Obituary of note: Taiwan's first lady

TAIPEI, Taiwan - She was born into one of modern China's most remarkable families, married one of China's most powerful men and - at his side - helped rule China and later Taiwan during decades of war, upheaval and Cold War tension.

Madame Chiang Kai-shek, the glamorous, U.S.-educated "eternal first lady" of Taiwan, has died at her New York City home. She was 105. After battling cancer and other illnesses for years, she caught a cold Wednesday and died Thursday (Oct. 23, 2003), her relative Chiang Fang Chih-yi told reporters Friday in Taipei.

Madame and President Chiang Kai-shek were once one of the world's most famous couples - a dashing general married to a beautiful woman in a tight Chinese silk dress. Time magazine publisher Henry Luce named them the "Man and Woman of the Year" in 1938.

President Chiang's Nationalist government ruled China during World War II when the Japanese occupied much of the country. Fluent in English, Madame Chiang served as her husband's diplomat, persuading the U.S. Congress to help China fight the Japanese.

On Friday, Taiwanese TV stations replayed grainy footage of Madame Chiang speaking to Congress.

"I can also assure you that China is eager and ready to cooperate with you and other peoples to lay a true and lasting foundation for a sane and progressive world society," she said.

Washington answered her call. But there was far less sympathy when Madame Chiang returned after the war to ask for U.S. help in a civil war with the Communists. The corrupt Nationalists squandered large amounts of aid, and America lost faith in them.

The Nationalists lost the war in 1949 and retreated to the tiny island of Taiwan, 100 miles off China's coast. President Chiang ruled Taiwan with an iron grip, jailing dissidents and opposing democratic reforms.

Although her last visit to Taiwan was in 1995, Madame Chiang stirred strong feelings in many Taiwanese.

Her detractors call her an evil empress who helped prop up her husband's corrupt government.

"She was part of an era I don't want to remember. Taiwan was not a democracy then," said Mark Hwang, 39, a motorcycle salesman in Taipei.

Her admirers praised her intelligence, energy, patriotism and determination to fight communism.

At Nationalist headquarters in Taipei on Friday, party spokesman Alex Tsai described Madame Chiang as a woman "beloved by the people of Taiwan, who bridged the turbulence of three centuries."

She was born Soong Mei-Ling on Feb. 12, 1898, the youngest of three daughters known for their beauty and their marriages to some of the most influential men of pre-World War II China. She married her husband in 1927. The couple never had children.

Since the 1975 death of her husband, Madame Chiang had spent much of her time in semiseclusion in Manhattan. Funeral arrangements have not been announced.

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