Thread by @CarlZha

Three Warlords of China 1930. From left: Feng Yuxiang, Chiang Kai-shek, Yuan Xishan.

Before outbreak of Central Plain War among the three, the biggest Chinese Civil War after Northern Expedition(1926-28), with 300,000 casualties

Chiang looked small between 2 Northerners

When they were Young: Chiang Kai-shek’s 16 yr old son Chiang Ching-Kuo with Senpai Deng Xiaoping (22 yr old) in Moscow, 1926

Chiang Kai-shek’s 15 yr old son Chiang Jing-Kuo went to Soviet Union to study in 1925 (left, Young Chiang with his dear senpai Deng Xiaoping), where he met and married 15 yr old Feng Funeng, the beautiful daughter of Chinese Warlord Feng Yuxiang (right: 2nd from top left)

After Chiang Kai-shek purges Communists in Shanghai Massacre of 1927, Younger Chiang in Moscow denounced his father. Warlord Feng Yuxiang eventually joined Chiang. Her daugher Feng Funeng refused to denounce her dad and returned to China. Thus ending younger Chiang’s 1st marriage

Younger Chiang was sent to Ural Heavy Machinery Plant in Yekaterinburg where he met 16 yr Belorussian worker Faina Фаина Ипатьевна Вахрева. He was her factory supervisor. They married 2 years later in 1935.

”My tiger lass will not married that mongrel son of Chiang Kai-shek!” Chinese Warlord Feng Yuxiang circa 1930

What ultimately decided Central Plains War in Chiang Kai-shek’s favor was Manchurian Warlord “Young Marshal” Zhang Xueliang led 300,000 troops 东北军 marching south of Great Wall to take Beijing. Zhang (left) posed with Chiang (right). Unintended outcome: Japan invades Manchuria

After “Young Marshal” Zhang Xueliang led 300,000 troops out of Manchuria to occupy Beijing in 1930, Japanese Kwangtung Army used false flag Mukden Incident as pretext to take over whole Manchuria (Zhang’s home base) in 1931

After consolidating power by defeating other Warlords, Chiang Kai-shek concentrated on wiping out Communist bases in Southern China. Defeated Communist forces went on Long March to escape to Northwest in 1935

“Young Marshal” Zhang Xueliang (left) had fallen out with Chiang Kai-shek (right) because instead of fighting Japanese, Chiang ordered Zhang to deploy his Manchurian troops 东北军 to fight Communist Red Army in NW China

Seeing their forces being mow down by Communist Red Army, “Young Marshal” 張學良 and Northwestern Army 西北军 Warlord 楊虎城 staged a coup to arrest Chiang Kai-shek in Xi’an. This was the Xi’an incident

“Young Marshal” 張學良 Zhang Xueliang (left) arrested Chiang Kai-shek (right) and forced him to agree to form United Front with Communists to fight Japanese. In return, Zhang guaranteed Chiang’s safety and personally flew him to Nanjing. Zhang was then imprisoned for 50 years...

Soon Marco Polo Bridge Incident happened when Japan launched full scale invasion of China.

Chinese Communist Red Army agreed to reorganize as KMT 8th Route Army and CCP guerrilla forces in South China as KMT New Fourth Army under the United Front to fight the Japanese invasion.

Because of United Front between Chinese Communists and Nationalists (KMT), Chiang Kai-shek’s son Chiang Ching-Kuo was allowed by Stalin to return to China with his wife Faina in 1937 after lived in USSR for 12 years

Chiang Kai-shek with family on visit to his hometown in Fenghua, Zhejiang in January, 1949; just before fleeing to Taiwan

Chiang Ching-Kuo was a Trotskyist during his early days in Soviet Union. Many of his Trotskyist friends were purged in the Great Purge. After denouncing Trotskyism and his father Chiang Kai-shek, he was eventually accepted into the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Chiang Kai-shek family on Taiwan. Interesting they put Madam Chiang all the way in the back corner (far left) because she is not blood relation?🤷🏻‍♂️

Chiang Ching-kuo and wife Faina stood behind elder Chiang surrounded by their kids

Then there’s Chiang Kai-shek’s other son Chiang Wei-Kuo as a cadet at the Kriegsakademie in Munich. He served in the German Wehrmacht until 1939...

Unlike his brother Chiang Ching-Kuo(left), Chiang Wei-Kuo (right) is not biological son of Chiang Kai-shek (Center). A fact Wei-Kuo admitted to later in his life.

Chiang Kai-shek (right) and his buddy Dai Jitao (left) both studied in Japan like many Chinese youth at the time. Dai has a son by Japanese woman Shigematsu Kaneko. But Dai is already married in China. So Chiang covered for his buddy by claiming the kid as his own.

The story of Chiang Wei-Kuo’s parentage is according to Chiang Wei-Kuo himself later in life. Both Chiang Kai-shek and Dai Jitao had relations with Kaneko. We probably never know his true parentage unless DNA test is done. From left: Chiang Kai-shek, Dai Jitao, Chiang Wei-Kuo

Chiang Kai-Shek and 8 year old Chiang Wei-kuo who was raised by Chiang’s childless concubine Yao Yecheng.

Having sent eldest son Chiang Ching-Kuo to USSR in 1925, Chiang Kai-shek broke with Soviet in 1927. Having strong pro-German sympathies, Chiang send younger son Wei-kuo to Germany for military training in 1937.

When the German Wehrmacht rolled into Austria, Chiang Wei-Kuo as a 21-year-old sergeant-cadet in the 98th Jäger Regiment rode a German truck crossing the Austrian border in the early hours of March 12, 1938.

After Austria, next up for the German army was the occupation of the Sudetenland, the largely German-speaking part of Czechoslovakia, in October 1938. Chiang Wei-kuo did not participate, even though he later admitted he would have liked to...

Chiang Wei-kuo graduated in the summer of 1939, just weeks before the German invasion of Poland. To his regret, He missed the opportunity to ride along on the invasion of Poland. On the way to the border, he received new orders. He was to travel to the United States for training

Chiang Wei-kuo initially enrolled at the Army Air Corps School in Alabama, but once the US top brass understood he had received training in Germany, already recognized as a leader in tank warfare, he was sent to the Armored Force Center at Fort Knox.

November 1939, Chiang Wei-Kuo attended party at Soviet Embassy in United States, accompanied by military attaché of the Chinese Embassy to US 郭熔权

Chiang Wei-Kuo is Chiang Kai-shek’s favorite son. But when he was traveling abroad he 1st heard the rumor that his real biological father is Chiang’s buddy Dai Jitao

Chiang Wei-Kuo married Texile Tycoon’s daughter 石靜宜 Shi Jinyi in 1944. But Shi died under mysterious circumstances in 1953 while Wei-kuo was visiting US. Eyewitness claim she was held down on hospital bed and forced fed sleeping pills. Chiang Kai-shek may ordered her death

Chiang Wei-Kuo later met Ellen Chiu who is half German and 18 years his junior. Her dad was against the marriage and send her away to Japan to study. But two still married 2 years later. The couple with Yao Yecheng, Wei-Kuo’s adopted mother, Chiang Kai-shek’s concubine.

Madam Chiang Kai-shek and her two daughter-in-laws, Ellen Chiu and Faina

Chiang Kai-shek with family in Taiwan. Chiang Wei-Kuo with his son on far right corner. His wife Ellen Chiu 2nd woman from left. Rest are large brood of Chiang Ching-Kuo and Wife Faina

Chiang Ching-Kuo, wife Faina and their large brood in Taiwan, 1960. Chiang Ching-Kuo ran Taiwan after death of Chiang Kai-shek in 1975 until his own death in 1988. His 12 years in Soviet Union influenced how he ran Taiwan. After his death, Taiwan became democratic.

Young Marshal Zhang Xueliang was eventually released from house arrest on Taiwan after Chiang’s death. Immigrated to Hawaii in 1993, died there in the ripe old age of 100 in 2001. He lived thru entire 20th century! His wife Yu Fengzhi’s dress really outshone Madam Chiang here!

Today Young Marshal Zhang Xueliang is mostly known for a playboy. He famously said “I don’t pursue women, women pursue me”. He carried on a love affair with Mussolini’s daughter Edda, here seen together in Forbidden City. His wife didn’t seemed to be thrilled...

Unlike Young Marshal Zhang Xueliang(left), the other half of coup plotter to arrest Chiang Kai-shek, Northwestern Army Commander Yang Hucheng (right) not so lucky. Imprisoned by Chiang for 12 years. He was killed w his young son and daughter in Sept 1949 before Communist victory

Correction: this photo sometimes attributed to Chiang Ching-Kuo and Deng Xiaoping in Moscow in 1926 is actually Dèng Shàoshèng鄧紹聖Dèng Xiǎopíng's 19 year old uncle (left) with 16 year old Deng Xiaoping in March 1921, Paris. Apologies!

Even tho Chiang Ching-Kuo presents himself as a family man, often photoed kiss his wife Faina and play with children, but like other powerful Chinese men, he had mistress on the side...

3 years after Chiang Ching-Kuo returned to China from Soviet Union with wife Faina, he took 27 yr divorcee Chang Ya-juo as his mistress. She bore him twin sons. Because she wants to make their relationship public, Chiang Kai-shek ordered her killed by lethal injection

Chiang Ching-Kuo’s illegitimate twins were raised by their maternal uncle and raise with their mother’s surname Chang. They didn’t dare to assume Chiang family name until Chiang Ching-Kuo’s wife Faina’s death in 2004