Editing Chiang Ching-kuo (section)

===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").