Chiang Wei-shui (蔣渭水) was one of the main leaders of Taiwan’s nationalist movement during Japanese colonial rule. The Democratic Progressive Party reveres him for his determined resistance against a foreign power, while the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) respects him for his stalwart nationalism.
Chiang was a medical doctor, as is Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who insists on naming the new party that he formally established on Monday the Taiwan People’s Party (台灣民眾黨) — the same name as the party Chiang founded in 1927.
This shows that Ko thinks of himself as Chiang’s successor.
The background to the founding of the Japanese-era Taiwan People’s Party was a split between right and left-wing factions of the Taiwan Cultural Association, which Chiang founded in 1921.
After the proletarian youth faction of Lien Wen-ching (連溫卿), Wang Min-chuan (王敏川) and others seized control of the Taiwan Cultural Association, some of the association’s original officials, including Lin Hsien-tang (林獻堂) and Chiang, were unhappy about the direction it was taking, so they started afresh by establishing the Taiwan People’s Party.
However, struggles between different political lines did not end there. In 1930, a faction around Tsai Pei-huo (蔡培火) broke away and established the Taiwan Local Autonomy League.
The next year, the Japanese governor-general’s office forcibly dissolved the Taiwan People’s Party because it had adopted a left-wing program.
In his book Taiwan’s 400-Year History (台灣人四百年史), Su Beng (史明) critically examines the national liberation movement led by Chiang and others, and identifies two obvious mistakes made by its leaders.
First, they confused the practical psychological orientation of Taiwan’s society and people, i.e. Taiwanese consciousness, with the abstract concepts about the “Chinese motherland” and “China’s Taiwan” that they imagined in their own heads, with the result that they unwittingly engaged in the Taiwanese national liberation movement based on the imaginary concept of a “Chinese motherland.”
To put it in today’s terms, they did not truly recognize the national differences between Taiwanese and Chinese.
On the contrary, they had a great deal to say about Taiwanese and Chinese all being ethnic Han.
Second, with regard to strategy, the Taiwanese revolution at that time was a “national revolution” against colonialism.
At that stage, the basic strategy should have been one of a “Taiwanese national united front” of various social classes working together in a struggle against a foreign occupying force.
However, the petty bourgeois intellectuals got stuck at the stage of street propaganda instead of going forward to unite property-owning and non-property-owning elements of the Taiwanese public to launch a united struggle.
As to the socialist faction, its strategy paid scant attention to the united front and national struggle.
Set against today’s backdrop, the same kind of mistake would be not recognizing the Chinese Communist Party as being the common enemy it is, but instead creating divisions within Taiwanese society over political lines.
These two lessons in Su’s book identify mistakes that were made even by the great Chiang.
Let us hope that Ko will not repeat the mistakes of his forebears.
Handsome Chow is a freelance editor.
Translated by Julian Clegg
With escalating US-China competition and mutual distrust, the trend of supply chain “friend shoring” in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the fragmentation of the world into rival geopolitical blocs, many analysts and policymakers worry the world is retreating into a new cold war — a world of trade bifurcation, protectionism and deglobalization. The world is in a new cold war, said Robin Niblett, former director of the London-based think tank Chatham House. Niblett said he sees the US and China slowly reaching a modus vivendi, but it might take time. The two great powers appear to be “reversing carefully
As China steps up a campaign to diplomatically isolate and squeeze Taiwan, it has become more imperative than ever that Taipei play a greater role internationally with the support of the democratic world. To help safeguard its autonomous status, Taiwan needs to go beyond bolstering its defenses with weapons like anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles. With the help of its international backers, it must also expand its diplomatic footprint globally. But are Taiwan’s foreign friends willing to translate their rhetoric into action by helping Taipei carve out more international space for itself? Beating back China’s effort to turn Taiwan into an international pariah
Typhoon Krathon made landfall in southwestern Taiwan last week, bringing strong winds, heavy rain and flooding, cutting power to more than 170,000 homes and water supply to more than 400,000 homes, and leading to more than 600 injuries and four deaths. Due to the typhoon, schools and offices across the nation were ordered to close for two to four days, stirring up familiar controversies over whether local governments’ decisions to call typhoon days were appropriate. The typhoon’s center made landfall in Kaohsiung’s Siaogang District (小港) at noon on Thursday, but it weakened into a tropical depression early on Friday, and its structure
Taiwan is facing multiple economic challenges due to internal and external pressures. Internal challenges include energy transition, upgrading industries, a declining birthrate and an aging population. External challenges are technology competition between the US and China, international supply chain restructuring and global economic uncertainty. All of these issues complicate Taiwan’s economic situation. Taiwan’s reliance on fossil fuel imports not only threatens the stability of energy supply, but also goes against the global trend of carbon reduction. The government should continue to promote renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, as well as energy storage technology, to diversify energy supply. It
RSS