| | Although Chiang was nominally in charge of the "China-Burma-India" theater, actual command was held by American and British generals, especially [[Joseph Stilwell]]. Relatively little fighting took place in China. Nevertheless, Chiang gained world stature, and China was given a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council in 1945. Chiang became an ardent opponent of Communism in the late 1920s, but lost to [[Mao Zedong]] in the Chinese civil war, fleeing with his government and army to Taiwan in 1949. In Taiwan he built a modern Chinese nation--much smaller than the mainland of course--but proved that rapid, modernization, fast economic growth--and democracy--was possible in a Chinese nation. In 1947 he repressed traditional Taiwanese natives who hated to be overrun and ruled by the elites from the mainland, and to this day his reputation is controversial on Taiwan. | | Although Chiang was nominally in charge of the "China-Burma-India" theater, actual command was held by American and British generals, especially [[Joseph Stilwell]]. Relatively little fighting took place in China. Nevertheless, Chiang gained world stature, and China was given a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council in 1945. Chiang became an ardent opponent of Communism in the late 1920s, but lost to [[Mao Zedong]] in the Chinese civil war, fleeing with his government and army to Taiwan in 1949. In Taiwan he built a modern Chinese nation--much smaller than the mainland of course--but proved that rapid, modernization, fast economic growth--and democracy--was possible in a Chinese nation. In 1947 he repressed traditional Taiwanese natives who hated to be overrun and ruled by the elites from the mainland, and to this day his reputation is controversial on Taiwan. |