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Wikipedia Summary for Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and romanized via Mandarin as Chiang Chieh-shih and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China from 1928, first in mainland China until 1949 and then in Taiwan, until his death in 1975.
Born in Chekiang (Zhejiang) Province, Chiang was a member of the Kuomintang (KMT) and a lieutenant of Sun Yat-sen in the revolution to overthrow the Beiyang government and reunify China. With help from the Soviets and the Communist Party of China (CPC, commonly known as the Chinese Communist Party or CCP), Chiang organized the military for Sun's Canton Nationalist Government and headed the Whampoa Military Academy. Commander in chief of the National Revolutionary Army (from which he came to be known as Generalissimo), he led the Northern Expedition from 1926 to 1928, before defeating a coalition of warlords and nominally reunifying China under a new Nationalist government. Midway through the Northern Expedition, the KMT–CPC alliance broke down and Chiang massacred communists inside the party, triggering a civil war with the CPC, which he eventually lost in 1949.
As leader of the Republic of China in the Nanjing decade, Chiang sought to strike a difficult balance between modernizing China while also devoting resources to defending the nation against the CPC, warlords, and the impending Japanese threat. Trying to avoid a war with Japan while hostilities with the CPC continued, he was kidnapped in the Xi'an Incident and obliged to form an Anti-Japanese United Front with the CPC. Following the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937, he mobilized China for the Second Sino-Japanese War. For eight years he led the war of resistance against a vastly superior enemy, mostly from the wartime capital Chongqing. As the leader of a major Allied power, Chiang met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Cairo Conference to discuss terms for Japanese surrender. No sooner had the Second World War ended than the Civil War with the communists, by then led by Mao Zedong, resumed. Chiang's nationalists were mostly defeated in a few decisive battles in 1948.
In 1949 Chiang's government and army retreated to Taiwan, where Chiang imposed martial law and persecuted critics during the White Terror. Presiding over a period of social reforms and economic prosperity, Chiang won five elections to six-year terms as President of the Republic of China and was Director-General of the Kuomintang until his death in 1975, three years into his fifth term as President and just one year before Mao's death.
One of the longest-serving non-royal heads of state in the 20th century, Chiang was the longest-serving non-royal ruler of China, having held the post for 46 years. Like Mao, he is regarded as a controversial figure. Supporters credit him with playing a major part in unifying the nation and leading the Chinese resistance against Japan, as well as with countering Communist influence. Detractors and critics denounce him as a dictator at the front of a corrupt authoritarian regime who suppressed opponents.
China is the largest and most ancient of Asiatic countries, but it is not for us boastfully to talk of her right to a position of 'leadership' among those countries.
I have always told my subordinates that when they commit any mistakes, the blame must be laid on the superior officers.
I should like very much to go to America. I have heard so much of the great industrial and economic development of that great land, and I wish to see things for myself.
For a period of 17 years -- from the age of 9 until I was 25 years old -- my mother never spent a day free from domestic difficulties.
My father died when I was 9 years old. The miserable condition of my family at that time is beyond description. My family, solitary and without influence, became at once the target of much insult and abuse.
Externally China desires independence, internally she seeks to maintain her existence as a nation; China therefore strives to loose the bonds that bind her people, and to complete the establishment of a new State.
Contempt for China on the part of the enemy is his weak point. Knowledge of this weak point is our strong point.
Give me fifty DC-3's and the Japanese can have the Burma Road.
The aim of the Revolution is, so far as the interests of China herself are concerned, the restoration of her original frontiers and, in regard to the rest of the world, a gradual advance of all nations from the stage of equality to that of an ideal unity.
We shall not lightly talk about sacrifice until we are driven to the last extremity which makes sacrifice inevitable.
We become what we do.
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.
We live in the present, we dream of the future and we learn eternal truths from the past.
I go walking, and the hills loom above me, range upon range, one against the other. I cannot tell where one begins and another leaves off. But when I talk with God He lifts me up where I can see clearly, where everything has a distinct contour.
Mao is a sometime Yin sometime Yang strange man, he has a soft-as-cotton outer layer, but at the same time has sharp needles hiding inside... I do not think he could achieve anything, at the end he will be crushed inside my palm.
Only a fighting nation can make itself responsible for world peace, and such a nation must organize its material resources and manpower with the highest possible degree of efficiency.
It is not worth it to sacrifice the interest of the country for the sake of my son.
Modern warfare is by no means merely a matter of military operations. Economic affairs stand together with them in the first rank of the factors of importance.
China not only fights for her own independence, but also for the liberation of every oppressed nation. For us, the Atlantic Charter and President Roosevelts proclamation of the Four Freedoms for all peoples are corner-stones of our fighting faith.
China not only fights for her own independence, but also for the liberation of every oppressed nation. For us, the Atlantic Charter and President Roosevelt's proclamation of the Four Freedoms for all peoples are corner-stones of our fighting faith.
We are working for a revolution. If we do not start it by improving the life of the soldiers, all slogans of reforming and improving society are but empty words.
The modern world is one wherein every nation has to develop the strength of which its citizens are capable. The independent status of the individual, his thoughts and actions become a thing of the past.
We Chinese are instinctively democratic, and Dr. Sun's objective of universal suffrage evokes from all Chinese a ready and unhesitating response.
The Japanese are a disease of the skin. The Communists are a disease of the heart.
We write our own destiny ...we become what we do.
The idea of universal brotherhood is innate in the catholic nature of Chinese thought; it was the dominant concept of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, whom events have proved time and again to be not a visionary but one of the world's greatest realists.
Japan cannot conquer China with America in her rear, Soviet Russia on her right and England on her left -- her most powerful enemies in the South Sea all flanking her. It is this international situation that constitutes one of Japan's great weaknesses.
Don't be disquieted in time of adversity. Be firm with dignity and self-reliant with vigor.
Dr. Sun Yat-sen, Father of the Republic, made it his great aim in his revolutionary leadership to secure freedom and equality of status for China among the nations of the world.
If we are to give the people of China complete self-government we must first solve the problem of livelihood for all, and give real freedom to the races within China. If the foundations of democracy are secure, then true equality can be achieved.
Government acquisition of food supplies in time of war is no less important than conscription. Equity is the fundamental principle applicable to both these essential phases of war administration.
For many centuries Chinese society has been free of class distinctions such as are found even in advanced democracies.
The final outcome of a war is often determined by the degree of initiative shown on each side.
My good health is due to a soup made of white doves. It is simply wonderful as a tonic.
I have often said China is not lacking in material resources. The question is whether we can make full and good use of them.
My impressions of the Russian Revolution can be divided into two periods. The first period was when I showed deep sympathy. My second period is one of disappointment. This change was the result of close observation on the spot.
There are three essential factors in all human activity: spirit, materials, and action.
China has no desire to replace Western imperialism in Asia with an Oriental imperialism or isolationism of its own or anyone else.
You must all be aware that modern war is not a mere matter of military operations. It involves the whole strength and all the resources of the nation. Not only soldiers, but also all citizens without exception, take part.
If imperialism is not banished from the country, China will perish as a nation. If China does not perish, then imperialism cannot remain.
Patriotism demands of us sustained sacrifice.
The rise or fall of Shanghai means the birth or death of the whole nation.
Prayer is more than meditation. In meditation the source of strength is one's self. When one prays he goes to a source of strength greater than his own.
War is not only a matter of equipment, artillery, group troops or air force; it is largely a matter of spirit, or morale.