The faces change, the lies remain

The Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) political slogans following its arrival in Taiwan can be divided into a dozen different categories following the political developments over time.

Following the retreat to Taiwan, the Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) regime made it its mission to oppose communism, and at first, there were slogans of the type "exterminate the communist bandits and drive out the Russian bandits" and "counterattack the Chinese mainland to liberate and rescue our compatriots."

Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was being assisted by the Soviet Union, Chiang labeled the CCP "Russian underlings." Anti-communism and opposition to the Soviet Union made up the basis for all political slogans throughout the 1950s and 1960s. These slogans also included "kill Zhu [De (朱德), a communist military leader] and pull out Mao [Zedong (毛澤東])] -- a word play on the saying "kill the pig to pull out its hairs" -- "exterminate the traitors Zhu and Mao" and "bring down Soviet imperialism and exterminate Zhu's and Mao's gang of bandits."

There were also slogans of the kind "avenge humiliation and restore the nation," "return my rivers and mountains" and "recover our nation's territory." These are all archaic concepts that see the country as private property and promote the idea that the only way to avoid losing the country is that "I" -- in this case the party or the ruler -- control the government.

"Remember Ju" was an attempt to encourage the people of Taiwan to help the Chiang regime retake China by appealing to a 2,300 year-old-story about how Tian Dan (田單) restored the state of Qi with the help of soldiers and residents in the cities of Juxian (莒縣) and Jimo (即墨).

Slogans like "long live President Chiang," "be loyal to the leader" and "obey the leader" stressed that it was necessary for everyone to be loyal to Chiang in order to complete the historic mission to "exterminate the communist bandits and drive out the Russian bandits" and "avenge humiliation and restore the nation." After Chiang's death, the slogans morphed into, "always remember the leader" and "respectfully obey the leader's instructions."

Then there were military slogans, like "doctrine, leader, country, responsibility, honor." Note that "leader" precedes "country."

In order to prevent communist spies from infiltrating Taiwan and wreaking havoc, the Chiang regime placed the utmost importance on maintaining secrecy and combatting spies. At the time, "maintain secrecy and prevent spies," "it is everyone's responsibility to expose spies" and similar slogans could be found on every street corner.

"Revive Chinese culture": When Mao launched the Cultural Revolution in 1966 and attacked traditional culture, Chiang responded by launching a movement to rejuvenate Chinese culture in Taiwan. Appealing to Chinese nationalism, Chiang saw the communists as traitors to the Chinese nation.

In the late 1960s, friction appeared in the relationship between China and the Soviet Union, and in 1969, a border clash occurred over the Damanski or Chenpao island. As the nationalism of the CCP grew stronger, the KMT's anti-communist and anti-Soviet slogans began to be separated, and by the 1970s, anti-Soviet slogans had disappeared all together, making the label "traitor" given to the CCP awkward. This instead led to slogans like "No compromise in the anti-communist stance, struggle is the only way to freedom" and "patriotism requires anti-communism, anti-communism requires unity."