Many advocates for Taiwan’s independence have condemned - and are still condemning - Chiang Kai-shek for imposing an “alien” government on the island. But they have forgotten one fundamental historical fact. They owe their freedom for openly calling for the sovereignty of the island nation to President Chiang, who was born 124 years ago today.
It is Chiang Kai-shek who gave Taiwan its status as a nation state. Taiwan would not have been what it is today if he had not brought his tattered Kuomintang government to Taipei and launched the island on its way to modernization.
There has been no public celebration of Chiang’s birthday in Taiwan for the past two years. It used to be a national holiday - his son, Chiang Ching-kuo, proclaimed October 31 a national holiday after the man who had ruled China in different capacities for half a century died in Taipei on April 5, 1975.
When on December 10, 1949, Chiang Kai-shek arrived in Taipei from the Chinese mainland - still technically in “retirement” from the Presidency which he did not reassume until March 1 the following year - the political and other fortunes of the Kuomintang government were at lowest ebb. As seen from Taipei at that time, the situation could hardly have been worse.
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