The other day I read a report regarding the family of Liao Zhongkai, and that made me recall what a teacher had told us when I was in high school.  The teacher said KMT could give different appellations to the different members from a same family.  Liao Zhongkai was a revolution "martyr", while his wife He Xiangning became a "traitor" after 1949, and his son Liao Chengzhi turned out to be an absolute communist "bandit".

Liao had always been a stalwart follower to Dr. Sun Yat-sen's doctrine,  an exteme leftist in KMT when Sun hewed to the principles of "uniting with Soviet Union", "cooperating with communists" and "supporting peasants and workers",.  Therefore, he became a thorn in rightists' flesh especially after Sun passed away in 1925, and his fate was doomed.  Liao was assassinated by rightists before the Great March started.  Since Liao was a long-term believer and partisan to Dr. Sun, his stature in KMT had been unshakeable, even after that notorious 412 purge.  So he is a martyr alright. 

Liao's widow He Xiangning reluctantly remained in KMT, a party that had betrayed Dr. Sun's ideal.  Because of her cachet, she still maintained high status, though a superficial one, in KMT.  After 1949, she orgainzed a "revolutionary" KMT in China's Mainland, but I guess she'd never joined CCP; therefore, she deserved the title of "traitor" only.  (FYI, Ms. He Xiangning is one of the most venerable women in Mainland; among them there are Song Qingling(宋慶齡), Cai Chang(蔡暢), Deng Yingchao(鄧穎超), Xiang Jingyu(向警予), and so on.)

But Liao Chengzhi, the only son of Liao and He, had been the deputy speaker of People's Congress for a long time, being in charge of unification front affairs, and that was absoultely inexcusable.  Therefore, what else KMT could call him except a "bandit"?