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Chiang Wei-kuo

Chiang Wei-kuo (蔣緯國; Hanyu Pinyin: Jiang Weiguo), or Wego Chiang (October 6, 1916 - September 22, 1997) was an official in the Republic of China who was the son of President Chiang Kai-shek, and brother of President Chiang Ching-kuo. His nickname was Jianhao (建鎬) and sobriquet Niantang (念堂).

Born in Tokyo, Chiang Wei-kuo is long speculated to be an illegitimate child of a Tai Chi-tao and a Japanese woman, Shigematsu Kaneko (重松金子). Chiang Wei-kuo discredited any such claims and emphasized he is a legitimate son of Chiang Kai-shek until shortly before his death, when he admitted that he was adopted. [1]

According to popular speculation, Tai was afraid his extramarital affairs could cause disasters, so he entrusted Wei-kuo to Chiang Kai-shek, after the Japanese Yamada Juntaro (山田純太郎) brought the infant to Shanghai. Yao Zhicheng (姚冶誠), the Chiang's wife at the time, raised Wei-kuo as her own. The boy called Tai his "Dear Uncle" (親伯).

He studied at several universities (including Dongwu University and Jiaotong University), but did not complete the education at any. His military rank quickly rose, but never fought an actual war. He became a major at 28, a lieutenant colonel at 29, a colonel at 32, and major general at 34.

He married Shih Chin-i (石靜宜), the daughter of Shih Feng-hsiang (石鳳翔), is a textile factory owner, in 1944. In 1953, Shih Chin-i died, believed by some to be assassinated by order of Chiang Kai-shek, who thought the Shih family was seriously abusing its relationship to the politically powerful Chiang family. He established Jinsin Elementary School (靜心小學) in Taipei to commemorate his late wife Shih.

In 1957, Chiang was re-married in Tokyo to Chiu Ju-hsüeh (丘如雪), a biracial Chinese-German also known as Chiu Ai-lun (邱愛倫). Chiang's only son is Chiang Hsiao-kang (蔣孝剛, with Chiu, born 1962), who married Wang Ch'i-hui (王倚惠). His son is the youngest of the Hisao generation of the Chiangs (see generation name). Chiu and Chiang usually live separately, however. (Chiu still lives near her mother-in-law Soong May-ling in New York, while Chiang lived in Taiwan).

Chiang moved to Xikuo Town of Fenghua in 1910. His position in the Republic of China include:

He openly and strongly opposed the Kuomintang leader Lee Teng-hui and his Taiwan localization movement. He ran as vice-president with Lin Yang-kang the 1990 indirect presidential election

Taipei municipal police announced that it discovered over sixty guns that were over 20-years-old in Chiang's house in 1991. Also at this time, a maid called Li Hung-mei (李洪美, aka 李嫂), died in Chiang's estate. Chiang himself admitted the possible link between the guns and the death, possibly as a means for her to commit suicide.

In 1994, a hospital was supposed to be named after him (蔣經國醫療中心) in Sanjhih, Taipei County, after an unnamed politician donated to Runtai Financial Group (潤泰企業集團), whose founder was from Sanjhih. People then questioned whether Chiang was to be actually commemorated or was simply used in this the unnamed politician's hypocritical scheme of corruption.

In 1996, the Chiang estate was demolished by the order of the Taipei municipal government. The estate was constructed in the 1971. After Chiang moved elsewhere in 1981, he gave it to his son. Since the estate was located in a military area and neither the father nor the son was an active soldier, the government decided that neither could own its land. Chiang was very dissatisfied by this.

In the early 1990s, he established an 11-person unofficial Spirit Relocation Committee (奉安移靈小組) that asked his father and brother to be exhumed and buried in Mainland China. His request was largely ignored and was finally persuaded to be abandoned by his step-mother, Soong May-ling in November 1996.

He died from kidney failure, falling blood pressure complicated by diabetes after a 10-month illness in Veterans General Hospital, Taipei at 82. He wished to be buried in Suzhou, but was buried at the military section of Wujhi Mountain Public Cemetery (五指山公墓將軍墓園).

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