Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) selection as the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate for next year’s presidential election is a sign that the party is once again “turning red.”
Some people might question the use of the phrase “once again,” because they think the KMT morphed into a pro-China party years ago. In its early days, the KMT was aided by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and cooperated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on Soviet advice, forming the First United Front with the CCP in 1924.
The KMT’s structure, economic plans and land reform policy were modeled after the Soviet communists. However, the Soviet Union later found a new sweetheart, the CCP, and this ultimately forced Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to flee to Taiwan, where he began to reinvent the Nationalist government as a right-wing, “anti-communist” administration founded on Christian values, thereby gaining US support.
Today, with a resurgent “red China,” US media are beginning to reflect the new reality in their coverage.
A June 27 analysis piece by the New York Times was headlined: “US versus China: A new era of great power competition, but without boundaries.”
At the same time, Washington is increasing the pace and depth of its support for the Democratic Progressive Party administration.
Meanwhile, the cloth-eared, short-sighted KMT is once again cozying up to the CCP with more ardor than ever before, believing this is the way to ensure its survival.
Han and his supporters bear a resemblance to Mao Zedong (毛澤東) and his Red Guards. Any people or groups who oppose Han’s policies — businesspeople, councilors, students — face vitriolic abuse and character assassination at the hands of Han’s supporters.
Even his closest rival in the party’s primary, Hon Hai Precision Industry founder Terry Gou (郭台銘), received treatment reminiscent of how Mao unleashed the Cultural Revolution to eliminate competition from then-People’s Republic of China chairman Liu Shaoqi (劉少奇) and then-Chinese minister of national defense Peng Dehuai (彭德懷).
Pro-Han media stressed Gou’s wealth in an attempt to stir up resentment and jealously against him.
Meanwhile, Han’s army of supporters bragged about his credentials as a “commoner,” the unstated implication being that anyone opposing him is privileged and has vested interests.
This was no different from the attacks during the Cultural Revolution against “landlords, rich peasants, counterrevolutionaries, rotten elements and rightists.”
Self-made businessman Gou and mild-mannered former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) were both obliterated by Han’s Red Guard-esque supporters. This is indeed a historic moment: The KMT is on the cusp of reverting to its Soviet-style party-state origins, and no longer puts on airs and graces to attract moderate voters.
Its focus is to stir up loyalty among Han’s die-hard support base — and why not, if honesty is a moral virtue?
Hopefully, the party-state disciples will stop calling the government’s transitional justice policies “a cultural revolution” and branding those in favor of changing the nation’s name through means of a constitutional amendment “fellow travelers of the communist party.”
Instead, they should take a good look at the scarlet-red visage staring back at them in the mirror.
Chang Ching-wei is a doctoral student of history.
Translated by Edward Jones
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