Generalissimo and Madame Chiang Kai-shek
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Seen today, now that all this is known, the conquering advance of General Chiang —first 600 miles from Canton inland to Hankow ("The Chicago of China"); then 600 miles down the Yangtze River to Shanghai ("The New York of China") and Nanking—was not primarily a great feat of arms. General Chiang had not yet developed many of his great qualities. He was almost an out-&-out puppet of the Soviet Union, but, as both Japan and Russia have found to their cost, no Chinese ever fully sells himself or China.
Conqueror Chiang immediately made friends with the Chinese businessmen of Shanghai, turned violently antiCommunist, massacred some 3,500 unimportant Shanghai Reds, permitted Propagandist Borodin and General Galen to "escape" to the Soviet Union. He later made Communism a capital crime. General Chiang's only son by his No. 1 wife, Chiang Ching-kuo, had by this time moved to Moscow, busied himself denouncing his father from Soviet platforms, became a Communist.
Old Charlie's Daughters. Until recently any prominent Chinese obliged to be much away from home usually had one or more concubines (with the knowledge & consent of his wife), and successful General Chiang at this time was no exception.
The swankier of the Conqueror's concubines found her social doings recorded even in the British press of Shanghai, which referred to her as "Mme Chiang."
General Chiang was now master of South and Central China but many Kuomintang politicians denounced him as a Fascist or worse. With a characteristic gesture he resigned all his offices and went to Japan. There Chiang, the shrewd, hardheaded, hard-living, callous soldier who had made his way to power, proceeded to court pretty, educated, high-minded Soong Meiling. Her brother, Mr. T. V. Soong, today China's greatest financier, informed General Chiang as courteously as possible that a husband with concubines was scarcely acceptable as a suitor in the Chinese Christian family of Soong. Mei-ling's father, famed "Old Charlie" Soong, had made his fortune as a pioneer in printing and selling Bibles to Chinese as fast as the missionaries created a demand. Investing his profits at about 40% Chinese interest, he died a merchant prince. Old Mrs. Soong had not forgotten that her late husband had tumbled another of her daughters unceremoniously into the arms of old Dr. Sun Yat-sen (who also had another wife at the time) and that the marriage had been a master stroke for the House of Soong.
Venerable Mother Soong therefore told General Chiang that if he would become a Christian he could marry her attractive, Wellesley-graduated Meiling. The Conqueror replied that he would not adopt a new religion merely to win a bride, but that if Miss Soong would marry him he would agree to study Christianity, and then do as he saw fit. No ordained Christian pastor could be found who thought General Chiang free to marry Miss Soong, so a lay Y.M.C.A. secretary united them in holy matrimony. From the day General Chiang thus took his No. 2 wife, both his character and his fortunes rapidly commenced to take on a certain grandeur. Eventually he also became a Christian.