Jiang Qing-guo (or Chiang Ching-kuo) (1910–1988)

Taiwanese politician, eldest son of Jiang Jie Shi (Chiang Kai-shek), prime minister 1972–78, president 1978–88. After Jiang Jie Shi's Kuomintang (Guomindang, nationalist) forces fled to Taiwan in 1949, in the wake of the communist takeover of the Chinese mainland, Jiang Qing-guo worked to strengthen the security and intelligence forces and established a youth wing for the ruling Kuomintang. He became Taiwan's prime minister in 1972 and, after the death of his father in April 1975, Kuomintang leader and, from 1978, head of state.

Jiang introduced modernizing economic, social, and political reforms and during his tenure the country enjoyed rapid economic development as an export-oriented ‘Tiger economy’. Gradual democratization was permitted, along with ‘Taiwanization’ of the Kuomintang, which had hitherto been dominated by Chinese ‘mainlanders’ who had accompanied Jiang Ji Shi to Taiwan in 1949. An opposition political party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), was permitted, for the first time, to participate in parliamentary elections in 1986; martial law, which had been in force since 1949, was lifted in 1987; and he allowed travel to the communist-controlled mainland for family reunions. The pace of political liberalization accelerated under Jian's successor, the Taiwan-born Lee Teng-hui.

Jiang studied for 12 years in the Soviet Union, before returning to China in 1937, where he worked assisting his father.