Recently, my job afforded me the opportunity to contact some old victims of the White Terror era.
One of them said he was extremely excited that Taiwan would be returned to the "motherland" after Japan was defeated in 1945.
He viewed China as his spiritual motherland, saying that nothing could surpass his passion for it.
Those who lived in this country at the time had a greater China consciousness, believing that they were the Han people whose ancestors originally moved from China to Taiwan, and that the "foreign regime" actually referred to the Japanese colonial government. Of course, for the nation's Aborigines, all regimes are foreign regimes.
The notorious 228 Incident in 1947 aroused the Taiwanese people's hostility towards the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) rule.
Throughout the 1960s, the people lived in austere conditions. They could only focus on "increasing production to contribute to the country."
The country was almost cut off from the progressive and anti-war social movements that flourished thought in the West during this period.
After the 1979 Kaohsiung Incident, the opposition tangwai, or those "outside the KMT movement" gradually won public sympathy, and it united with the other social movements in the mid-80s.
A host of environmental, Aboriginal, labor and other social groups came together to oppose the KMT's authoritarian regime. Established in 1986, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) emerged from these forces.
The so-called Taiwan identity also began to take shape, stressing that the public must unite to fight the KMT's regime that oppresses the Taiwanese people.
Towards the end of the late president Chiang Ching-kuo's (
He swept away the obstacles to democratic politics and freedom of speech. His successor, former president Lee Teng-hui (
However, the issue of transitional justice in Taiwan's society was not appropriately handled. Some White Terror victims complain to this day that they should be compensated with the KMT's assets, not taxpayers' money, and that none of the oppressors of the past have been punished.
For them, Lee's apology was not enough, since the matter was unrelated to him.
Since the pan-blue camp's leaders have not seriously dealt with the issue of justice -- even though KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
Now that the blue-camp has once again lost the presidency, the they should bravely face the past and clearly define what they believe to be modern Taiwan-China relations.
They should also focus on today's social policy issues, shed the foreign regime label and strive toward the goal of serving the people of Taiwan.
Sun Ming-lin is the project planner of the documentary, Chiang Ching-kuo, produced by the Public Television Service (PTS) Foundation.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
In their recent op-ed “Trump Should Rein In Taiwan” in Foreign Policy magazine, Christopher Chivvis and Stephen Wertheim argued that the US should pressure President William Lai (賴清德) to “tone it down” to de-escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait — as if Taiwan’s words are more of a threat to peace than Beijing’s actions. It is an old argument dressed up in new concern: that Washington must rein in Taipei to avoid war. However, this narrative gets it backward. Taiwan is not the problem; China is. Calls for a so-called “grand bargain” with Beijing — where the US pressures Taiwan into concessions
The term “assassin’s mace” originates from Chinese folklore, describing a concealed weapon used by a weaker hero to defeat a stronger adversary with an unexpected strike. In more general military parlance, the concept refers to an asymmetric capability that targets a critical vulnerability of an adversary. China has found its modern equivalent of the assassin’s mace with its high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) weapons, which are nuclear warheads detonated at a high altitude, emitting intense electromagnetic radiation capable of disabling and destroying electronics. An assassin’s mace weapon possesses two essential characteristics: strategic surprise and the ability to neutralize a core dependency.
Chinese President and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) said in a politburo speech late last month that his party must protect the “bottom line” to prevent systemic threats. The tone of his address was grave, revealing deep anxieties about China’s current state of affairs. Essentially, what he worries most about is systemic threats to China’s normal development as a country. The US-China trade war has turned white hot: China’s export orders have plummeted, Chinese firms and enterprises are shutting up shop, and local debt risks are mounting daily, causing China’s economy to flag externally and hemorrhage internally. China’s
During the “426 rally” organized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party under the slogan “fight green communism, resist dictatorship,” leaders from the two opposition parties framed it as a battle against an allegedly authoritarian administration led by President William Lai (賴清德). While criticism of the government can be a healthy expression of a vibrant, pluralistic society, and protests are quite common in Taiwan, the discourse of the 426 rally nonetheless betrayed troubling signs of collective amnesia. Specifically, the KMT, which imposed 38 years of martial law in Taiwan from 1949 to 1987, has never fully faced its
RSS