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 If you like our videos, please give it a thumb-up and subscribe to our channel Or you can click here to buy our products With samples not even ready, half of the products are already pre-ordered! We will upload a new episode at 8 pm on the first of every month Please watch it on time, See you then! Bye! Please subscribe!
