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Chiang, Ching-Kuo (1910-1988): President of Taiwan (1978-1988). The eldest son of Chiang, Kai-Shek. He stayed in the Soviet Union for 12 years (1925-1937), and married with a Russian (Fenna Epatcheva Vahaleva, 1916-2004) in 1935. Before he held his presidency, he served as chief of intelligence agency (1950-1965), minister of defense (1965-1969), deputy premier (1969-1972), and premier (1972-1978) of Taiwan. He helped reorganizing nationalist KMT as a Lenin-style party after its failure in the Chinese civil war against the Communists (1949). He masterminded the great public constructions in the 1970's, leading to the "Taiwanese economic miracle". Nonetheless, he suppressed the democracy to ensure the political monopoly of KMT and minority mainlanders. In his last years, he made some steps of democratization. |
