Unofficial Rehabilitation of Chiang Kai-shek’s Legacy in China?

The Once Archenemy of the Chinese Communist Government has been Semi-Rehabilitated

Chiang Kai Shek reviews cadets from the Whampoa Military Academy in Nanjing before World War 2

June 16, 2024 marks the 100 year centenary of the founding of the Whampoa Military Academy. The Whampoa Military Academy was the military school founded by the Kuomintang (KMT) in Whampoa, Guangdong, China, in 1924. The goal of the academy was to train officers for the KMT Army to unify China. In the 1930s, the academy was moved to Nanjing, and after the defeat of the Kuomintang by the Communists, the academy relocated to Fengshan, Taiwan in 1950. Despite the change of locations, the school is still referred to as “Whampoa” and carries on its traditions in Taiwan. From 1950 to the present, the Whampoa Academy in Fengshan has trained hundreds of thousands of officers for the Taiwan military.

With the thawing of relations between China Mainland and Taiwan in the 2000s, the Chinese Mainland has annually invited Whampoa alumni to visit the original site of the academy in Guangdong and to participate in tours of southern China.

Last year in June 2023, 500 alumni from the Taiwan side, upon invitation from the Mainland government, travelled to Guangdong to visit the original site of Whampoa. This year in 2024, the mainland China has extended invitations to over 100 Taiwan Army veteran groups, totaling 3000 individuals, to visit the academy’s original site in Guangdong and explore southern China.

Whampoa in 1924

The Premier of the PRC, Zhou Enlai, was a leader at Whampoa during his youth.

It is very clear that today, the Mainland Chinese government has made much efforts to preserve the legacy of the Kuomintang (KMT) and the ‘Republic of China’ (ROC) era, despite being at odds in the past. The irony is that Taiwan, which is officially named the “Republic of China”, is pursuing the opposite. Politicians in Taiwan from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) are taking steps to erase the ‘Republic of China’ and its legacy as part of a desinicization program to seperate Taiwan from any Chinese identity. Passports have shrunk the words “Republic of China” and replaced it with “Taiwan” instead, schools have been asked to rewrite its history curriculums to seperate “Chinese History” and “Taiwanese History” as seperate chapters, and changing names of organizations like “China Shipbuilding Corporation” to “Taiwan International Shipbuilding Corporation.”

But this cancel culture of Taiwan has taken a more radical turn recently. In 2018 Chiang Kai Shek’s tomb was vandalized by Taiwan Independence protesters. Statues of Sun yat Sen and Chiang Kai Shek in Taiwanese cities, which are still standing, are frequently splashed with paint or destroyed by radicalized vandals. The police in Taiwan are unwilling or unable to protect these cultural and historic monuments.

Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall (Left) and the tomb of Chiang kai Shek (Right) were vandalized by Taiwan Independence activists.

In April 2024, Taiwan announced plans to remove remaining Chiang Kai-shek statues, even on military bases. This is despite opposition from much of the military and veteran community.

Taiwan’s upcoming leader, William Lai (DPP), has appointed Wellington Koo, a political ally with no military background, as the next “Minister of Defense.’’ Koo in his agenda, plans to continue the desinicization of the armed forces. There are even proposals to cut ties with Whampoa and its legacy all together and to remove the “Whampoa spirit” from the Taiwan military.

This situation has led some “Republic of China” veterans and pro-Kuomintang individuals to turn their support to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and distance themselves from this “new” “Taiwanese” identity.

The contrast between the treatment of Chiang Kai-shek’s legacy in Taiwan and Mainland China is stark.

While Chiang’s tomb in Taiwan has been subject to vandalism, his ancestral graves and former mansion in Fenghua, Mainland China — are meticulously maintained and protected.

The Chiang family graves and the former home of Chiang Kai Shek in Xikou have been designated by the Chinese Central Government as a “Key Cultural Heritage site” since 1996, which is the highest level of protection by the PRC government. This is protection on the same level of the Great Wall of China. Since the 2000s, Chiang Kai Shek’s descendants, including Chiang Xiaoyan and Chinag Xiaoyong have travelled from Taiwan to the Mainland and visited the ancestral grave in Fenghua atleast 30 times.

Chiang Kai Shek’s family ancestral tomb (left) is designated a Key Cultural Heritage site by the Chinese government and is protected by the law. Chiang’s old office (Right) in Nanjing, China still hangs his portrait on the walls and is left the way it was when he left. It is as if Chiang’ spirit is still there.

While Taiwan debates proposals to close the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei, at the site of the old Presidential Office in Nanjing, Chiang Kai-shek’s portrait still hangs. His former office in Nanjing remains preserved, evoking a sense of his enduring presence.

No matter how one may feel about Chiang Kai Shek, his legacy is a part of the Chinese history and experience, thus his memories must be preserved and protected for future generations to learn from. Those who seek to erase elements of history display a profound lack of education and ignorance of the highest order, and effectively display a profound sense of personal rootlessness.