Taiwan in Time: Oct. 5 to Oct. 11
In March of 1960, former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) was nearing the end of his second term, the maximum allowed under the Republic of China (ROC) constitution. In order to allow Chiang to run again, the now defunct National Assembly on March 11 amended the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion (動員戡亂時期臨時條款) with a provision that froze the term limit.
Back then, there were no public elections and National Assembly members were the only voters. Chiang ran unopposed that year and was subsequently elected to fourth and fifth terms before he died in 1975.
Photo: Chang Jui-chen, Taipei Times
About a month before the term limit was frozen, Free China (自由中國) magazine published on Feb. 1 an article “sincerely advising” Chiang not to run for a third term.
The magazine was founded by a group of intellectuals in 1949 in China as a pro-democracy, anti-communist publication under Chiang’s support. After the organizers retreated to Taiwan with the KMT, the magazine gradually turned from bashing communists to criticizing the lack of democracy and freedom in Martial Law era Taiwan, especially with its call for opposition parties in a time of one-party rule.
Free China’s co-founder and publisher Lei Chen (雷震) was a former high-ranking KMT official. He was expelled from the party in 1954 for running a reader-contributed editorial that criticized political interference in the education system.
Photo courtesy of Academia Historica
On March 1, Lei penned an editorial advising the National Assembly not to amend the constitution, but they did so anyway.
That May, Free China published a commentary stressing the need for a “strong opposition party.” A few weeks later, Lei and other non-KMT reformers — notable for featuring an alliance between mainlanders and ethnic Taiwanese — met to form a new party: the China Democracy Party (中國民主黨).
On Sept. 1, Free China published an article comparing the formation of opposition parties to the Yangtze River flowing east — something that cannot be stopped. That seemed to be the last straw for the KMT, as on Sept. 4, Lei and three others were arrested and charged with sedition — though the government claimed that the arrests weren’t related to opposition activities, instead accusing him of spreading communist propaganda and harboring communists. When a KMT politician spoke out against the verdict, his party membership was suspended for one year.
On Oct. 8, Chiang issued an order that Lei’s sentence should not be less than 10 years, and that no appeal should be allowed. Several hours later, Lei was sentenced to exactly 10 years in prison by a military court. Free China was shut down, and Lei’s collaborators attempted to push forward with the new party to no avail. Taiwan wouldn’t see the successful establishment of an opposition party until the 1980s.
Upon his release in 1970, Lei immediately resumed his previous mission, presenting 10 political and military reforms to the presidential office and Executive Yuan, including renaming the country the Democratic Republic of Chinese Taiwan (中華台灣民主國). He reportedly received no response. He died in 1979.
DOUBLE TEN?
Obviously, this week in history cannot be mentioned without Double Ten National Day, which, like last week’s Teachers’ Day and August’s Father’s Day, is another carryover from when the KMT ruled China and doesn’t actually pertain to Taiwan itself.
On Oct. 10, 1911, Chinese rebels started the Wuchang Uprising, which marked the beginning of the Xinhai Revolution that eventually toppled the Qing Dynasty, ending more than 2,000 years of imperial rule in China.
Even though the Republic of China was officially established on Jan. 1, 1912, later that year, the provisional government designated the anniversary of the uprising as its National Day.
Taiwan celebrated its first Double Ten in 1945 after China, then ruled by the KMT, took over following Japanese surrender. As a result of the KMT losing control of China in 1949, Double Ten became only celebrated as National Day in Taiwan.
Taiwan in Time, a column about Taiwan’s history that is published every Sunday, spotlights important or interesting events around the nation that have anniversaries this week.
This month the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) announced a new policy ostensibly aimed at influencing the upcoming presidential election. A top-notch Voice of America (VOA) report observed “China launched a series of influence campaigns against Taiwan last week, unveiling a plan to promote integrated development across the Taiwan Strait.” The plan, a “demonstration zone,” offers incentives for Taiwanese to live, work and invest in Fujian Province, across the Strait from Taiwan, along with supplies of water, electricity and gas. Using cooperative zones to poach technology and influence Taiwanese is an old plan that has appeared in various
While participating in outrigger canoe activities in Hawaii, Yvonne Jiann (江伊茉) often heard indigenous locals say that their ancestors came from Taiwan. “I didn’t really understand why,” the long-time US resident tells the Taipei Times. Growing up in Taipei, she knew little about indigenous culture. “Only when I returned to Taiwan did I learn about our shared Austronesian cultural background and saw the similarities.” Jiann visited Taiwan just before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down international travel. Unable to leave and missing her canoe family across the Pacific Ocean, she started the Taiwan Outrigger Canoe Club (TOCC) and began researching how
SEPT. 25 to OCT. 1 Joyce McMillan was greatly moved by the pleas of the Taiwanese pastor and doctor who preached at her church in the summer of 1954. Hsieh Wei (謝緯) had just completed his medical residency in Buffalo, New York and stopped by Berkeley to raise funds and recruit staff for the tuberculosis treatment center the Presbyterian Church planned to open in his hometown of Puli, Nantou County. McMillan, who was a nursing aide, had the dream of being an overseas missionary since she was 7 years old. She also had a close friend die of tuberculosis. She expressed
Si Mateneng of the Tao indigenous community felt like he had reunited with a lost friend. While visiting Seattle’s Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, he encountered a boat that had been in the US since the 1970s, first hanging in a restaurant then languishing in a warehouse before being purchased by a collector and donated to the museum. Si Mateneng could tell from the crosses on the vessel, known as a tatala, that it was built on his homeland of Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) after the introduction of Christianity in 1959. He could hardly contain his excitement. Si Mateneng