Chiang Wei-kuo
Chiang Wei-kuo (蔣緯國; Pinyin: Jiang Weiguo), or Wego Chiang (October 6, 1916 - September 22, 1997) was an official in the Republic of China who was the son of a president, and brother of another. His nickname was Jianhao (建鎬) and sobriquet Niantang (念堂).
Born in Tokyo, Chiang Wei-kuo is long speculated to be an illegitimate child of a Tai Chi-tao and a Japanese woman, Shigematsu Kaneko (重松金子). Chiang Wei-kuo discredited any such claims and emphasized he is a legitimate son of Chiang Kai-shek until shortly before his death, when he admitted that he was adopted. [1]
According to popular speculation, Dai was afraid his extramarital affairs could cause disasters, so he entrusted Wei-kuo to Chiang Kai-shek, after the Japanese Yamada Juntaro (山田純太郎) brought the infant to Shanghai. Yao Zhicheng (姚冶誠), the Chiang's wife at the time, raised Wei-kuo as her own. The called Dai his "Dear Uncle" (親伯).
He studied at several universities (including Dongwu University and Jiaotong University), but did not complete. His military rank quickly rose, but never fought an actual war. He became a major at 28, a lieutenant colonel at 29, a colonel at 32, and major general at 34.
He married Shi Chin-i (石靜宜), the daughter of Shi Feng-hsiang (石鳳翔), is a textile factory owner, in 1944. In 1953, Shi Chin-i died, believed by some to be assassinated by order of Chiang Kai-shek, who thought the Shi family was seriously abusing its relationship to the politically powerful Chiang family. He established Jinsin Elementary School (靜心小學) in Taipei to commemorate his late wife Shi.
In 1957, Chiang was re-married in Tokyo to Chiu Ju-hsüeh (丘如雪), a biracial Chinese-German also known as Chiu Ai-lun (邱愛倫). Chiang's only son is Chiang Hsiao-kang (蔣孝剛, with Chiu, born 1962), who married Wang Ch'i-hui (王倚惠). His son is the youngest of the Hisao generation of the Chiangs (see generation name). Chiu and Chiang usually live separately, however. (Chiu still lives near her mother-in-law Soong May-ling in New York, while Chiang lived in Taiwan).
Chiang moved to Xikuo Town of Fenghua in 1910. His position in the Republic of China include:
- (甲兵司令)
- (聯勤總司令)
- (陸軍指揮參謀大學)
- Chancellor of the Three-Military University (三軍大學校長)
- (國安會秘書長)
- (總統府資政)
- (國民黨中央評議委員會議主席團主席)
- Secretary-General, Council of National Security
He openly and strongly opposed the Kuomintang leader Lee Teng-hui for his subtle Taiwan independence leaning. He ran as vice-president with Lin Yang-kang the 1990 indirect presidential election
Taipei municipal police announced that it discovered over 20-year-old 60 guns in Chiang's house in 1991. Also at this time, a maid called Li Hung-mei (李洪美, aka 李嫂) died in Chiang's estate. Chiang himself admitted the possible link between the guns and the death, possibly as a mean for her to commit suicide. Although all of those guns are over.
In 1994, a hospital was supposed to named after him (蔣經國醫療中心) in Sanjhih, Taipei County, after an unnamed politician donated to Runtai Financial Group (潤泰企業集團), whose founder was from Sanjhih. People then questioned whether Chiang was to actually be commemorated or was simply used in this the unnamed politician's hypocrite scheme of corruption.
In 1996, the Chiang estate was demolished by the order of the Taipei municipal government. The estate was constructed in the 1971. After Chiang moved elsewhere in 1981, he gave it to his son. However, the estate locates on military area, and now that neither the father nor the son is active soldier, the government felt they should not own the land. Chiang was correctly dissatisfied this.
In the early 1990s, he established an 11-person unofficial Spirit Relocation Committee (奉安移靈小組) that asked his father and brother to be exhumed and buried in Mainland China. His request was largely ignored and was finally persuaded to be abandoned by his step-mother, Soong May-ling in November 1996. He died from kidney failure, falling blood pressure complicated by diabetes after a 10-month illness in Veterans General Hospital, Taipei at 82. He wished to be buried in Suzhou, but was buried at the military section of Wujhi Mountain Public Cemetery (五指山公墓將軍墓園).