NEW YORK, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- The widow of Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek, Madame Chiang, died in New York at the age of 105, the New York Times reported Friday.
Madame Chiang wielded immense influence in Nationalist China, but she and her husband were eventually forced by the Communist victory into exile in Taiwan. After Chiang Kai-shek died in 1975, she moved to New York.
Madame Chiang was the most famous member of one of modern China's most remarkable families, the Soongs, who dominated Chinese politics and finance in the first half of the century. Yet in China it was her U.S. background and lifestyle that distinguished Soong Mei-ling, her maiden name.
For many, Madame Chiang's finest moment came in 1943, when she barnstormed the United States in search of support for the Nationalist cause against Japan.
Madame Chiang spoke fluent English tinted with the Southern accent she acquired as a school girl in Georgia, and presented a civilized and humane image of a courageous China battling a Japanese invasion and Communist subversion.
