PS 111 Taiwan Lecture

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TAIWAN

-Originally inhabited by aboriginal, hunting ang gathering tribes


- Migrants from Fukien (Fujian) and Kwangtung ( Guangdong) settled in 1600s pushing the
natives back to the mountains.
- Today, 70% are descendants of the migrants and call themselves ethnic Taiwanese.
- Migrants from central and North China and retreating Nationalist Army (Kuomintang) in 1940s
are called mainlanders.
- This ethnic split is a key element of political tensions in Taiwan politics.
Kuomintang (KMT)
- After WW2, KMT was defeated by the Communist Party (China) and retreated and eventually
dominated and ruled Taiwan.
- They built a government in-exile resting and hoping to retake China soon again.
- KMTs rule in Taiwan (Post-war) was repressive.
- February 28, incident- KMT crushed natives protest calling for social reform
- KMT’s iron rule consolidated its power through terror and socially engineered Taiwan’s
society.
KMTs re-engineering of Taiwan focused on:
1) Anti-communist war mobilization: by imposing martial law and restricted social protests or
suspicious gatherings
2) Export-led Industrialization: By favoring compatriot mainlanders to lead new industrial
enterprises of Taiwanese to small business
* This arrangement limited the opportunities of Taiwanese to small business, further intensifying
ethnic tensions.
- In 1970s, Taiwanese intellectuals opposed the KMT (dominated by mainlanders) thru the
Formosa magazine.
-Opposition grew and demanded democratic reforms.
- In 1979, crackdown ended the intellectual fermentation. Many intellectuals and opposition
leaders were arrested.

KMT NEO-CONFUCIANISM
- KMT’s revival of Confucian values in Taiwan resulted to: relatively loose control over society
and efficiency in promoting economic growth.
- KMT catered {new} conservative cultural policy out of traditional cultural elements.
- Chinese Nationalism, Political loyalty, and Chiang Kai-shek cult personality were
propagandized through state-controlled communications and education channel to combat
cosmopolitan liberalism and local political culture.
SUNISM
- KMT’S official ideology, the political philosophy of Doctor Sun Yat-sen in the early 20th
century.
- Sunism advocated for Chinese Nationalism, gradual evolution to democracy and state socialism
for the benefit of people’s livelihood.
-Sun, baptized as Christian and trained as medical doctor- admires western science & liberalism
but cherished cultural legacies of Chinese Confucianism.
Upon Sun’s death in 1925, KMT was internally divided by left-wing and right-wing forces both
claiming legitimate interpretation of Sunism.
- Right-wing was cultural traditionalists, who envisioned national unity under a tutelary state.
- Left-wing aimed at national liberation through a workers and peasant movement
- KMT made a pragmatic use of Sunism to justify its anti-communist crusade and domination of
native society.
- Nationalism therefore means submission to the US-imposed cold war world order (anti-
communist and liberal)
- The gradual move towards democracy meant electoral procedures could be indefinitely
postponed.
- Claim for people’s livelihood justified ownership and land reform, deciminating native class of
industrialists, managers & landlords.

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