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by Jay Taylor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000. xiv + 520 pp. ISBN 0-674-00287-3
Among the top political figures in China's contemporary history is Chiang Ching-kuo. He transformed the autocratic repressive Kuomintang (KMT) regime on Taiwan into an open, multiparty democracy, decades after the Republic of China's defeat on the mainland. This raised its status in American eyes, thereby strengthening Washington's virtual commitment to defend the island against Beijing's use of force. This revolutionary change came despite his favourable impression of Soviet communism during his younger years there. It also contradicted his use of secret police and concentration camps on Taiwan under his father, Chiang Kai-shek. These conflicting tendencies receive close study by Jay Taylor who combines rigorous research, shrewd insight, and superb writing. He also goes beyond a fascinating biography to offer a sweeping survey of recent history that captures the broader dynamics of Soviet-Chinese relations, Japanese invasion, and the collapse of Nationalist China.
Taylor spans the entire range of Ching-kuo's life, beginning with personal interviews with the original Chiang family cohorts in the Chekiang (Zhejiang) communities of Hsikou (Xikou) and Fenghua. He meticulously combs diaries, county records, journals, and competing accounts to confirm that Ching-kuo was born to Mao Fu-mei, Chiang Kai-shek's first (later divorced) wife. He also refutes allegations of bitter rivalry between Ching-kuo and Madame Chiang Kai-shek, while acknowledging differences in their political inclinations as Taiwan becomes liberalized. The less known story begins with the young Chiang's education in Moscow at his own...