Early Life and Education
Soong was born in Xiangtan, Hunan province in mainland China. It is said his grandfather taught at the same school Mao Zedong attended as a student. His father, Soong Ta (宋達), was a career military officer staunchly loyal to ROC President Chiang Kai-shek and rose to the rank of Major General in the Nationalist Army from an enlisted sailor. With the Nationalist defeat in the Chinese Civil War, the family fled to Taiwan in 1949. He earned his bachelor's degree in diplomacy from National Chengchi University in 1964.
Soong travelled to the United States for graduate school and received an M.A. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley in 1967 and an M.S. in library science from The Catholic University of America in 1971. He earned a Ph.D. in political science from Georgetown University in 1974.
While at Berkeley, Soong met his future wife Viola Chen (陳萬水). They later had a son and a daughter.
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