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Article: Digging up Taiwan's history.(son of Chiang Kai-shek wants his father's remains moved to family plot in China instead of in its current site in Taiwan)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- August 24, 1996
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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TAIPEI
WHO owns a corpse? Surely the next of kin. But what if the corpse is that of a former president and national hero? And what if the next of kin want to send it for burial to a hostile country?
These questions have been forced upon the Taiwanese government by a request from 80-year-old Wego Chiang, the only surviving son of Chiang Kai-shek, the maker of post-imperial, pre-Maoist China, and, after his defeat on the mainland in 1949, master of Taiwan. Wego Chiang wants to transfer his father's remains to China, and with them those of his own half-brother, Chiang Ching-kuo, Chiang Kai-shek's successor.
The two men's bodies-they died in 1975 and 1988, ...