- Mini Bio
- Name: Chiang Kai-shek
- Born: 31st October 1887, Fenghua, Zhejiang, Qing dynasty China
- Died: 5th April 1975, Taipei, Taiwan
- Resting place: Cihu Mausoleum, Taoyuan, Taiwan
- Nationality: Chinese
- Alma mater: Baoding Military Academy and the Imperial Japanese Army Academy Preparatory School
- Occupation: Revolutionary and military leader of the Republic of China
- Political party: Kuomintang (KMT)
- Marriage resume: Mao Fumei 1901 - 1911 (divorced), Yao Yecheng 1912 - 1921 (divorced), Chen Jieru 1921 - 1926 (divorced) and Soong Mei-ling 1927 - 1975 (his death)
- Nicknames: Generalissimo and Red General
- Trivia: On 19th February 1934 he launched the New Life Movement that was to promote cultural reform with Confucianism being integral in its aims of advocating a life guided by the ancient virtues of rationalistic thinking
"The Japanese are a disease of the skin. The Communists are a disease of the heart"
Chiang Kai-shek"I felt throughout my childhood that mother and I were fighting a helpless lone war. We were alone in a desert, no available or possible assistance could we look forward to"
Chiang Kai-shek"Dr. Sun worked for 40 years to lead our people in the Nationalist cause, and we cannot allow any other personality to usurp this honored position"
Chiang Kai-shek"Mao is a strange man whose personality is like the Tao, sometimes In sometime Young; he has a soft-as-cotton outer layer, but at the same time has sharp needles hiding inside"
Chiang Kai-shek"I do not think he could achieve anything, at the end he will be crushed inside my palm"
Chiang Kai-shek"Our determination was never shaken, nor hope abandoned"
Chiang Kai-shek"I was an orphan boy in a poor family. Deprived of any protection after the death of her husband, my mother was exposed to the most ruthless exploitation by neighbouring ruffians and the local gentry"
Chiang Kai-shek"We must use every inch of our blood to take back every inch of our land, you ten thousand youths and soldiers"
Chiang Kai-shek"It is not worth it to sacrifice the interest of the country for the sake of my son"
Chiang Kai-shek"I would rather have no offspring than sacrifice our nation's interests"
Chiang Kai-shek"We write our own destiny; We become what we do"
Chiang Kai-shek"The rise or fall of Shanghai means the birth or death of the whole nation"
Chiang Kai-shek"Character cannot be counterfeited, nor can it be put on and cast off as if it were a garment to fit the whim of the moment"
Chiang Kai-shek"As long as we have Taiwan, the Communists can never win"
Chiang Kai-shekGreat quotes are not where you find great wisdom. It's where you share this knowledge that counts
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Chiang Kai-shek Biography
Chiang Kai-shek was the revolutionary and military leader who rose to power to become the head of state of the Chinese Nationalist government between 1928 and 1949. Hailing from a rich ancestry but brought up in a poor rural background he lost his father at the age of eight leaving his mother with the tough task of a single parent as the end of the nineteenth century loomed in a warlord torn land still under the rule of the Qing Dynasty.
When Kai-shek turned 18 he enrolled at the military training academy in Japan until 1911 when he returned to mainland China to take part in the overthrow of the Qing dynasty. In the new Chinese republic led by the founder of the Kuomintang (KMT) Sun Yat-sen he was made commandant of the newly formed military academy which gave him the opportunity to build up the army.
Upon the death of Sun Yat-sen in 1925 he took command as the republics leader and quickly moved to unify the country and clamp down on the communists. Internal in-fighting with the communists and external incursions from the Japanese dominated the ensuing years until WW2 saw China gaining the western powers as allies. But as his stature grew overseas disillusionment in his rule was festering at home and whilst he concentrated on fighting the Japanese the communists were gaining traction by winning the hearts and minds of the long suffering people.
Post WW2 saw an all out civil war in China that resulted in the Communists led by Chairman Mao Zedong, defeating Chiang Kai-shek's forces in 1949 giving him no alternative but to flee the mainland and establish a government in exile on Taiwan. His paranoia to protect his remaining power base saw a ruthless purge of opponents that became known as the "white terror" with his martial law enduring for a further 25 years with his belief that the Americans would assist his cause to retake mainland China.
His dream of uniting China under his rule never materialised but he was always good for a one liner, so this is my compilation of 10 of the best Chiang Kai-shek quotes
Quotes About Chiang Kai-shek
The author Robert D. Kaplan described one epoch of his power thus: "Under Chiang, the power and authority of the central government was greater in the 1930s than at any point since the mid-19th century"
The writer Sita Ram Goel recalled his stance towards Indian independence: "The only world leader who sympathised with Indian aspirations at that time was Chiang Kai-shek of China whom Pandit Nehru had denounced as a reactionary tool of Western imperialism only a few years earlier"
The author Robert D. Kaplan discussed his control by saying: "Under Chiang, the power and authority of the central government was greater in the 1930s than at any point since the mid-19th century"