural Revolution in May 1966, Chiang Kai Shek launched the Chinese Cultural Renaissance Movement on 12th November 1966 in opposition to the cultural destructions in the mainland.

The government under Chiang Kai Shek undertook important political reforms that paved the foundation for eventual full democracy. In 1945 Japan returned Taiwan to China, and in 1946 the government of the Republic of China in Taiwan was reorganized into four tiers: province, county, township and village. In 1946 citizens held elections for their village representatives who were required to hold six public meetings annually to decide issues of local governance. In 1955 the two year term of the elected representative was extended to three year term. From 1950 citizens also held elections for their township representatives and county representatives. In 1954 the two year term of representative was extended to three year term. In 1946 provincial council and county council were formed, the councilors were elected by provincial and county representatives. However from 1950 provincial and county councilors were directly elected by citizens. In 1955 the two year term of councilor was extended to three years, and in 1964 revised to four years. Between 1950 to 1952 elections for township mayor, county mayor and provincial governor were introduced. In 1954 the two year term was also extended to three years, and in 1960 revised to four years.

President Chiang Kai Shek passed away on 5th April 1975. In 1925 he inherited the mantle of Sun Yat Sen, the founder of the Republic of China. In June 1928, Chiang defeated the warlords and united China for the first time since the 1911 revolution. From 1927 to 1936, he fought against the communist insurgency backed by Soviet Union, and at the same time, oversaw the ten year Golden Era of the Republic of China in the mainland. From 1937 to 1945, Chiang led China to victory against Japan. From 1945 to 1949, he returned to lead a war exhausted nation, and this time to fight a vastly expanded army backed by the Soviet Union. Chiang lost. The war exhausted nation was too devastated to fight another Great War. But Chiang led the central government of the Republic of China on a retreat to Taiwan that formed the last stand for Free China. One million two hundred thousand soldiers and civilians followed him on this exodus. In the following decades, the Republic of China has shown to the world what mainland China could have been if governed under a different leadership. The story of China is still unfolding, the legacy of President Chiang Kai Shek and the Republic of China will only grow in importance, as communist China faces its impasse.