Two new books have come out recently: A Perfect Escape (逃亡) by former presidential advisor Peng Ming-min (彭明敏), revealing the details of his escape from Taiwan 39 years ago, and Zhiyan (“Straight Talk,” 直言) by former Taiwanese representative to Switzerland Rex Wang (王世榕), depicting his six years of work and life in Switzerland. That these books have been released while the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is trying to restore the one-party state system has had an emotional impact on me.
During former US president Richard Nixon’s visit to then-Chinese premier Zhou Enlai (周恩來) and former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) chairman Mao Zedong (毛澤東) in February 1972, Zhou and Mao accused Nixon and the US of supporting the Taiwanese independence movement. They further told a baffled Nixon that Peng managed to escape Taiwan because of help clandestinely provided by the US. With the publishing of Peng’s new book, we now know that Nixon was wrongly accused.
Peng’s years in exile finally brought him to the US, which encouraged the overseas Taiwanese independence movement. The face-loving KMT could not accept such an insult. Dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) told the US government that he did not want Peng to be allowed to stay in the US, even if it meant Chiang would have to give up US military assistance. This is clear evidence of how hostile the KMT was toward Taiwan independence at the time.
As dean of the Department of Political Science at National Taiwan University, Peng was originally one of the Taiwanese elites trained by the Chiang regime. He served as an advisor to Taiwan’s delegation to the UN. In addition, he was also elected as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of Taiwan.
If Peng had played up to those in power, he could have been riding on the crest of his success. However, the upright professor did not do so, and instead released the Declaration of Self-Salvation of the Taiwanese People (台灣人民自救宣言) written together with his students Hsieh Tsung-min (謝聰敏) and Wei Ting-chao (魏廷朝) in 1964. The declaration was an attempt to call for one China and one Taiwan (一中一台), disregard provincial origin, adopt a new constitution and rejoin the UN “as a member of the free world.”
While these concepts have now entered mainstream public opinion, they insulted the government at the time. Peng was sentenced to eight years in prison, although Chiang finally granted him amnesty because of international pressure. But under the Chiang family dictatorship, Peng worried he might be murdered, and he hammered out a plan to escape.
An autocratic regime cannot tolerate outstanding and upright individuals. This is why German dictator Adolf Hitler could not tolerate scientist Albert Einstein and why the Chiang regime could not keep Peng.
Following the agitation of democratic movements home and abroad, Taiwan finally embarked on democratization in the 1990s and various Taiwanese elites in exile returned to the nation. Taiwanese no longer had to leave their country to escape persecution from the dictatorship.
In 2000, the first pro-Taiwan government appeared, although it still had to accept the structure of the previous foreign regime. Apart from KMT members and supporters accused of corruption and economic crimes, no one had to flee the country, especially not because of dissenting political opinion. Instead, pro-independence elites began serving as envoys abroad. A perfect example is Wang, who took up the post of de facto ambassador to Switzerland.
Wang served in Switzerland for six years, beginning in July 2002. His book Zhiyan discusses that time and is as historically valuable as Peng’s book.
Despite the transfer of ruling power and the fact that prominent pro-localization figures were dispatched to foreign countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the nation’s overseas embassies were still filled with bureaucrats steeped in the traditional “Chinese government bureaucracy” with outdated ways of thinking making the work of Taiwanese representatives strenuous.
In his new book, Wang spares no words in stating that the current government bureaucracy is no different from the past, as it is still bogged down in an enormous out-dated administrative system that violated modern organizational principles. In the end, Wang began contemplating retirement.
Last year, the remainders of the regime that forced Peng into exile returned to power. This government, which used to be vehemently opposed to Communist China has now begun fawning on the CCP and has sunk to becoming Beijing’s representative in Taiwan. Taiwan’s sovereignty and human rights have been gradually undermined, and the chance that pro-Taiwanese figures would represent the nation overseas has altogether disappeared. I cannot help but wonder whether the upright Taiwanese that love democracy, freedom and the rule of law will have to go into exile again. Should we Taiwanese not be worried?
Lee Hsiao-feng is a professor in the Graduate School of Taiwanese Culture at National Taipei University of Education.
TRANSLATED BY TED YANG
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