The bodies of former Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek and his son will finally be buried in Taiwan, contrary to their wishes to be interred on the mainland.
Chiang Kai-shek was Taiwan's first president and he was succeeded by his son, Chiang Ching-kuo.
Taiwan's Defence Ministry yesterday confirmed that Chiang Ching-kuo's widow, Chiang Fang-liang, and other members of the Chiang family had requested help in arranging a formal burial at the Wuchih Mountain Military Cemetery near Taipei.
Chiang Kai-shek, who died in 1975, and Chiang Ching-kuo, who died in 1988, had asked that their remains be sent back to their mainland home town in Fenghua county, Zhejiang province , for burial after the Kuomintang had won back control of China.
Their bodies have been kept in temporary resting places in Tzuhu and Touliao in Taoyuan county outside Taipei. Under Chinese tradition, the dead must be laid to ground for permanent rest, and leaving the two men unburied was considered bad luck for the family.
With the likelihood of Taiwanese forces conquering the mainland non-existent, the family finally decided to bury the two former presidents in Taiwan.