Following the end of World War II and with the Chinese Civil War still raging, Mao Zedong (毛澤東) said: “Once the war of liberation enters its final stage, there will be no need to fight and all that would be needed to achieve victory would be to shout the word ‘enemy.’”
This might be described as the “will of the people.”
Following the 1927 Autumn Harvest Uprising, Mao led his troops into the Jinggang mountains on the Jiangxi-Hunan border, where he reportedly said: “With this small rock, we will smash to pieces Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) fragile pot of water.”
At the time, Mao’s army comprised no more than 1,000 troops, but it grew in strength as it marched through the countryside, so that 10 days prior to the founding ceremony of the newly formed People’s Republic of China in 1949, Mao was able to say: “The Chinese, one quarter of the human race, have now stood up.”
By this time, the total number of soldiers fighting within the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had reached 5 million. This was a display of the will of the people.
In contrast, with the PLA closing in on Shanghai in 1949, Chiang privately told the provincial military governor that if his forces could hold on, the US would certainly come to their rescue, which could even act as a catalyst for a new global conflict.
As a result, Chiang chose to abandon Shanghai and by doing so kicked away the final foundation stone on which the Republic of China was built. The US was at the forefront of Chiang’s considerations, not the will of the people.
The PLA forced its way into Shanghai and placed a ban on the use of heavy artillery in order to protect the city’s roads. PLA commanders also ordered their troops to sleep outdoors and forbid them from entering the homes of Shanghai residents.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) called this “bringing a gift” to the residents of Shanghai. The CCP had taken into consideration the will of the people.
The reason the CCP is still able to cling to one-party rule is because, aside from maintaining an internal security, or “stability” budget that dwarfs even the defense budget, the party has, through generations, been wary of the will of the people.
In China, the will of the people means adhering the CCP to majority public opinion, while beating enemies into a minority and then encouraging both sides to unite against a common enemy.
From the Sunflower movement to the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) crushing defeat in last year’s nine-in-one elections, looking ahead to the Jan. 16 presidential and legislative elections, it can be seen that the CCP has taken notice of the shift in the will of the people in Taiwan. The results of the elections would further quantify this trend and crystallize the seriousness of the issue in the minds of Chinese leaders.
It is for this reason that the more votes Democratic Progressive Party’s presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is able to muster, the more likely that peace would be maintained in the Taiwan Strait.
Due to the dogmatic nature of the CCP, no matter how fierce the rhetoric from Beijing becomes, as the will of the people is exercised in ever-greater numbers, Chinese leaders would become increasingly mindful and wary of their actions.
If nothing else, they are pragmatists at heart.
Christian Fan Jiang is deputy convener of the Northern Taiwan Society’s legal and political group.
Translated by Edward Jones
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