He was Chiang Kai-shek’s only biological son; he once enthusiastically followed the Communist Party in the Soviet Union and publicly broke off relations with Chiang Kai-shek; he heroically saved his wife in hardships and difficulties and concluded an East-meets-West romance; he was modest and respectful to his stepmother, Soong Mei-ling, yet he insisted on his authority in state affairs decisions; he inherited Chiang Kai-shek’s iron-fisted style and personally lowered the flag for the Chiang family and the Kuomintang; he lived a low-key, simple life, ate and dressed casually, and always wore a smile on his face …… He, the late President of the great Republic of China – Chiang Ching-kuo.
The previous article talked about a sudden event that shocked China and abroad affected the future of Chiang Ching-kuo’s family, but also changed the direction of Chinese history. What event was so serious? It was the Xi’an Incident!
On December 12, 1936, Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng launched a mutiny and detained Chiang Kai-shek in Xi’an. In the face of Stalin’s influence, both explicit and implicit, and the urgent situation of the domestic situation, Chiang Kai-shek agreed to cooperate with the Communist Party against Japan. After the peaceful resolution of the Xi’an Incident, the Party Committee of the Siberian Ural Mountain Machinery Plant quickly passed Chiang Ching-kuo’s application and declared him an official member of the Soviet Communist Party.
On the one hand, Stalin wanted to use Chiang Ching-kuo’s membership in the Communist Party to influence Chiang Kai-shek; on the other hand, the reason was that Stalin had been using Chiang as a hostage, and now Stalin believed that the time had come when a hostage was needed to consolidate Chiang Kai-shek’s cooperative attitude.
In February 1937, Chiang Ching-kuo received an urgent telegram from Moscow, asking the family to go to Moscow immediately. When they arrived in Moscow, Chiang was told that his application to return to China had been approved, and on March 25, Chiang took a train in Moscow with his Soviet wife, Fenner, and his eldest son, Chiang Hsiao-wen, to leave the Soviet Union, where he had been stranded for 12 years, and to rejoin the Great Siberian Railway that had brought him to this distant land. Chiang Ching-kuo finally returned. At that time, Chiang Ching-kuo’s feelings were rather mixed, and he did not know how to face his father.
Chiang Ching-kuo and his father Chiang Kai-shek (Photo: taken in 1940)
He had publicly declared to break off his relationship with Chiang Kai-shek. This was a treacherous act for the Chiang family, which had very strict family rules. Because at that time Chiang Kai-shek was already the commander-in-chief of the whole Republic, and it was inevitable that his own son would make all the warlords look at him funny by drawing a line with him. Chiang Ching-kuo was apprehensive at that time, he was afraid that his father would disown him and that he would not be able to accept his marriage with an exotic wife.
On April 21, Chiang Ching-kuo sent a telegram to Soong Mei-ling in which he said, “Madam, we wish to meet with our father and to give you and him our regards. Soong Mei-ling quickly replied, expressing her welcome.
At that time, Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling were recuperating at a lakeside villa in Hangzhou called “Chenglu”. Before the meeting, Jiang Jingguo asked Fenner to put on a dark satin Chinese cheongsam specially ordered for her, and kept telling the foreign wife the Chinese etiquette she would need when meeting her elders later. And Fenner listened to her husband while nervously reciting her not-so-fluent Chinese …… They really didn’t know what the meeting would be like?
In fact, Chiang Kai-shek had the same mixed feelings. On the day of the meeting, Chiang Kai-shek, wearing a long robe and holding a cane in his hand, sat early on the stone steps in front of the public house and waited for his son. Soon after, the guard officer picked up Chiang Ching-kuo’s family of three to meet Chiang Kai-shek. When Chiang Ching-kuo saw his father, he suddenly let go of Fenner’s hand and flung himself down on both knees, kowtowing to Chiang Kai-shek in accordance with the Chiang family rules, saying under his breath, “Father, your ungrateful son Ching-kuo has returned. Chiang Kai-shek is also mixed feelings, he stood up at once, walked to Chiang Ching-kuo to help him up to look at half a day before saying, you have really grown taller. This apprehensive heart is finally put down, it seems that nothing can cut off the love of father and son!
After meeting with his father, Chiang Ching-kuo hurriedly introduced this Russian daughter-in-law to his father, and immediately explained for his wife that she did not know Chinese etiquette, so she did not bow to her father to ask for his forgiveness. Chiang Kai-shek did not mind and said, “Since she married into China, she should be given a Chinese name, I think we should call her Fang Niang!” Then, Jiang Jingguo and his wife paid a visit to their stepmother, Song Meiling, as Chiang Kai-shek had instructed. After that, Chiang told his son to hurry back to his hometown in Xikou to visit his mother Mao Fumei.
Chiang Ching-kuo with his mother Mao Fumei, his wife Jiang Fangliang and his eldest son Jiang Xiaowen in November 1937 (Photo: taken in 1937)
On April 27, Chiang Ching-kuo returned to his hometown. Before Chiang Ching-kuo’s family entered, his mother, Mao Fumei, deliberately sat with several female elders, as a special preparation for this reunion after 12 years. Old Lady Mao was trying to see if her son could still recognize herself.
Jiang Jingguo recognized his mother immediately and rushed forward to welcome her, and mother and son hugged and cried. Mrs. Mao stopped crying before she remembered to come see her daughter-in-law and grandson. She looked at her daughter-in-law and asked her name with a smile, Jiang Jingguo replied Fang Niang. You don’t have to look at the old lady without much culture, but once she heard the name, she shook her head repeatedly and said, “It’s too vulgar, change it to Fang Liang.” Subsequently, friends and relatives decided to hold a wedding ceremony for Jiang Jingguo, in full accordance with the custom of his hometown in Fenghua. Three days later, Chiang Ching-kuo and Chiang Fangliang held a formal Chinese wedding ceremony again in their hometown. Chiang Ching-kuo was finally reunited with his family. But would Chiang Ching-kuo be able to adapt to the life of the time? After all, the Soviet Union and China were very different cultures.
Knowing that his son had been estranged and faded from orthodox Chinese culture during his years in the Soviet Union, Chiang asked Jiang Jingguo to re-read the classics he had read in his early years, such as The Family Letters of Duke Zeng Wenzheng and The Complete Works of Wang Yangming, and specifically urged his son to study the teachings of the Founding Father, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, practice calligraphy and Chinese characters, and think back to the past. Chiang Kai-shek also arranged for Xu Daoyin, a famous legal figure in the Republic of China, to serve as Chiang Ching-kuo’s secretary, so that Chiang could adapt to life in China after his recent return. Chiang Kai-shek really had good intentions! He was allowing Chiang Ching-kuo to cleanse himself with traditional Chinese culture.
Just when Chiang Ching-kuo was studying hard behind closed doors, on July 7, 1937, the Lugou Bridge Incident broke out, and The Japanese began a full-scale invasion of China. Soon Beiping and Shanghai fell one after another, and at the end of 1937, Nanjing, the seat of the Republican government, was also occupied by the Japanese. At this time, Jiang Jingguo could no longer study at ease, and he was determined to share his father’s worries. At this time, the governor of Jiangxi Province, Xiong Shihui, recommended him to serve in Jiangxi, and Chiang Ching-kuo began his political career after returning to China.
The Lugouqiao Incident (Photo: Wiki)
Jiangxi was the front line of the war, and Chiang Kai-shek attached great importance to this place, and many of his reform plans started from Jiangxi. Chiang Ching-kuo first arrived in Jiangxi as the deputy director of the Jiangxi Security Office, holding the rank of major general. Due to his outstanding work, Chiang Ching-kuo was appointed Commissioner of the Fourth Administrative Region of Jiangxi and Governor of Gannan in 1939. Jiang Jingguo managed Gannan very well, and some people even commented that the governance of Gannan was one of the classic success stories in the history of Jiang Jingguo’s administration.
At that time, because of the special place of Gannan, which was located in the mountainous area with complicated terrain, it could hide from the attack of the Japanese army and was also a big backwater for the residents of the coastal cities to take refuge. However, once there were more people, the problem came. At that time, the place of Ganan was full of smoking, gambling, prostitution, bandits and bullies, and the clan fights were endless for years, which was very bad to manage. Some of the administrative commissioners who took office were driven away by the local gentry.
Soon after Chiang Ching-kuo took office, he announced his “Three Bans and a Clear” policy. The “three prohibitions and one cleanup” means: ban smoking, ban gambling, ban prostitution, purge bandits, the purpose is to restore social order. To meet this requirement at once, I am afraid there is a certain degree of difficulty. But Jiang Jingguo had a way. He decided to start with the ban on smoking.
This smoke is not the current tobacco, it means opium. He gave smokers a year to quit smoking, and then from July 1, 1940, all seized smokers, whether you were growing, transporting, smoking, or selling, were punished by capital punishment. The son of a wealthy businessman was arrested for stealing cigarettes and drugs, and his family bribed the police to donate an airplane in exchange for the son’s release. The governor of Jiangxi Province at the time, Xiong Shihui, sent an urgent telegram to Chiang Ching-kuo, asking him to hurry up and release him, but Chiang replied, “The telegram has been shot, there is no way to undo it.” Chiang Ching-kuo really did what he said he would do, and without mercy.
Smoking opium (Photo: He Huisheng, “Collective Memories of Victoria Harbour”)
That’s not all. Chiang Ching-kuo also ordered that gamblers who were caught must kneel for three days in front of the Ganzhou Martyrs’ Monument to atone for their sins to the fallen soldiers at the front. It is said that the wife of a police commander was also arrested and then punished to kneel down as usual, which later caused a sensation in the whole Ganzhou area.
But there are some officials’ wives who are itching to gamble at home because of their background, but they really didn’t expect that Chiang Ching-kuo would not be lenient and punish them as usual. Chiang Jingguo in order to eradicate these ills, really hard work. Once in order to catch gambling, Chiang Ching-kuo personally went into the casino disguised as a peddler selling wontons and eventually caught him red-handed, destroying the casino run by the Guangdong warlord Li Zhenqiu in one fell swoop, shocking the entire military, political and business community of Ganan. When Jiang Jingguo did so, those local powerful people who were emboldened to do so should all be in danger.
There was also the pornographic business of prostitutes in this part of Gannan before, and the local government even collected taxes openly from those who ran brothels, and called it beautifully: “flower donation”, to protect this hurtful business in this way. After Chiang Ching-kuo took office, he paid much attention to rectifying the social atmosphere and ordered to stop collecting “flower donations” and to close the brothels. He ordered to stop collecting “flower donations” and to close the brothels, and the prostitutes who were caught were also punished by kneeling in front of the martyrs’ memorial. Chiang Ching-kuo first started to rectify the social atmosphere and morality, which also reflected Chiang Ching-kuo’s adherence to traditional morality.
Another bold move by Chiang Ching-kuo was to open his office so that the general public could meet with him directly to solve their problems. From the beginning of this policy until 1942, Chiang Ching-kuo had received as many as 1,000 people from all walks of life. He erected two stone monuments in the township office, with the words “Great Publicity and Selflessness” written on the left and “Removal of Violence and Tranquility” written on the right. These eight words were the motto of Chiang Ching-kuo’s local administration.
As a matter of fact, Chiang Ching-kuo, in the eyes of the common people, is easy-going and simple, without a little official stance. Chiang Ching-kuo also especially likes to be with young people, uninhibited, unlike a high commissioner. In the summer camp in Hu Gang, the campers called him “Chiang A-go”. Because of Jiang Jingguo’s excellent performance in governing Gannan and his integrity, many people privately called Jiang Jingguo “Jiang Qingtian”.
After the three fires, Chiang Ching-kuo began to build his ideal country in Gannan. Chiang Ching-kuo believed that education was the foundation of the country, so he built a new Chinese children’s village outside of Ganzhou, where orphans could go to school for free. In the new village, from nursery school and kindergarten, to Zhengqi Primary School and then Zhengqi Middle School, Chiang Ching-kuo was personally the principal.
Chiang Ching-kuo with students at the new school in Gannan (Photo: taken between 1939 and 1945)
Not only that, Chiang Ching-kuo also made remarkable achievements in economic construction. Before Chiang Ching-kuo built Gannan, more than 90 percent of Gannan’s 1.5 million people were farmers, and there was almost no decent industry except for mining. In response to this situation, Chiang Ching-kuo proposed the goal of “five haves”: “everyone has a job, everyone has food to eat, everyone has clothes to wear, everyone has a house to live in, and everyone has a book to read”, and planned to achieve this goal in three years. Then, Chiang Ching-kuo, in response to the extremely low production capacity, attracted coastal capital to invest in industries in Gannan, and at the same time promoted the opening of small-scale industries such as textiles, rice milling and sugar production among the local people. In this way, Chiang Jingguo transformed the originally backward Ganan into a prosperous and rich paradise step by step.
The results of Jiang Jingguo’s transformation of Gannan caught the attention of the American journalist Aitkinson, who published an article in the New York Times in November 1943, praising Gannan under Jiang Jingguo’s rule, saying that Ganzhou was the most modern and cleanest city in China at that time. He also said that the so-called “modernization” that China’s educated people talked so much about was “only really being carried out in Gannan.” It is no wonder that he had such a high opinion. It should be noted that there were only three factories in Gannan, and there was a serious shortage of food. After Chiang Ching-kuo implemented the New Deal in Gannan, food production was close to self-sufficiency, the townships had a new look, and industry, commerce and education were prosperous as never before. In just three years, Chiang Ching-kuo put Gannan in order. Although Chiang Ching-kuo did such a good job, there were some gentry who secretly joined together and wrote a lawsuit against Chiang Ching-kuo at that time.
Because after Chiang Ching-kuo arrived in Gannan, he adopted some strong practices in response to the situation which was too too chaotic at that time. Although these practices did turn around the chaotic and backward situation quickly and effectively, they also made many gentry in Gannan suffer from the loss of their vested interests, which led them to compile reasons to sue Chiang Ching-kuo to the Republican government on the pretext of upholding the laws and regulations before the new government in Gannan. Of course, these charges, although they did not make Chiang Ching-kuo really stop, but he also felt the great pressure, and just at this time, a bad news came from Chiang Ching-kuo’s hometown.
What happened in Chiang Ching-kuo’s hometown? What kind of challenges will Chiang Ching-kuo face in the future?
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