Chiang Ching-kuo | |
---|---|
蔣經國 | |
![]() Official portrait, 1985 | |
3rd President of the Republic of China | |
In office 20 May 1978 – 13 January 1988 | |
Premier | See list |
Vice President | Hsieh Tung-min Lee Teng-hui |
Preceded by | Yen Chia-kan |
Succeeded by | Lee Teng-hui |
1st Chairman of the Kuomintang | |
In office 5 April 1975 – 13 January 1988 | |
Preceded by | Chiang Kai-shek (Director-General of the Kuomintang) |
Succeeded by | Lee Teng-hui |
9th Premier of the Republic of China | |
In office 29 May 1972 – 20 May 1978 | |
President | Chiang Kai-shek Yen Chia-kan |
Vice Premier | Hsu Ching-chung |
Preceded by | Yen Chia-kan |
Succeeded by | Hsu Ching-chung (acting) |
11th Vice Premier of the Republic of China[a] | |
In office 1 July 1969 – 1 June 1972 | |
Premier | Yen Chia-kan |
Preceded by | Huang Shao-ku |
Succeeded by | Hsu Ching-chung |
9th Minister of National Defense | |
In office 14 January 1965 – 30 June 1969 | |
Premier | Yen Chia-kan |
Preceded by | Yu Da-wei |
Succeeded by | Huang Chieh |
Minister without Portfolio | |
In office 15 July 1958 – 13 January 1965 | |
Premier | Chen Cheng Yen Chia-kan |
2nd Minister of Vocational Assistance Commission for Retired Servicemen | |
In office 25 April 1956 – 1 July 1964 | |
Premier | Yu Hung-chun Chen Cheng Yen Chia-kan |
Preceded by | Yen Chia-kan |
Succeeded by | Chau Chu-yue |
Personal details | |
Born | [note 1] Fenghua, Zhejiang, Qing China | 27 April 1910
Died | 13 January 1988 Taipei, Taiwan | (aged 77)
Resting place | Touliao Mausoleum, Daxi District, Taoyuan, Taiwan |
Political party | Kuomintang |
Spouse | |
Children | Chiang Hsiao-wen Chiang Hsiao-chang Chiang Hsiao-yen (illegitimate, disputed[1]) Winston Chang (illegitimate, disputed[1]) Chiang Hsiao-wu Chiang Hsiao-yung |
Alma mater | Moscow Sun Yat-sen University |
Signature | ![]() |
Military service | |
Branch/service | Republic of China Army |
Years of service | 1937–1968 |
Rank | ![]() |
Chiang Ching-kuo | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() "Chiang Ching-kuo" in Traditional (top) and Simplified (bottom) Chinese characters | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 蔣經國 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 蒋经国 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Chiang Ching-kuo (/ˈtʃæŋtʃɪŋˈkwəʊ/ Jiang Jing Guo,[2] 27 April[note 1] 1910 – 13 January 1988) was a politician of the Republic of China. The eldest and only biological son of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, he held numerous posts in the government of the Republic of China and ended martial law in 1987. He served as the 3rd premier of the Republic of China between 1972 and 1978 and was president of the Republic of China from 1978 until his death in 1988.
Born in Zhejiang, Ching-kuo was sent as a teenager to study in the Soviet Union during the First United Front in 1925, when his father's Nationalist Party and the Chinese Communist Party were in alliance. Before his education in the USSR, he attended school in Shanghai and Beijing, where he became interested in socialism and communism.[3] He attended university in the USSR and spoke Russian fluently,[4] but when the Chinese Nationalists violently broke with the Communists, Joseph Stalin sent him to work in a steel factory in the Ural Mountains. There, Chiang met and married Faina Vakhreva. With war between China and Japan imminent in 1937, Stalin sent the couple to China. During the war, Ching-kuo's father gradually came to trust him, and gave him more and more responsibilities, including administration.
After the Japanese surrender, Ching-kuo was given the job of ridding Shanghai of corruption, which he attacked with ruthless efficiency. The victory of the Communists in 1949 drove the Chiang family and their ROC government to retreat to Taiwan. Ching-kuo was first given control of the secret police, a position he retained until 1965 and in which he used arbitrary arrests and torture to ensure tight control as part of the White Terror. He then became Minister of Defense (1965–1969), Vice-Premier (1969–1972) and Premier (1972–1978). After his father's death in 1975, he took leadership of the Kuomintang (KMT) as chairman, and was elected president in 1978 and again in 1984.
Under his tenure as president, the government of the Republic of China in Taiwan, while remaining authoritarian, became more open and tolerant of political dissent. Chiang courted Taiwanese voters, and reduced the preference for those who had come from the mainland after the war. Toward the end of his life, Chiang decided to relax government controls on the media and speech, and allowed Han born in Taiwan into positions of power, including his eventual successor Lee Teng-hui. He was the last president of the Republic of China to be born during the rule of the Qing dynasty. Ching-kuo was credited for his Soviet-inspired city planning policies,[5] economic development with Ten Major Construction Projects in Taiwan, efforts to clamp down on corruption, as well as the democratic transition of Taiwan and gradually shifting away from the authoritarian dictatorial rule of his own father Chiang Kai-shek.[6]
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha>
tags or {{efn}}
templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}
template or {{notelist}}
template (see the help page).
Cite error: There are <ref group=note>
tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}}
template (see the help page).
© MMXXIII Rich X Search. We shall prevail. All rights reserved. Rich X Search