Chiang Kai-shek Quotes
China is the largest and most ancient of Asiatic countries, but it is not for us boastfully to talk of her right to a position of 'leadership' among those countries.
Chiang, Kai-shek. All We Are and All We Have: Speeches and Messages Since Pearl Harbor. John Day Company, 1943, p. 55.
This proverb was quoted by Winston Churchill in his address to Congress, January 17, 1952, Even when China was controlled by colonial powers, those same powers were changed by their contact.
Crocker’s railroad was way behind schedule for laying of track. The problem was an acute shortage of manpower. Someone suggested that they try Chinese labor. However Crocker’s superintendent of construction, James Strobridge, felt that they were too small, not strong enough, and inexperienced at construction. Soon Crocker had 11,000 Chinese workers. The Chinese were wonderful construction workers and the Southern Pacific Railroad thrived as other employers also began using Chinese workers.
Most of us have little idea of many of the benefits that have come from the native, indigenous population of the Americas. And most assume that it was only Europe that interacted with the “New World”. China however obtained the sweet potato from South America and its productivity and nutritional value benefitted those areas of China not ideal for rice cultivation.
Chavez frequently insulted officials and leaders of other countries. See linked quotes for examples.
She was ruling the largest country in the world and Denby’s opinion was held by most who knew China. What made her all the more remarkable was that, as a Chinese lower middle class women, she had no formal education, had rarely been allowed to travel out of her home or interact with men. As a young teen she was made a concubine to the Emperor and rarely left the harem. Like Abraham Lincoln she was self-taught and not only was able to seize power in China without any male advisor or patron, but she ruled as well as any world leader. In her later years she was pushing her country too fast and far, and the Western Powers had caused much domestic difficulty and to maintain power, she had to ally with the anti-West Boxers causing her reputation amongst Westerners to sink dramatically and thereafter was never much acknowledged for her remarkable political skills and accomplishments.
Russia was expansionistic even before the 1914 Russian Revolution with the Communists prevailing. I this case, they had designs on Korea. However, so did Japan and the two would fight in the Russo-Japanese War. Of course neither were concerned with what the Koreans wanted which was independence.
He was referring to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt negotiations with Churchill and Stalin at the Teheran Conference of 1943. Roosevelt insisted upon, and got his way of including China as one of the major allied powers to be among the main “Allies”. of WWII. Another factor that motivated FDR to push for China’s inclusion was that there was a very strong “China Lobby” led by Time/Life publisher Henry Luce in America that were urging such a policy.
Chiang Kai-shek, also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and romanized via Mandarin as Chiang Chieh-shih and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China between 1928 and 1975, first in mainland China until 1949 and then in Taiwan until his death.
