Chiang Kai-shek to be formally buried
Taipei (AsiaNews/SCMP) - The bodies of former Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek and his son will finally be buried in Taiwan, contrary to their wishes to be interred on the mainland.
Chiang Kai-shek was Taiwan's first president and he was succeeded by his son, Chiang Ching-kuo.
Taiwan's Defence Ministry yesterday confirmed that Chiang Ching-kuo's widow, Chiang Fang-liang, and other members of the Chiang family had requested help in arranging a formal burial at the Wuchih Mountain Military Cemetery near Taipei.
Chiang Kai-shek, who died in 1975, and Chiang Ching-kuo, who died in 1988, had asked that their remains be sent back to their mainland home town in Fenghua county, Zhejiang province , for burial after the Kuomintang had won back control of China.
Their bodies have been kept in temporary resting places in Tzuhu and Touliao in Taoyuan county outside Taipei. Under Chinese tradition, the dead must be laid to ground for permanent rest, and leaving the two men unburied was considered bad luck for the family.
With the likelihood of Taiwanese forces conquering the mainland non-existent, the family finally decided to bury the two former presidents in Taiwan.
"We will send the request to President Chen Shui-bian through the cabinet for approval of a state funeral to be held in March or April next year," the Defence Ministry spokesman said yesterday.
Under the island's law, a state burial, with flags flown at half mast, can be held only with the approval of the cabinet and the president. Presidential spokesman Chen Wen-tzung yesterday said Mr Chen "respects the wishes of the family to have a state funeral for the two in Taiwan". Chiang Kai-shek brought the KMT army to Taiwan after being defeated by communist forces in the civil war in 1949.
He had two sons, Ching-kuo and Wei-kuo. Ching-kuo later became president of Taiwan, but all of his three sons inherited his diabetes and died during the 1980s and 1990s. The ruling Democratic Progressive Party yesterday gave its support for the burial of the two former presidents, saying they both considered themselves Taiwanese, especially Chiang Ching-kuo
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