The publication of former president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) diaries, which were recently returned to Taiwan following a decade-long legal battle, is a form of “social reconciliation and progress,” Academia Historica said yesterday.
The seven-volume collection from 1948 to 1954, published by the Republic of China History and Culture Society, covers Chiang’s first term as president and the pivotal period during which he retreated to Taiwan after losing the Chinese Civil War.
More diaries covering Chiang’s later years in office are to be published from next year, the National Archives Administration said, adding that it plans to publish the 1970-1979 diaries of his son, former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), later this year.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
The content is to be uploaded to the state archives’ online database from March next year.
Academia Historica President Chen Yi-shen (陳儀深) told a news conference in Taipei that the publication of the diaries of Chiang Kai-shek — who remains a highly controversial figure in Taiwan — should be seen as “a form of social reconciliation and progress.”
Citing his own experience, Chen encouraged readers to avoid seeing Chiang Kai-shek in black-and-white terms, and instead read the diaries carefully within the historical context.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
“Without a doubt, the diaries are important historical documents and cultural treasures,” Zhongzheng Cultural and Education Foundation president Chiang Fang Chih-yi (蔣方智怡) said in a speech at an event marking the occasion.
She pointed to the details recorded in the diaries that Chiang Kai-shek had kept over a span of about 50 years.
Chiang Fang — who was married to Chiang Ching-kuo’s third son, Chiang Hsiao-yung (蔣孝勇) — signed an agreement with Stanford University’s Hoover Institution to keep the diaries for 50 years starting from 2005.
Academia Historica in 2013 said she had signed an agreement with it to take over the documents, leading to a protracted legal battle that culminated with the return of the diaries in September, when Academia Historica received 59 boxes of documents kept by the former presidents from 1917 to 1979.
Chiang Fang said that people who are critical of Chiang Kai-shek should consider the circumstances he faced as leader of the Republic of China, such as fighting Japan, while also combating communists.
The achievements Taiwan enjoys today should be considered when analyzing the endeavors of those who came before, she added.
Chiang Fang concluded by referring to a statement from Chiang Kai-shek’s will, encouraging Taiwanese to “revive democratic culture and safeguard democracy.”
One of the collection’s most notable passages is Chiang Kai-shek’s description of leaving Chengdu — the last Nationalist-controlled city in China — on Dec. 10, 1949. He left the city after learning that then-Yunnan Province governor Lu Han (盧漢) had defected to the communists and asked the leader of the then-Hsikang Province (a region now part of Sichuan Province) to help capture Chiang Kai-shek.
After holding meetings that morning, Chiang Kai-shek boarded a 2pm flight at Chengdu’s Fenghuangshan military airport and arrived in Taipei that evening, where he was taken directly to the Grass Mountain Chateau on Yangmingshan.
Perhaps unexpectedly given the circumstances, Chiang’s diary entry for that day praises the “mild air” and “peaceful environment” in Taiwan, which he compared with the “gloom” that had settled over wartime Chengdu.
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
RSS