Biographical Research Essay

Chiang Kai-Shek

Brief Biography of Chiang Kai-Shek

It is said that the winners write history, and thus Chiang Kai-Shek has not had the luxury of writing his own biography. Chiang Kai-Shek 'lost' control of the Chinese mainland and only succeeded in establishing his rule and regime over the renegade island of Taiwan. But like Mao Zedong, whose vision of communist China defeated Chiang's vision of a China led by his own military force and Kuomintang warlords, Chiang also had dreams of united Chinese glory.

Chiang was born in 1887 in a remote farm village in the eastern province of Zhejiang. At the age of eighteen, the young Chiang left China to train at Tokyo's Military Preparatory Academy and embraced the academy's strict regime, even though he was later to wage war against Japan. Chiang returned to China in 1911, when the Chinese revolution began that eventually toppled the Manchu regime. Chiang helped crush the warlords that had torn apart the country, and created bitter civil strife, although he was eventually purged from the ranks of the leadership in 1928. In 1927 he married the beautiful U.S.-educated Soong Mei-ling, daughter of a prominent Shanghai publishing tycoon, and adopted her Christian faith. Madam Chiang Kai-Shek was an intelligent, beautiful and articulate woman, canny in her ability to speak to and sway the foreign press. (Reese, 1999)

Together, the two created a powerful public relations image around the world for China. The Kuomintang Chiang led became a bulwark against Japan's imperial ambitions and gained Chiang a place among the Big Four powers during the negotiations that ended World War II. However, Chiang's place in the hearts of the Chinese populace was never so secure. Chiang sought to increase his party's strength with ties to China's wealthy landlords, ignoring the peasants making up 90% of China's population. (Reese, 199)

Also, Chiang's control over his warlords had often been unsteady during the war, "his armies were usually badly equipped, badly trained and badly led and his military skill was dubious," and strategically he was often more concerned with fighting the Communists, who had been his principal enemies before the war than the Japanese. ("Chiang Kai-Shek," The World at War, 2006) He thus expended much of his might and energy fighting internal forces, rather than directing his energies against the immediate invaders. After Chiang used most of his troops to prepare for war with the Communists he lost more ground to the Japanese. Only when massive American aid and reinforcements were sent to Chiang, Chiang was finally able to push the Japanese out of China. ("Chiang Kai-Shek," The World at War, 2006)