NEW YORK, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- In a sign of a complex relationship with the widow of General Chiang Kai-Shek, mainland communists Saturday sent condolences in Madame Chiang's death.
Madame Chiang, who died Friday of pnuemonia in New York, was once the mainland communists' ally in sharing the goal of uniting with Taiwan, as well as an enemy who lost the mainland civil war.
The message from the Communist Party Standing Committee to Madame Chiang's family was that she was a patriot and figure of influence in modern China, The Strait Times reported.
In Taipei, prominent among the mourners were surviving officials of the Kuomintang headed by her husband. His flight to Taiwan in 1949 after losing on the mainland to the communists -- and her exploits at his side -- became the stuff of legend and constant fodder for Henry Luce's Time and Life magazines through World War II's war against Japan.
