Taiwan archive sheds light on key events in Chiang Ching-kuo’s presidency
- Thousands of written records – including personal correspondence, diary entries, notes, works and government documents – have been made available online
- Chiang led the island when the US switched diplomatic ties to Beijing and his presidency marked a transition from his father’s authoritarian rule
Chiang – the eldest son of the late former Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek – was Taiwan’s president from 1978 until his death in 1988 at the age of 77.
His father had fled with his KMT troops to Taiwan in 1949, setting up a government there after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong’s communists in mainland China.
Chiang Ching-kuo’s presidency marked a transition from his father’s authoritarian rule to the vibrant democracy of today’s Taiwan.
The digital archive was launched on Wednesday by government-funded Academia Historica and provides free public access to thousands of records related to Chiang.
“It curates more than 50,000 original documents … from Academia Historica and archives inside and outside Taiwan,” according to the institution, which manages the official presidential and vice-presidential archives.