Chiang Wei-kuo

Chiang Wei-kuo (蔣緯國, 蒋纬国; Hanyu Pinyin: Jiang Weiguo), or Wego Chiang (October 6, 1916–September 22, 1997) was a son of President Chiang Kai-shek, adoptive brother of President Chiang Ching-kuo, and an important figure in the Kuomintang (KMT). His nickname was Jianhao (建鎬) and sobriquet Niantang (念堂).

Political Career

His positions in the Republic of China government included:

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• Commanding general of the armored vehicles division (甲兵司令)
• Commanding general of the unified logistics division (聯勤總司令)
• Commandant of the Army Strategies College (陸軍指揮參謀大學)
• Chancellor of the Three-Military University (三軍大學校長)
• Senior advisor to the President (總統府資政)
• Secretary-General, Council of National Security (國安會秘書長)

After Chiang Ching-kuo's death, Chiang was a political rival of native Taiwanese Lee Teng-hui, and he strongly opposed Lee's Taiwan localization movement. Chiang ran as vice-president with Taiwan Governor Lin Yang-kang in the 1990 indirect presidential election. Lee ran as the KMT presidential candidate and defeated the Lin-Chiang ticket.

Related Topics:
Lee Teng-hui - Taiwan localization movement - Lin Yang-kang - 1990 indirect presidential election

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In 1991, Chiang's housemaid, Li Hung-mei (李洪美, or 李嫂) was found dead in Chiang's estate in the Taipei City. The following police investigation discovered a stockpile of sixty guns on Chiang's estate. Chiang himself admitted the possibility of a link between the guns and his maid's death, which was later ruled a suicide by the police. The incident permenantly tarnished Chiang Wei-kuo's name, at a time when the Chiang family was increasingly unpopular on Taiwan and even within the Nationalist Party. A new generation of Nationalists no longer had the will or desire to cover the decades of corruption and scandal that the Chiang family had surrounded itself with ever since Chiang Kai-shek rose to power in the 1930s.

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