In response to: China’s Leader Manqué from the March 26, 2026 issue To the Editors: Orville Schell’s whitewashing of Chiang Kai-shek, as though he was merely a well-meaning patriot whose character flaws “were sadly amplified by chaotic circumstances largely beyond his control” [“China’s Leader Manqué,” NYR , March 26], demands a response. Lloyd Eastman is by no means the only serious historian who has accused Chiang of fascism. If Chiang himself was careful about using such language, publications sponsored by the Kuomintang party in the 1930s openly adopted the term “fascism” (for example, Qiantu 前途 and Shehui xinwen 社會新聞). As for being “a faithful ally of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition”: this did not happen until well after the Nazi alliance with Japan. Before that, Chiang had been a great admirer and indeed benefited from cordial relations with the Nazi government.…