Word: chiangs
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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From dusty Nanking streets, sleek limousines converged on a plain brick residence in the spacious Ministry of National Defense compound. It was Friday afternoon; by 2 o'clock Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's small drawing room was jammed with ranking Kuomintang officials. Tense and silent, they waited for the announcement...
...When Chiang told Kuomintang officials to support Vice President Li Tsung-jen, one of his hearers asked: "What can Li do? What are his ways & means to improve the present situation?" Everybody in China, including Li, knew the answer. Li had almost nothing with which to bargain with the Red armies who at week's end stood within 15 miles of China's capital, Nanking. The government was preparing to move to Canton on the south coast and its armies were pulling southwest toward Kweilin and south toward Chekiang Province...
...with the Reds. The Communist Boss Mao Tse-tung had won the war; he could dictate the terms of peace. What Mao wanted was power to put China in the Communist bloc. That he already had. He could proceed along the path of compromise and coalition certain that, with Chiang's passing, the back of anti-Communist resistance in China had been broken...
...With the hope that hostilities may be brought to an end and the people's suffering relieved, I have decided to retire . . . Vice President Li Tsung-jen will exercise the duties and powers of President . . ."When he finished, 61-year-old Chiang asked for comments, not on his decision, but on the phrasing of his statement...
...moment of silence was shattered by protests from Kuomintang right-wingers, some of whom, like Chiang and Li, were on the Communist war criminal list. They objected to the use of "yin tut" (voluntary retirement), a classical Chinese phrase used by retiring officials leaving active duty for good. He could vacation; he could take a leave of absence; President Chiang Kai-shek should not "yin tui." But the Gimo was adamant; his statement would stand...