11/92. The Chiang Kai Shek memorial has been built in Taipei on the island of Taiwan (former formosa) for the soldier and statesman who ruled China from 1928 to 1949, and subsequently was head of the Nationalist Government in exile on Formosa until his death in 1975. Born on 31 Oct 1887, Chiang Kai Shek trained as an officer in Japan (1907-1911) and at the revolutionary outbreaks in China he returned and helped to overthrow the Manchus but the revolution failed and he returned to Japan in 1915. In 1918 he joined Sun Yat Sen the leader of the Nationalist Party of Kuomintang, and became a General. Later he spent time in Russia in the Lenine doctrine, and became Commander in Chief of the Revolutionary army in 1925 and launched campaigns against the Chinese warlords. After the Chinese civil war from 1946 to 1949, he moved his government to the Island of Formosa (now Taiwan) and continued to fight Chinese communists from there, leading his Nationalist government in exile until his death in 1975.