IMO by removing his statues they try to show how democratic Taiwan has become, while
are still standing on the Mainland. Also, since Chiang wanted to reunify with China under the KMT, now that his likeness is removed the current leadership is saying: there is one China and one Taiwan, and the latter is not part of the former- a subtle way to pronounce their de-facto independance!
I don’t think that so many people in China actively hate Mao, and many people in China do regard him as a great revolutionary leader. His poetry, for one thing, is still often quoted. So why would people in China be so keen on removing his statues? I also remember (I could be wrong) Sun Yat-sen’s portrait is also at Tiananmen Square, albeitedly Mao’s portrait is at the most obvious place.
Furthermore, according to Wikipedia, "As the Chinese government instituted free market economic reforms starting in the late 1970's, it also put less emphasis on studying Mao. This accompanied a decline in state recognition of Mao in later years in contrast to previous years when the state organized numerous events and seminars commemorating Mao's 100th birthday."
"On March 13, 2006, a story in the People's Daily (the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China) reported that a proposal had been made to replace Mao's portrait on currency with that of Sun Yat-sen and Deng Xiaoping."
Sampan, why should the Taiwanese revere a man who is held responsible for the murder of tens of thousands of civilians and imposed martial law on the island, not lifting it before he died nearly three decades later?
It seems pretty cruel to suggest a dictator like Chiang should be remembered positively by his victims - even the Chinese are generally quite negative towards him. So why are you so opposed to the statues being removed - you don't really think that dictators like him should have statues in military installations, do you?
It is true that Chiang is a dictator. However, he has done many positive things, for example commanding the Northern Expedition army that reunited China from a warlord era. Also, according to Wikipedia (it is up to you to judge the validity of its argument), while Chiang was at Taiwan, “As the head of KMT and its major representative at the International Democrat Union congresses he helped to introduce elements of another world right wing parties in Taiwan such as property rights and economic freedom which later led to many civil liberties that ended in democracy after his dead in the late 1970s, the early 1980s and the 1990s.”
The Chinese version of Chiang’s page on Wikipedia has a more complete list of the judgments of Chiang, both positive and negative. There is also a professor at Columbia University, Tang Degang, who thinks Chiang is one of the greatest national heroes in Chinese history. So it really depends on where you look.
