When Chiang Kai-Shek died a few people remembered him. Among these few. Muldoon stood out as the sole exception among New Zealand politicians who laboured to eulogise the dead. It was evident that he held the Generalissimo in the highest esteem and wasted no words in using this rare occasion to launch another onslaught on the corruptive influence of communism. It is hard to imagine how he can possibly succeed as a lone crusader, practically, when Chiang commanded 60 armies against the communists and failed. Further, it is even harder to understand how he and the Editor of the Dominion can evoke any sympathy for the dead man when he was one of the most hated and despised despots in Chinese history and still is in the minds of millions of oppressed Taiwanese.

So who is this 'peanut', 'little bugger', 'tribal chieftan', 'big boy', the 'all-wise' and the 'rattle snake' as the American General 'Vinegar Joe' Stiliwell ruddy called him behind bis back during the war?

To really understand ChiangKai-Shek, one must look at him in terms of Chinese history and how it shaped the thoughts and acts of this man. In a classic account of the Chinese Revolution, American Writer Jack Belden provides invaluable insight into this tragic figure of history in his book 'China Shakes The World'. The accuracy of the author's observations and the facts he recorded have not changed since he wrote it in 1946. This is therefore a late review of events long past, yet of some urgency lest we forget the lessons to be learnt from history. No apology is made for the extensive quoting from the book, as the author's summation of Chiang's character is concise enough.

'China Shakes The World' is the sequel to Snow's 'Red Star Over China'. The author travelled extensively throughout China observing and reporting on history that was unfolding before him in the gigantic social upheaval between the years 1946 and 1949 which culminated in the overturning of the whole Chinese, universe. Of the events which Belden reported, some were often not published in the Free world press as they were unfavourable to one of the 'four great statesmen' of our time. His book reveals page after page the progress of the Chinese Revolution and Chiang KaiShek looms targe in these pages as one of the main actors in the dramatic climax of a few thousand years struggle of the Han people. Westerners tend to regard Chiang as a key figure in this drama as they are prone to do so often in their history books by looking at history in terms of a particular class of people and individuals, of kings and dynasties. Belden rejects this approach as superficial: 'The causes of such an event in which millions of people fought one another, peasants turned on landlords, brother on brother and wives on husband cannot be the fault of one man'. It was the irresistable trend of history in which Chiang was caught. If he had lived at an earlier time he might have fitted in the historical picutre but not in the 20th Century. In spite of him the struggle between the oppressed and oppressors of his society was already in progress for thousands and thousands of years. Yet this man ruled China without interruption for two violent decades of war and revolution.