Welmer

Soong May-ling (better known in America as Madame Chiang Kai-shek), daughter of a prominent Hakka businessman of Christian faith, was born in Shanghai in 1898, blessed with wealth and privilege at a time when most of her Chinese compatriots were suffering from the chaos that accompanied the disintegration of the Qing dynasty. Together with her sisters, Ai-ling and Ching-ling, she pursued a Western education in the US, attending Wesleyan College and residing for some time in Georgia, where she picked up a southern accent that characterized her English for the rest of her life.

The story of the Soong sisters has captivated China for generations, and the different path each sister took represents the struggles of China as it strove to find its place in the modern world. Eldest sister Ai Ling, who married China’s finance minister, is said to have loved money, while the next sister, Ching-ling, who married Sun Yat-sen, is characterized as having a great love for her country. May-ling, who eventually married Chiang Kai-shek, loved power.

The fall of the Kuomintang is well-known in the US, as it resulted in the creation of Taiwan and years of antipathy between the United States and the victorious Communist regime in Beijing. However, little is known of the massive corruption, ineffective government and abuse of power in Nationalist China, which greatly aided Mao Zedong and his peasant army by turning popular opinion against the Kuomintang. Ordinary Chinese had been through decades of misery and war, yet the majority of powerful officials in the Kuomintang were more concerned about themselves than their suffering countrymen.

To many Chinese, Soong May-ling epitomized these negative traits of the Kuomintang, and recent discoveries appear to confirm their sentiments.

After losing to President Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential election, Wendell Willkie set out to travel the world in service to the US. While in Chungking (modern Chongqing), he met Soong May-ling, and the two evidently took an interest in each other. After excusing themselves from a government reception, they stayed out all night, Willkie returning at 4 AM as “cocky as a young college student,” according to publishing magnate Gardner “Mike” Cowles. Cowles was staying with Willkie, and reports that Chiang Kai-shek himself came to their room in a frantic attempt to find his absent wife.

As Mdme. Soong’s affair with Willkie deepened, Willkie thought it might be a good idea to bring her back to Washington, upon which Cowles had to scuttle this plan. When Cowles broke the news to Mdme. Soong, telling her that she wasn’t going anywhere, she attacked him, severely scratching his face. As Cowles put it: “Before I knew what was happening she reached up and scratched her long fingernails down both my cheeks so deeply that I had marks for about a week.”

Nevertheless, she wasn’t deterred for long, making it to the US the next year, where she met with Eleanor Roosevelt and many major officials. As stated in Cowles’ memoirs, she had been fantasizing about global domination with Willkie at her side, and while in her suite at the Waldorf said to Cowles: “You know, Mike, if Wendell could be elected, then he and I would rule the world. I would rule the Orient and Wendell would rule the Western world.”

Of course, none of this came to pass. Willkie died within a year, and the Kuomintang, led by Mdme. Soong’s husband Chiang Kai-shek, was in terminal decline. Soon, the triumphant People’s Liberation Army marched on Beijing, and on October 1, 1949, Mao declared the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in Tiananmen Square (video). Mdme. Soong and her husband grabbed all the loot they could get their hands on and fled the mainland for Taiwan, and the rest is history.

It has been popular for some time for liberal minded Americans to say they don’t care what politicians do in private, as long as they do a good job in office. However, this story, as well as many, many others, shows that the personal integrity of people in power has a great effect on how they wield that power, and ultimately the people often pay for choices made by those with degraded morals. It is, actually, little different from the well-known fact that children usually pay the heaviest price for their parents’ indiscretions.

Confucius, who would certainly have condemned the Kuomintang (not to mention the PRC), had a good take on this matter:

“If you really want good to flourish, your people will turn towards the good. The virtue of a noble ruler is like the wind; the virtue of his subjects is like grass. If the wind sweeps across the grass, the grass will bend.”

–Confucius

Of course, the other side of the coin is true as well: a wicked ruler will only encourage wickedness in the people.