Generalissimo

Another review of a Taiwan-related book from David Frum at the National Review:

It all started in China. It was here in the 1930s and 1940s that the United States was first presented with a dilemma that has recurred again and again over the decades since: a strategically important country; a tradition-minded authoritarian ruler, at the head of a corrupt and incompetent government; a violent insurgency led by a totalitarian and anti-western movement. What to do?

This question, so haunting and difficult, is well illuminated by Jonathan Fenby’s fine Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-Shek and the China He Lost.

In China, the US never could quite make up its mind, and Fenby helps us to understand why.

[…]

Understandably, the Chiang problem flummoxed the Americans who had to deal with him. While a few Americans (Edgar Snow, John S Service, John K Fairbank) disgraced themselves either as apologists for Mao or as easy dupes, most of the US government and military badly wanted to defeat Mao – but were absolutely baffled by the problem of how to do it. Arm and aid Chiang? And when Chiang allowed his family and friends to steal the arms and aid and then begged for more – what then?

Fenby raises one interesting historical might have been. The US never seriously considered intervening against Mao on the ground: US military forces were fully committed to the defense of Europe. But as late as May 1949, the Chinese Nationalists securely held the territory south of the Yangtze, including the cities of Shanghai and Canton. What if the US had used air and naval power to prevent the Communists from crossing the river? The richest parts of China might have joined South Korea, South Vietnam, and West Germany as one of the divided nations of the Cold War.

Interesting counterfactual there.  Discuss amongst yourselves.

Diverting The Issue (Of Stolen Assets)

UPDATE (Aug 5/07):  It just occurred to me that I spent this entire post talking about "transitional justice" without actually explaining what that even means.  David on Formosa begins his post on the subject the smart way – by defining the term.  Stealing from his source:

Transitional justice refers to a range of approaches that societies undertake to reckon with legacies of widespread or systematic human rights abuse as they move from a period of violent conflict or oppression towards peace, democracy, the rule of law, and respect for individual and collective rights.

There.  NOW this post should make sense, especially to the uninitiated.


Over at Jerome Keating’s website, Dr. Keating believes transitional justice needs to be a campaign issue in Taiwan in 2008 (Hat tip to Tim Maddog at Taiwan Matters!).  In an earlier post, Dr. Keating describes the structural advantage the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has over other parties:

…we had seen how the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has gone on record to admit it has over [NT$ 25 billion] in assets [US$ 757 million].  Its closest rival, the ruling party Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has barely about one per cent of that, it has approximately [NT$ 25 million] in assets, or US$ 7.5 million.

A great deal of this 100:1 advantage can be explained by the forced sales and outright confiscations that the KMT was the beneficiary of during 38 years of martial law.  He notes one irony:  communist parties from former Soviet Bloc nations, ideologically dedicated to confiscation, were eventually forced to return assets they had confiscated.  Meanwhile, the KMT, ideologically opposed to confiscation, not only confiscated vast amounts of property, but has STILL never returned it!

That this might be an issue of vulnerability for the KMT was highlighted a week ago, in a column by Dr. Joe Hung.  Towards the end of the piece, Dr. Hung began casting out wildly, looking for other transitional justice issues that the country should attend to besides this one:

Why not help the former patients of Hansen’s disease segregated by the Japanese? President Chen Shui-bian has apologized for their continued segregation after 1945, but his government wants to remove them from the sanatorium they now call home and raze it to make way for a mass transit system.

Why not help Taiwan’s dwindling number of "comfort women"? They were forced to work as sex slaves, serving troops of the Japanese imperial army in the Pacific War. All they want is an apology from the Japanese government. Has Taipei done anything to get Tokyo to offer it?

Why not reckon with the slaughter of ten times more than the victims of the 2/28 Incident the Japanese committed in the first decade of their colonization of Taiwan. For a mere five years, from 1898 to 1902, at least 11,950 people were slain as rebels. How about the Wushe Incident of 1930? The Atayal village of Wushe, with 270 inhabitants and 60 families, was totally destroyed. Nearly all of the men, women and children in the village were massacred by Japanese troops. Japanese army warplanes bombed the Atayal reservation. Gas bombs were dropped to smoke out those "rebels" who refused to surrender.

Why not seek transitional assistance for all the indigenous people whose forebears the ethnic Chinese killed on Taiwan, to grab their land and go into their forests to fell camphor trees? In 1662, when Koxinga took Taiwan from the Dutch their population was estimated at 200,000. That population remained almost the same in 1945. It may not be genocide, but the fact is that countless thousands of Austronesians were slaughtered by the ethnic Chinese, as well as the Japanese colonizers. James Davidson, the first American-born U.S. consul in Taipei at the turn of the twentieth century, reported that aborigines were killed and their flesh sold to ethnic Chinese, who ate it. Why not reckon with these horrible legacies?

I’m not necessarily opposed to action on any of these issues, but I think Dr. Hung overstates the urgency  of his cases:

1)  The Lo-Sheng Sanatorium. What this is is a classic case of competition for a finite resource. At least 10,000 residents of the town of Hsin-juang want the sanatorium leveled so that they can get an MRT station.  You know – reduce traffic on the streets, clean up the air a bit, and all those other nice things that mass transit is good for.  Meanwhile, the project is being held up by a mere 75 former lepers who want the sanatorium to stay.

Now, Hung would have his readers believe that cruel President Chen Shui-bian stroked his Snidely Whiplash moustache one day and decided on a whim to throw all those poor, disfigured old lepers into the gutter. But the truth is, it was the former KMT government that sold Lo-Sheng for use as an MRT depot, all the way back in 1994.

The KMT wants to run on THIS issue of transitional justice?  Fine. Maybe they can start by explaining why they sold Lo-Sheng WITHOUT EVER CONSULTING THE BLOODY RESIDENTS.   Forget consultation – the KMT never bothered to NOTIFY the poor bastards even AFTER the sale.  The first the lepers ever heard of the deal was TEN YEARS LATER when the BULLDOZERS arrived, Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy-style.

The reality is that 150 former Hansen’s disease patients have already moved into the brand-new hospital just next door, while the 75 that remain prefer the open air and gardens of the sanatorium they live in now.  Can’t say I blame the ones that want to stay.  But surely, the solution is obvious.  Just build ’em another sanatorium SOMEWHERE ELSE.  And make sure it’s bigger.  And nicer.

Oh, and don’t forget to put it all on the KMT’s tab.  Because as far as I can make out, they’re the idiots responsible for the whole mess in the first place.

2)  The "comfort women".  An apology from Japan would be nice.  And future help from Japan against a Chinese attack would also be nice.  If Taiwan can get both through amiable diplomatic means, then great.  But if aggressive pursuit of the former alienates Japan from providing the later, then prefer the latter instead.  I don’t see allies America and Britain demanding apologies from each other for old wounds.

National survival trumps apologies to a tiny minority.  Welcome to realpolitik.

3)  Other, earlier Japanese atrocities.  Um, at this point, exactly how many first generation descendants of these victims are still alive to benefit from the transitional justice Dr. Hung proposes?  Moreover, the KMT had 55 years to deal with this (and the "comfort women" issue as well).  If their efforts were half-hearted, perhaps they can be forgiven because of the realpolitik mentioned in Case #2.

4)  The aborigines.  Dr. Hung discusses the injustices done to Taiwanese aborigines that date back to the year 1662.  1662?  FOUR HUNDRED years ago?  By now, I get the distinct impression Hung isn’t just asking for TRANSITIONAL justice – he’s asking for something Thomas Sowell calls COSMIC justice.  He’s asking that every injustice that was EVER DONE IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE be attended to.

And it can’t.  It simply can’t.

And Dr. Hung knows that.  So what in effect he’s saying is that the KMT shouldn’t give back ANY of the $757 million it plundered until ALL THE WRONGS IN THE WORLD are made right.  Which of course, might just be a while.

Hung closes on this note:

Of course, President Chen and his government are not going to do anything to get transitional justice done for all these people, for the very simple reason that any help rendered won’t be translated into votes at the ballot boxes in December’s legislative elections, and the presidential race in March next year.

But while he sees cynicism, I see democracy.  Let the Taiwanese talk about the relative merits of Joe Hung’s cases, as well as that of the KMT’s looted assets.  Let the jurors decide which cases are more urgent, and which are more marginal.  Then, let the members of the jury vote.

All 13 million of them.


POSTSCRIPT:  Another aspect of the program for transitionaljustice in Taiwan is the de-glorification of its former dictators.  Dr. Hung also discussed this in his column; my reply can be found here.

Responsibility

I’m hoping to get at least a couple of posts out of Joe Hung’s Monday column in Taiwan’s China Post, because I think it’s got a lot of interesting stuff to chew on.  Here I’ll discuss responsibility of political leaders.  Dr. Hung admits that Chiang Kai-shek bears some responsibility for the 2/28 Massacre, but it’s unfair to have him shoulder the lion’s share of the blame:

Generalissimo Chiang — he was not elected president yet in 1947 — certainly was responsible for the 2/28 Incident, for he was then head of state and head of government at the same time. But he wasn’t either the chief culprit or the murderer, as some government-provided historians painted him to be. The Gimo didn’t order the slaughter. It was carried out by troops so ordered by their commanders. One example suffices. Innocent people were summarily executed under martial law. At least one city in Taiwan saw no such execution[s], because the commander who had to enforce martial law didn’t order his troops to arrest people and shoot them to death. He was Maj. Gen. Su Shao-wen, who set up his command in the city of Hsinchu. Under no orders to shoot and kill, General Su did not even impose a curfew. In fact, the people of Hsinchu lived totally unperturbed for two weeks, while soldiers were on a killing spree in some other parts of Taiwan.

If I understand this correctly, ONE of Chiang’s commanders behaved honorably during the affair, ergo Chiang was innocent.  By that logic then, Erwin Rommel’s boss wasn’t a "chief culprit" during the Second World War.  Because after all, even those who fought Rommel spoke admiringly of him.

(Furthermore, if I’m not mistaken, there is no paper trail showing that Hitler ever explicitly gave orders for the Holocaust.  So in that respect, he was like the Gimo, in that he didn’t order the slaughter.  Therefore, Hitler was innocent too, Q.E.D.)

With that reductio ad absurdum out of the way, I do think that Hung raises an interesting question here.  Evil leaders can have subordinates that behave honorably, and decent leaders can have subordinates that behave less than honorably.  When a subordinate commits crimes in an official capacity, how are we to judge the relative responsibility of their superiors?  Is it a case of an unscrupulous subordinate betraying the intentions of a decent leader, or of an unscrupulous subordinate faithfully executing the policies of an immoral one?

Obviously, the case is trivial if explicit orders are issued from on high.  Absent those, judgment becomes trickier.  What of implicit orders?  Plenty of mob bosses make "suggestions" that their underlings hasten to fulfill; a godfather’s guilt is none the lesser because his orders weren’t spelled out in black and white.  But on the other hand, vague statements, or ones made in moments of anger, are sometimes misinterpreted.  Henry II didn’t want St. Thomas Becket assassinated, but his exclamation, "Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?" led some of his knights to that unfortunate conclusion.

Doubtless someone schooled in law could think about this more systematically, but for me, judgment should be based on at least two factors: information and incentives.

First, information.  As the now-cliched statement goes, "What did the president know, and when did he know it?"  As I wrote in an update to a March 13th post:

[Johnny Neihu] expresses astonishment that Chiang could not have known what his subordinates were doing in Taiwan around the time of the 2/28 Massacre:

Unaware! Chiang was a control freak who distrusted his subordinates so deeply that he countermanded his generals mid-battle. At one point he held 82 government posts simultaneously, including chief of the government, army and party, plus — rather bizarrely, the presidencies of the Boy Scouts and National Glider Association. To believe that he could have been "unaware of conditions on Taiwan" is pushing it just a little.

…Neihu’s list DID jog my memory about something else – that Chiang’s army was based on Leninist lines, with each unit having both a military and a POLITICAL officer.  The job of the latter was to spy on the former, to make certain he was loyal.  If it looked like the military officer might be mutinous, the political officer was authorized to put a bullet in his head.

It’s therefore hard to imagine Chiang not being aware of the situation in Taiwan with all of those political officers floating around, each one of them regularly reporting back home.

If someone wants to make Chiang’s case, then I think the onus is upon them to explain how he was unaware of his subordinates’ misconduct despite the existence of the pervasive intelligence apparatus that he instituted in the first place.

Secondly, whether a leader is responsible for a subordinate’s malfeasance depends upon the incentives the leader presents his people with.  What incentives did the leader give for ethical conduct, and what disincentives did the leader give for unethical behavior?  It might be instructive here to see how similar uprisings due to KMT misgovernance were handled in China prior to 2/28, and how the people  responsible for restoring order were rewarded or punished.  That is something beyond my own purview.  However, it is my understanding that some of the most brutal commanders of the 2/28 Massacre were later promoted.  That, of course, is particularly damning.  To reward a subordinate is generally taken as a sign that one approves, not disapproves, of their actions.

Although this discussion was mostly about political leaders, the thinking here is more generally applicable to leaders in other areas as well.  CEOs of major corporations, and owners of small businesses.  For the sake of illustration, suppose a pizza deliveryman runs down a pedestrian while driving unsafely.  What would a jury want to know before pronouncing judgment on the owner of the pizza parlor?

Many things – mostly related to information and incentives.  Was the restaurant owner aware of the deliveryman’s driving record?  Did he make an effort to learn about that record?  Did the owner make unreasonable promises to customers about the speed of delivery?  Did the owner explicitly tell his deliverymen to break speed limits, or observe them?  And regardless of those explicit instructions, did the owner have a policy of punishing or rewarding deliverymen who drove unsafely?

Notice that they probably wouldn’t be too interested in whether the owner could produce some OTHER deliveryman who HADN’T hit anyone.

Imagine this for a second.  A jury would want all of this information, about a PIZZA PARLOR OWNER whose employee had killed or injured a SINGLE pedestrian.  Yet lower standards apply in the case of Chiang Kai-shek, accused of being responsible for the deaths of 28,000 during the 2/28 Massacre.  According to Dr. Hung, we’re not supposed to use our own minds and consciences to even THINK on the matter:

But history demands understanding, not judgment.  History is a dialogue between the past and present.

Regarding that – history and judgment – Theodore Dalrymple had this to say in a recent critique of Tony Blair’s record:

Strictly speaking, history doesn’t absolve, or for that matter, vindicate, anybody;  only people absolve or vindicate, and except in the most obvious cases of villainy or sainthood, they come to different conclusions, using basically the same evidence.

Martial Law Mentality

From a story in Monday’s Taiwan News entitled, "Scholars point out martial law mentality lingers long after era":

"The former regime has made many Taiwanese live like walking corpses, living without passion. The 38 years of authoritative rule has also made them stop thinking, with many focusing only on how to make money," [a local professor of sociology] added.

I don’t know if I would go QUITE so far.  "Walking corpses," and all that.  However, I do have an observation – an anecdotal one – about my chats in English with middle-aged Taiwanese.  Every now and then, in the course of a conversation, I will ask them an idle question:  What do they think the penalty or punishment should be for some infraction or another?

What I will hear from such people – almost invariably – is what the punishment for such-and-such a crime IS.

At that point, I often scowl a bit and look at the person somewhat suspiciously.  Because I didn’t ask them what the punishment IS – I asked them THEIR OPINION about what the punishment OUGHT TO BE.  I scowl because I can’t help wondering whether my interlocutor has deliberately evaded answering my question.

I catch myself then, and try to give them the benefit of the doubt.  After all, there’s a language barrier, so perhaps the person honestly misunderstood me.  So I politely follow up by saying that I understand what the punishment IS, but what I would really like to know is what they think the punishment SHOULD BE.

The usual reply:  "The punishment for such-and-such a crime is THIS.  And I AGREE with that."

So I’m faced with two possible conclusions here.  Either Taiwan is a society with a preternatural level of conformity, where all it’s middle-aged citizens agree WITH EVERY JUDGMENT meted out by the criminal justice system…or the middle-aged here have simply learned not to express their honest opinions about such matters.

After all, an openly-expressed opinion about how things SHOULD BE that differs in any way from the way things actually ARE is itself a criticism of the rulers that made things the way they are in the first place.  And criticism of the country’s rulers was the sort of thing that could get someone in heap big trouble in the bad old days of martial law.

Well, that’s my own observation about "lingering martial law mentality" in Taiwan.  Anecdotal?  Absolutely.  Try it yourself, and let me know the results.  Try it with groups of Taiwanese, and try it with individuals.  Taiwanese you know well, and those you don’t.  The middle-aged, and the young. 

I’m very interested in knowing if I’m onto something here, or whether I’m completely off base.


POSTSCRIPT:  Along similar lines, I could relate a story about a place of employment in Taiwan that is known to me.  In this workplace, certain Taiwanese employees freely talk about their support for Chinese nationalism.

Now it so happens that one of the employees there was once a political officer in the ROC armed forces.  And apparently, nary a word is EVER spoken by his co-workers in favor of Taiwanese nationalism.

A brief explanation is in order here.  Up until a few years ago, units in the Republic of China’s armed forces were organized along Leninist lines, headed by both military and political officers.  Political officers were tasked with observing the military officers for signs of disloyalty towards the Party (KMT).  They carried pistols, and were authorized to SHOOT military officers, in extreme cases.

Let me hasten to add that I’ve met this former political officer, and he seems like a very pleasant guy on a personal level.  A great guy, in fact.  But I still can’t escape the fact that none of his colleagues ever speaks in favor of Taiwanese nationalism.  And I don’t think that’s by accident, either.

End Of Martial Law

Late last week and early this week, local media had a number of stories about the 20th anniversary of the lifting of martial law in Taiwan.  The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lauded former dictator Chiang Ching-kuo for putting Taiwan onto the path to democracy, while Taiwanese nationalists denied Chiang’s role entirely, crediting the pressure exerted by the Taiwanese people instead.

For my part, I’m willing to grant Chiang Ching-kuo a certain amount of credit, because he COULD have resorted to some sort of Tiananmen-style crackdown, or even fought to the bloody end, like Nicolae Ceausescu.  I’m not willing to go overboard and beatify the man though, because the repeal may have been intended to merely be cosmetic; apparently many martial law provisions were quietly re-enacted soon after the "official" lifting of martial law.

Be that as it may, I thought it was interesting that both Chinese and Taiwanese nationalists spoke of the repeal as though the decision process was entirely indigenous – neither group mentioned outside pressure as being at all influential on the final decision.  Perhaps that’s not surprising, but I suppose it is SOME kind of common ground.

Now, I know that Michael Turton has at various times written about the pressure the American government exerted on Chiang to institute democratic reforms (links?), but I think one thing missing from the discussion (in the English language papers, at least) was the influence that the "People Power" revolution in the Philippines may have had here.  You see, I honestly DON’T remember the lifting of martial law in Taiwan in 1987, but I DO recall that sometime thereabouts Ferdinand Marcos was forced to flee Manila.  A quick check of Wikipedia refreshed my memory:

By 1984, [Ferdinand Marcos’] close personal ally, U.S. President Ronald Reagan, started distancing himself from the Marcos regime that he and previous American presidents had strongly supported even after Marcos declared martial law. The United States, which had provided hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, was crucial in buttressing Marcos’ rule over the years.[22]

Wikipedia recounts the penultimate day of the EDSA Revolution:

[On February 25, 1986 Marcos] talked to US Senator Paul Laxalt, asking for advice from the White House. Laxalt advised him to "cut and cut cleanly", to which Marcos expressed his disappointment after a short pause. In the afternoon, Marcos talked to [General] Enrile, asking for safe passage for him and his family. Finally, at 9:00 p.m., the Marcos family was transported by four American helicopters to Clark Air Base in Pampanga, before heading on to Guam, and finally to Hawaii.

While I’m not privy to the deliberations of Chiang Ching-kuo and his inner circle prior to July 15, 1987, it’s fair to say that the fall of a fellow dictator just 17 months previously and only a few hundred miles away must have weighed heavily in favor of democratizing in order to avoid a similar fate.

Forbidden Nation

I picked up a copy of this book about Taiwanese nationalism, as well as I, Claudius, a few weeks ago from PageOne in Taipei 101. I, Claudius I will read in August – I have no idea when I’ll get to Forbidden Nation.

For those interested, David Frum reviews Forbidden Nation at the National Review:

Jonathan Manthorpe, a journalist who has covered China and Taiwan for the Vancouver Sun and other newspapers, has written the supremely useful single volume history of Taiwan, from its pre-Chinese Malay-Polynesian origins to the present day. The book is titled Forbidden Nation, and as the name suggests Manthorpe devotes most attention to the interaction between Taiwanese nationalism and the dynasts and colonialists who have suppressed it: mainland emperors, Japanese imperialists, the Chiang Kai-Shek regime, and now the Communist rulers of Beijing.

Manthorpe does not conceal his sympathies for the Taiwanese underdogs in thesestruggles, but he works his way through the story fair-mindedly and accessibly. The book is mercifully short, but powerfully lucid.

Frum proceeds with a brief summary of Taiwanese history, and closes with a few thoughts on idealism vs. realism in American foreign policy.

Jokes That Don’t Translate Well

Guess I’m going to have to stop the self-deprecating humor I occasionally use in Taiwan about my past life as a "professional student."  Because it turns out that the phrase has a rather more ominous connotation here than it does in the West:

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) office filed a defamation lawsuit [on July 3rd] against Cabinet Spokesman Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉) implying Ma served as a "professional student" for the party whenhe was at Harvard University.

In Taiwan, the term "professional student" usually refers to those who studied abroad on KMT scholarships and worked as campus spies for the party, reporting on pro-independence Taiwanese students. [emphasis added]

The story’s a bit old*, though I bring it up because I ran across this story about China sending its own "professional students" to America:

In a manner similar to Chinese espionage efforts, Chinese students are encouraged to gather seemingly innocuous data for the Chinese government.  For example, who has been saying anti-Chinese government things on campus?  Which Americans, especially Chinese-Americans, appear most likely to support the Chinese government?

As the article says, this too, is nothing new.  Relatively new however, are proposals by the KMT to allow Chinese students to study in Taiwan.  Left unaddressed in these proposals is the possibility probability that many of these Chinese students will be tasked with identifying future collaborators, and marking other Taiwanese students for blacklists, re-education camps – or worse.

It would indeed be a black joke – one translatable into any language – if the Taiwanese, having recently been freed of "professional students," were to elect an alleged one to the PRESIDENCY, and as a result, had their centers of higher education once more filled with that particular sub-set of humanity.


* The story may be old, but as the The View from Taiwan notes, it’s one that isn’t dying, and it may have significant ramifications on the Taiwanese presidential elections in 2008.


UPDATE (Aug 4/07):  Fixed the Strategy Page link.

Diplomatic Recognition: A Comparative Record

Last week, Costa Rica switched its diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China, leaving Taiwan with only 24 diplomatic allies.  As a result, Chinese Nationalist Party presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou took the current government to task:

"We had as many as 30 allies when the KMT was in power … It was clear that we made some progress diplomatically when we had a consensus with China … Chen’s foreign policy has lead Taiwan to a dead end," Ma said during a visit to Taipei Port in Bali Township (八里).

Chen’s foreign policy has led Taiwan to a dead end?  An invitation if ever there was to take a closer look at where KMT foreign policy has led the beautiful isle:

During the time the KMT ruled Taiwan, how many net diplomatic allies did it lose?  80?  100?  130?  On top of that, how many new U.N. member states were given the opportunity of recognizing Taiwan, and chose China instead?  I can think of at least 15 – the old Soviet Union used to consist of 15 republics – and NONE of them recognized Taiwan when they gained their freedom.  Come to think of it, neither did any of the newly-freed Eastern-bloc countries, either.  All those potential allies up for grabs on the KMT’s watch – and the KMT let them slip right through their fingers.

So, back to the question:  how many diplomatic allies, real and potential, did the KMT lose for Taiwan?  I’ll guess 100 (and be grateful to anyone who can provide a more accurate number).  That means that over 50 years, the KMT lost 2 diplomatic allies per year, on average.  Does this record compare favorably to that of the Taiwanese nationalists?

I’m afraid it doesn’t.  Under a Taiwanese nationalist president, Taiwan suffered a net loss of 6 diplomatic allies within a period of 7 years.  Unless I’m mistaken, that works out to an average loss of 0.86 diplomatic allies per year.  Nothing to brag about, to be sure, but it sure beats the KMT’s loss of 2 per year.*  Which is to say nothing of the KMT’s loss of Taiwan’s security council seat, and their idiotic refusal to accept the consolation prize of a general assembly seat instead.


* In reply, supporters of the Chinese Nationalist Party might offer two defenses.  The first, Ma Ying-jeou has already mentioned:

"It was clear that we made some progress diplomatically when we had a consensus with China."

OK, I’ll bite.  Just how many new diplomatic allies did Taiwan pick up after it reached the mythical "One China, two interpretations" consensus in 1992?  I wasn’t here, so I don’t know.  Was it two?  Three?  Four?  Undoubtedly, Ma would insist this was a result of goodwill from Beijing.  But could he be suffering from a bad case of post hoc ergo propter hoc?  In other words, might there be some OTHER possible explanation for the increase, besides some sort of imagined "goodwill" on the part of revanchist communists?

Well, let’s see…1992…That would be, what, THREE years after the Tienanmen Massacre?  That was a time at which horrified American and European investors had ceased, or significantly slowed, their investment into the Middle Kingdom.

Wealthy Taiwanese industrialists had fewer scruples, however.  They saw untapped opportunities in China that Americans and Europeans weren’t taking advantage of, and they jumped in.  Fortunately for the Butchers of Beijing, the slack in foreign investment was picked up by the Taiwanese, who pumped money into China big time.

Under this unique set of circumstances, what would China have had to gain by wholesale thievery of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies?  Only an angry government in Taipei, which might have gotten serious about staunching the flow of capital to China, that’s what.  Better to let Taiwan have its two, three, four, new allies.  A few diplomatic gains for Taiwan weren’t going to change the big picture anyways, and would have ensured those NT dollars kept a-comin’.  It might even have convinced a few fools in Taipei to think some sort of detente had been achieved.  Later, when American and European investors returned to the market, the relative importance of the Taiwanese contribution diminished.  China could then afford to put the screws to Taiwan, secure in the knowledge that a cessation of Taiwanese investment would have limited impact, with Americans and Europeans on the scene willing to pick up the slack.

Now for that second objection.  A supporter of the Chinese Nationalist Party might dismiss all of this, pointing out that THEY weren’t responsible for the loss of Taiwan’s allies.  The People’s Republic of China was to blame.  The communists were the ones who twisted arms, or bought governments off.  Against them, tiny Taiwan just couldn’t compete in the diplomatic game.

Funny how that’s an excuse Chinese nationalists aren’t gracious enough to grant in turn to others.  From Taiwan’s China Post:

The ROC government need not fault Costa Rica for leaving it. Nor should the DPP administration accuse Beijing of trying to deprive Taiwan of international space. The DPP should instead look at its own attitude and behavior.  [emphasis added]

There we have it.  When Chinese nationalists lose allies to the PRC, it’s the PRC’s fault.  And when Taiwanese nationalists lose allies to the PRC?  Well, in THAT case, the PRC is entirely blameless.  The fault can ONLY lie with Taiwanese nationalists, naturally.

If I didn’t know better, I might think someone was arguing in bad faith!

But…let’s pursue this all the way to the end:

The DPP itself has not been very peaceful. Its chairman, Yu Shyi-kun, has publicly advocated a possible retaliatory missile attack on Shanghai

Jeez.  RETALIATORY strikes hardly rate up there with the KMT’s old "Retake the motherland" tomfoolery on the ol’ warmonger-ometer, but we’re not supposed to notice that.   We’re only supposed to feel disgust that the victim of Chinese aggression would ever dare defend itself.

Let me paraphrase Charles Krauthammer here:  When under attack, no nation is obligated to collect permission slips to strike back.  But the Chinese nationalists at the China Post think otherwise.  Clearly, in the event of a Chinese attack, Taiwanese ought to bend over and ask, "Please sir, can I have some more?"

(Come to think of it, that’s EXACTLY the way the Taiwan News felt America should have handled Afghanistan after the attack on 9-11.  But it’s late now, and that’s a whole ‘nother topic.)

I Did Not Know That

From Tuesday’s editorial in Taiwan’s China Post:

Chiang Kai-Shek fought for democracy.

Ah.  Just for the record, Chiang was re-elected president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) by the National Assembly in 1954, 1960, 1966 and 1972.

So…exactly who were his opponents in these elections?  What independent political parties did they belong to?  Were the people of Taiwan ever consulted on these votes?  And what was the fate of unfriendly media figures during these election cycles?

If there are serious answers to those questions, then I’ll admit Chiang fought for democracy.  Otherwise, I’ll keep in mind the example of Julius Caesar, who claimed to be savior of the republic, yet quickly accepted the post of dictator-for-life.

Here’s something else I didn’t know:

Chiang was supreme commander of the victorious Allied forces during WWII.

Critics and supporters alike can all agree that Chiang’s conception and execution of Operation Overlord was masterful.  Simply masterful.

The Lost Golden Age Of Dictatorship

The KMT worships a demon labeled, Despotism, Martial Law and White Terror, while saying, Oh, Those Were The Glorious Days.

(Cartoon from the Apr 2/07 ed of the Taipei Times.)

Pitiful, really.  From last Saturday’s pro-Chiang march:

The main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) staged a march in Taipei near the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon to protest a government campaign attacking the legacy of late President Chiang Kai-shek, 32 years after he died in 1975.

[…]

During the rally, former KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou, who is considered the frontrunner in the 2008 presidential race, conceded Chiang had made errors, but told the protesters that historical figures must not be unfairly judged.

"No historical figures were perfect, and we could reassess Chiang’s legacy but must not deny all of his accomplishments," Ma said.

"He wasn’t a saint, he was like you and me and [could] make mistakes, which we will review," he said. "But don’t write him off completely because of them," Ma continued.

Now, I done some bad things in my time.  Never sentenced men that I knew were innocent to political prisons or death, though.  So in that sense, Chiang wasn’t EXACTLY like me.  And in all likelihood, he wasn’t like any of you, either.

A Taiwanese independence group held a less flattering protest at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial a day later, performing mock funeral rituals:

Traditionally, sealing the coffin — when family members hammer nails into the lid to seal it — is the last part of a funeral before burial.

Wang presented a sharp metal stake with a sign that read "Site for future Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall" and asked all participants to hammer it into the ground.  [Taiwan’s president is trying to rededicate the Chiang memorial as a Democracy hall – The Foreigner]

As he hammered, a member of the crowd shouted: "Let’s seal it so the evil spirit of Chiang Kai-shek will never be able to get out again!"

Undeterred, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held yet another pro-Chiang rally a few days later, on the anniversary of the former dictator’s death.  "Destroy Taiwan independence" was one of their slogans.  (Given the party’s obstruction of the special arms bill, I’d say they’re doing a bang-up job at that.)

After the initial rally, the Taiwan News had some food for thought about one of Chiang’s reputed accomplishments:

The common myth that the  [KMT] takeover saved the Taiwan people from "the Chinese Communist bandit regime" [after World War 2] is merely a historical "what if" that excludes numerous other possibilities, such as United Nations trusteeship or the granting of independence to a government formed by the Taiwan people.

Precisely.  Though there is another, more depressing, possibility.  Had the KMT not come to Taiwan, the Taiwanese might have foolishly welcomed re-unification, even with the communists.  They did, after all, cheer during the early days of post-war re-unification, prior to the KMT’s depredations.  What really would have happened is unknowable, by both Chiang defenders and detractors.

The Taiwan News also described the KMT’s unhealthy nostalgia:

…the event’s real aim was to "review the good fortune and prosperity brought to Taiwan in the era of the two Chiangs [Chiang Kai-shek and his son, Chiang Ching-guo – The Foreigner]," according to KMT Acting Chairman Chiang Pin-kin.  Another KMT spokesman openly expressed the hope of restoring the "golden age" allegedly experienced by Taiwan in the 1950s and 1960s thanks to the "two Chiangs."

Chiang surely did SOME good for Taiwan, but in the final analysis, it doesn’t matter.  No democratic country ought to glorify former tyrants, build statues in their name, or speak of "golden ages" of dictatorship.  That’s bad – no, DANGEROUS – for that country’s democratic soul.  When certain parties in Taiwan make a fetish out of the "oneness of purpose" that existed prior to democracy, they shouldn’t be surprised when the youth of Taiwan subsequently begin forming Hitler fan clubs out of admiration for the even greater unity that existed in Nazi Germany.  For it is their example which leads the way.


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