Retired General Sun Yuan-liang (孫元良), who helped lead Chiang Kai-shek's (蔣介石) Nationalists in China's struggle against Japan during World War II, has died in Taiwan, a local newspaper reported yesterday. He was 103.
Sun died at his home in Taipei on May 25, the Chinese-language United Daily News quoted his son Sun Hsiang-chung (孫祥鍾) as saying. His body was cremated on Saturday, the report said.
Born in Sichuan Province in 1904, Sun joined the Nationalist army at the age of 19 and was among the most celebrated graduates of the prestigious Whampoa Military Academy founded by Chiang in Guangdong Province.
He came to prominence confronting Japanese efforts to gain a foothold in the Shanghai region in the 1930s.
Sun led the Nationalists in a crucial battle to beat back Japanese naval forces attacking Shanghai in 1932.
He led another famous battle in the city in 1937, holding onto the Nationalist base for 76 days despite heavy casualties.
Many historians have criticized the Nationalists' performance during World War II, saying poor leadership and widespread corruption had allowed Japan to take control of wide swathes of China.
Some say Chiang refused to deploy his best troops, holding them back for use against the Communists after Japan's defeat.
During that civil conflict, Sun lost a crucial battle in 1948 when more than 500,000 Nationalist troops were killed in eastern Jiangsu Province.
Sun retired shortly after he followed Chiang to Taiwan in 1949.
Local media said Sun was survived by five sons.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
RSS