The Man Who Lost China: The First Full Biography of Chiang Kai-Shek

A very good and in-depth look at one of the most contraversial men in Modern Chinese history.Chiang was a typical Chinese of the past generation.He was vicious, authoritarian, inflexible and narrow-minded. He had brought a lot of miseries and sufferings to China and the Chinese people. But I am inclined to believe that the Chinese people were partly to blame. Up until recently the ideas of democracy and equality never entered the China mind depite appreciation of Western ideas and philosophy. I understand that F.D. Roosevelt considered getting rid of him but the Chinese people could not have a leader replaced unless death or convulsive revolution took place.I do give him credit for letting his son run the country in his later years without interfering. The younger Chiang worked hard in economic development and made Taiwan one of the tigers of South East Asia.I would urge politicians of both China and Taiwan to read this book carefully so as to make China a true modern and democratic state.

OK, China was seriously ill. Here is the prescription, Three People's Principles of Sun Yat-sen and supplement with General Tseng Kuo-fan's Letter to His Family. It is like the snake oil, cures all and no alternative. Three People's Principles was a two-semester course in Taiwan high school. It was the same weight as math, physics in college entrance examination. One core course in all the university is Political Theory of Sun Wen. I do not think the instructors knew what they were talking about. I believe that CKS and KMT just use Three People's Principles to demonstrate that they are the legitimate rulers of China. There are many ambitious people like Mao and Chiang in China. They are like the pests. I do not know whether CKS loved China but I do know he loved himself more than China. In Taiwan he placed "Lin-show" (supreme leader) ahead of nation in slogan. I do not think he understood democracy at all (even the US educated Mme. Chiang Kei-shek, as commented by Mrs. Roosevelt). A mystery is he never set feet on the soil of western Europe or United States (may be he must have 1,500 Blue Shirt agents to protect him). He initiated the New Life Movement to improve personal moral virtues, but he was a frequenter of brothel. It is like the Confucious said to be a leader you should tell the people what to do but not to tell them the reasons. Basically the purpose of the New Life Movement was to blame the Chinese for their failure but not because of his leadership.As it is mentioned in John Fairbank's book CKS enjoyed in reshuffling the power shares among party, military and civic government to solidify his control. Real secret of Chiang's power was his manipulation of rival groups. Besides that any of his subordinates overshadowed him will be suppressed. He dispatched the anti-Japanese resistance hero 19th Route Army to Fukien and hope they would destroy themself against the communist rebel. Young Marshal Chang Hsueh-liang was asked to fight communist and suffered a huge loss. That is why General Stilwell gave him the nickname of "Little rattlesnake". CKS's leadership is the mob or Mafia style. Assassination or "White Terror" is one of options to achieve something. He attempted to kill Wang Ching-wei by sending a police officer to Vietnam to carry out the assassination. His mob character was shown in his pursuit for his 15 year old 2nd (or 3rd) wife. He threatened to cut off his own finger if Jenny Chen did not accept him.(Jonathan Fenby book) This is more like the Japanese style mob. He said you should be punished as a communist if you did not report the authority the communist you knew. The student to be registered in the college must accompany an assurance certificate by someone who insures your loyalty to the government. Because of his mob mentality he distrusted the subordinates. Chiang desired to hold as many strings as possible in his own hands, so that his own position could not be threatened (comment by Stilwell).In order to demonstrate that

If you believe the Chicom stooges, Chiang Kai Shek deserves to be villified. Crozier balances both KMT and CCP sources to get a balanced look at the man who attempted to bring the Sun Yat Sen's democracy to fruition. Crozier traces Chiang's life from his boyhood in Chekiang to his death on Formosa. Chiang was vain, surrounded himself with corrupt yes-men, but he did care about China and would have united it had not his American allies sold him out. No matter what your assessment of the KMT, you cannot deny that given the results of the Cultural Revolution, that Chiang is the lesser of the two evils.