Fri, Jan 03, 2025 page8

• The ‘Fu Dongju’ plan of Ko Wen-je

  • By Teng Hon-yuan 鄧鴻源
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  The indictment documents in former Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) four legal cases include a “Fu Dongju [傅冬菊] ruse.” The plan primarily focused on the Taiwan People’s Party’s (TPP) enthusiastic wooing of children of Taiwanese politicians and economic elites. So who was Fu and have TPP supporters ever heard of her or acknowledged this plan?

  Fu was a reporter for the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) People’s Daily, among other CCP newspapers, writing under the pen-name Fu Dong (傅冬). She was the eldest daughter of Fu Zuoyi (傅作義), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) commander in charge of the suppression campaign to root out the CCP in northern China in the late 1940s.

  Fu Dongju was an undercover agent and member of the CCP.

  During the long-lasting feud and civil war between the KMT and the CCP, her greatest contribution to the CCP’s war efforts was using her family relations and her father’s trust to covertly glean and deliver messages to the CCP about the KMT’s suppression campaigns, which ultimately caused her father’s campaigns to fail.

  Eventually, she negotiated secret talks between her father and the CCP, after which he defected and surrendered his forces to the CCP, leading to the “peaceful liberation of Beiping [Beijing].”

  After Fu Zuoyi surrendered to the CCP, the party stripped him of all his military command powers and repaid him with the purely titular position of “Minister of Water Resources.” The 600,000 defected nationalist troops formerly under his command were deployed by the CCP to serve as cannon fodder during the Korean War, further benefiting the CCP by ridding it of a potentially disloyal force. Unsupported and without adequate supplies, nearly the entire force was annihilated on the Korean Peninsula fighting against the South and UN peacekeeping forces.

  As for Fu Dongju, despite being highly successful in orchestrating her father’s defection, she was victimized in the Cultural Revolution and seen as a “class dissident.” She was brutally beaten by Red Guard soldiers, and although she survived her ordeal, she eked out the rest of her life in ill health and abject poverty.

  To the KMT, Fu Zuoyi was a traitor to the Republic of China and its military.

  For her part, Fu Dongmei (傅冬梅) — one of Fu Dongju’s other names — committed treason by selling out her own father.

  The term “Fu Dongju plan” has made an appearance in 21st century Taiwan’s so-called “new politics.” It is hard to know whether to laugh or cry while watching this circus.

  Does Ko see himself as a reincarnation of Mao Zedong (毛澤東)? Is he trying to pull off a plot against the KMT, or could it just be that he always planned to sell out the country? It is a baffling situation. What are the impressions of these targeted children of Taiwanese politicians and wealthy elites in being compared to Fu Dongju, as well as Fu Zuoyi?

  The indictments revealed that Ko tried to replicate the ploy to incite defections as seen in the Chinese Civil War, implementing his Fu Dongju ruse, asking TPP Secretary-General Vincent Chou (周榆修) to rope in the children of politicians and wealthy elites, wanting them to ask their parents for money and resources.

  “Who is the daughter of the mayor of Zhudong Township (竹東)? Do you know who we could ask to get in contact with her? We need to carry out our ‘Fu Dongju plan.’ The children of politicians and wealthy elites are our goal,” one message said.

  “We need to launch our ‘Fu Dongmei plan’ and list out the names of politicians’ kids, then work with them one by one. After [KMT Legislator] Chang Chia-chun (張嘉郡), our next goal should be to contact her younger brother Chang Jung-chi (張鎔麒). He works in the Taichung City Government. Who can we go through to reach him?” another text read.

  Ko often compares himself to Mao, not even attempting to hide his infatuation with the former CCP dictator. Such idolization of an outlaw and devil of Mao’s stature belongs to the same category of grandiose, wishful self-musings of a confused “junior-high school student.” Under normal circumstances, with the further passage of time and added years under people’s belts, their confusion does not simply stop at the pupal stage — they metamorphose into something worse.

  Fortunately, the Taipei Prosecutors’ Office has been hard at work investigating the four corruption cases and showing the true form of Taiwan’s domestic devils and demons. Perhaps more evidence would come to light. After all, the TPP is certain to come under even greater scrutiny, not just the KMT alone.

  Teng Hon-yuan is an associate professor at Aletheia University.

  Translated by Tim Smith
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