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Title: Wang Sheng papers
Date (inclusive): 1950-2000
Collection Number: 2013C5
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material:
Chinese
Physical Description:
10 manuscript boxes, 4 oversize boxes
(6.6 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Diaries, photographs, and writings relating to Taiwanese military policy and to confidential relations between Taiwan and
the People's Republic of China.
Creator:
Wang, Sheng, 1917-
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual
or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 2012.
[Identification of item], Wang Sheng papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Wang Sheng (1917-2006) was a lieutenant general in the Republic of China army and director of the General Political Warfare
Department from 1975 to 1983.
Wang was born in Longnan County, Jiangxi Province. In 1939 he joined the Kuomintang (KMT) and was sent to join the Three Principles
of the People Youth Corps Training Course, run by Chiang Ching-kuo. After finishing the course, Wang was chosen to work for
Chiang, which he did for the next fifty years, including taking care of Chiang's twin sons.
In the early 1950s, Wang established the precursor to the General Political Warfare College, the elite training school for
the KMT army and party cadres. Being second in command of the civil-military programs, welfare, and services section of Chiang
Ching-kuo's cadre system, Wang's main task was laying the foundation for the China Youth Corps under Chiang's leadership.
Wang thus spent most of the later 1950s and 1960s training army political cadres in the General Political Warfare College,
which allowed him to develop a mentoring relationship with rising officers throughout the armed forces. In 1953, Wang was
named assistant commandant (i.e., provost) and in January 1954 was made a major general. In 1960, Wang became deputy director
of the General Political Warfare Department at the Ministry of National Defense; in mid-1961 he was promoted to lieutenant
general and became the executive deputy director. He was promoted to director in April 1975, the same month in which Chiang
Kai-shek died. Wang served as director of the General Political Warfare Department of the Republic of China's Armed Forces
until 1983, during which time he became one of Chiang Ching-kuo's most trusted advisers, frequently undertaking secret military
and intelligence assignments on behalf of the Taiwanese government.
In 1979, Wang was assigned to lead a special unit within the KMT, the Liu Shaokang Office, aimed at dealing with Chinese Communist
peace overtures to Taiwan and Beijing's newly proposed united front. This office was so powerful that it was described in
Taiwan's political arena as the inner court of the KMT party headquarters, and Wang's position was second only to that of
President Chiang Ching-kuo. In the early 1980s, as Chiang's health failed, Wang was invited by the US government to visit
the United States and meet high officials from the Reagan administration. As Wang toured the United States, however, certain
military-intelligence quarters in Washington, DC and mass media such as
Newsweek began describing him as Chiang's heir apparent. In August 1983, Chiang sent Wang to Paraguay as Taiwan's ambassador; Wang
did not return to Taiwan until Chiang's death in January 1988. Wang died in Taipei in 2006.
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection contains fifty-one volumes of Wang Sheng's personal diaries, dating from the early 1950s to 2000, and twenty-four
volumes of official files, speeches, minutes, correspondence, and photographs. They document Wang's unique position in Taiwan's
political and military-intelligence arenas and reveal the secret role Taiwan and the KMT played in the Cold War's East Asian
theater.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
China -- Foreign relations -- Taiwan
Taiwan -- Foreign relations -- China
Taiwan -- Politics and government
Taiwan -- Military policy