Near 33 years after Chiang Ching-kuo’s death, the Hoover Institution released CCK’s diaries. This provides CCK 's perspectives on major events in recent history.
CCK wrote in the diary that the Americans have always been very suspicious of him due to his soviet background. They constantly assumed he plotted to sow anti-American sentiments and encourage anti-American protests in Taiwan. They also were afraid he would lent Penghu to the Soviets.
CCK was aware that the Americans might ditch the KMT and establish relations with the CCP instead. He was especially shocked when the Americans brought up “Taiwan’s sovereignty is undetermined” again in 1971, something the US avoided mentioning since the break of the Korean war. CCK apparently instructed party officials to be more inclusive and cultivate Taiwanese elites within the party to appear less authoritarian and more democratic, in order to appeal to the Americans. This led to him appointing 6 Taiwanese cabinet members in 1972, including future president Lee Teng-hui.
Appointing Lee wasn’t CCK’s original plan. He only scribbled Lee’s name down in the diary to assign him to a cabinet position the night before he announced the appointment of all 7 new cabinet members the next day.
In 1977, CCK wrote how he truly felt about democratic elections.
People glorify all sorts of elections as democracy, and serving the people, when in reality it’s nothing more than fighting over fame and money, and trying to win by any means necessary. You can see all the most despicable and cheap manipulations in all kinds of elecction events. It’s depressing and sad.
各種選舉美其名曰民主，或謂為民服務，而事實上則為名利而爭也，並且為了達到目的不擇手段。政治上最卑鄙和惡劣的方法，可以在各項選舉活動中看得最清楚。可悲！可嘆！
After the US cut ties with the ROC, CCK stopped writing diaries.
CCK claimed in his diary that Winston (Hsiao‑tzu) and John (Hsiao‑yen) are actually not his children. The diary states that they are the children of his deceased subordinate Wang Ji-chun, and he took them in because Wang is a dear friend.
Winston and John’s mother was murdered in 1942, and the two brothers used her maiden name Chang (章) in their youth. After being told CCK might be their real father, they (at least one of them) went through a lot of legal process to change their last name to Chiang. Historically, people have wondered if they are the children of CCK, Wang or Kuo Li-buo (郭禮伯).
Chiang Hsiao-yen is still a leadership figure within the KMT and his son Jiang Wanan is currently a KMT legislator. Both of them used their supposed Chiang family heritage as their main appeal to KMT followers. So CCK denying blood relations to them in his diaries could be a blow to their influence within the party.
Of course, they could do a DNA test to put all the debate to rest, but the technology has been around for a long time and they could have done so in the past.