University of Virginia Library

KMT Troops

The Taiwan government, he
noted, maintains an information
office there and regularly
accompanies the KMT troops on
their forays into China to
proselytize among the peasants of
Yunnan province. These sorties are
coordinated by the CIA (which is
feverishly active if not wholly
successful in this area), and the
United States even provides its own
backwater R&R for the weary
KMT, flying its helicopters from
hilltop to hilltop to pick up the
Chinese (and the Establishment
reporter who supplied this
information) for organized
basketball tournaments.

Although the KMT troops are
often referred to as "remnants,"
they are not just debris left behind
by history. They are in fact an
important link in American and
Taiwan policy toward Communist
China.

Not only does Chiang Kai-shek
maintain direct contact with his old
93rd, but fresh recruits are
frequently sent to maintain a troop
level of from 5000 to 7000 men,
according to a top-ranking foreign
aid official in the U.S. government.

And, as the New York Times has
noted, Chiang Kai-shek's son, Chian
Chin-Kuo, is widely believed to be
in charge of the KM T operations
from his position as chief of the
Taiwan secret police.