Dan Friedus writes:

Medal to be auctioned in Hong Kong still in Taiwan: military(focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews/WebNews_Detail.aspx?Type=aALL&ID=201208140030)
MND rejects authenticity of medal to be auctioned by firm(www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2012/08/15/350989/MND-rejects.htm)

To further complicate the issue, someone posted photos on the web last year from a trip to Taipei and saw an example in a museum described as being the one given to Chian Kai-shek but it is clearly not the one being sold:

Some Of Mr. Chiang Kai-shek Medals(gmic.co.uk/index.php/topic/38745-some-of-mr-chiang-kai-shek-medals/)

Another specimen, issued to Hu Lian, was in the news because it was stolen and recovered earlier this year:

Mainlander suspected of stealing an Order of Blue Sky and White Sun in Kinmen(www.hugchina.com/bshowtopic.do?topicid=182)

The Medal of Blue Sky and White Sun with Grand Cordon(taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=191569&ctNode=435)

Here's a site with more info on this order.If you don't read Chinese translate.google.com does a pretty good job.:

blog.yam.com/rexkuang/article/5283379

This was supposedly Chiang Kai-shek's "favorite" decoration and there are a number of photos of him wearing only this one:

www.ww2incolor.com/d/489010-6/434px-Chiang_Kai-shek_in_full_uniformincluding an image in which the order is flipped around so the inscription on the back is visible (possibly even legible on the original photo):

www.flickr.com/photos/60897922@N05/7774897464/lightbox/

A medal awarded to late Taiwanese leader Chiang Kai-shek is going up for auction in Hong Kong, even though Taiwan's defense ministry says it's not the original.

The Order of Blue Sky and White Sun medal is going on the block Friday. It's expected to fetch 3-5 million Hong Kong dollars ($387,000-$645,000).

Auction house Spink says Chiang was awarded the medal in 1930 by his Nationalist government, which ruled much of China while fighting a civil war with the Communists. In 1949, the defeated Nationalists fled to Taiwan and set up a rival regime.

Taiwan's defense ministry said last week, after Spink announced plans for the auction, that Chiang was laid to rest in a mausoleum with the medal when he died in 1975.

But at a press preview on Tuesday for the sale, collector and scholar Chuk Hong-ming said Chiang was buried with a duplicate medal.

"Before 1995, it was the usual practice to give a new set of the medals to a general who passed away for burial," he said. The auction house says it's the first time the medal has ever gone up for auction.

To read the complete article, see:Taiwan government says late leader Chiang Kai-shek medal up for auction not original(artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=57256#.UDSskt1lTIg)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:CHIANG KAI-SHEK'S ORDER OF BLUE SKY AND WHITE SUN MEDAL(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v15n35a23.html)