Soong Ching-ling

Born in Shanghai in 1893 and educated in the United States, Soong married Sun Yat-sen as his third wife in 1915 and became a fierce advocate for the KMT-CCP coalition he championed. When Chiang Kai-shek broke with the Communists in 1927, she refused to follow, splitting from her own family as China tore itself apart. She joined the Communist government in 1949 and spent the next three decades in its upper ranks — Vice Chairman of the PRC, Vice Chairman of the National People's Congress — serving twice as de facto head of state when the presidency sat empty. During the Cultural Revolution, Zhou…