Wife of legendary Chinese warlord dies in US at 88

Edith Chao (趙一荻), wife and companion for 70 years of the legendary former Chinese warlord Chang Hsueh-liang (張學良), has died in Honolulu of pneumonia. She was 88.

Chang, who is 100, was visibly moved to deep sorrow after seeing his wife taken off life-support at the Straub Hospital before she died Thursday, newspapers reported from Honolulu.

Chao had accompanied Chang throughout his 50 years of house arrest. The couple's love affair was seen as one of the greatest in the history of modern China.

At 18, Chao, the beautiful daughter of a vice transport minister, fled her home to live with the then-married Chang in Shenyang in northeastern China after the two met and fell in love at a ballroom dance.

Chang, who has been popularly referred to as "the young marshal," was at the time a military chieftain in northeastern China.

A long ordeal began for the couple in 1936 when Chang's troops kidnapped Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) in the central Chinese city of Xian. Chang's objective was to force Chiang to shelve his anti-communist campaign and form an alliance with them to fight off the Japanese invasion.

The incident is seen as having given the communists the boost that later enabled them to overthrow Chiang's KMT and seize power in 1949.

Chang released Chiang unharmed after the two-week coup.

But the KMT later captured the young marshal and fled to Taiwan, where they held Chang under house arrest for decades.

In Taipei, Chang and Chao converted to Christianity and lived in seclusion in a hillside villa, reading the Bible and growing orchids.

Their affection even moved Chang's wife, Yu Feng-chih (游芳枝), who agreed to divorce the young marshal in 1964 to allow her husband to remarry.

Chang only gained full freedom in 1990. The couple left for Honolulu a year later.

Newspaper reports said Chao will be buried at a cemetery in Honolulu, where a site is also reserved for Chang.

The couple had rejected pleas by relatives to live in China and be buried at Chang's hometown in Shenyang after they die.

Besides her husband, Chao is also survived by her son, Chang Lu-lin, 70, who lives in Honolulu.

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and other Taiwan political leaders on Friday sent their condolences to Chang Hsueh-liang to express sorrow over the death of his wife.