Fire guts late Taiwan leaders residence

September 29, 2009 04:15:02 PM

• A⁺ 
• A^-
• |
• 
• |
• 
• |
• 

A blaze has gutted part of late Taiwan leader Chiang Kai-shek's former residence, with investigators probing Tuesday if arson was the cause, police said.

The fire broke out late Monday in the two-storey mansion, which was being renovated and was partially open to the public, while its adjoining garden has been a popular tourist attraction for many years.

Cultural experts were assessing the extent of the damage to the historic site, which is located in an upscale part of Taipei.

Chiang, who lived in the mansion for a quarter of a century until his death in 1975, is the most controversial figure in modern Taiwan history, personifying the island's difficult relationship with China.

Born on the mainland, he rose to supreme power there before being expelled by the communists in 1949 and forced to settle in Taiwan.

There he used his enormous propaganda and security apparatus to crush all hints of a separate identity for the island, while emphasising its cultural and linguistic links with the mainland, making him hated by many.

In 2007, a fire gutted another Chiang villa on the outskirts of Taipei.

The then-government of the Democratic Progressive Party, which wants independence from China, made concerted attempts to remove evidence of Chiang's legacy.

As part of that campaign, the DPP government removed his name from an international airport, while hundreds of statues of him were taken away from military premises.

Taiwan has been ruled separately since 1949, at the end of civil war, but Beijing still regards the island as part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.

* Get the latest weather on your phone. Txt VLWH to 333 now