** Another Dictator **

If I die as a dictator, I will go down in history like all dictators…

Thus Mr. Chiang documented in his journal, and so history recalls him.

We perceive China as a dominant power today, yet this was far from the truth in the early 20th century. Chiang, in his attempt to protect a fragmented and weakening China against Japan, was engaged in power politics without any real power. After experiencing betrayals by nearly every international ally and numerous trusted lieutenants, by the 1930s, he had grown distrustful of everyone.

China indeed required a leader capable of maneuvering among foreign powers to avoid being overwhelmed by Japan. However, this positioned Chiang as the wrong person at the right place and right time. He managed just enough to keep the Japanese at bay, even though the Japanese nearly overran the nation: The Japanese had seized half the territories of China … China had lost up to 90% of industrial capacity, as well as 80% of tax revenues.

Nevertheless, in pursuing this strategy, he estranged all his allies, including his lieutenants, the domestic communists, the USSR, and the Americans. For him, victory was synonymous with survival, and he clung to this approach until the final confrontation. This book adopts a less favorable view of Chiang compared to Forgotten Ally, yet it is more sympathetic than Tuchman’s Stillwell-centered narrative. Among the three, it offers the most comprehensive insight into World War II from the Chinese perspective, if only because it situates China and Chiang within the chaos that ensued post-Qing China. After completing Assad or We Burn the Country, I was struck by the parallels between Jiang and Assad, each with a pure belief in their own indispensibility.

Regrettably, Pantsov glosses over what could have been a captivating account of Taiwan’s establishment and its subsequent evolution. He dedicates a cursory paragraph attempting to vindicate Chiang: In the end he broke with Oligarchy and implemented agrarian and other reforms. Yet overall, Pantsov seems ambivalent towards Chiang’s legacy.