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Eryk calls John for a chat about Yen Chia-kan (嚴家淦, Yan Jiagan) the president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) for three years following the death of Chiang Kai-shek in 1975. Who was C.K. Yen, and why isn’t he better known? Here’s the story.
Cover: Former presidents of the Republic of China (Taiwan), from the left: Chiang Kai-shek, Yen Chia-kan, and Chiang Ching-kuo. Via Wikimedia Commons.
Below:
Front left - former Kaohsiung mayor Frank C. Chen (陳啟川).
Front right - former ROC president Yen Chia-kan (嚴家淦).
The Frank Chen Foundation is the sponsor of Formosa Files.
Watch: Chinese-language video HERE of then-ROC premier C.K. Yen speaking at the United Nations in October 1970. The following October, communist China – the People's Republic of China (PRC) – was admitted into the UN.
Below: Then-vice president Yen speaks with then-vice premier Chiang Ching-kuo in 1974. All pics via UDN.
Below: C.K. Yen returns to Taipei after becoming the first ROC president to travel abroad following the Nationalist defeat and withdrawal to Taiwan. Yen traveled to Saudi Arabia in 1977, the first of many overseas trips as president of the Republic of China (Taiwan).
Below: President Yan Jiagan and Premier Chiang Ching-kuo at a Double Tenth National Day celebration, October 10th, 1977.
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Check our very first episode, the story of a very white man who showed up in London in 1703... and claimed to be from Formosa. Or try a foodie episode from Season 3. Or, for those who want some harder-core history, hear the tale of the Lockheed U-2 pilot Wang Hsi-chueh 王錫爵, who became famous for defecting to the PRC by hijacking China Airlines Flight 334 on May 3, 1986.
