Chiang Kai-shek's Complicated Legacy 

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While deeply flawed, Chiang Kai shek was one of the most important Chinese leaders of the 20th century or any era. He fought against the warlords when China's unity had collapsed. He fought against the communists who, because he lost, would go on to establish a totalitarian state that killed tens of millions of Chinese. He fought the Japanese. He and his wife put China on the map, changing American perceptions of China from that of a backward country to one of the big 5 allied powers that won WW2. He fought the communists again. And in Taiwan, Chiang's government helped make the country the first of the Asian Tigers while mainland China was in the throes of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. I admire Chiang Kai shek and his wife, whose life spanned three centuries, despite all their faults. Can't understand why the Taiwanese would want a Chinese nationalist who fought for his country against insufferable odds and put Taiwan on the map to be erased from the public square. Perhaps they would prefer to see statues of Mao all over Taiwan, one day, perhaps? Taiwan has evolved into a democracy, communist China is still a totalitarian one party state. That tells you much of what you need to know of Chiang's rule.

He is misunderstood. He committed human rights violations yes, but he was not the tyrannical dictator despot he is made out to be. He fought for the freedom and democracy of China and paved the way for Taiwans democracy along with his son Chiang Ching-Kuo. His atrocities are unexcusable, but may we point to the contrast that was occuring on the mainland under mao's rule? Chiang was a conflicted man fighting his ideals of a strong, free china vs the reality of the situation, which was the threat of a communist takeover or the collapse of his regime, and his plans for a prosperous future.

Can you imagine this type of conversation about Mao occurring in PRChina any time soon?

Do most Taiwanese people love or hate Chiang Kai-shek though? What percentage loves and hates??

People should idolize abstract ideals, not other people with their inherent flaws. But human nature always insists otherwise.

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