Chiang Kai-Shek

Chiang Kai-Shek: China's Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost by Jonathon Fenby, 505 pages

Chiang Kai-Shek rose from humble beginnings to rule over the most populous nation in the world.  In his time he fought Chinese warlords, Communists, and the army of Imperial Japan.  He was a general who throughout his career lost more battles than he won, but only in his war with Mao Tse-Tung was he irrevocably defeated.  For the remainder of his life he plotted his return, and even in death his body remains unburied, awaiting a final rest in a restored Kuomintang China.

In his biography, Jonathan Fenby has attempted to tell the story of Chiang's rise and fall, ending with the retreat to Taiwan.  He does so passably, providing a broad, readable biography without much depth or special insight.  The real matter is implied in the second half of the subtitle.  In Fenby's estimation, it was Chiang Kai-Shek who lost China, and no one else, certainly not the American and British allies who demanded Chiang support their goals and worldview.  How he could have saved it is another matter, and here Fenby only offers some weak gestures in the direction of a Western-style liberalism that he acknowledges would have likely accelerated the disintegration of the Kuomintang government.  For some readers, the dogmatic insistence that China had to Westernize, with the only choice being between liberal "reforms" and Marxist revolution, will only sharpen the poignancy of the tale.