|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
You Are
Here: |
World News|
Tuesday, October 28, 2003 - Web posted at 15:34:30 GMT Madame Chiang Kai-shek dies at the age of 106 TAIPEI - Former first lady of China Soong Mayling brought a tumultuous chapter in modern Chinese history to a close on Friday when she died peacefully in her sleep at the age of 106. |
|
The widow of Taiwan military strongman Chiang Kai-shek died at her home in the New York beach suburb of Long Island where she had lived since 1991, her granddaughter-in-law Fang Chih-yi told reporters here. She had been gravely ill since February. "She passed away peacefully ... we wish from the bottom of our hearts that her soul would bless the country and people she loved dearly," Fang Chih-yi said. A modern-day empress nicknamed the 'Dragon Lady', Soong Mayling was born in Shanghai to a wealthy Protestant industrialist Charlie Soong. Her birth year was listed as 1898, but some accounts indicate it was 1897. Her age at death was officially given as 106, though Chinese people normally add a year onto their age, as newborn infants are considered one year old. Her father began life as a missionary and built up a trading empire in Shanghai's boom years, sending Mayling, the youngest of his three daughters, to be educated at exclusive American women's college Wellesley. Fluent in English, Soong Mayling married military strongman Chiang Kai-shek in 1927 and her husband built up his Kuomintang (KMT) nationalist party partially with the help of her father's fortune. Her two sisters had equally illustrious marriages. Her middle sister Soong Qingling tied the knot with Sun Yat-sen, whose revolutionary movement overthrew the Manchu imperial government and founded the Republic of China in 1911. Her eldest sister Soong Ailing was married to Kung Hsiang-hsi, a rich financier who had once handled the KMT government treasury. With her glamorous clothes and diplomatic skills Soong Mayling was influential in advancing her husband's nationalist cause among the American public as he battled the Japanese in China at the beginning of World War II. She travelled to the United States in 1943 and delivered an impressive speech to Congress appealing for support for her husband's fight against the Japanese. She also acted as an interpreter for Chiang at the 1943 Cairo conference in which then US president Franklin Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill also participated. Chiang was then president of the Republic of China (ROC) and head of the Kuomintang, which had joined forces with Mao Zedong's communists guerrillas to fight the Japanese. But the alliance degenerated into a bitter civil war after the Japanese withdrawal from China and KMT troops fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing the war to communist forces led by Mao Zedong. Madame Chiang Kai-shek never saw her sister Qingling, who went on to be part of the Communist leadership, again. Chiang Kai-shek ruled Taiwan with an iron fist - and with Mayling at his side - until he died in 1975, brutally suppressing dissent but failing to realise his dream of recovering control of China. His son, Chiang Ching-kuo, who succeeded him as president and KMT chairman, died in 1988, after launching various political and economic reforms. "We deeply regret the passing of Madame Chiang who had contributed greatly to the Republic of China and Taiwan," said KMT spokesman Tsai Cheng-yuan. Tsai said KMT's party flag would fly half-mast for three days to mourn the former first lady who was still a member of the party advisory committee. KMT's 51-year grip on power in Taiwan ended in 2000 when Chen Shui-bian from the Democratic Progressive Party won presidential polls. The KMT favours an eventual reunification with the mainland while the DPP advocates declaring Taiwan an independent country. - Nampa-AFP |
|
||||
PO Box 20783 - Windhoek - 42 John Meinert Street Tel: +264 (61) 279600 - Fax: +264 (61) 279602
|
