Book Review: Taiwan's 400 Year History--Chiang 'secret agent' regime

Book Review: Taiwan's 400 Year History--Chiang 'secret agent' regime (6 of 8)

March 15, 2:11 PM · 3 comments

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Chiang Kai-shek and son Chiang Ching-kuo Wiki photo

Su Beng's classic history of Taiwan that was banned under martial law, Taiwan's 400 Year History, covers four centuries of oppression but special attention goes to the government he plotted against with his Taiwan Army Corps. Su Beng gives a hint of his views in the title of the chapter about post-Japanese occupation, "Colonialist Rule Under the Warlord and Fascist Secret Agent State Imperialism of the Chinese Chiang Regime".

Su Beng brings the story up to the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II. "The commander of the Allied forces in the Pacific, General Douglas MacArthur entrusted the task of disarming the Japanese forces on Taiwan to Chiang Kai-shek. Taiwan was occupied thereafter by the Chiang government of China."

"Following this, Taiwan passed through a long period of uncertainty in terms of its legal status in international politics. By the 1980s, its legal status was still uncertain. Taiwan had been repainted China's color in the world maps by the People's Republic of China."

"The Chinese were newly arrived foreigners from the Chinese mainland, who invaded Taiwan with force. From the standpoint of society, economics, politics, and culture, they were foreign rulers, just as the Dutch, the Ch'ing Dynasty, and the Japanese had been before them. They were like the Chinese warlord and fascist 'imperialists' as well."

Su Beng discusses the transfer of wealth from the Japanese colonial businesses to the new invaders. "Overnight, this tremendous number of enterprises fell into the hands of the stupid, corrupt, and degenerate Ch'en I and his followers….Unprecedented plunder and destruction followed….This great disaster fell down upon the heads of those who were truly the masters of Taiwan, the Taiwanese people."

Su Beng then departs from his own writing to quote Wa Su-hsiang, author of A Record of the February Revolutionary Movement in Taiwan. "The Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) rulers seized the wealth of Taiwan. Taking the place of the Japanese, they also attempted to take over the colonial order of Japanese imperialism. They kept the Taiwanese in the position of colonial slaves, in order to ensure their uninterrupted and long term plunder. The work of the new rulers was to maintain the old locks and chains."

"The black nets of the secret agents spread into every corner of Taiwan. They used concentration camps, labor camps, and other secret agent prisons illegally to threaten, kidnap, arrest, extort, and assassinate. Through these and through other despicable means they locked the entire island into a reign of terror."

Following the 228 Massacre which began February 28, 1947, martial law was clamped down on the island. "On May 10, 1948, one man, Chiang Kai-shek, announced the so-called 'Temporary Mobilization Provisions for the Suppression of Chaos.'"

"They resorted to deceit and violence in order to maintain their dictatorial colonialist rule. They manipulated everything and committed all manners of outrage everywhere. For example, with the secret agents, regular police, inspectors, and other public officials as their agents they intimidated, menaced, slandered, framed, and arrested non-party public figures. They falsely accused independent candidates, and even went so far as to tamper with ballot boxes and falsify election results. Their despicable measures were various, and no amount of words can ever give a complete account of them."