Chiang Kai Shek

One of the several ways that scholars see Chiang being a corrupted leader is through his poor military tactics and decision-making. During his power in China, Chiang was in control over most of its military forces. However he was so attached and focused on defeating the Communist Party that he used all his forces solely on this purpose. Jonathan Fenby writes in his biography on Chiang, “Chiang was undoubtedly a reactionary authoritarian who set no great store by the lives of his compatriots and put the defeat of the Communists ahead of fighting the Japanese.”(501) It was the most crucial decision that was perceived as very unintelligent, as Chiang established his priorities to fight the Communist Party over the Japanese. Chiang essentially allowed the Japanese to invade China and was shown that he did not remotely care for the common people (Derbyshire, John). As a result, it led to the invasion in Nanjing and as brutal actions increased from the Japanese, with the well-known atrocity of rape of Nanjing (Baumler, Alan). It was not until after Chiang was kidnapped, that he was forced to turn his focus to fight the Japanese. However Fenby explains, “While his overall strategic concept against Japan made eventual sense, it entailed huge loses of life and territory, with the attendant demoralization and weakening of his regime.”(501) While Chiang was able to eventually defeat the Japanese; his late realization to what was actually more important led to the horrific events as Japan invaded China. These events caused an aftermath of thousands of deaths and created a demoralizing part of China’s history. After those events he became unpopular and led to the defeat against the Communist Party, thus Historians see him as a failure to lead...

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