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Chiang Ching-kuo (1910-1988) is an essential figure to understand the contemporary Chinese world. This article examines the most important chapters of his life, from his experience in the Soviet Union until his presidency in Taiwan during the 1970s and 1980s. Chiang Ching-kuo’s vital trajectory allows us to study the complexities behind the particular Chinese modernization project that materialised in the island as a result of the combination of both exogenous and endogenous elements and a degree of contingency that was not expected by the political elite of the Kuomintang. This work seeks to contribute to the development of the Chinese and Taiwanese studies in Spanish. It advances the concept of “Chinese short century” and opens up new avenues for future research that seek to cast into doubt the dominant discourse around the “Taiwanese miracle”.