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THE GENERALISSIMO: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China. By Jay Taylor. Cambridge, MA and London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University, 2009. xii, 722 pp. (Maps, B&W photos.) US$35.00, cloth. ISBN 978-0-674-03338-2.
A Chinese proverb has it that "the final judgment can be passed on a person when the lid is placed on his coffin" (...). Chiang Kai-shek passed away in 1975; a final verdict on him should have become available by now. But the existing political and territorial break-up of the Chinese nation has made such judgment next to impossible. It can be said that Chiang, with the lid on his coffin for over three decades, is still without a final judgment (...).
What kind of political leader was Chiang Kai-shek? This is a question that always sets off strong emotions among Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. As of now, the answer remains a matter of opinion, and of controversy. In Mainland China, where the Communist regime holds a vendetta...