KEY POINTS:
Retired General Sun Yuan-liang, who helped to lead Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists to victory in China's struggle against Japan during World War II, has died in Taiwan. He was 103.
The Nationalists led China from the 1920s until their defeat at the hands of Mao Zedong's Communists in 1949. Sun joined the Nationalist Army at 19 and led the Nationalists in a crucial battle to beat back Japanese naval forces attacking Shanghai in 1932.
After victory against the Japanese in 1945, Sun continued fighting the civil war against Mao's forces, but lost a crucial battle in 1948 when more than half a million Nationalist troops were killed in eastern Jiangsu Province. He retired shortly after he followed Chiang in his retreat to Taiwan in 1949.
