Chiang Kai-shek's 90th birthday (89th by Western reckoning) will be observed October 31 with the opening of Taichung port, the first international harbor on the central west coast of Taiwan. Construction was started three years before to the day as the Republic of China's salute to its long-time leader.
President and Generalissimo Chiang did not live to see the first-stage completion at Taichung, which eventually will be able to handle 12 million tons of cargo annually. He passed away April 5 of 1975 and was temporarily laid to rest at scenic Tzuhu, which is not so far from the new port that will honor his memory.
In the hearts and minds of the Chinese people, President Chiang has taken his seat alongside Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of the Republic of China, as the second Chinese immortal of the 20th century.
The birthdays of both men have been proclaimed national holidays. On November 12, the 111th anniversary of Dr. Sun's birth, the Kuomintang will open its 11th National Congress in Taipei. Sun Yat-sen established the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party), which has held the governmental reins throughout China's republican period.
Dr. Sun was educated in Honolulu and graduated from medical school in Hongkong. He practiced for a time in Macao and reached the conclusion that the Ch'ing dynasty of the Manchus would have to be overthrown if China was to be modernized. His revolutionary career began in the mid-1890s and culminated in the Wuchang National Revolution of October 10, 1911.
Ch'ing rule quickly collapsed and the Republic of China was proclaimed on January 1, 1912. Sun Yat-sen was abroad when his years of revolutionary planning finally succeeded. He returned to China as a national hero and was elected provisional president only to find that defeat of the Manchus had not unified the country or ushered in a modern state and government.
The warlords were still to be dealt with - a task that was to require the military genius of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek but which would not be completed until after Dr. Sun's death.
It was Sun Yat-sen, however, who recognized the leadership potential of Chiang Kai-shek and who left the Republic its great legacy of the Three Principles of the People: Nationalism, Democracy and the People's Livelihood (or Social Welfare).
Free China's political, economic and social philosophy is based on these teachings together with Dr. Sun's five powers system of government: executive, legislative, judicial, examination and control.
The Founding Father died in 1925 while trying to persuade the northern warlords to support a united Republic. Unification was accomplished between 1926 and 1928 in the Northward Expedition of Chiang Kai-shek and forces he had trained at China's Whampoa Military Academy, which was established by Dr. Sun in 1923.
From 1928 forward, the Republic made steady progress despite the aggression of Japan and the insurrection of the Communists. The man at the helm was the Generalissimo, who became China's first elected president in 1948. Nationwide elections were held, in accordance with the Constitution adopted in 1946 and promulgated in 1947, even as the Communists were attempting to destroy the National Government.
War weariness, Russian backing for the Communists and the temporary withdrawal of U.S. support undermined the Government's position on the China mainland. In 1949, the Government withdrew to Taiwan and Chiang Kai-shek, who had retired in the hope that peace could be arranged between the Kuomintang and the Communists, returned to the presidency in 1950.
If 1949-50 was the low point in the Republic of China's fortunes, it was also the beginning of one of history's finest comebacks. Never has one leader done more for his people than President Chiang in that turning point of the struggle against Communism.
The enemy was stopped at the water's edge on the offshore island of Kinmen (Quemoy). U.S. aid was resumed and the military forces were rebuilt. That set the stage for the "Taiwan economic miracle" inspired by President Chiang and engineered by a succession of topnotch administrators, including Yen Chia-kan, who was to succeed Chiang Kai-shek as President in 1975.
Land reform reduced tenant farming to a minimum and provided the incentives for greatly increased agricultural production. This in turn provided raw materials and a market for industry.
Democratic government was encouraged at the grass roots. Islanders had no experience with elections. They began to learn by choosing their own councils and magistrates. A Provincial Assembly was elected. Finally, constitutional means were devised to hold partial national elections despite the continuing Communist presence on the mainland.
When President Chiang succumbed to a heart attack, the nation was ready for the transition. But first came an outpouring of grief unprecedented in Chinese history. A million and a half people lined the streets as President Chiang's body was taken to the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei to lie in state. On each of the following five days, half a million people queued up to me past the bier.
As hearse and mourners traveled the 40 miles from Taipei westward to Tzuhu, another 2 million lined the route. Many of them knelt; others bowed their heads. Most cried openly. Buddhists and Taoists built thousands of small altars at which to offer prayers for their leader's repose.
The black granite sarcophagus was temporarily enshrined at Tzuhu in a simple country villa once used by President Chiang for prayer and meditation. Well over a million persons - foreigners as well as Chinese - have made the pilgrimage to Tzuhu in the last year and a half to pay tribute to a great man's memory.
This will not be the last resting place of President Chiang. When the mainland is free once more, the body will be taken to Nanking for a state funeral and entombment near the last resting place of Dr. Sun Yat-sen.
Premier Chiang Ching-kuo, the elder son of Chiang Kai-shek, has said of Tzuhu that the "light and heat radiated there have penetrated into the depths of every heart and have engendered invisible national strength of unmatched power."
"This is the strength," he said, "that has revived us in the depths of mourning. This is the strength that helped us conquer our adversities when we lost our psychological reliance last year. This is the strength that has kept us stable in a time of uneasiness. In its turn the stability enable us to continue our progress."
President Yen addressed memorial services in Taipei on the first anniversary of his predecessor's passing. Chiang Kai-shek had planned so well, he said, that the nation was able to express its grief and still move steadily ahead.
Sorrow had not been mitigated, he said, but "Neither has the hard-working spirit of our country been even momentarily dampened by our tragedy.
This shows that the people have made the instructions bequeathed by the late President their codes of conduct and have transformed their grief into power."
President Chiang had assured that the Republic of China would have no succession problem.
Yen Chia-kan, an authority on finance and economics who served as premier for a decade, was handpicked by Chiang Kai-shek as vice president. He was serving his second term when called upon to step into free China's biggest shoes.
Premier Chiang did not find it necessary to make many changes in the cabinet or other top government positions.
The Republic of China stands united and strong under able leadership. The national goal is the same as ever: Implementation of Dr. Sun's Three Principles of the People in the one China of freedom, democracy and equality to which the late President Chiang Kai-shek dedicated his life.
President Chiang once summed it all up in one sentence: "Only through unity can we save our country and our people."
Relations between countries are not measured by diplomatic ties alone. The Republic of China continues to have trade, social and cultural ties with well over 100 states of the world. Only the Communist countries are excluded. Most countries that have recognized the Chinese Communists also have increased Taiwan trade and travel.
Japan had hoped to develop the Chinese mainland market. Instead, it is continuing to sell a larger volume of goods to Taiwan. A few Japanese officials travel to the mainland. More than half a million Japanese tourists will make sightseeing trips to Taiwan this year.
The late President Chiang Kai-shek used to say that all who are not enemies must be considered friends. This is the philosophy of the Republic of China in its overseas relationships. Investors are welcomed along with tourists. There is no discrimination against those whose governments do not see eye to eye with the Republic of China in international politics.
Japanese are second to the Americans in the total amount of Taiwan investment. One of the biggest single investments is that of Philips of the Netherlands. Japan, Thailand and the Philippines are still represented among the foreign banks operating in Taipei.
Traditionally, the United States is the Republic of China's closest friend and ally. The two countries have been in contact with each other for nearly the full span of U.S. independence. They were allies during World War II. American economic and military assistance played a major role in the build-up of Taiwan after Communist usurpation of the Chinese mainland in 1949.
The American connection remains strong despite U.S. efforts to "relax tensions" with Peiping. Premier Chiang Ching-kuo has said that "as long as there are diplomatic relations between the United States and the Republic of China, there will be peace in Asia." Foreign Minister Shen Chang-huan has expressed confidence that Americans are becoming more aware of the Republic of China's importance to U.S. national interest.
About US$500 million has been invested in Taiwan by American companies. Electronics is represented by RCA, Admiral, Sylvania, Zenith and General Instrument. Other names include Bulova, Gulf Oil, Coming Glass, Du Pont, Eli Lilly, IBM, Singer, Timex, Scott, 3M, m, Union Carbide, B.F. Goodrich, National Distillers and Ford.
Eight American banks have branches in Taipei. These together with other foreign banks and the U.S. Export-Import Bank have provided some US$2,000 million in loans for new industries and enlargement of the infrastructure. Foreign credits are used to buy machinery and equipment from the countries providing the loans.
The United States is free China's principal trading partner. Volume is expected to exceed US$4,000 million this year, several times as much as that between the United States and the Chinese mainland. In recent years U.S.-Taiwan trade has been modestly favorable to the latter, largely because of the many American companies exporting goods to their home market.
Some 150,000 Americans visiting Taiwan this year are finding much that is familiar: American clubs and schools, an American Chamber of Commerce and radio station, TV programs in English, American hospitals and churches, ice cream parlors and a Taipei suburb that is familiarly known as "little America." The Japanese and Koreans also have elementary schools in Taipei.
About 10,000 students from the Republic of China are attending U.S. institutions of higher learning. Several hundred American students are in Taiwan studying Chinese. There are working partnerships of long duration between the United States and free China in education, medicine, science, military science and other fields.
Under the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, the United States maintains the Taiwan Defense Command in Taipei. There is also an American Military Assistance Advisory Group.
The Republic of China continues to have formal and close relations with most of the countries of Latin America, Saudi Arabia and Jordan in the Middle East and a number of countries in Africa. Saudi Arabia has loaned US$110 million to the ROC for infrastructure projects.
Over the last 15 years, free China has shared its know-how with other developing nations. More than 40 countries in Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Latin America have welcomed agricultural demonstration teams and other technicians from Taiwan. Many of these missions are still in place. Contracts have been extended and fields of cooperation widened.
Quasi-official relations are maintained with such countries as Japan and the Philippines through trade offices which are embassies in everything but name. In other cases - such as those of Australia, New Zealand and European nations - private companies, associations and friendship societies keep business, social and cultural pipelines open.
Leaders of many countries recognizing Peiping have visited Taiwan or otherwise given support to the Republic of China. Japan was represented by one fonner prime minister and the widow of another at memorial services for President Chiang Kai-shek in 1975.
Some countries which were quick to recognize the Chinese Communists - Great Britain, for example, and then France - have continued to maintain close ties with the Republic of China. Their recognition decisions were expediently based on de facto Communist possession of the Chinese mainland and not upon approval of the Peiping regime or desire to destroy the Republic of China and what it stands for.
These and other states recognize that the ROC has persevered and accomplished much on Taiwan despite international difficulties. Some who at first wrote off free China as a lost cause are admitting they were wrong. They have sent press and television teams to record the continuing Taiwan success story.
Marinus van Gessel, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei, summed up the views of foreign businessmen and investors when he said that the foreign community sees "no reason to believe that the situation will take a turn for the worse. People want to make a prudent investment, and we are quite confident in the ability of the Republic of China to be around for a long time."
As part of the price exacted by the Communists for civil aviation landing rights on the Chinese mainland, the Japanese were compelled to express doubt that the Republic of China's flag symbolized a sovereign nation. As a consequence, the ROC felt compelled to stop flying to Japan and asked Japan Air Lines to stay out of Taiwan air space.
After more than a year of flight suspensions, the Japanese decided to retract their remark and establish a new airline to serve the lucrative Tokyo-Osaka-Taipei route. China Airlines returned to Tokyo and then to Fukuoka.
The Japanese were not only attesting to the importance of Taiwan in the Asian scheme of things. They were also admitting that the Republic of China is a going concern and can be expected to remain so.