Taipei - Family members of Taiwan's late president Chiang Kai-shek on Tuesday demanded Taiwan hold a state funeral for Chiang and his son Chiang Ching-kuo, or the family will send their remains to China for burial. Chiang Wei-chang, a great-grandson of Chiang Kai-shek, made the demand as President Chen Shui-bian intensified a campaign to erase Chiang's legacy as a step toward cutting Taiwan's links with China.
"If the government regards them as former presidents of Taiwan, it should hold a state funeral and bury their ashes in a state cemetary. If not, it becomes a family issue and we will respect their wishes and seek China's approval for moving their remains to China," he said.
He said the Chiang family is not interested in politics and asked Taiwan's ruling party and opposition parties to stop using the two Chiangs' burials as an issue in their power struggle.
Chiang Wei-chang made the statement after President Chen ordered military guards removed from Chiang Kai-shek's and Chiang Ching-kuo's mausoleums at Tahsi, an hour's drive from Taipei, on the grounds that Chiang was a dictator and should be denounced, not worshipped, by Taiwan's people.
As the two Chiangs hoped to be buried in China, their coffins have not been buried yet.
The Chiang family has not made a formal request to Beijing for relocating the two Chiangs' remains to their hometown in Zhejiang, China, but local officials in Zhejiang have hinted that the two Chiangs' remains can be relocated there.
Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan after losing the Chinese Civil War in 1949 and set up the Republic of China's government-in-exile in Taipei.
He ruled Taiwan with an iron fist until he died in 1975. His son Chiang Ching-kuo was president from 1978 until he died in 1988.
Though China claims Taiwan is part of China, currently 24 countries maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan, formally called the Republic of China.
Many Taiwanese are grateful to Chiang Kai-shek for defending Taiwan from being taken over by communist China, and to Chiang Ching-kuo for building up Taiwan's capitalist economy.
But after Chen, a native-born Taiwanese, became president in 2000, he launched a campaign to erase the legacy of Chiang Kai-shek, and to position Taiwan as an independent country.
Taiwan's opposition parties accuse Chen of using the Chiang issue to engage in ethnic division to help his ruling Democratic Progressive Party win the presidential election in March 2008.
Chen has refuted the charge, saying it is high time to sweep Chiang's legacy into the historical dump, instead of worshiping him like an emperor.
