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@Y0UTUBE VlEWER your comment is exceptionally rude. I was interested in what you were saying until you insulted both the creators of this upload as well as all "Westerners". Now I, and I'm sure many others who have read your coarse and insulting diatribe will ignore the historical content of your comment and view you as a nasty brute.
I was raised in Taiwan, as a kid under Chiang and later his son. I was fed and believed a lot of KMT propaganda. I went to university in the USA right as the democracy movement was gathering strength in Taiwan. The first elective I took at university was Modern Chinese History because I wanted to know more and the truth that was hidden from us. My professor was from mainland China. We used to argue - he would say 'it's in this American textbook' and I would argue that he had chosen the biased textbook. But in the end I had to acknowledge Chiang was not the superhero as I was raised to believe. For a 25 min video, I think you summed his story up rather well. However, the breaking of the dams causing the Yellow River to flood was a terrible thing, but I don't think you portrayed fairly enough how desperate the situation was - the Japanese had gone from victory to victory and were closing in on a potential final defeat of the Chinese troops. This was a last option desperate move and did hold back the Japanese forces. It was really a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. Also note Chiang had foreign advisors who made the suggestion of using the flood. Japan had planned for a 3 month war to conquer China. But China fought on their own for 4 years before Pearl Harbour brought America into the war.
The most so-call voluntary armies are fleet to Taiwan rather than China from the Korea war, those who been into Taiwan are survived and honored, and those who went to China are disgraced and executed. The ccp is truly a big evil towards humanity, they gotta be destroyed for justice
One of the most important and tragic figures in modern history. The weight on the shoulders of this man and the decisions he had to make to forge a nation and then keep it from falling apart, one can not imagine. Sun Yat-Sen had left too early.
He was the cause of April 12; He wasn't any better. It's what led to Mao Zedong's victory even further. Regardless, Mao was worse but then again, killing one person doesn't make you any better than killing two.
@@burningphoenix6679 He was not always so cruel, search his victory speech over Japan, he showed them considerable mercy and restraint, given their massacres at Nanjing and other places (and I also have a soft spot for him because of his beautiful and strong wife). He was not a perfect man, but he was far better than...other Cold War leaders for sure. And he at least helped modernize Taiwan and prevent a total Communist victory in East Asia. And had he won the Chinese Civil War, I think he MIGHT have evolved and changes some of his views and policies over time, like people today do in real life. They are not supposed to be stuck with broad and static labels for the rest of time, but everyone and everything DOES change, for better or for worse.
"Better to kill 1000 innocent people than let 1 communist escape." And folks wonder why the communists were able to rally so much support against him. lol
@@DatAsuna That’s the problem with “anti-“ ideologies. They have no substance past what they oppose and therefore are so serious about opposing them that they make stupid decisions and comments like that
@@GintaPPE1000 I would agree with you if the Nationalist Forces weren't the forces who actually fought to defend China. The Communist forces of Mao did NOTHING. Therefore, i Disagree with you completely. Sure, Chiang did the most despicable things, but there was no "Moral" in War. We can easily judge people in war time, but when we have to make decisions in decisive moments, we are gonna the same things as those leaders did.
Well, regarding the KMT's fall in mainland China, you have it a bit wrong: it wasn't just hubris that has caused Chiang Kai-Shek's fall in the mainland. The Soviets, after the Americans bombed Hiroshima, have occupied Manchuria and made Mao's guerilla army as a formidable machine war by arming them to the teeth, while the Americans, on the other hand have dropped the Chinese Nationalists and Chiang by imposing an arms embargo on the Republic of China in order to force Chiang Kai-Shek to make a coalition government with the communists. And by 1948, when Mao's communists felt strong enough, they started to surround and starve cities, like the city of Changchun with the same amount of death as Hiroshima. The Chinese Civil War was more a war of conquest than a popular uprising against the existing ruling government in China, especially if the Communists starved cities and their inhabitants. I suggest people to read Frank Dikkoter's book for a more accurate picture of how the communists won the civil war.
To add to this, Chiang's KMT nearly wiped out the Communist forces in Manchuria early in the Civil War. It was a United States forced ceasefire that gave Mao the time to regroup.
It’s pretty accepted that the KMT fell due to corruption and poor economic policy such as hyperinflation. Chiang even wrote in his diary that the “rot” came from within his party. The US invested 4 billion in the KMT, but the money went to Soong Mei-ling’s family and other cronies. The weapons originally flown to the KMT from the US to fight the Japanese often ended up on the black market or unused. The Soviets gave Mao minimal help; they were still using very ancient technology and didn’t have any of the modern tanks or rifles at the time. The peasants also strongly supported Mao due to the land reformation he promised them
Yeah it's shocking to me how many people miss this point/believe the official narrative. The official American narrative (and I'm American) is that the people didn't like Chiang anymore and that led to Mao's rise and his fall, but on its face that beggars belief. The Chinese people were terrified already. They'd been suffering through decades of turmoil and instability since the Qing were overthrown and were not about to start a revolution on their own. The Japanese had just about beaten most of China to death by the time WW2 ended. It all came down to tech, funding, and arms. And the USSR was willing to bet on the CCP at the right time, while the US was withdrawing. Notably, the US regretted this decision for the rest of the 20th century, and you can see the obvious repercussions (trying to win back Asia from Communism in the Korean War and Vietnamese War).
Also a Chinese, but no so glad. This over-simplified version of history interpretation contains too many errors. Basically he describes nationalists' anti-japan strategy as doing nothing and waiting, G...
Based on my understanding the mainland respects Kai-Shek’s predecessor, Sun Yat-Sen as the father of China, since Sun was very good at keeping the right and left parts of the KMT at peace, after Sun died Kai-Shek and the Left leaning parts of the party broke apart, and became the Communist Party. So opinions of him are probably very dim.
Now that you talked about him, you should do a biopic on chinese spymaster Dai Li. So infamous he was having agents from Malaya to the US, even having agents in the Japanese Airforce. His hideout was in central China in an area known as “Happy Valley” where he interacted with US Naval intelligence to undermine communist and Japanese collaborators. His name lives on through media such as Avatar the Last Airbender where the Earth Kingdom is ran by secret police influencing ally and enemy alike.
@@localenthusiast5781 are you talking about that jerksss like you? Because I’ve seen the most childish person who is lecturing others would only be you, go do more research and study about the real history, not the fake one
@@MagSnapShots However, the reality is that he cooperated with the Communist Party to resist Japan. After the civil war, the number of the Kuomintang was four times that of the Communist Party
@@milesharris4120 And came to Taiwan bully the unarmed local. Systematically wiped out the local elite class and kill anyone who opposed him. Can't imagine people praising this coward.
A few years ago, I bought an old book from a library saw and published in the mid 1940s on how Teen Girls can be better Christians. They lifted up Chiang and his wife Soong Mei Ling as ideal Christians to look up to. It was a very interesting book and it piqued my interest on just how Christianity was implemented in China in the early 1900s
The story of how Christianity got legalized in pre-Communist China is actually fascinating, and while complex it's partially because of the Second French Empire under Napoleon III. In the 1850s, China arrested a French Christian missionary on the grounds that he was evangelizing in an unapproved area of the country. Instead of imprisoning or deporting him however, the Chinese imperial government had him brutally executed and then beheaded. The French government was absolutely FURIOUS and actually joined the Second Opium War alongside Britain because of it among other reasons. In the eventual peace treaty, France demanded a clause that would allow peaceful evangelism and the removal of most religious persecution. They wanted to ensure that what happened to their countryman would NEVER happen again (I think the Catholics actually made him a martyred saint). Chiang and his wife joining the faith shows how far reaching this and other events had on the nation.
@The Dark Knight God does exist. The problem is mankind refused to acknowledge the absurd thinking that they already know everything. There's no humility and there's no good ness on the true nature of mankind. Mankind was always been evil from the start and religion was just meant there to indoctrinate moral evolution of man opposite to it's self-serving nature. The universe fears the very existence of man not because they are smart enough to be something nor God wishes them to be treated like fools, but to fear that they are stupid enough and capable enough to destroy all the creation on this world with just a simple push of a button.
"If he had been a bit more trustworthy, if his character was somewhat better, the CCP would have been unable to beat him". - Liang Shuming, 20th Century Chinese activist
No, I don't think so. The KMT was very corrupt and weakly organized, and basically the vast majority of Chinese were against the KMT. Everyone who strongly opposed the KMT regime joined the CPC, even many sons and daughters of landlords and merchants.
I've only just found this channel and I'm basically addicted to it now. I'd love to see Biographics on Enver Hoxha, Nicolae Ceaucescu, Alexander Dubček, Fusako Shigenobu and Antonio Inoki.
Thats crazy, Chiang lived long enough to see him self become the villain twice. Also an amazing biographic thats like the perfect jigsaw peice to the ww2 era
@@Vendetta-w3f Both were committing massive atrocities, but yeah, Mao gets the spotlight for being the worst dictator, even worst than Stalin, Hitler, and King Leopold II combined.
@@lukayaroslav9914 One killed far less people though, comparatively. I'm tired of Americans today hating on everyone who wasn't 100% democratic during the Cold War, it was a VERY black-and-white, us versus them, constant nuclear war risk era time, there was NO room for niceties and in-betweens, honestly.
A few interesting things: 1. he was a womanizer during his time in Japan with his friend too. He later adapted his late friend's son as his, which was the one trained and joined German Wehrmacht before the WWII. 2. he was also an assassin during his returning years to China after he joined Green Gang. 3. he was not the first nor second nor third choice to be the successor to Sun, he was playing the top 3's ego around and without being the head of KMT but he is the head of NRA (National Revolutionary Army). 4. he was actually a member of Communist International. He was not a complete anti-communist but he favors Trotsky ahead of Stalin. 5. NRA are actually Soviet trained and equipped. 6. Shanghai massacre was official story from CCP, yes it was brutal but communists were organizing civil unrest all around NRA newly occupied territories. 7. Zhang Xueliang's father was the warlord of Manchuria and assassinated by Japanese. Communists were great at playing into people's weaknesses. 8. Xi'an that Chiang was refused to give in and even started a hunger strike. It was the report of his generals were planning to bomb Xi'an to eliminating both communist leaders and Chiang all together. 9. blow up the dam actually did the purpose. KMT has no armor vehicles and with muddy lands that Japanese armories were neutralized. The only option for Japan to continue battle with KMT that they have to re-route through east coast. And it was not without the warning despite CCP's propaganda, Chinese culture were having a stubbornness of not leaving the ancestral land. When CCP decided to construct Three-Gouges dam that they did ended up flooding anyone that refused to move. 10. What was like when KMT relocated to Chong Ching? Navy without ships, all ships were sunk under Yangtze River as metal blocks to stop Imperial Navy advance upstream. Air force were still piloting biplane and whoever that survived has to be sent away to US to keep them until the end of the war. Army has no armor vehicles and not even shoes sometimes. The weapons are made from Qing Dynasty armory with very few bullets. Night time raiding the camp and chop off enemies' head with blades became one of the tactics. The only weapon be plentiful was grenades, 30 millions were used during 8 years of conflict. 11. it was actually more division than that. Chiang has lost almost all of his personal force after Battle of Shanghai but by sacrifice his own troops that forced all warlords willing to cooperate with Chiang. Chiang has little authorities over many of the warlords. 12. about American supplies...well, the figure they gave China at the time was about 1/10 of what Soviet received. And The vinegar Stilwell was backstabbing Chiang anyway possible which even has a assassination plot against him. Chiang did send his best equipped troops to Burma to help British to fight but a military handicap Stilwell is still stubbornly trying to take the command over expedition troops which also pissed off British soldier too. Things are much normalized until Stilwell was replaced. 13. communists fighting Japan was and still is a propaganda from CCP. CCP did not liberate cities from Japan, they "liberated" cities from KMT. CCP has one battle (and only one) that won against Japanese supply lines but Mao was upset about the commander Peng Dehuai for exposed the true CCP military strength. Later during the cultural revolution that Peng was prosecuted for this. 14. on the contrary, KMT has no chance of winning the war. a) KMT did not have more troops, Chiang's troop was depleted during the war time. The troops that sworn loyalties led by warlords to Chiang has mostly taking the neutral stand in between the conflict of Chiang and Mao. Chiang wants to down size the military members since the war is over but warlords were upset about that decision thus secretly formed the alliance with CCP. b) also, areas that are still controlled mostly by warlords. c) better equipment is not for the whole army, only a few have been properly equipped due to the lack of supplies to begin with and CCP received train loaded supplies from Soviet so CCP were actually better equipped overall. American did not have any real backing toward KMT since Truman and some people of his cabinets are communist synthesizers. Even Vinegar Joe said that one of his life's regret was not fighting side-by-side with Ju De. 15. what happened in Feb 28th, 1947 was also communist propaganda which conveniently borrowed by Taiwan independence groups. It was a misunderstanding between a KMT soldier with locals but escalated purposely by Taiwan's communist party. (My great-grandfather was a government contractor sent to Taiwan by KMT to oversee the local business. He barely made out the madness happened in 1947 by hiding inside his servant's home). And all those atrocities were actually committed by Taiwan locals. It is a sad tale of many of the government workers and their families massacred by domestic locals but not enough has lived long enough (or populated enough) to tell the story. 16. White Terror was targeting anyone that has any possible communist affiliation. Considering about how KMT lost the civil war when communists infiltrated to all ranks that you really can't blame him for his paranoia. Chiang even has agents on his own son because Chiang junior was educated in Moscow (also a classmate of Deng Xiaoping). My grandfather's colleagues were disappeared for 30 years until later they met on the street. Apparently he ended up in prison. One of the person also executed: Chen Yi. 17. he may rule Taiwan with iron fist but considering about how many nations fell into communist's hands that unfortunately tyranny is the end result to combat communism. 18. The last part, Henry Kissinger, the evil man. He quickly struct a deal with CCP and was hoping that Taiwan will just collapse without US's backing. Well, that did not happen and somehow the demon spawn Kissinger is still alive. My family has a lot connections to what once Chiang's government and lots of the stories about this man has been not quite like as advertised. He was not competent, he was not a person with good heart, and he was not benevolent either (most of the reforming society projects in Taiwan was actually orchestrated by his son). What Chiang was, he was a normal person with some ambition but took every opportunity in front of him and act on it. He has a habit of writing dairies and those are now opened to public to view it. Anyone can get the better understanding of what kind of person he truly is.
@@Vapor817 It is the Chinese civil war made split possible for Korea and Germany. So under the circumstance that Truman was not aware the threat of communism until the fall of China.
@Martin Not all of them left. His son became president a few years after his father's death and remained in power until he died in 1988. it was the son who made reforms that facilitated the creation of a true democracy.
@@tbkrausmann he’s a significant figure In African history. For example he modernized Africa’s military in the Zulu kingdom and he fought and beat more than a few opponents in war. World wide people are heavily interested in him. Plus his legacy is becoming known world wide.
@@panthir6720 The genocide , ethnic cleansing, and re-education ( concentration ) camps will of course all be found in the CCP China. Those features are absent in ROC Taiwan, China.
@@panthir6720 Just China. Communism, democracy etc are nothing but labels. Chiang was every bit autocratic as Mao and he would appreciate modern China's comprehensive power. Mao OTOH is more of an ideologue and might not appreciate modern China's capitalism.
@@dant.3505 You talking about the USA? The genocide and ethnic cleansing of the native Americans, internment of the Japanese Americans in concentration camps during WW2 and the ongoing hate crimes against Asians today. Stop projecting them on China.
Convenient timing, I am currently reading a biography of the Soong sisters by Jung Chang. Finished with Sun Yat Sen and moving on to their involvement with Chiang. Good video!
Chiang Kai-Shek seems like a poor wretch to me, I read his story and it almost makes me want to hug him. He was in power for about 50 years, First he had to face the disaster of the era of the Warlords, when it seems that this is about to end, Bum communist rebellion, when that seems to be stabilizing, Bum invasion Japanese. Chaos, destruction, death, war crimes, Massacres, sexual slavery and much more. After 8 years that ends and Bum, communist victory in the Civil War, where he has to go into exile on an island and there he sees how his country gradually becomes an international outcast and even his greatest ally (the United States) ends him turning their backs in a certain way (Visit of Kissinger and Nixón to China in 1971).
Well, he was a mass politicidal autocrat (almost 20 million people) and personalist, but he had to face energumens like Tojo and Mao, so he seems like a hero.
@@ZeroResurrected He literally killed millions of people under an incompetent authoritarian dictatorial military regime, just like Hitler. His title was Generalissimo instead of Fuhrer. He was a fascist who cared as little for his people as the communists. The opposite side of the same authoritarian coin.
@@snarkylive He was not a good person but given the people he spent much of his life fighting against, Mao and Tojo, I’d much rather have him than either of them
Back in the '60s my dad was flying in the Yukon and met a guy who was Chiang's pilot in the war. He said he was a useless idiot but he really hated Chiang's wife. He said she made Lady MacBeth look like a Girl Guide.
I honestly don't understand why so many Westerners today brutally label him as "a totalitarian dictator", end of story, and judge him so harshly. Compared with...other leaders of the Cold War, he killed and oppressed FAR less people, quite honestly. And we might have averted the Korean, Sino-Indian and Vietnam Wars had he triumphed, and he might also have given Tibetan people more rights and freedoms. And he might have CHANGED, some leaders do change, people switch parties, evolve their views and ideals as they become older, etc. :(
After being exiled to Taiwan, he enacted some harsh iron laws and purged all the people whom he suspected communist supporters or communist sympathizers without any clear evidence which lead to more than 18.000 Taiwaneses being killed by the KMT under his reign. To be fair, he purged a lot of people back when he was still in control in Mainland China. That's why so many Chineses hated him and supported the CCP overthrow him. He and Mao are the same, they are both selfish and evil. Both of them are the different side of the same coin.
@@NguyenTran-mf9gj I don't think Chiang was evil, ruthless perhaps, but ruthless and evil are two VERY different things indeed. I strongly recommend Jay Taylor's Harvard University-Press published book, "The Generalissimo" for a more "balanced" perspective on Chiang's career.
@@ArnoldTeras To be fair, his blindly hatred toward the Communist party is the main reason for all the problems to begin with. The Communist's contribution during the Northern Expedition was the main reason Chiang Kai Shek and the KMT could rose to power and united China. But then he turned on the Communist and tried to got rid all relations with the Communist party by trying to kill all the Communist members or Communist sympathizers, which ignited the Chinese Civil War. After the Sino-Japanese war, he even allied with the biggest enemy of China which is the Japanese to help him got rid of the Communist and he lost all the respect and support from the Chinese people because of that. Ally with the enemy who committed tons of war crimes in your own soil just to kill your own country men is a very unacceptable reason. And in the end, this is a result of his blindly hatred: - A disunited China with different ideologies. - Communist party took over China. - A bloody civil war. - A stain in his own image and also the KMT. - A lot of deaths. If he could acted and think like Sun Yat Sen, none of this would have happened in the first place.
Nah he was a nationalist Tibet would have still been under China but with western support and in return he would have been the most important ally for the USA in the cold war
Mr Chiang kai Shek is not prefect, nobody is prefect, however, he led the whole nation to fight against the brutal and very aggressive Japanese military forces. Therefore, Mr chaing is still a great leader.
Chiang is reviled in China, but revered in Taiwan, however not everybody in Taiwan is for him. Ironically, up until the CCP started to flex its muscle in recent times, China had become as Chiang had envisioned it, as it had become a lot more "economically" flexible, than Mao would have liked.
Your description of the facts is a distortion of the truth. In the past 20 years, Chiang Kai-shek had both supporters and opponents in mainland China. Supporters were because he led the anti-Japanese war. Opponents were because his government was corrupt and the people were living in poverty. On the contrary, most people in Taiwan hated him. Due to the propaganda of the Democratic Progressive Party, his statues in Taiwan were torn down and even the heads of the statues were chopped off. On the contrary, his former residence in mainland China has never been damaged, even during the Cultural Revolution.
For a Taiwanese, the White Terror era was quite brutal, as presented in the horror game "Detention", freedom of press were banned, some books were banned, and anyone caught reading such books were punished harshly, mostly imprisoned as a state enemy for decades. Anyone who dare criticize the government were arrested, executed, or assassinated. Political party were banned. But it was also a golden age, Taiwan was modernized, building the foundation for a economic miracle lead by Chiang Kai Shek's son, Chiang Ching Kuo. As a Taiwanese born way after this era, it was fascinating to hear these tails from my parents and grandparents, how their essay must always conclude on "we must fight back to the mainland", how they were ordered by their teachers to kneel beside the sidewalk and cry when Chiang died, and of their identity crisis on whether they are Chinese or Taiwanese (since Chiang Kai Shek's education system taught them they are Chinese but his son's didn't). Chiang Kai Shek was now regarded in Taiwan for who he is, a brutal dictator, but there is no denying that he did modernize Taiwan, whether it is for the purpose of the reconquest of mainland or not.
It is sad that Taiwanese have to rely on education to identify themselves as Chinese. So, you identify more as Japanese? Like your "father of democracy" Lee Teng-hui thinks he is Japanese? Did you resist Japan as strongly as you did against the Kuomintang? You even helped Japan invade other countries. Before that, your country was the Qing Dynasty, which was Also China. As a mainlander, I can understand that you do not agree with the current mainland government, but I have never been able to understand that you do not agree with yourself as A Chinese. Your ancestors also came from China, a country with a history of 5,000 years. Taiwan has never been an independent country. Why don't you identify yourselves as Chinese?
@@xzk86 Hello mainlander, great to have you on the other side of the wall, you talked about ancestors and education, and the influence of Japanese rule, and finally, identity. It’s not that we identify ourselves through education, since Kuomingtang fled to Taiwan, they started to act like brutal dictators, though Taiwanese initially welcomed them, but after the 228 incident, they lost the support of the Taiwanese, which led to the subsequent declaration of the martial law, which make Taiwanese question their identity even more, and this is right after a some what prosperous rule of the Japanese. Because of the reasons mentioned above, KMT have to use propaganda and education to make Taiwanese “Chinese” again. Through their efforts, nobody identify themselves as a Japanese in Taiwan, not anymore, as didn’t I. I identify myself as Taiwanese, you might ask, why not Chinese? Yes Taiwanese and Chinese come from the same ethnicity, the Hans, but most Hans in Taiwan either have already live in Taiwan for generations or are soldiers who gave up their home and have nothing to lose. Secondly, it is easy to identify oneself with the land one is standing on without the influence of propaganda or education, as did you I believe. Without education enforcing us to identify ourselves as Chinese, we go for the land we are standing on, and that is Taiwan. We still learn Chinese history and Chinese geography in class, for every 3 years of education, one year would be about the mainland, we are not scrapping China from our lives but we still choose Taiwanese as our identity. If you still want to know why, you can simply google it since you are already on the other side, but that might put you on dangerous grounds, it’s a sequence of social incidents and hostility from your government as well, and the final straw is the SARS pandemic. Beyond this I won’t say anymore, to keep you from a visit of your local government authority. I have one question for you, why don’t you identify yourself by your province or your hometown?
@@aa951742 When speaking with other Chinese，we identify ourselves by province.But when speaking with foreigners，we definitely say we are Chinese at first place then mentioning province
I think it's unfair to say that his hubris led to the Communist rise when he was originally so set on stamping out Communism to the point where it was his #1 priority even after the initial Japanese incursions. It's definitely a controversial priority. But, it is a fascinating hypothetical to imagine. What if Chiang Kai Shek could have properly united China and stamp out Communist opposition before turning his attention to the Japanese? Would that extra time have given the Japanese the opportunity to steamroll through China faster than in real history? Would the U.S. still have inevitably joined the war? Chiang threw his best troops at the Japanese at Shanghai, turning it into a 3 month long slugfest in a desperate bid to show the world that China would fight and to garner international aid. A smart gamble, but a gamble nonetheless that didn't really pay off until 4 years later. What if Chiang had kept his best troops back? I'd argue that Japan would have inevitably brought in the U.S. into the war anyways, and a united China under the KMT would have won the war with U.S. aid and face no Communist opposition afterwards. A larger question is whether this hypothetical KMT China would have still gradually transitioned to a democracy under his son. Or would we see a string of military dictators? Chiang Kai Shek and his son have been undoubtedly influenced by their loss to the Communists. Would a victory just serve to increase his supposed "hubris"? I could spend hours speculating on this stuff.
Great vid, Simon, Ty! Hearing all these names through my life, your explanation is helpful in clarifying who those people were. I once met Madam Chang's grand daughter; she was a elegant, very quiet, respectful lady (stepping from a Rolls, shaking my hand with a 20ct. rock on her finger, who spoke in perfect Ivy League English). It proved an interesting conversation.
I love watching these videos! Would love to see some more British historical figures such as William Wilberforce and his fight to abolish the slave trade.
He was just as evil as Mao. His cruelty is what led to Mao winning. Had he been a good leader who treated his people well, Mao would have never been able to turn the people against him.
His most glorious moments were 1) He unified modern China under one banner. 2) He was the leader against 2nd Japanese Invasion, willingly or unwillingly. Under his leadership, nationalists, communists and warlords all united together to fight against the mighty Japanese army, He lost battles, retreated to Chongqing, but he didn't surrender.
I asked my maternal aunt once if we were related to Chiang Kai Shek, since they share the same family name (蔣). She told me that if we were, we would only be very distantly related.
So, having lived here in Taiwan since 1988, a year after martial law ended, I have an educated opinion about the dictator, Jiangjieshi, AKA Chiang Kai Shek The people in Taiwan, are very accommodating. This trait comes from their not too distant occupation of the Japanese empire. They are inherently humble and generous to a fault, if taken advantage of. When the KMT sent troops to quash the revolt in 1947~48, the people here submitted themselves to their oppressors. Things have changed in the last 33 years. I'm honored to be a witness of these changes, and somewhat worried about the future of this incredible experiment called Taiwan
Actually Chiang execute enough Taiwanese to rule and push his propaganda. After that, Taiwanese wanted no confrontation against government. Not much have to do with Japanese. The humbleness and generous are just nice word to wrap them around. They are mostly cowards who won't challenge the government but having no problem abusing minorities and minors. Because they are the descendants who survive the white terror.
Chiang did not 'ignore' Japan, there were sporadic fighting and it wasn't like Chiang just opened the doors for the Japanese to enter. First of all, all that area was controlled by Warlords, Chiang control over the area was sketchy at best. Second, China was in no place to wage a total war against Japan in 1931. Not only was the Japanese Army more advanced and better trained, they actually OUTNUMBERED the Chinese Army at the time. The NRA didn't even have a conscription system, and that was the case even in 1937 when full scale war erupted (which by the way was instigated by Chiang), conscription basically happened by picking people off the streets and pressing them into the Army.
Thank you for this entry. Chiang Kai-Shek is a standard I teach that had little material. It also comes towards the end of the curriculum and there is little time especially with this asynchronous learning tool. Thank once again! Is it possible that Petrarch or Johannes Guttenberg could be covered? It would be of great help for the beginning of next semester!
Great video! Speaking of famous historical people from China, as usual I'm hear to ask for a Biographic on Ip Man, martial arts mentor to the late, great Bruce Lee. I'd love to see the Biographic touch on his life. Thank you in advance! -A Loyal Subscriber
Notice that you’ve probably heard about the Nanking massacre hundreds of times, but this is probably the first time you’re hearing about the Yellow River Flood that was much more lethal... there’s a reason for that.
Chiang Kai sheik is certainly a respectable figure in Chinese history but he is too glorified by the west, just bc he fought Mao doesn’t mean he’s a saint
Another thing is, the nanking massacre was a lot more savage than the flood, Chiang was responsible for a huge amount deaths but he had good intentions in mind. The nanking massacre was just a crime against humanity
@@noticemesenpai69 he wasn’t attempting to purposefully massacre innocent civilians out of frustration, I’m struggling to see how you keep trying to compare that to the nanking massacre. Intention is important
As brutal and awful as General Chiang was, I think he left the people of Taiwan with a gift: The opportunity to become a democracy. The same cannot be said for Mao and his successors.
The General who preferred to attack fellow Chinese instead of the Japanese occupiers (I know, the Communists did the same). He also ended up becoming Stalin's vassal, much more than Mao. In 1945 he allowed Stalin to have 100% economic control over Manchuria and Xinjiang and Soviet citizens in China to be judged only by Soviet legal system.
Can you please do Charles V of Austria (king of Spain ad holy Roman emperor) and the empress Maria feodorovna (mother of the last tsar) along with her two daughters Xenia and Olga and queen marie of Romania ( formed greater Romania and was a symbol too her people during World War I) and her daughter princess Ileana of Romania?
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Giovanni Giustiniani
Video
bruh
Ok, the Chiang parties are notorious, though no one has ever seen a trouser snake emerge from one. The Japanese tongue will wag.
Henry Kissinger!
@Y0UTUBE VlEWER your comment is exceptionally rude. I was interested in what you were saying until you insulted both the creators of this upload as well as all "Westerners". Now I, and I'm sure many others who have read your coarse and insulting diatribe will ignore the historical content of your comment and view you as a nasty brute.
I was raised in Taiwan, as a kid under Chiang and later his son. I was fed and believed a lot of KMT propaganda. I went to university in the USA right as the democracy movement was gathering strength in Taiwan. The first elective I took at university was Modern Chinese History because I wanted to know more and the truth that was hidden from us. My professor was from mainland China. We used to argue - he would say 'it's in this American textbook' and I would argue that he had chosen the biased textbook. But in the end I had to acknowledge Chiang was not the superhero as I was raised to believe. For a 25 min video, I think you summed his story up rather well. However, the breaking of the dams causing the Yellow River to flood was a terrible thing, but I don't think you portrayed fairly enough how desperate the situation was - the Japanese had gone from victory to victory and were closing in on a potential final defeat of the Chinese troops. This was a last option desperate move and did hold back the Japanese forces. It was really a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. Also note Chiang had foreign advisors who made the suggestion of using the flood. Japan had planned for a 3 month war to conquer China. But China fought on their own for 4 years before Pearl Harbour brought America into the war.
I really do not have any pity to the "Allies" who were later suffered from the communism for their treason to ROC.
The most so-call voluntary armies are fleet to Taiwan rather than China from the Korea war, those who been into Taiwan are survived and honored, and those who went to China are disgraced and executed. The ccp is truly a big evil towards humanity, they gotta be destroyed for justice
Every country will have their version of events ....NO country is free of propaganda ....
What do you think, should their be one China or 2 Chinas?
@@nobull772 always been one china ...don't foul yourself....
Simon Whistler: The Man Who Never Sleeps
Deepfakes never sleep, they just go into hibernation mode.
It's the cocaine Allegedly
@Necromancer Allegedly!
@Necromancer the you no og business blaze
Simon Whistler: The Great Biographer
One of the most important and tragic figures in modern history. The weight on the shoulders of this man and the decisions he had to make to forge a nation and then keep it from falling apart, one can not imagine. Sun Yat-Sen had left too early.
No one furcrd him to be a dictator. He dud it fir pleasure
He was just as evil as Mao. His cruelty is what led to Mao winning.
He was the cause of April 12; He wasn't any better. It's what led to Mao Zedong's victory even further. Regardless, Mao was worse but then again, killing one person doesn't make you any better than killing two.
Mao won because Chiang failed to control corruption & inflation when Japan was massacring through Chinese cities.
@@burningphoenix6679 He was not always so cruel, search his victory speech over Japan, he showed them considerable mercy and restraint, given their massacres at Nanjing and other places (and I also have a soft spot for him because of his beautiful and strong wife). He was not a perfect man, but he was far better than...other Cold War leaders for sure. And he at least helped modernize Taiwan and prevent a total Communist victory in East Asia. And had he won the Chinese Civil War, I think he MIGHT have evolved and changes some of his views and policies over time, like people today do in real life. They are not supposed to be stuck with broad and static labels for the rest of time, but everyone and everything DOES change, for better or for worse.
“Let’s tackle the Communists first”
Funny, Chiang would’ve said the same thing
"Better to kill 1000 innocent people than let 1 communist escape." And folks wonder why the communists were able to rally so much support against him. lol
@@DatAsuna That’s the problem with “anti-“ ideologies. They have no substance past what they oppose and therefore are so serious about opposing them that they make stupid decisions and comments like that
@@natespector7519 considering what China has done to America and the world yeah chiang Kai shek was right
@@Truename586 Oh please. Nationalist China and later Taiwan were Stalinist societies in all but name until Chiang died.
@@GintaPPE1000
I would agree with you if the Nationalist Forces weren't the forces who actually fought to defend China.
The Communist forces of Mao did NOTHING. Therefore, i Disagree with you completely.
Sure, Chiang did the most despicable things, but there was no "Moral" in War. We can easily judge people in war time, but when we have to make decisions in decisive moments, we are gonna the same things as those leaders did.
“Take down Genghis Khan by teaming up with the Mighty Ducks.”
You win the day.
🤣🤣😂🤣🤣
🤣🤣😂🤣🤣
I’d watch that movie.
Well, regarding the KMT's fall in mainland China, you have it a bit wrong: it wasn't just hubris that has caused Chiang Kai-Shek's fall in the mainland. The Soviets, after the Americans bombed Hiroshima, have occupied Manchuria and made Mao's guerilla army as a formidable machine war by arming them to the teeth, while the Americans, on the other hand have dropped the Chinese Nationalists and Chiang by imposing an arms embargo on the Republic of China in order to force Chiang Kai-Shek to make a coalition government with the communists. And by 1948, when Mao's communists felt strong enough, they started to surround and starve cities, like the city of Changchun with the same amount of death as Hiroshima. The Chinese Civil War was more a war of conquest than a popular uprising against the existing ruling government in China, especially if the Communists starved cities and their inhabitants.
I suggest people to read Frank Dikkoter's book for a more accurate picture of how the communists won the civil war.
To add to this, Chiang's KMT nearly wiped out the Communist forces in Manchuria early in the Civil War. It was a United States forced ceasefire that gave Mao the time to regroup.
It’s pretty accepted that the KMT fell due to corruption and poor economic policy such as hyperinflation. Chiang even wrote in his diary that the “rot” came from within his party. The US invested 4 billion in the KMT, but the money went to Soong Mei-ling’s family and other cronies. The weapons originally flown to the KMT from the US to fight the Japanese often ended up on the black market or unused.
The Soviets gave Mao minimal help; they were still using very ancient technology and didn’t have any of the modern tanks or rifles at the time. The peasants also strongly supported Mao due to the land reformation he promised them
@@Katherine-qs8ws: : Wow..... what ?.....
Yeah it's shocking to me how many people miss this point/believe the official narrative. The official American narrative (and I'm American) is that the people didn't like Chiang anymore and that led to Mao's rise and his fall, but on its face that beggars belief. The Chinese people were terrified already. They'd been suffering through decades of turmoil and instability since the Qing were overthrown and were not about to start a revolution on their own. The Japanese had just about beaten most of China to death by the time WW2 ended. It all came down to tech, funding, and arms. And the USSR was willing to bet on the CCP at the right time, while the US was withdrawing. Notably, the US regretted this decision for the rest of the 20th century, and you can see the obvious repercussions (trying to win back Asia from Communism in the Korean War and Vietnamese War).
@@MeiinUK Facts
I’m Chinese and I’m so glad you did his biographics
This is a deeply conflicting figure. I have a date with the internet to read more about him.
What are your thoughts on Chiang Kai-Shek and Chairman Mao?
Also a Chinese, but no so glad. This over-simplified version of history interpretation contains too many errors.
Basically he describes nationalists' anti-japan strategy as doing nothing and waiting, G...
@@RedBear535 Maybe not so conflicting, maybe just that we haven't put ourselves into his time and his shoes to understand his decisions.
samin parin West philippine sea
One wonders about how he and his legacy is depicted like in mainland China
Ironically, mainland China is more in line with Chiang's vision of China than Taiwan is today.
Based on my understanding the mainland respects Kai-Shek’s predecessor, Sun Yat-Sen as the father of China, since Sun was very good at keeping the right and left parts of the KMT at peace, after Sun died Kai-Shek and the Left leaning parts of the party broke apart, and became the Communist Party. So opinions of him are probably very dim.
@@davudlastname2545 This is not really helping out a European :D XD
@@davudlastname2545 Oh, I understand now. Thank you! ^^
He's pretty unliked, almost vilified. symbol of his political party, KMT is often censored too.
“War is not only a matter of equipment, artillery, group troops or Air Force; it is largely a matter of spirit or morale”
Chiang Kai-Shiek
Strong leadership(s) and good tactics/strategies are necessary as well
Even more ironic, then, that he managed to lose to Mao not on the battlefield, but in the propaganda war.
No offence but isn’t this kind of obvious lol
@@XiangYu94 Thats why he lost the war. lol
Ironically his opponents knew this better than him
Now that you talked about him, you should do a biopic on chinese spymaster Dai Li. So infamous he was having agents from Malaya to the US, even having agents in the Japanese Airforce. His hideout was in central China in an area known as “Happy Valley” where he interacted with US Naval intelligence to undermine communist and Japanese collaborators. His name lives on through media such as Avatar the Last Airbender where the Earth Kingdom is ran by secret police influencing ally and enemy alike.
Omg yes, Avatar the Last Airbender is such a well informed masterpiece
Should i buy a box of chinese yellow bones
I particularly enjoyed this episode. I've always found Chiang Kai-Shek pretty fascinating.
Too bad he’s weak and got waxed by Chairman Mao and the reds🥳
@@localenthusiast5781 are you talking about that jerksss like you? Because I’ve seen the most childish person who is lecturing others would only be you, go do more research and study about the real history, not the fake one
@@milesharris4120 that’s because the communists hardly fought Japan.
@@MagSnapShots However, the reality is that he cooperated with the Communist Party to resist Japan. After the civil war, the number of the Kuomintang was four times that of the Communist Party
@@milesharris4120 And came to Taiwan bully the unarmed local.
Systematically wiped out the local elite class and kill anyone who opposed him.
Can't imagine people praising this coward.
A few years ago, I bought an old book from a library saw and published in the mid 1940s on how Teen Girls can be better Christians. They lifted up Chiang and his wife Soong Mei Ling as ideal Christians to look up to. It was a very interesting book and it piqued my interest on just how Christianity was implemented in China in the early 1900s
What's the book called? :)
I can probably tell you some. My grandma and her generation and her former generation were many Christians back then.
The story of how Christianity got legalized in pre-Communist China is actually fascinating, and while complex it's partially because of the Second French Empire under Napoleon III. In the 1850s, China arrested a French Christian missionary on the grounds that he was evangelizing in an unapproved area of the country. Instead of imprisoning or deporting him however, the Chinese imperial government had him brutally executed and then beheaded. The French government was absolutely FURIOUS and actually joined the Second Opium War alongside Britain because of it among other reasons. In the eventual peace treaty, France demanded a clause that would allow peaceful evangelism and the removal of most religious persecution. They wanted to ensure that what happened to their countryman would NEVER happen again (I think the Catholics actually made him a martyred saint). Chiang and his wife joining the faith shows how far reaching this and other events had on the nation.
Chiang was no ideal Christian. He murdered people he didn't like and forbid democracy
@The Dark Knight God does exist. The problem is mankind refused to acknowledge the absurd thinking that they already know everything. There's no humility and there's no good ness on the true nature of mankind. Mankind was always been evil from the start and religion was just meant there to indoctrinate moral evolution of man opposite to it's self-serving nature.
The universe fears the very existence of man not because they are smart enough to be something nor God wishes them to be treated like fools, but to fear that they are stupid enough and capable enough to destroy all the creation on this world with just a simple push of a button.
"If he had been a bit more trustworthy, if his character was somewhat better, the CCP would have been unable to beat him". - Liang Shuming, 20th Century Chinese activist
No, I don't think so. The KMT was very corrupt and weakly organized, and basically the vast majority of Chinese were against the KMT. Everyone who strongly opposed the KMT regime joined the CPC, even many sons and daughters of landlords and merchants.
utter bs. As long as the Japanese invasion destroyed the foundation of his government, CCP would always come out winning.
Liang Shuming cooperated with the communists.
I've only just found this channel and I'm basically addicted to it now. I'd love to see Biographics on Enver Hoxha, Nicolae Ceaucescu, Alexander Dubček, Fusako Shigenobu and Antonio Inoki.
Thats crazy, Chiang lived long enough to see him self become the villain twice. Also an amazing biographic thats like the perfect jigsaw peice to the ww2 era
Mao is the real villain, not chiang
@@Vendetta-w3f Both were committing massive atrocities, but yeah, Mao gets the spotlight for being the worst dictator, even worst than Stalin, Hitler, and King Leopold II combined.
@@madladz457 no doubt for it
@@Vendetta-w3f They are just different sides from the same coin.
@@lukayaroslav9914 One killed far less people though, comparatively. I'm tired of Americans today hating on everyone who wasn't 100% democratic during the Cold War, it was a VERY black-and-white, us versus them, constant nuclear war risk era time, there was NO room for niceties and in-betweens, honestly.
A few interesting things:
1. he was a womanizer during his time in Japan with his friend too. He later adapted his late friend's son as his, which was the one trained and joined German Wehrmacht before the WWII.
2. he was also an assassin during his returning years to China after he joined Green Gang.
3. he was not the first nor second nor third choice to be the successor to Sun, he was playing the top 3's ego around and without being the head of KMT but he is the head of NRA (National Revolutionary Army).
4. he was actually a member of Communist International. He was not a complete anti-communist but he favors Trotsky ahead of Stalin.
5. NRA are actually Soviet trained and equipped.
6. Shanghai massacre was official story from CCP, yes it was brutal but communists were organizing civil unrest all around NRA newly occupied territories.
7. Zhang Xueliang's father was the warlord of Manchuria and assassinated by Japanese. Communists were great at playing into people's weaknesses.
8. Xi'an that Chiang was refused to give in and even started a hunger strike. It was the report of his generals were planning to bomb Xi'an to eliminating both communist leaders and Chiang all together.
9. blow up the dam actually did the purpose. KMT has no armor vehicles and with muddy lands that Japanese armories were neutralized. The only option for Japan to continue battle with KMT that they have to re-route through east coast. And it was not without the warning despite CCP's propaganda, Chinese culture were having a stubbornness of not leaving the ancestral land. When CCP decided to construct Three-Gouges dam that they did ended up flooding anyone that refused to move.
10. What was like when KMT relocated to Chong Ching? Navy without ships, all ships were sunk under Yangtze River as metal blocks to stop Imperial Navy advance upstream. Air force were still piloting biplane and whoever that survived has to be sent away to US to keep them until the end of the war. Army has no armor vehicles and not even shoes sometimes. The weapons are made from Qing Dynasty armory with very few bullets. Night time raiding the camp and chop off enemies' head with blades became one of the tactics. The only weapon be plentiful was grenades, 30 millions were used during 8 years of conflict.
11. it was actually more division than that. Chiang has lost almost all of his personal force after Battle of Shanghai but by sacrifice his own troops that forced all warlords willing to cooperate with Chiang. Chiang has little authorities over many of the warlords.
12. about American supplies...well, the figure they gave China at the time was about 1/10 of what Soviet received. And The vinegar Stilwell was backstabbing Chiang anyway possible which even has a assassination plot against him. Chiang did send his best equipped troops to Burma to help British to fight but a military handicap Stilwell is still stubbornly trying to take the command over expedition troops which also pissed off British soldier too. Things are much normalized until Stilwell was replaced.
13. communists fighting Japan was and still is a propaganda from CCP. CCP did not liberate cities from Japan, they "liberated" cities from KMT. CCP has one battle (and only one) that won against Japanese supply lines but Mao was upset about the commander Peng Dehuai for exposed the true CCP military strength. Later during the cultural revolution that Peng was prosecuted for this.
14. on the contrary, KMT has no chance of winning the war. a) KMT did not have more troops, Chiang's troop was depleted during the war time. The troops that sworn loyalties led by warlords to Chiang has mostly taking the neutral stand in between the conflict of Chiang and Mao. Chiang wants to down size the military members since the war is over but warlords were upset about that decision thus secretly formed the alliance with CCP. b) also, areas that are still controlled mostly by warlords. c) better equipment is not for the whole army, only a few have been properly equipped due to the lack of supplies to begin with and CCP received train loaded supplies from Soviet so CCP were actually better equipped overall. American did not have any real backing toward KMT since Truman and some people of his cabinets are communist synthesizers. Even Vinegar Joe said that one of his life's regret was not fighting side-by-side with Ju De.
15. what happened in Feb 28th, 1947 was also communist propaganda which conveniently borrowed by Taiwan independence groups. It was a misunderstanding between a KMT soldier with locals but escalated purposely by Taiwan's communist party. (My great-grandfather was a government contractor sent to Taiwan by KMT to oversee the local business. He barely made out the madness happened in 1947 by hiding inside his servant's home). And all those atrocities were actually committed by Taiwan locals. It is a sad tale of many of the government workers and their families massacred by domestic locals but not enough has lived long enough (or populated enough) to tell the story.
16. White Terror was targeting anyone that has any possible communist affiliation. Considering about how KMT lost the civil war when communists infiltrated to all ranks that you really can't blame him for his paranoia. Chiang even has agents on his own son because Chiang junior was educated in Moscow (also a classmate of Deng Xiaoping). My grandfather's colleagues were disappeared for 30 years until later they met on the street. Apparently he ended up in prison. One of the person also executed: Chen Yi.
17. he may rule Taiwan with iron fist but considering about how many nations fell into communist's hands that unfortunately tyranny is the end result to combat communism.
18. The last part, Henry Kissinger, the evil man. He quickly struct a deal with CCP and was hoping that Taiwan will just collapse without US's backing. Well, that did not happen and somehow the demon spawn Kissinger is still alive.
My family has a lot connections to what once Chiang's government and lots of the stories about this man has been not quite like as advertised. He was not competent, he was not a person with good heart, and he was not benevolent either (most of the reforming society projects in Taiwan was actually orchestrated by his son). What Chiang was, he was a normal person with some ambition but took every opportunity in front of him and act on it. He has a habit of writing dairies and those are now opened to public to view it. Anyone can get the better understanding of what kind of person he truly is.
Wow that's a lot of stuff I didn't know
Fair description of CKS.
Thanks for the exposition. Very fascinating.
do you think a korea/germany style split would've been possible?
@@Vapor817 It is the Chinese civil war made split possible for Korea and Germany. So under the circumstance that Truman was not aware the threat of communism until the fall of China.
Now you need to do Sun Yat-sen...
I second that
I love this video. You couldn’t have said it better man. “A man who took the reigns of history and never let go”
Honestly i been waiting for this biographic to finally happen!!
I read somewhere that Thuman referred to him as Cash my Check
It was a popular nickname since Chiang asked for so much US aid.
@Martin Not all of them left. His son became president a few years after his father's death and remained in power until he died in 1988. it was the son who made reforms that facilitated the creation of a true democracy.
I would like to see a Shaka Zulu episode
Why? So insignificant to world history
Check out Extra Credits :)
@@tbkrausmann he’s a significant figure In African history. For example he modernized Africa’s military in the Zulu kingdom and he fought and beat more than a few opponents in war. World wide people are heavily interested in him. Plus his legacy is becoming known world wide.
Hell ya good call. Blood and Milk
@@tbkrausmann just because you don't know him, doesn't mean he isn't significant.
I want Simon to voice Google Maps
i'm in
Would be better not gonna lie mate
I'd be down if "allegedly" is thrown in as the substitute for 'recalculating'
if u can stand listening to the wrong pronounciation of locations
@@omnomnom5359 I’d be fine with that tbh. That’s how I’d know it’s authentic.
About Chiang's Christian faith, it was said that he played Ave Maria on loop after FDR declared war on Japan.
Chiang was a Christian, and yet so many white Americans deeply hate and revile him. XD
@@ArnoldTerasOnly far left liberals
@@ArnoldTerasWhite isn't synonymous with Christian.
Also, many more Chinese people hate him than Whites do.
You always learn so much from these videos! Love this channel 👏
Ironically, Chiang would be proud of modern China while Mao would not be pleased.
No, he would not be proud of the CCP China, he would be proud of Taiwan. That's the fact.
We talking about Communist China or China?
@@panthir6720 The genocide , ethnic cleansing, and re-education ( concentration ) camps will of course all be found in the CCP China.
Those features are absent in ROC Taiwan, China.
@@panthir6720 Just China. Communism, democracy etc are nothing but labels. Chiang was every bit autocratic as Mao and he would appreciate modern China's comprehensive power. Mao OTOH is more of an ideologue and might not appreciate modern China's capitalism.
@@dant.3505 You talking about the USA? The genocide and ethnic cleansing of the native Americans, internment of the Japanese Americans in concentration camps during WW2 and the ongoing hate crimes against Asians today. Stop projecting them on China.
“ *Build roads for supply chains?* I thought you said *Buy gold for my chains* “ - Chiang Kai-Shek
Convenient timing, I am currently reading a biography of the Soong sisters by Jung Chang. Finished with Sun Yat Sen and moving on to their involvement with Chiang. Good video!
Chiang Kai-Shek seems like a poor wretch to me, I read his story and it almost makes me want to hug him.
He was in power for about 50 years, First he had to face the disaster of the era of the Warlords, when it seems that this is about to end, Bum communist rebellion, when that seems to be stabilizing, Bum invasion Japanese. Chaos, destruction, death, war crimes, Massacres, sexual slavery and much more.
After 8 years that ends and Bum, communist victory in the Civil War, where he has to go into exile on an island and there he sees how his country gradually becomes an international outcast and even his greatest ally (the United States) ends him turning their backs in a certain way (Visit of Kissinger and Nixón to China in 1971).
Well, he was a mass politicidal autocrat (almost 20 million people) and personalist, but he had to face energumens like Tojo and Mao, so he seems like a hero.
The dude was a fascist
@@theawesomeman9821 Communists think anyone that opposes them is a fascist. Chiang was not a good person but he was a saint compared to Mao
@@ZeroResurrected He literally killed millions of people under an incompetent authoritarian dictatorial military regime, just like Hitler. His title was Generalissimo instead of Fuhrer. He was a fascist who cared as little for his people as the communists. The opposite side of the same authoritarian coin.
@@snarkylive He was not a good person but given the people he spent much of his life fighting against, Mao and Tojo, I’d much rather have him than either of them
When you accidentally type Chiang Kai-shrek instead of Chiang Kai-shek.
Chiang kai-snek
You did not search for this...
🤓🤓🤓🤓😂
Get out of my swamp!
@@Chairman_Miao I don't know man, this Chiang kai-snek is being kinda sus
Back in the '60s my dad was flying in the Yukon and met a guy who was Chiang's pilot in the war. He said he was a useless idiot but he really hated Chiang's wife. He said she made Lady MacBeth look like a Girl Guide.
I honestly don't understand why so many Westerners today brutally label him as "a totalitarian dictator", end of story, and judge him so harshly. Compared with...other leaders of the Cold War, he killed and oppressed FAR less people, quite honestly. And we might have averted the Korean, Sino-Indian and Vietnam Wars had he triumphed, and he might also have given Tibetan people more rights and freedoms. And he might have CHANGED, some leaders do change, people switch parties, evolve their views and ideals as they become older, etc. :(
After being exiled to Taiwan, he enacted some harsh iron laws and purged all the people whom he suspected communist supporters or communist sympathizers without any clear evidence which lead to more than 18.000 Taiwaneses being killed by the KMT under his reign.
To be fair, he purged a lot of people back when he was still in control in Mainland China. That's why so many Chineses hated him and supported the CCP overthrow him.
He and Mao are the same, they are both selfish and evil. Both of them are the different side of the same coin.
@@NguyenTran-mf9gj I don't think Chiang was evil, ruthless perhaps, but ruthless and evil are two VERY different things indeed. I strongly recommend Jay Taylor's Harvard University-Press published book, "The Generalissimo" for a more "balanced" perspective on Chiang's career.
@@ArnoldTeras To be fair, his blindly hatred toward the Communist party is the main reason for all the problems to begin with.
The Communist's contribution during the Northern Expedition was the main reason Chiang Kai Shek and the KMT could rose to power and united China. But then he turned on the Communist and tried to got rid all relations with the Communist party by trying to kill all the Communist members or Communist sympathizers, which ignited the Chinese Civil War.
After the Sino-Japanese war, he even allied with the biggest enemy of China which is the Japanese to help him got rid of the Communist and he lost all the respect and support from the Chinese people because of that. Ally with the enemy who committed tons of war crimes in your own soil just to kill your own country men is a very unacceptable reason.
And in the end, this is a result of his blindly hatred:
- A disunited China with different ideologies.
- Communist party took over China.
- A bloody civil war.
- A stain in his own image and also the KMT.
- A lot of deaths.
If he could acted and think like Sun Yat Sen, none of this would have happened in the first place.
Nah he was a nationalist Tibet would have still been under China but with western support and in return he would have been the most important ally for the USA in the cold war
@@ArnoldTeras Chiang killed and opressed millions too he was a typical 20th century tyrant
Say what you want about him. You can’t deny the fact that he’s the most stylish politician ever
He posed like a Vogue supermodel in so many photoshoots lol. I could see how he had won the hearts of the elite.
Robert E. Lee: The General who Created the Modern United States
Mr Chiang kai Shek is not prefect, nobody is prefect, however, he led the whole nation to fight against the brutal and very aggressive Japanese military forces. Therefore, Mr chaing is still a great leader.
Perfect timing Simon perfect!!!!
Looking for an episode on General Park and Deng Xaoping
Chiang is reviled in China, but revered in Taiwan, however not everybody in Taiwan is for him. Ironically, up until the CCP started to flex its muscle in recent times, China had become as Chiang had envisioned it, as it had become a lot more "economically" flexible, than Mao would have liked.
Your description of the facts is a distortion of the truth. In the past 20 years, Chiang Kai-shek had both supporters and opponents in mainland China. Supporters were because he led the anti-Japanese war. Opponents were because his government was corrupt and the people were living in poverty. On the contrary, most people in Taiwan hated him. Due to the propaganda of the Democratic Progressive Party, his statues in Taiwan were torn down and even the heads of the statues were chopped off. On the contrary, his former residence in mainland China has never been damaged, even during the Cultural Revolution.
the man the myth the legend
Chiang Kai Shek: the commie slayer
He was just as evil as Mao. His cruelty is what led to Mao winning.
@@burningphoenix6679 🤣🤣🤣 sure
@@burningphoenix6679 Ok Wumao
@@dafloppa2876 how is Burningpheonix a wumao? He literally viewed both Mao and Chiang as evil
@@burningphoenix6679 no no he was not
Mao killed way to many people
1:30 - Chapter 1 - Bring down the government
4:25 - Chapter 2 - Revolts & reversals
7:50 - Chapter 3 - Before the flood
11:20 - Mid roll ads
12:35 - Chapter 4 - When the levee breaks
16:40 - Chapter 5 - Brother killing brother
20:10 - Chapter 6 - Meanwhile in Taiwan
For a Taiwanese, the White Terror era was quite brutal, as presented in the horror game "Detention", freedom of press were banned, some books were banned, and anyone caught reading such books were punished harshly, mostly imprisoned as a state enemy for decades. Anyone who dare criticize the government were arrested, executed, or assassinated. Political party were banned. But it was also a golden age, Taiwan was modernized, building the foundation for a economic miracle lead by Chiang Kai Shek's son, Chiang Ching Kuo.
As a Taiwanese born way after this era, it was fascinating to hear these tails from my parents and grandparents, how their essay must always conclude on "we must fight back to the mainland", how they were ordered by their teachers to kneel beside the sidewalk and cry when Chiang died, and of their identity crisis on whether they are Chinese or Taiwanese (since Chiang Kai Shek's education system taught them they are Chinese but his son's didn't). Chiang Kai Shek was now regarded in Taiwan for who he is, a brutal dictator, but there is no denying that he did modernize Taiwan, whether it is for the purpose of the reconquest of mainland or not.
It is sad that Taiwanese have to rely on education to identify themselves as Chinese. So, you identify more as Japanese? Like your "father of democracy" Lee Teng-hui thinks he is Japanese? Did you resist Japan as strongly as you did against the Kuomintang? You even helped Japan invade other countries. Before that, your country was the Qing Dynasty, which was Also China. As a mainlander, I can understand that you do not agree with the current mainland government, but I have never been able to understand that you do not agree with yourself as A Chinese. Your ancestors also came from China, a country with a history of 5,000 years. Taiwan has never been an independent country. Why don't you identify yourselves as Chinese?
@@xzk86 Hello mainlander, great to have you on the other side of the wall, you talked about ancestors and education, and the influence of Japanese rule, and finally, identity.
It’s not that we identify ourselves through education, since Kuomingtang fled to Taiwan, they started to act like brutal dictators, though Taiwanese initially welcomed them, but after the 228 incident, they lost the support of the Taiwanese, which led to the subsequent declaration of the martial law, which make Taiwanese question their identity even more, and this is right after a some what prosperous rule of the Japanese.
Because of the reasons mentioned above, KMT have to use propaganda and education to make Taiwanese “Chinese” again.
Through their efforts, nobody identify themselves as a Japanese in Taiwan, not anymore, as didn’t I.
I identify myself as Taiwanese, you might ask, why not Chinese?
Yes Taiwanese and Chinese come from the same ethnicity, the Hans, but most Hans in Taiwan either have already live in Taiwan for generations or are soldiers who gave up their home and have nothing to lose.
Secondly, it is easy to identify oneself with the land one is standing on without the influence of propaganda or education, as did you I believe.
Without education enforcing us to identify ourselves as Chinese, we go for the land we are standing on, and that is Taiwan.
We still learn Chinese history and Chinese geography in class, for every 3 years of education, one year would be about the mainland, we are not scrapping China from our lives but we still choose Taiwanese as our identity. If you still want to know why, you can simply google it since you are already on the other side, but that might put you on dangerous grounds, it’s a sequence of social incidents and hostility from your government as well, and the final straw is the SARS pandemic. Beyond this I won’t say anymore, to keep you from a visit of your local government authority.
I have one question for you, why don’t you identify yourself by your province or your hometown?
@@aa951742 When speaking with other Chinese，we identify ourselves by province.But when speaking with foreigners，we definitely say we are Chinese at first place then mentioning province
how about a vid about Sun Yat Sen. he is regarded as a national hero in both China and Taiwan
One of the most misunderstood historical figures of all time
Lots and lots of Innocents .... May they rest in Peace 😔❤️🙏
Chiang lost at Checkers while Mao won at Go.
Finally!! Now we need episodes on Park Chung-he and Lee Kuan Yew 😼
a nice playlist we have here: Puyi - Kai-Shek - Mao
I think it's unfair to say that his hubris led to the Communist rise when he was originally so set on stamping out Communism to the point where it was his #1 priority even after the initial Japanese incursions. It's definitely a controversial priority. But, it is a fascinating hypothetical to imagine. What if Chiang Kai Shek could have properly united China and stamp out Communist opposition before turning his attention to the Japanese? Would that extra time have given the Japanese the opportunity to steamroll through China faster than in real history? Would the U.S. still have inevitably joined the war?
Chiang threw his best troops at the Japanese at Shanghai, turning it into a 3 month long slugfest in a desperate bid to show the world that China would fight and to garner international aid. A smart gamble, but a gamble nonetheless that didn't really pay off until 4 years later. What if Chiang had kept his best troops back? I'd argue that Japan would have inevitably brought in the U.S. into the war anyways, and a united China under the KMT would have won the war with U.S. aid and face no Communist opposition afterwards.
A larger question is whether this hypothetical KMT China would have still gradually transitioned to a democracy under his son. Or would we see a string of military dictators? Chiang Kai Shek and his son have been undoubtedly influenced by their loss to the Communists. Would a victory just serve to increase his supposed "hubris"? I could spend hours speculating on this stuff.
"Lets tackle the communists first" I think Chiang would agree.
Not if he's going to be tortured and have his wiwi cut off.
Great vid, Simon, Ty! Hearing all these names through my life, your explanation is helpful in clarifying who those people were. I once met Madam Chang's grand daughter; she was a elegant, very quiet, respectful lady (stepping from a Rolls, shaking my hand with a 20ct. rock on her finger, who spoke in perfect Ivy League English). It proved an interesting conversation.
Long overdue but worth it! Congrats, Bio!
I love watching these videos! Would love to see some more British historical figures such as William Wilberforce and his fight to abolish the slave trade.
His legacy lives on in Taiwan which infuriates Beijing..
Because CKS is a symbol of anti-communism.
He was just as evil as Mao. His cruelty is what led to Mao winning.
Had he been a good leader who treated his people well, Mao would have never been able to turn the people against him.
No，Nobody takes him seriously.People think him a clown
I was hoping that you would cover him for quite a while. Thank you, Simon.
His most glorious moments were
1) He unified modern China under one banner.
2) He was the leader against 2nd Japanese Invasion, willingly or unwillingly. Under his leadership, nationalists, communists and warlords all united together to fight against the mighty Japanese army, He lost battles, retreated to Chongqing, but he didn't surrender.
Modern Chinese nation was forged during this war. This was Chiang's greatest achievement.
Make a video on the life of General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev.
I asked my maternal aunt once if we were related to Chiang Kai Shek, since they share the same family name (蔣). She told me that if we were, we would only be very distantly related.
So, having lived here in Taiwan since 1988, a year after martial law ended, I have an educated opinion about the dictator, Jiangjieshi, AKA Chiang Kai Shek
The people in Taiwan, are very accommodating. This trait comes from their not too distant occupation of the Japanese empire. They are inherently humble and generous to a fault, if taken advantage of. When the KMT sent troops to quash the revolt in 1947~48, the people here submitted themselves to their oppressors. Things have changed in the last 33 years. I'm honored to be a witness of these changes, and somewhat worried about the future of this incredible experiment called Taiwan
@Martin if you ever hike in Taichung or spend time at a west coast beach, look me up, I'd like to meet you
Lol that’s now I heard some natives talk about it
@@noirekuroraigami2270 Do most Taiwanese people really hate Chiang today??
Actually Chiang execute enough Taiwanese to rule and push his propaganda. After that, Taiwanese wanted no confrontation against government. Not much have to do with Japanese.
The humbleness and generous are just nice word to wrap them around. They are mostly cowards who won't challenge the government but having no problem abusing minorities and minors. Because they are the descendants who survive the white terror.
@@ArnoldTeras As a Taiwanese, I have to say: yes.
I think the most important part you forgot to mention is that his name sounds really cool.
I recently read books 1 and 2 from Peter Harmsen’s War in the Far East trilogy. When Chiang met Churchill & FDR, they were very unimpressed by him.
By any means how could they be impressed? Chiang's ideology was a direct challenge to UK and US colonial interest.
Such a huge piece of history that I knew basically nothing about! Thank you, great job!
Mao and Chiang seem like what happen when people look to someone like Josef Stalin for inspiration on how to run a country.
Chiang was a fan of hitler more than stalin
Chaing was Right wing Dictator
Moa Zedong was Left wing Dictator
@@zacksima8333 yea the Germans were supporting his government before 1937 and Chiang’s adopted son fought for the Nazi army for a time.
I’ve been waiting for this one I wish people talk more about this man he played such a huge role in china’s history
Hes not a villan he just made the wrong choices which led to people hating him so hes not a good leader
Between this Guy and Mark Felton, I have learned more history than I ever did in school.
Please do one on Lee Kuan Yew
Amazing work Simon. This was your best biography.
Can you do some more videos on warrior women? So far I only remember seeing Boudicca, and they deserve to have their stories told too.
Chiang did not 'ignore' Japan, there were sporadic fighting and it wasn't like Chiang just opened the doors for the Japanese to enter. First of all, all that area was controlled by Warlords, Chiang control over the area was sketchy at best. Second, China was in no place to wage a total war against Japan in 1931. Not only was the Japanese Army more advanced and better trained, they actually OUTNUMBERED the Chinese Army at the time. The NRA didn't even have a conscription system, and that was the case even in 1937 when full scale war erupted (which by the way was instigated by Chiang), conscription basically happened by picking people off the streets and pressing them into the Army.
Kinda wished you had mention Wang Jingwei and Li Zongren but otherwise fantastic video.
Very important balancing of past and present history
Thank you for this entry. Chiang Kai-Shek is a standard I teach that had little material. It also comes towards the end of the curriculum and there is little time especially with this asynchronous learning tool. Thank once again!
Is it possible that Petrarch or Johannes Guttenberg could be covered? It would be of great help for the beginning of next semester!
Great video! Speaking of famous historical people from China, as usual I'm hear to ask for a Biographic on Ip Man, martial arts mentor to the late, great Bruce Lee. I'd love to see the Biographic touch on his life. Thank you in advance! -A Loyal Subscriber
Notice that you’ve probably heard about the Nanking massacre hundreds of times, but this is probably the first time you’re hearing about the Yellow River Flood that was much more lethal... there’s a reason for that.
Chiang Kai sheik is certainly a respectable figure in Chinese history but he is too glorified by the west, just bc he fought Mao doesn’t mean he’s a saint
Another thing is, the nanking massacre was a lot more savage than the flood, Chiang was responsible for a huge amount deaths but he had good intentions in mind. The nanking massacre was just a crime against humanity
@@yuliusjrt9917 so flooding villages isn’t a crime against humanity
@@noticemesenpai69 he wasn’t attempting to purposefully massacre innocent civilians out of frustration, I’m struggling to see how you keep trying to compare that to the nanking massacre. Intention is important
@@yuliusjrt9917 the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Also stop liking your own comments lol
The intentional flooding was what would have happened in ATLA if Jet had his way with the dam.
"You either die a Che Guevara or you live long enough to see yourself become a Pinochet."
-Chiang Kai Shek, probably
I’d love to see you do a video on the first President of Croatia, Franjo Tuđman. Francisco Franco would also be an interesting figure to cover.
As brutal and awful as General Chiang was, I think he left the people of Taiwan with a gift: The opportunity to become a democracy. The same cannot be said for Mao and his successors.
And freedom of speech
More like kissing America's ass
lmao great fucking joke dude, "democracy" my ass
China is more democratic than USA cares to acknowledge.
@@Zhonguoria Yeah.. the democratic country that just allowed Xi to become dictator for life..
Really good and balanced doc.
Ludwig von Mises, the Austrian economist. We need a biography about that guy.
Yes!!
Another great video. Love your content!
*flashbacks towards Prioritizing Internal Security over the United Front*
**
“…by teaming up with the Mighty Ducks.” I guess the knucklepuck and the Flying V Line can only do so much. Magnificent stuff, Simon!
The General who preferred to attack fellow Chinese instead of the Japanese occupiers (I know, the Communists did the same). He also ended up becoming Stalin's vassal, much more than Mao. In 1945 he allowed Stalin to have 100% economic control over Manchuria and Xinjiang and Soviet citizens in China to be judged only by Soviet legal system.
So much for being a Big Four, must be absent from the Postdam meeting
*Allowed*. What can he do against the Soviet Union. The lands that the Soviet occupied were given to the Maoists for the eventual conquest of China.
this is not true
Wow, never been this early. Hi Simon! 👋. Love the channel!
Can you please do Charles V of Austria (king of Spain ad holy Roman emperor) and the empress Maria feodorovna (mother of the last tsar) along with her two daughters Xenia and Olga and queen marie of Romania ( formed greater Romania and was a symbol too her people during World War I) and her daughter princess Ileana of Romania?
A better title would’ve been: Chiang Kai-shek: The Chinese Unhero
You should cover Michael Collins or Éamon DeValera
Thank you for another excellent informative video.
There is some parallel to be had for Lenin-Stalin relationship with Sun Yat Sen and Chiang Kai Shek.
It's like poetry, because it rhymes
Who's Trotsky's Chinese equivalent tho (don't tell me it's Wang Jingwei)
@@shinsenshogun900 lenin= Sun-yat-sen
Stalin=Mao
Trotsky=Chiang
@@shinsenshogun900 yeah, unlike him Trotsky wouldn't collaborate with the enemy.
@@shinsenshogun900 Mao= Trotsky with permanent revolution idea
was waiting for this video for a long time
I named my World of warcraft character after him. No idea why :)
fabulous summary - glad I found this channel
*致敬！*
"But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao, you ain't gonna make it with anyone anyhow" - Generalísimo Chiang Len Non
Damn, China really went from a General to Winnie The Pooh.
What is the presenter on? He talked the entire video in one breath-- amazing.
Simon, that was a cracking video. I have learnt so much thank you.
please make a biographics about sun yat sen
PRC people disliked this video
We like it. PRC doesn't represent its people.
Good video 👍