Chiang Kai-shek Fact Sheet: Who was Chiang Kai-shek? The following short biography and fact sheet provides interesting facts about the life, times and history of Chiang Kai-shek.

Chiang Kai-shek Fact File: Lifespan: 1887 - 1975 *** Full Name: Chiang Kai-shek *** Nickname: General Cash-My-Check *** Occupation: Chinese Political and Military Leader *** Date of Birth: Chiang Kei-shek was born on October 31st 1887 *** Place of Birth: Chiang Kei-shek was born in Xikou some miles southwest of Ningbo, in Fenghua, Zhejiang. His ancestral home however was in Yixing, Jiangsu *** Family background: His father was Jiang Zhaocong and his mother was Wang Caiyu both from families of salt merchants of upper-middle to upper-class *** Early life and childhood: He grew up in an era of huge instability between warlords and the military was rife, destabilizing China and its economy *** Education: He began his military education at Baoding Military Academy, followed by the Imperial Japanese Army Academy Preparatory School for Chinese students ***

Chiang Kai-shek Fact 1: Chiang Kei-shek was born during the end of the 19th century and a time of two World Wars and the beginning of the Cold War as well as huge leaps in transportation.

Chiang Kai-shek Fact 2: Between 1909 and 1911 he served in the Imperial Japanese Army before returning to China.

Chiang Kai-shek Fact 3: While away at school he made friends with Chem Qimei and they would meet again during the Wuchang Uprising where he fought as an artillery officer serving on the side of the revolutionary forces.

Chiang Kai-shek Fact 4: Post revolution in 1911 he would become one of the founding members of the KMT (Kuomintang) an organization founded by Sun Yat-sen.

Chiang Kai-shek Fact 5: With the help of Sun Yat-sen he became commandant of the Whompoa Military Academy in Canton where he started the Nationalist army in 1924.

Chiang Kai-shek Fact 6: When Sun died in 1925 he became the leader of the KMT which at that time organized and reunified the majority of China under the mantel of a National Government.

Chiang Kai-shek Fact 7: He would lead the overthrow of the Chinese Communist Party in 1928.

Chiang Kai-shek Fact 8: On top of trying to suppress internal fighting, chiefly among the communists he also had to contend with the problems of Japan invading China by way of Manchuria.

Chiang Kai-shek Fact 9: In 1934, to try and give some stability to China he reinstated the state cult of Confucius with the New Life Movement.

Chiang Kai-shek Fact 10: He would be seized by one of his generals in late 1936 who felt he should be concentrating his forces more on the Japanese than on the communists, he was released after a couple of weeks.

Chiang Kai-shek Fact 11: The following year the situation between China and Japan escalated into full blown war that had China fighting Japan for the next for years until the Japanese attached Pearl Harbor and the allies then joined forces with China against Japan.

Chiang Kai-shek Fact 12: By 1944 the American’s had put together Operation Matterhorn designed to send bombers from air force bases constructed on mainland China whose mission was to take out Japan’s steel industry.

Chiang Kai-shek Fact 13: Construction on these bases was held up until the US had invested enough money for the Nationalist party officials to embezzle at least half of the $100 million sent to pay for the construction.

Chiang Kai-shek Fact 14: Because of the conflict between the Americans and the Soviet Union, Chiang took great advantage of playing one country off of the other.

Chiang Kai-shek Fact 15: At this time the French had lessened their grip on Indochina and the US President Roosevelt made it clear he had no wish for the French to reinstate themselves in that part of the world. But Chiang would not cooperate so the Japanese held Indochina until the French made their return in 1946.

Chiang Kai-shek Fact 16: Post war the American tried to bring peace talks between Chiang and Mao Zedong, the Communist leader and even began limited its aid to China to try and encourage the talks as well as to reduce the amount of corruption rampant in Chiang’s government.

Chiang Kai-shek Fact 17: Internally within China there was still open war between the Nationalist and the Communists but because of the growing popularity of the Communists and the people’s agreement with the land reform policies that they were introducing the Communists gained more and more power during the civil conflict.

Chiang Kai-shek Fact 18: Between the corruption rampant within his own government and the Communist parties steadily growing popularity he decided to leave China and moved to Taiwan taking with him all the money given by the Americans.

Chiang Kai-shek Fact 19: By 1949 the People’s Republic of China was firmly established.

Chiang Kai-shek Fact 20: Having already had a heart attack and pneumonia in 1975, having been in Taiwan for 26 years, he died on April 5th 1975 of renal failure intensified by advanced cardiac malfunction.

Influence & Legacy: Because of the different views held about him it is difficult to say what his legacy is. I would imagine because of the corruption going on with his government it was difficult to cover more than one base at a time. There is the school of thought that he did not put enough effort and resources into keeping the Japanese at bay and yet the other who say he should have done more when it came to stamping out communism and so losing the country to Mao Zedong. It may have been a case of neither way was wrong or right

Important Events of the 19th century and during the life of Chiang Kai-shek include: New Zealand is the first country to allow women to vote in a national election, Tsar Alexander III dies and his son Nicholas II is the new Tsar, Queen Victoria of England dies and her son Edward VII is crowned King and the First World War erupts.