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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