Some “one China” theorists of the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan are clinging to the national title, which was abandoned by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. They do not realize that it is the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that ended the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) party-state rule in China, while departing from the political line of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and his son Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), who hated the communists the most.
After former vice president Lien Chan (連戰) was defeated in the presidential elections in 2000 and 2004, he led a KMT delegation to visit China, where he was referred to as “Grandpa Lien” (連翁翁) by a group of children during a reception. At the end of his presidency, then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Singapore in 2015.
Following their steps, some of the KMT, government, military and intelligence have started to visit China one after another, and treat the ROC and Taiwan as nothing. After the second “Ma-Xi meeting” not long ago, what is the future of the “one China” theorists in Taiwan?
What greatly contradicts the two Chiangs’ anti-communist dogma is the retired generals, who claimed to be alumni of Whampoa Military Academy — which was renamed to ROC Military Academy after moving to Taiwan in 1950. From the news footage on TV, they were lined up to listen to Xi’s “sacred teachings” at Whampoa’s centennial celebration in China. Such former anti-CCP retired generals have no military spirit or martial ethics. They have shamelessly made Taiwan lose face, and would have been decapitated during the two Chiang presidents’ rule.
The crises on Taiwan’s road to national reconstruction are characterized by the internal crisis of the feudal reactionary nature of Taiwan’s Mandarin education in the process of the Taiwanese’s cultivation, and by the external crisis of retired generals who do not know what the country is, whose military spirit, martial virtues as well as national character are all gone.
Soldiers must defend the country and protect the people. No matter how good the weapons are and how advanced the equipment is, if there is no military spirit, martial ethics and national character, the national defense power might not be strong enough. Today, Taiwan still has some Japanese wudenden (武德殿), literally “martial ethics temples” in Chinese, left by the Japanese colonial rule. As the Japanese name soldiers’ training fields like this, a philosophy under which body and soul are intertwined is imaginable.
During the two Chiangs’ rule, the government learned from the political warfare of the Soviet Union by having “political workers” in the military to monitor the troops. Ironically, retired general Hsu Li-nong (許歷農), who is one of the first to become pro-China and affiliated with the CCP, was the political warfare leader of the military. What an absurd situation indeed.
Taiwan is a democratic country. We do not expect Taiwan’s military officers to commit hara-kiri to apologize for their misjudgement like the defeated Japanese generals of World War II, but they should at least try to preserve their military spirit, martial ethics and national character.
As for politicians, their national identity and sense of belonging to Taiwan should also be examined. For those who used to bow to the will of the party-state rule and have now turned to Beijing, such political opportunists are exactly where Taiwan’s national problem lie.
Lee Min-yung is a poet.
Translated by Eddy Chang
Deterrence is fading; war is looming on the Taiwan Strait and for other targets of the China-enabled dictatorship alliance, and after three years the cure is just dawning on the Biden Administration. Now mind you, for a May 28, 2024 interview with Time magazine, President Joe Biden made his 5th public commitment that the United States would defend Taiwan. Less than three weeks later the United States Navy, along with ships from navies of Japan, Canada, the Netherlands, and France, were conducting the Valiant Shield joint force exercise in the Philippine Sea south of Taiwan and in the South China Sea to
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has once again resorted to its age-old tactic of blaming the US for China’s woes. The Financial Times on Sunday reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) told European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that China would not invade Taiwan because it was a trap set by the US. This is not just an attempt to deflect blame, but also a textbook example of the CCP’s “divide and conquer” strategy to sow discord between Europe and the US. However, the blame game reveals deeper problems. Xi’s power rests on the support of the Chinese People’s Liberation
The official media of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) reacted to the May 20 inauguration speech of President William Lai (賴清德) by asserting: “Lai’s words reveal his true intention of sacrificing peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait for his own desire for power.” This baseless accusation by Beijing that Lai is manipulating Taiwanese to resist unification with China for his personal gain, is part of a broader CCP information warfare campaign that has intensified since Lai’s election. This campaign, orchestrated by the United Front Work Department, the CCP’s agency for coordinating influence operations and propaganda, aims to demoralize Taiwanese,
During a meeting in April, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) told European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that the US was trying to provoke China to invade Taiwan, the Financial Times reported on Sunday last week. War with the US would destroy many of China’s achievements and undermine his goal of achieving China’s “great rejuvenation,” Xi was quoted as saying. If Xi genuinely believes the US is goading China, it shows that “concerns that Xi has created an information vacuum” or is getting bad council are “worryingly, true,” Center for Strategic and International Studies Freeman chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette