《TAIPEI TIMES》 Chiang collection awarded to state

By Wen Yu-te and Jason Pan / Staff reporters

The Taipei District Court yesterday ruled that the diaries and papers of former presidents Chiang Kai-shek （蔣介石） and Chiang Ching-kuo （蔣經國） written during their presidencies belong to the state and should be put under the management of Academia Historica, while 232 other items from the years when they were not president belong to their descendants.

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The ruling can be appealed.

The case dates back to Jan. 10, 2005, when Chiang Fang Chih-yi （蔣方智怡）, the widow of Chiang Ching-kuo’s third son, Chiang Hsiao-yung （蔣孝勇）, signed an agreement with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University that authorized the San Francisco-based institution to take possession of the diaries.

Chiang Fang and six other family members in 2010 then passed ownership of the collection to Academia Historica.

Stanford University asked the US District Court in San Jose, California, to arbitrate rightful ownership in 2013 after legal claims were made by other family members — including Chiang You-mei （蔣友梅）, the daughter of Chiang Ching-kuo’s eldest son, Chiang Hsiao-wen （蔣孝文） — and also by Academia Historica.

Academia Historica in 2015 requested that the US Federal Court transfer the lawsuit to Taiwan, which the US court agreed to do.

Academia Historica in November 2015 filed a civil lawsuit at the Taipei District Court.

In her testimony at a July 2017 court hearing, Chiang Fang said that while she could accept that the issue could have been handled better, she denied that she had wrongfully appropriated the collection.

Her husband had authorized her to “transfer the diaries and all papers to a credible academic establishment for preservation” after he passed away, she said, adding that she had consulted with Chiang Kai-shek’s wife Soong Mayling （宋美齡） and together in 2005 they had agreed to temporarily deposit the collection at the US institution.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES