Weak Hand, Skillful Player: Chiang Kai-shek’s diaries and the game of international diplomacy


 

Publication Date: January 2008

Publisher: Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace

Author(s): Paul H. Tai

Research Area: Politics

Keywords: Chiang Kai-shek; Taiwan; Diplomacy

Type: Brief

Coverage: Taiwan

Abstract:

Chiang Kai-shek, leading the Republic of China during the tumultuous 1930s and 1940s, defied the conventional adage that weak nations have no diplomacy. As illuminated by the Chiang diaries housed at the Hoover Institution, Chiang bargained with the world’s great powers from a position of weakness and achieved some remarkable objectives.