Editing Chiang Ching-kuo (section)

==Biography==
{{more citations needed section|date=February 2017}}

===Early life===
[[File:Chiang Ching-kuo youth 3.jpg|thumb|right|Chiang Ching-kuo in his youth]]
The son of Chiang Kai-shek and his first wife, [[Mao Fumei]], Chiang Ching-kuo was born in [[Fenghua]], Zhejiang, with the [[Chinese courtesy name|courtesy name]] of '''Jiànfēng''' ({{lang|zh-hant|建豐}}). He had an adopted brother, [[Chiang Wei-kuo]]. "Ching" literally means "longitude", while "kuo" means "nation"; in his brother's name, "wei" literally means "parallel (of latitude)". The names are inspired by the references in Chinese classics such as the ''[[Guoyu (book)|Guoyu]]'', in which "to draw the longitudes and latitudes of the world" is used as a metaphor for a person with great abilities, especially in managing a country.

While the young Chiang Ching-kuo had a good relationship with his mother and grandmother (who were deeply rooted to their Buddhist faith), his relationship with his father was strict, utilitarian and often rocky. Chiang Kai-shek appeared to his son as an authoritarian figure, sometimes indifferent to his problems. Even in personal letters between the two, Chiang Kai-shek would sternly order his son to improve his Chinese calligraphy. From 1916 until 1919 Chiang Ching-kuo attended the "Grammar School" in "Wushan Temple" an important temple in Xikou Town. Then, in 1920, his father hired tutors to teach him the [[Four Books]], the central texts of [[Confucianism]]. On 4 June 1921, Ching-kuo's grandmother died. What might have been an immense emotional loss was compensated for when Chiang Kai-shek moved the family to Shanghai. Chiang Ching-kuo's stepmother, historically known as the Chiang family's "Shanghai Mother", went with them. During this period Chiang Kai-shek concluded that Chiang Ching-kuo was a son to be taught, while Chiang Wei-kuo was a son to be loved.

During his time in Shanghai, Chiang Ching-kuo was supervised by his father and made to write a weekly letter of 200–300 Chinese characters. Chiang Kai-shek also underlined the importance of classical books and of learning English, two areas he was hardly proficient in himself.<ref>letter of 4 August 1922</ref> On 20 March 1924, Chiang Ching-kuo was able to present to his now-nationally famous father a proposal concerning the grass-roots organization of the rural population in [[Xikou, Fenghua|Xikou]].<ref>Wang Shun-ch'i, unpublished article, 1995. The letter is in the Nanking archive</ref> Chiang Ching-kuo planned to provide free education to allow people to read and to write at least 1000 characters. In his own words:
<blockquote>I have a suggestion to make about the Wushan School, although I do not know if you can agree to it. My suggestion is that the school establish a night school for common people who cannot afford to go to the regular school. My school established a night school with great success. I can tell you something about the night school:
Name: Wuschua School for the Common People
Tuition fee: Free of charge with stationery supplied
Class hours: 7&nbsp;pm to 9&nbsp;pm
Age limit: 14 or older
Schooling protocol: 16 or 20 weeks.
At the time of the graduation, the trainees will be able to write simple letters and keep simple accounts. They will be issued a diploma if they pass the examinations. The textbooks they used were published by the Commercial Press and were entitled "One thousand characters for the common people." I do not know whether you will accept my suggestion. If a night school is established at Wushan, it will greatly benefit the local people.
</blockquote>

In early 1925, Chiang entered Shanghai's [[Pudong College]], but Chiang Kai-shek decided to send him on to Beijing because of warlord action and spontaneous student protests in Shanghai. In Beijing, he attended the school organized by a friend of his father, [[Wu Zhihui]], a renowned scholar and linguist. The school combined classical and modern approaches to education. While there, Ching-kuo started to identify himself as a ''progressive revolutionary'' and participated in the flourishing social scene inside the young Communist community. The idea of studying in Moscow now seized his imagination.<ref>Cline, Chiang Ching-kuo remembered, p. 148</ref> Within the help program provided by the Soviet Union to the countries of East Asia there was a training school that later became the [[Moscow Sun Yat-sen University]]. The participants to the university were selected by the CPSU and KMT members, with a participation of CPC Central Committee.<ref>Aleksander Pantsov, "From Students to dissidents. The Chinese Troskyites in Soviet Russia (Part 1)", in issues & Studies, 30/3 (March 1994), Institute of international relations, Taipei, pp. 113–14</ref>

Chiang Ching-kuo asked Wu Zhihui to name him as a KMT candidate. Wu did not try to dissuade him, even though Wu was a key figure of the right-leaning and anti-Communist "Western Hills Group" of the KMT. In the summer of 1925, Chiang Ching-kuo traveled south to [[Whampoa Military Academy]] to discuss his plans for study in Moscow with his father. Chiang Kai-shek was not keen, but after a discussion with [[Chen Guofu]] he finally agreed. In a 1996 interview, Ch'en's brother, [[Chen Li-fu]], recalled that Chiang Kai-shek accepted the plan because of the need to have Soviet support at a time when his hold over the KMT was tenuous.<ref>Ch'en Li-fu, interview, Taipei, 29 May 1996.</ref>

===Moscow===
With or without his father's enthusiastic approval, Chiang Ching-kuo went on to Moscow in late 1925. He stayed in the Soviet Union for nearly twelve years. While there, Chiang was given the Russian name '''Nikolai Vladimirovich Elizarov''' (Николай Владимирович Елизаров) and put under the tutelage of [[Karl Radek]] at the [[Communist University of the Toilers of the East]]. Noted for having an exceptional grasp of international politics, his classmates included other children of influential Chinese families, most notably the future Chinese Communist party leader, [[Deng Xiaoping]]. Chiang Ching-kuo joined the [[Communist Youth League]] under Deng.<ref>{{cite web|date=7 May 2016|title=蔣經國和鄧小平同班感情好為何最終卻分道揚鑣？|url=https://www.chinatimes.com/hottopic/20160507003737-260812|url-status=live|access-date=9 January 2020|website=[[China Times]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200101065328/https://www.chinatimes.com/hottopic/20160507003737-260812 |archive-date=1 January 2020 }}</ref><ref>俄國檔案中的留蘇學生蔣經國. Jiang Jingguo's Student Years in the Soviet Union as Reflected in the Russian Archives. 余敏玲(Miin-Ling Yu). 近代史研究所集刊； 29期 1998 p.121</ref> Soon Ching-kuo was an enthusiastic student of Communist ideology, particularly [[Trotskyism]]; though following the [[Great Purge]], [[Joseph Stalin]] privately met with him and ordered him to publicly denounce Trotskyism. Chiang even applied to be a member of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|All-Union Communist Party]], although his request was denied.

In April 1927, however, Chiang Kai-shek purged KMT leftists, had Communists arrested or killed, and expelled his Soviet advisers. Chiang Ching-kuo responded from Moscow with an editorial that harshly criticized his father's actions but was nonetheless detained as a "guest" of the Soviet Union, a practical hostage. The  historiographic debate still continues as to whether he was forced to write the editorial, but he had seen Trotskyist friends arrested and killed by the [[Soviet secret police]]. The Soviet government sent him to work in the [[Uralmash|Ural Heavy Machinery Plant]], a steel factory in [[the Urals]], [[Yekaterinburg]] (then Sverdlovsk), where he met Faina Ipat'evna Vakhreva, a native [[Belarusians|Belarusian]]. They married on 15 March 1935, and she would later take the Chinese name [[Chiang Fang-liang]]. In December of that year, their son, [[Chiang Hsiao-wen|Hsiao-wen]] was born.

Chiang Kai-shek refused to negotiate a prisoner swap for his son in exchange for a Chinese Communist Party leader.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/lastempressmadam00paku_0|url-access=registration|quote=It is not worth it to sacrifice the interest of the country for the sake of my son.|title=The last empress: Madame Chiang Kai-shek and the birth of modern China|first=Hannah |last=Pakula |year=2009 |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/lastempressmadam00paku_0/page/247 247] |isbn=978-1-4391-4893-8 |access-date=28 June 2010}}</ref> He wrote in his diary, "It is not worth it to sacrifice the interest of the country for the sake of my son."<ref name="Jay Taylor 2000 59">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_5R2fnVZXiwC&dq=It+is+not+worth+it+to+sacrifice+the+interest+of+the+country+for+the+sake+of+my+son&pg=PA59|title=The Generalissimo's Son: Chiang Ching-kuo and the Revolutions in China and Taiwan|first=Jay|last=Taylor|date=1 June 2009|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674044227 |accessdate=25 June 2023|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref name="Jonathan Fenby 2005 205">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YkREps9oGR4C&dq=It+is+not+worth+it+to+sacrifice+the+interests+of+the+country+for+the+sake+of+my+son&pg=PA205 |title=Fenby 2005: 205. |isbn=9780786714841 |access-date=14 March 2023 |archive-date=12 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412110756/https://books.google.com/books?id=YkREps9oGR4C&dq=It+is+not+worth+it+to+sacrifice+the+interests+of+the+country+for+the+sake+of+my+son&pg=PA205 |url-status=live |last1=Fenby |first1=Jonathan |year=2005 |publisher=Carroll & Graf }}</ref> In 1937, he maintained that "I would rather have no offspring than sacrifice our nation's interests", since he had no intention of stopping the war against the Communists.<ref name="Jay Taylor 2000 74">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_5R2fnVZXiwC&q=chiang+son+i+would+rather+have+no+offspring+than+sacrifice+our++interests&pg=PA59 |title=Taylor 2000: p. 74. |isbn=9780674044227 |access-date=14 March 2023 |archive-date=12 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412110754/https://books.google.com/books?id=_5R2fnVZXiwC&q=chiang+son+i+would+rather+have+no+offspring+than+sacrifice+our++interests&pg=PA59 |url-status=live |last1=Taylor |first1=Jay |date=June 2009 |publisher=Harvard University Press }}</ref>

===Return to China and WWII===
Stalin allowed Chiang Ching-kuo to return to China with his Belarusian wife and son in April 1937 after living in the USSR for 12 years.<ref name=TTWu>{{cite news |last=Wu |first=Pei-shih |date=18 May 2003 |title=Forgotten first lady served as model traditional wife |url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2003/05/18/0000211042 |newspaper=Taipei Times |location=Taipei, Taiwan |access-date=7 November 2014 |archive-date=7 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141107213907/http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2003/05/18/0000211042 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=TPWang>{{cite news |last1=Wang |first1=Jaifeng |last2=Hughes |first2=Christopher |date=January 1998 |title=Cover Story – Love to Fang-Liang – the Chiang Family Album |url=http://www.taiwan-panorama.com/en/show_issue.php?id=199818701038E.TXT |newspaper=Taiwan Panorama |location=Taipei, Taiwan |access-date=3 November 2014 |archive-date=8 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808050742/http://www.taiwan-panorama.com/en/show_issue.php?id=199818701038E.TXT |url-status=dead }}</ref>

By then, the NRA under Chiang Kai-shek and the Communists under [[Mao Zedong]] had signed a ceasefire to create the [[Second United Front]] and fight the [[Second Sino-Japanese War|Japanese invasion of China]], which began in July 1937. Stalin hoped the Chinese would keep Japan from invading the Soviet Pacific coast, and he hoped to form an anti-Japanese alliance with the senior Chiang.{{citation needed|date=February 2017}}

On Ching-kuo's return, his father assigned a tutor, [[Hsu Dau-lin]], to assist with his readjustment to China.<ref>Taylor 2000.<!-- Page number? --></ref> Chiang Ching-kuo was appointed as a specialist in remote districts of [[Jiangxi]] where he was credited with training of cadres and fighting corruption, opium consumption, and illiteracy. Chiang Ching-kuo was appointed as commissioner of [[Ganzhou|Gannan Prefecture]] ({{lang|zh-hant|贛南}}) between 1939 and 1945; there he banned smoking, gambling and prostitution, studied governmental management, allowed for economic expansion and a change in social outlook. His efforts were hailed as a miracle in the political war in China, then coined as the "Gannan New Deal" ({{lang|zh-hant|贛南新政}}). During his time in Gannan, from 1940 he implemented a "public information desk" where ordinary people could visit him if they had problems, and according to records, Chiang Ching-kuo received a total of 1,023 people during such sessions in 1942.{{citation needed|date=February 2017}}

In regard to the ban on prostitution and closing of brothels, Chiang implemented a policy where former prostitutes became employed in factories. Due to the large number of refugees in Ganzhou as a result from the ongoing war, thousands of orphans lived on the street; in June 1942, Chiang Ching-kuo formally established the Chinese Children's Village ({{lang|zh-hant|中華兒童新村}}) in the outskirts of Ganzhou, with facilities such as a nursery, kindergarten, primary school, hospital and gymnasium. During the last years of the 1930s, he met [[Wang Sheng (soldier)|Wang Sheng]], with whom he would remain close for the next 50 years.{{citation needed|date=February 2017}}

The paramilitary "Sanmin Zhuyi Youth Corps" was under Chiang's control. Chiang used the term "big bourgeoisie", in a disparaging manner to call [[H.H. Kung]] and [[T. V. Soong]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FRY0v7AH2ngC&q=h+h+kung+hitler&pg=PA148 |title=Madame Chiang Kai-Shek: China's Eternal First Lady |author=Laura Tyson Li |year=2007 |edition=reprint, illustrated |publisher=Grove Press |page=148 |isbn=978-0-8021-4322-8 |access-date=21 May 2011 |archive-date=12 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412110802/https://books.google.com/books?id=FRY0v7AH2ngC&q=h+h+kung+hitler&pg=PA148 |url-status=live }}</ref>

While in mainland China, Chiang and his wife had a daughter, [[Chiang Hsiao-chang|Hsiao-chang]], born in Nanchang (1938), and two more sons, [[Chiang Hsiao-wu|Hsiao-wu]], born in [[Chongqing]] (1945),<ref name=TPWang/> and [[Chiang Hsiao-yung|Hsiao-yung]], born in Shanghai (1948).<ref name=TPWang/>

===Relationship with Chang Ya-juo and her death===
Chiang met [[Chang Ya-juo]] when she was working at a training camp for enlistees and he was serving as the head of Gannan Prefecture during the war. The two had a relationship that brought twin sons: [[Winston Chang|Chang Hsiao-tz'u]] and [[John Chiang (Taiwan)|Chang Hsiao-yen]], born in 1942.<ref name=DemickLAT03>{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-jun-20-fg-grandson20-story.html |title=A Scion's Story Full of Twists |author=Demick, Barbara |date=20 June 2003 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |access-date=28 March 2015 |archive-date=2 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402205950/http://articles.latimes.com/2003/jun/20/world/fg-grandson20 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/11/international/asia/11FPRO.html |title=Taiwan Lawmaker's Skill May Be Hereditary |author=Bradsher, Keith |date=11 January 2003 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=28 March 2015 |archive-date=2 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402212748/http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/11/international/asia/11FPRO.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In August 1942, Chang felt sick at a dinner party, and died the next day in a [[Guilin]] hospital. The circumstances of her death raised speculation that it was murder. Over the years, many of her relatives, including her sons and highly ranked ex-security personnel, insisted that KMT's security apparatus orchestrated her murder to keep a lid on CCK's marital affair, and to protect CCK's political career.<ref>{{cite web |script-title=zh:上海档案信息网 – 档案博览 |language=zh |publisher=Shanghai Municipal Archives |url=http://www.archives.sh.cn/dabl/lsya/201203/t20120313_8709.html |access-date=25 February 2017 |archive-date=5 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170105020048/http://www.archives.sh.cn/dabl/lsya/201203/t20120313_8709.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Hostage claim===
[[Jung Chang]] and [[Jon Halliday]] claim Chiang Kai-shek allowed the Communists to escape on the 1934–1935 [[Long March]] because he wanted Stalin to return Chiang Ching-kuo.<ref name="SMH">{{cite news |url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/a-swans-little-book-of-ire/2005/10/07/1128563003642.html |title=A swan's little book of ire |newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |date=8 October 2005 |access-date=8 December 2007 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924204245/http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/a-swans-little-book-of-ire/2005/10/07/1128563003642.html |url-status=live }}</ref> This is contradicted by Chiang Kai-shek's diary, "It is not worth it to sacrifice the interest of the country for the sake of my son."<ref name="Jay Taylor 2000 59"/><ref name="Jonathan Fenby 2005 205"/> He refused to negotiate for a prisoner swap of his son in exchange for the Chinese Communist Party leader (Zhou Enlai).<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/lastempressmadam00paku_0 |url-access=registration |quote=It is not worth it to sacrifice the interest of the country for the sake of my son. |title=The last empress: Madame Chiang Kai-Shek and the birth of modern China |first=Hannah |last=Pakula |year=2009 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |page=[https://archive.org/details/lastempressmadam00paku_0/page/247 247] |isbn=978-1-4391-4893-8 |access-date=28 June 2010}}</ref> Again in 1937 he stated about his son: "I would rather have no offspring than sacrifice our nation's interests." Chiang had absolutely no intention of stopping the war against the Communists.<ref name="Jay Taylor 2000 74"/> 
Chang and Halliday likewise claim that Chiang Ching-kuo was "kidnapped" in spite of the evidence that he went to study in the Soviet Union with his father's own approval.<ref name="SMH"/>

===Economic policies in Shanghai===
[[File:Chiang Ching-kuo 1948.jpg|thumbnail|Chiang Ching-kuo in 1948]]
[[File:Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-Kuo in 1948.jpg|250px|thumb|Chiang Ching-kuo (left) with father [[Chiang Kai-shek]] in 1948.]]
After the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]] and during the [[Chinese Civil War]], Chiang Ching-kuo briefly served as a liaison administrator in Shanghai, trying to eradicate the corruption and [[hyperinflation]] that plagued the city. He was determined to do this because of the fears arising from the Nationalists' increasing lack of popularity during the Civil War. Given the task of arresting dishonest businessmen who hoarded supplies for profit during the inflationary spiral, he attempted to assuage the business community by explaining that his team would only go after big war profiteers.

Chiang Ching-kuo copied Soviet methods, which he learned during his stay in the Soviet Union, to start a social revolution by attacking middle class merchants. He also enforced low prices on all goods to raise support from the [[Proletariat]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=YkREps9oGR4C&q=middle+class+social+revolution+soviet Fenby 2005 : p. 485] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412110718/https://books.google.com/books?id=YkREps9oGR4C&q=middle+class+social+revolution+soviet |date=12 April 2023 }}. Retrieved 28 June 2010.</ref>

Chiang Ching-kuo used his own agents to make arrests in Shanghai, rather than the Shanghai city police.<ref name=":023">{{Cite book |last=Coble |first=Parks M. |title=The Collapse of Nationalist China: How Chiang Kai-shek Lost China's Civil War |date=2023 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-009-29761-5 |location=Cambridge New York, NY |author-link=Parks M. Coble}}</ref>{{Rp|page=178}} Chiang Ching-kuo relied on two relatively new organizations which answered directly to him.<ref name=":023" />{{Rp|page=178}} He used the Sixth Battalion of the Bandit-Suppression National-Reconstruction Corps to search warehouses for hoarded goods and to place secret report boxes in the city where people could anonymously report violators.<ref name=":023" />{{Rp|pages=178–179}} He also used the Shanghai Youth Service Corps for enforcement.<ref name=":023" />{{Rp|page=179}}

As riots broke out and savings were ruined, bankrupting shopowners, Chiang Ching-kuo began to attack the wealthy, seizing assets and placing them under arrest. The son of the gangster [[Du Yuesheng]] was arrested by him.

Ching-kuo ordered KMT agents to raid the Yangtze Development Corporation's warehouses, which was privately owned by [[H.H. Kung]] and his family, as the company was accused of hoarding supplies. H.H. Kung's wife was [[Soong Ai-ling]], the sister of [[Soong Mei-ling]] who was Chiang Ching-kuo's stepmother.

Chiang Ching-kuo had H.H. Kung's son son [[David Kung Ling-kan|David Kung]] and several employees of the Yangtze Development Corporation arrested on allegations of holding foreign exchange.<ref name=":023" />{{Rp|page=181}} Soong Mei-ling called Chiang Kai-shek to complain and also called Chiang Ching-Kuo directly.<ref name=":023" />{{Rp|pages=182}} David Kung was eventually freed after negotiations, and Chiang Ching-kuo resigned, ending the terror on the Shanghainese merchants.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=YkREps9oGR4C&q=ching-kuo+turned+on+rich+assets+agents+raided&pg=PA339 Fenby 2005, p. 486] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412110721/https://books.google.com/books?id=YkREps9oGR4C&q=ching-kuo+turned+on+rich+assets+agents+raided&pg=PA339 |date=12 April 2023 }}. Retrieved 28 June 2010.</ref>

The major impact of Chiang Ching-kuo's campaign was to cause the flight of prominent capitalists from Shanghai to Hong Kong and elsewhere.<ref name=":023" />{{Rp|page=183}} The failure of the campaign also affected Ching-kuo's political influence and reputation temporarily.

===Political career in Taiwan===
{{More citations needed section|date=February 2017}}
After the Nationalists lost control of [[mainland China]] to the Communists in the [[Chinese Civil War]], Chiang Ching-kuo followed his father and the retreating Nationalist forces to [[Taiwan]]. On 8 December 1949, the Nationalist capital was moved from [[Chengdu]] to [[Taipei]], and early on 10 December 1949, Communist troops laid siege to Chengdu, the last KMT-controlled city on mainland China. Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo directed the city's defense from the [[Republic of China Military Academy|Chengdu Central Military Academy]], before the aircraft ''May-ling'' evacuated them to Taiwan; they would never return to mainland China.

In 1950, Chiang's father appointed him director of the [[secret police]], which he remained until 1965. An enemy of the Chiang family, [[Wu Kuo-chen]], was kicked out of his position of governor of Taiwan by Chiang Ching-kuo and fled to America in 1953.<ref name="Peter R. Moody 1977 302">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AW9yrtekFRkC&pg=PA302|title=Opposition and dissent in contemporary China|first=Peter R.|last=Moody|year=1977|publisher=Hoover Press|page=302|isbn=0-8179-6771-0|access-date=30 November 2010|archive-date=12 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412110731/https://books.google.com/books?id=AW9yrtekFRkC&pg=PA302|url-status=live}}</ref> Chiang Ching-kuo, educated in the Soviet Union, initiated Soviet-style military organization in the Republic of China Military, reorganizing and Sovietizing the [[political commissar|political officer]] corps, surveillance, and KMT party activities were propagated throughout the military. Opposed to this was Sun Li-jen, who was educated at the American [[Virginia Military Institute]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_5R2fnVZXiwC&dq=sun+li+jen+americans+chiang&pg=PA195 |title=Taylor 2000 : 195. |isbn=9780674044227 |access-date=14 March 2023 |archive-date=5 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405100252/https://books.google.com/books?id=_5R2fnVZXiwC&pg=PA195&dq=sun+li+jen+americans+chiang |url-status=live |last1=Taylor |first1=Jay |date=June 2009 |publisher=Harvard University Press }}</ref>

[[File:蔣經國將軍會晤美國總統甘迺迪.jpg|thumb|General Chiang Ching-kuo met with US President [[John F. Kennedy]] at the [[White House]], 11 September 1963]]

Chiang orchestrated the controversial court-martial and arrest of General [[Sun Li-jen]] in August 1955, allegedly for plotting a coup d'état with the American [[CIA]] against his father.<ref name="Peter R. Moody 1977 302"/><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YoB35f6HD9gC&pg=PA181|title=Patterns in the dust: Chinese-American relations and the recognition controversy, 1949–1950|author=Nancy Bernkopf Tucker|author-link=Nancy Bernkopf Tucker|year=1983|publisher=Columbia University Press|page=181|isbn=0-231-05362-2|access-date=28 June 2010|archive-date=12 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412110735/https://books.google.com/books?id=YoB35f6HD9gC&pg=PA181|url-status=live}}</ref> General Sun was a popular Chinese war hero from the [[Burma Campaign]] against the Japanese and remained under house arrest until Chiang Ching-kuo's death in 1988. Ching-kuo also approved the arbitrary arrest and torture of prisoners.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZNCghCIbyVAC&pg=PA243|title=The Sino-American alliance: Nationalist China and American Cold War strategy in Asia|first=John W.|last=Garver|year=1997|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|page=243|isbn=0-7656-0025-0|access-date=28 June 2010|archive-date=12 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412110737/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZNCghCIbyVAC&pg=PA243|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:國防部長蔣經國訪問華盛頓美國國防部五角大廈.jpg|thumb|Defense Minister Chiang Ching-kuo visited [[the Pentagon]] with U.S. Secretary of Defense [[Robert McNamara]], 23 September 1965]]

From 1955 to 1960, Chiang administered the construction and completion of Taiwan's highway system. Chiang's father elevated him to high office when he was appointed as the ROC Defense Minister from 1965 until 1969. He was the nation's Vice Premier between 1969 and 1972. Afterwards he was appointed the nation's Premier between 1972 and 1978.

In 1970, Chiang was the target of an assassination attempt in New York City by [[Peter Huang]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Chuang |first=Jimmy |date=19 May 2012 |title=Would-be Chiang Ching-kuo assassin honored by Taipei University |url=http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20120519000035&cid=1601 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141112173927/http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20120519000035&cid=1601 |archive-date=12 November 2014 |access-date=12 November 2014 |newspaper=[[China Times|Want China Times]] |location=Taipei}}</ref><ref name=":Cheng">{{Cite book |last=Cheng |first=Wendy |title=Island X: Taiwanese Student Migrants, Campus Spies, and Cold War Activism |date=2023 |publisher=[[University of Washington Press]] |isbn=9780295752051 |location=Seattle, WA}}</ref>{{Rp|page=27}}

As Premier Chiang organized a [[people's diplomacy]] campaign in the United States in an effort to mobilize American political sentiment in opposition to the PRC through mass demonstrations and petitions.<ref name=":Minami">{{Cite book |last=Minami |first=Kazushi |title=People's Diplomacy: How Americans and Chinese Transformed US-China Relations during the Cold War |date=2024 |publisher=[[Cornell University Press]] |isbn=9781501774157 |location=Ithaca, NY}}</ref>{{Rp|page=42}} Among these efforts, the KMT worked with the [[John Birch Society]] to launch a petition writing campaign through which Americans were urged to write their local government officials and ask them to "Cut the Red China connection."<ref name=":Minami" />{{Rp|page=42}}

As Chiang Kai-shek entered his final years, he gradually gave more responsibilities to his son, and when he died in April 1975, Vice President [[Yen Chia-kan]] became president for the balance of Chiang Kai-shek's term, while Chiang Ching-kuo succeeded to the leadership of the KMT (he opted for the title "Chairman" rather than the elder Chiang's title of "Director-General").

===Leadership===
Chiang Ching-kuo was elected president of the ROC in the [[1978 Taiwanese presidential election]] by the [[National Assembly of the Republic of China|Eternal Parliament]] on 20 May 1978. He was reelected to another term in the [[1984 Taiwanese presidential election]]. At that time, the National Assembly consisted mostly of {{ill|ten-thousand-year congress|lt="ten thousand year" legislators|zh|萬年國會}}, men who had been elected in 1947–48 before the fall of mainland China and who would hold their seats indefinitely. Starting from the 1970s when his father grew sick, Chiang became the de facto leader of the regime and reformed many of his father's autocratic policies and gradually phased out of the white terror by allowing the freedom of peaceful assemblies and political pluralism of the [[Tangwai movement]], which later became the [[Democratic Progressive Party|DPP]]. Chiang also turned down many of the suggestions of the conservatives in the KMT regime to violently suppress the protesters.<ref name="publishersweekly.com"/>

In a move he launched the "[[Ten Major Construction Projects]]" and the "Twelve New Development Projects" which contributed to the "Taiwan Miracle". Among his accomplishments was accelerating the process of economic modernization to give Taiwan a 13% growth rate, $4,600 per capita income, and the world's second largest [[foreign exchange reserves]]. On 16 December 1978, U.S. president [[Jimmy Carter]] announced that the United States would no longer recognize the ROC as the legitimate government of China. Under the [[Taiwan Relations Act]], the United States would continue to sell weapons to Taiwan, but the TRA was purposely vague in any promise of defending Taiwan in the event of an invasion.

Chiang Ching-kuo also enacted major [[labor rights]] reforms throughout the 1970s and the 1980s that addressed [[child labor]], [[Women in the workforce|women's employment]], [[working time]], [[pensions]], [[paid leave]], [[employment contract]] with several legislations such as the "Labor Safety and Hygiene Law" in 1974 and the "Factory Law" in 1975. The average salary of Taiwanese workers tripled under his rule. Chiang Ching-kuo also loosened the harsh anti-strike laws and [[union busting]] practice, thus giving the labor movement more opportunity to bargain for fairer wages as he lifted the [[Martial law in Taiwan|martial law provisions]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.modernchinastudies.org/us/issues/past-issues/64-mcs-1999-issue-1/485-2012-01-01-10-06-23.html | title=中国大陆和台湾劳工政策之比较 | access-date=20 February 2023 | archive-date=12 April 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412110747/https://www.modernchinastudies.org/us/issues/past-issues/64-mcs-1999-issue-1/485-2012-01-01-10-06-23.html | url-status=live }}</ref>

In an effort to bring more Taiwan-born citizens into government services, Chiang Ching-kuo "exiled" his over-ambitious chief of General Political Warfare Department, General [[Wang Sheng (soldier)|Wang Sheng]], to [[Paraguay]] as an ambassador (November 1983),<ref>{{cite book|title=Taiwan: a political history|first=Denny|last= Roy|publisher=Cornell University Press|
year= 2003|isbn=0-8014-8805-2|pages=[https://archive.org/details/taiwan00denn/page/179 179]–180|url=https://archive.org/details/taiwan00denn|url-access=registration}}</ref> and hand-picked [[Lee Teng-hui]] as vice-president of the ROC (formally elected May 1984), first-in-the-line of succession to the presidency. Chiang emphatically declared that his successor would not be from the Chiang family in a Constitution Day speech on 25 December 1985:<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/26/world/taiwan-chief-rules-out-chance-family-member-will-succeed-him.html|title=Taiwan chief rules out chance family member will succeed him|author=Staff|date=26 December 1985|agency=Associated Press|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=19 May 2016|archive-date=11 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160611143948/http://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/26/world/taiwan-chief-rules-out-chance-family-member-will-succeed-him.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

{{cquote|The first question is the succession to the presidency. This sort of question only exists in despotic and totalitarian countries. It does not exist in the Republic of China, based on the Constitution. So the next president will be elected in accordance with constitutional procedure by the National Assembly on behalf of the people. Some people may raise the question whether any member of my family would run for the next presidency. My answer is: it can't be and it won't be.<ref name=ConstitutionDay>{{cite speech|url=http://www.taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=117721&CtNode=103|title=Constitution to Determine His Successor|first=Chiang|last=Ching-kuo|author-link=Chiang Ching-kuo|event=Constitution Day|location=Taipei, Taiwan|date=25 December 1985|access-date=19 May 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160808114036/http://www.taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=117721&CtNode=103|archive-date=8 August 2016}}</ref>
}}

Chiang Wei-kuo, Chiang's younger brother, would later repudiate the declaration in 1990 after he was selected as a vice-presidential candidate.<ref>{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MAU9JjMcfsQC&pg=PA72|title=Democratizing Taiwan|author-link1=J. Bruce Jacobs|author=Jacobs, J. Bruce|chapter=Three: The Lee Teng-Hui presidency to early 1996|page=72|date=2012|publisher=Koninklijke Brill NV|location=Leiden, The Netherlands|access-date=19 May 2016|isbn=978-90-04-22154-3|quote=On February 13, 1990 a group of National Assembly members proposed Lin Yang-kang for president and the following day Chiang Wego denied that his brother Chiang Ching-kuo had said, "Members of the Chiang family cannot and will not run for president." Footnote 19: [...] Chiang Ching-kuo made this statement on 25 December 1985.}}</ref>

On 15 July 1987, Chiang finally ended [[martial law]] and allowed his family to visit the [[Mainland China|mainland]]. The ban on tourism to Hong Kong and [[Macau]] was also lifted. His administration saw a gradual loosening of political controls and opponents of the Nationalists were no longer forbidden to hold meetings or publish political criticism papers.

Opposition political parties, though still formally illegal, were allowed to operate without harassment or arrest. When the [[Democratic Progressive Party]] was established on 28 September 1986, President Chiang decided against dissolving the group or persecuting its leaders, but its candidates officially ran in elections as independents in the [[Tangwai]] movement.

Chiang Ching-kuo also increased the political representation of [[Taiwanese people]] to certain degree under his rule, allowing them to have various positions, which paved the way for [[Lee Teng-hui]] to come to power and further democratize Taiwan.<ref>[https://nccur.lib.nccu.edu.tw/bitstream/140.119/34380/7/26150107.pdf?TSPD_101_R0=08da84e244ab20008b839029b82a04801d6a66830731be25f8b6f6a862b3e39247325ddd77cf2b0b089967fbee143000cd105d33c8f799944cb1c74dac49a580683868d2b61a0f938f2e94f84fc74cae7720198d5f1a710765d554c2d7fd3da9 Archived copy]{{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230207010513/https://nccur.lib.nccu.edu.tw/bitstream/140.119/34380/7/26150107.pdf?TSPD_101_R0=08da84e244ab20008b839029b82a04801d6a66830731be25f8b6f6a862b3e39247325ddd77cf2b0b089967fbee143000cd105d33c8f799944cb1c74dac49a580683868d2b61a0f938f2e94f84fc74cae7720198d5f1a710765d554c2d7fd3da9|date=7 February 2023 }}</ref>

===Death and legacy===
[[File:Chiang Ching Kuo Funeral.jpg|250px|thumb|Chiang Ching-kuo lies in state.]]
Chiang Ching-kuo died at [[Taipei Veterans General Hospital]] on 13 January 1988, aged 77, from a heart attack.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Pace |first1=Eric |author1-link=Eric Pace |title=Chiang Ching-kuo Dies at 77, Ending a Dynasty on Taiwan |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/14/obituaries/chiang-ching-kuo-dies-at-77-ending-a-dynasty-on-taiwan.html |access-date=20 January 2022 |work=New York Times |date=14 January 1988 |archive-date=20 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120004218/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/14/obituaries/chiang-ching-kuo-dies-at-77-ending-a-dynasty-on-taiwan.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Southerl |first1=Daniel |title=LONGTIME TAIWANIAN LEADER CHIANG CHING-KUO, 77, DIES |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1988/01/14/longtime-taiwanian-leader-chiang-ching-kuo-77-dies/762ee60e-f41c-4815-a311-9fb6143fa8fc/ |access-date=20 January 2022 |newspaper=Washington Post |date=14 January 1988}}</ref> He used a wheelchair during the last months of his life, and also had diabetes, alongside vision and heart problems.<ref>{{cite news |title=TAIWAN LEADER DIES, ENDING FAMILY RULE |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1988/01/14/taiwan-leader-dies-ending-family-rule/19e3a742-bb57-4c56-81dc-6e0805566a12/ |access-date=20 January 2022 |newspaper=Washington Post |date=13 January 1988}}</ref>
He was interred temporarily in Daxi Township, Taoyuan County (now [[Daxi District]], [[Taoyuan City]]), but in a separate [[mausoleum]] in [[Touliao]], a mile down the road from his father's burial place. The hope was to have both buried at their birthplace in [[Fenghua]] once mainland China was recovered. Composer [[Hwang Yau-tai]] wrote the [[Chiang Ching-kuo Memorial Song]] in 1988.

In January 2004, [[Chiang Fang-liang]] asked that both father and son be buried at [[Wuchih Mountain Military Cemetery]] in [[Hsichih]], [[Taipei County]] (now New Taipei City). The state funeral ceremony was initially planned for Spring 2005, but was eventually delayed to winter 2005. It may be further delayed due to the recent death of Chiang Ching-kuo's oldest daughter-in-law, who had served as the de facto head of the household since Chiang Fang-liang's death in 2004. Chiang Fang-liang and Soong Mei-ling had agreed in 1997 that the former leaders be first buried, but still be moved to mainland China.{{Citation needed|date=June 2020}}

Murray A. Rubinstein called Chiang Ching-kuo more of a civilian leader than his father, whom Rubenstein refers to as a "quasi-[[warlord era|warlord]]."<ref name="Rubenstein">{{cite book|title=Taiwan: A New History|page=435}}</ref>

Jay Taylor has described Chiang Ching-kuo as a figure who was ideologically inspired by a mix of [[Marxism Leninism|Soviet communism]], [[Chinese nationalism]], [[Taiwanese nationalism|Taiwanese localism]], and [[Liberal democracy|American democracy]], who became the helmsman of the democratization of Taiwan.<ref name="publishersweekly.com"/>

Unlike his highly controversial father, Chiang Ching-kuo's reputation is overwhelmingly positive among the Taiwanese population as the people of Taiwan recognize his economic and social achievements, as well as his efforts of democratization. 38.7% of the population considers him the best president who contributed the most to Taiwan, and he was rated 84.8/100 by the Taiwanese population.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.storm.mg/article/1871975 | title=遠見民調》「哪位總統對台灣貢獻最大」 他遙遙領先、第二名看不到車尾燈-風傳媒 | date=25 October 2019 | access-date=31 July 2022 | archive-date=3 July 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220703082647/https://www.storm.mg/article/1871975 | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/ch/news/3993883 | title=只贏蔣介石.... 台灣民調歷任總統評價：最親中馬英九倒數第二 &#124; 台灣英文新聞 &#124; 2020-08-24 18:07:00 | date=24 August 2020 | access-date=31 July 2022 | archive-date=31 July 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220731074636/https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/ch/news/3993883 | url-status=live }}</ref>