THE death of Winston Chang Hsiao-tzu marks another painful event for the clan of the late strongman Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo, but will have no impact on Taiwan politics.
Two official sons of Chiang Ching-kuo died early, Chiang Hsiao-wen at 54 in 1989, and Chiang Hsiao-wu at 46 in 1991. Chiang Hsiao-yung, the last surviving official son, is suffering from cancer. But Chang's early death is widely perceived as a genuine loss for Taiwan society.
Most observers agree the Chiang family has little political influence more than eight years after the late President Chiang Ching-kuo died, largely because of the erosion of the Kuomintang party's power under the island's progressive democratisation.
Neither critics nor supporters of the former Kuomintang orthodoxy saw Chang and his twin brother as entirely part of the Chiang clan.
They were brought up not in the Chiang presidential household but in Hsinchu City, some 90 kilometres southwest of Taipei.
Neither received special treatment in their youth because of their parentage, but effectively passed through childhood as orphans in Hsinchu, believing their parents died on the mainland.