The rise at Free China’s capital of the great-grandson of Chiang Kai-shek takes place at a moment when the tyrants at the communist capital are struggling to contain a wave of protesters for “freedom” on the mainland. The moment echoes the hopes of the elder Chiang — “Project National Glory.” It is the reunification of China under not a “people’s” congress at Beijing but a free, multi-party legislature based, for the moment, at Taipei.

It would be a mistake to make too much of the accession of Chiang Wan-an as Taipei’s mayor. But also too little. The job is seen by the LA Times as a “stepping stone to the presidency.” The scion of Mao Zedong’s foe, Chiang Kai-shek, the Times reckons, is a “rising star” poised to “refurbish” the image of Chiang’s nationalist party, the Kuomintang, which, defeated in war, seated the government at Taipei, where Mr. Chiang was elected.