Hello everyone, welcome to Taiwan Bar
Today let’s talk about Taiwan’s hard-earned democracy
Under the pleasant social atmosphere today . Either trash-talking on Facebook
or criticizing the government or voting
are just as easy as breathing
But the road to Taiwan’s democracy
has came a long, long way
It wasn’t formed by just some sunflowers or some suncake
To get a closer look at the history of Taiwan’s democracy
let’s go back to the time when Taiwan had no democracy
In 1949, KMT was defeated by People's Liberation Army
then withdrew from China to Taiwan
In order to make Taiwan a base to prepare for “striking back mainland China”
KMT built a “single-party state” to consolidate its political power
What’s a “single-party state”?
We can find it in the lyrics of the national anthem of the R.O.C.
For example, “Three Principles of the People, the foundation of our ‘party’.”
Party? Why not our “country”? Or our “people”? Why party? Why? WHY?
why...
Multiple Choices:
In the two following pictures, is the one with the bigger sun
A: the National emblem of the R.O.C. or
B: the Party emblem of KMT
“Um, neither, mine does not have a sun”
Congratulations! You’re very honest! Take both as a reward!
When a single political party is in control of the government
and all other parties are outlawed or take only a limited amount of positions
We give it the name: Single Party State
So, what are the terrors that Taiwanese might face under single-party state?
and how can Taiwanese work their way to democracy?
Ahem, let’s begin!
In 1949
Nationalist government announced the imposition of Taiwan martial law because it was facing trouble inside and outside of the country
Taiwan had gone through a period of time that
everything was forbidden and restricted for the public to do
Political party registration? No.
Newspaper publishing? No.
Demonstration or street protest? No.
Hot-pot and singing party at night?
No. No. NO.
And the Nationalist government, which retreated to Taiwan
was deeply worried about how Mao Zedong might took over Taiwan
So it tightened the control over Taiwanese even more
Criminal Code of the Republic of China Article 100
Act for the Control and Punishment of Rebellion
Espionage Act of the Republic of China
With these three additional laws enacted
and spies all around the citizens
arresting anyone who “possibly”, “probably”, “seemingly”, “likely”, “maybe”
was antigovernment, a pro-communist or support Taiwan independence
considering them rebellions
Aside from that, Nationalist government also encouraged Taiwanese to rat each other out
If one hid a rebellion, he would be sentenced as well
Under this “spying” atmosphere
it was like there were an army of hall monitors everywhere on the island
making many innocent Taiwanese falsely accused
This tense environment caused by the government was named White Terror
During White Terror, the victims who were imprisoned or executed
were more than twenty thousand people
It was even more horrifying than the casualties caused by the plague during Japanese rule
And the number of families and friends of those victims was imponderable
Even Hawking had no idea
As early in 1947
Constitution of the Republic of China has gone into effect
But not until only after less than half a year
Nationalist government stated that in order to fight against Mao Zedong
“Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion” was put into practice
This not only dramatically increased the power of the president
but also made the Constitution of the Republic of China vanish
Where did the Constitution of the Republic of China go?
Even Hawking has no idea
Chinese Civil War ended in 1949
Nationalist government was defeated
however Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion had stayed strong
Why didn’t the defeated KMT abolish it
What was the exact purpose of leaving it standing?
What is it? What?
We will never know
Taiwan, under the period of time that we had no democracy and no freedom
water cannons, tear gas and armed police stood in the way of striving for democracy
One could be accused of breaking the law
or “made” not being able to break the law ever again...
But like a minute passes every sixty seconds
In the 50s
There were still a group of people dedicated to fight against the Nationalist government
Besides those who fought for democracy in the Provincial Consultative Council
Lei Chen was the editor-in-chief of Free China Journal The only person who dared to fight against single-party state would be the one, the only Mr. Lei Chen
Not only did it criticize Nationalist government severely
but strongly opposed to Chiang Kai-shek expanding his power
saying that he remained the president without election
WITHOUT election. WITHOUT election. WITHOUT election.
Highlight this people
These criticism of course pissed the Nationalist government off
so KMT took away Lei Chen’s KMT party registration
In 1960
Lei Chen wanted to form a new political party, China Democracy Party
Nationalist government was raving mad
Lei Chen, who had no KMT lucky charm
was accused and sentenced to ten years in prison
In the 70s
Taiwanese citizens finally started to fight against the government
For example, the Zhongli Incident,
a riot in response to voters believing that a ballot stuffing fraud happened in the election and the Kaohsiung Incident
These are all examples of Taiwanese, under the martial law
fighting against single-party state
Wait a sec
There’s something to be clarified
Speaking of Taiwan’s democracy
You might assume only the Taiwanese fought for it, right?
Actually besides Taiwanese,
foreigners made some efforts as well
Some of these strongest examples
Forced KMT to make some compromise
Like in 1981
Dr. Chen Wen-chen, a Taiwanese professor teaching in the U.S.
came back to Taiwan for a family visit
but after members of Taiwan's secret police, the Garrison Command,
detained and interrogated him for twelve hours
his body was found on the campus of National Taiwan University the next day
In 1984
Chiang Nan(Henry Liu), a Taiwanese-American author,
published an unauthorized biography of Chiang Ching-kuo
In the biography were many things which the Chiang family did not appreciate
As a result, Chiang Nan was assassinated by an assigned killer
who had been reported to be trained by R.O.C. military intelligence
And this incident once again
shocked the whole world and angered the U.S. authorities
Because of the pressure from foreign countries
Nationalist government finally had to compromise
Compromised how?
In 1987 president Chiang Ching-kuo
Under the pressure of democracy trend and the demands from foreign authorities
he not only promised that the Chiang would no longer hold power in the future
but also ended Taiwan martial law, which lasted for 38 years
Bringing Taiwan Martial Law into history
After Taiwan martial law was lifted,
these three laws mentioned above, as symbols of the White Terror
were still lingering
and infuriated Taiwanese, who had long been suppressed
Unacceptable violation of personal freedom happened everyday
Under the situation, Taiwanese were forced to fight back more aggressively
For example, May twentieth peasant movement, Aboriginal Land Movement and Wu Feng statue incident
were all shocking to the Nationalist government
Officers of riot control brought water cannons and tear gas out again and again
This road to democracy was one bumpy ride
In 1990, the year I was born
Lee Teng-hui met with the representative of the Wild Lily student movement
and he promised a constitutional reform act
Taiwan society in the 90s were slowly transforming to what it is like today
The three laws of the White Terror were either abolished or revised
Freedom of speech was gradually granted
and Taiwanese were able to voice their dissatisfaction
even if the dissatisfaction was toward the president Congressional reformation and president elections took place
All signs showing that Taiwan is working its way to democracy
After this chatty talk,
it seems like Taiwan has become a democratic country, doesn’t it
However, is Taiwan democratic enough?
There’s a rising number of social movements in Taiwan in recent years
From the way the government dealt with Sunflower Student Movement and how it ended
Is freedom of the Taiwanese really guaranteed?
How should we face the scar from the long-lasting White Terror since the 228 Incident?
What should we learn from the damages
caused by single-party state?
If there are no proper regulations and supervision is there a chance for single-party state to happen again?
A country is supposed to serve its people
So What are the dos and don’ts of a government?
and what are the shoulds and shouldn’ts?
The answers to these questions
we’ll leave them for you to figure out
Okay
I’m thirsty after saying so much
After finishing this cup of millet wine, see you same time next month!
Da! (“Cheers” in the native language of Amis)
Taiwan Bar is produced by DJ Hauer
Scripted and hosted by Buchi
History context provided by Thomas Xiao
Animated by jiajiach
Music produced by DJ Hauer
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