Taiwan Under the Kuomintang Dictatorship - Cold War DOCUMENTARY
the republic of china commonly referred to as taiwan occupies an unusual position in the international sphere despite being among the most developed nations in the world only a handful of nations officially recognized the roc as an independent state well for the rest of the world it technically doesn't exist 73 years ago however the situation on the island was very different as it served as the last bastion of an authoritarian and impoverished regime i'm your host david and today we are going to look at the early history of the republic of china and the ruling guomin tang this is the cold war we all need to think about information security which is why i am so glad to be working with the sponsor of this video nordvpn nordvpn is a multiple award-winning service and offers the fastest vpn speeds out there by letting you connect to more than 5 400 super fast servers in 60 countries nordvpn not only lets you route your traffic through two vpn servers for extra protection but also has an 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enemy while still maneuvering against each other and since nothing lasts forever that uneasy alliance between chiang kai-shek's nationalists and mao zedong's communists came to an end once the japanese had been defeated after four years of bitter struggle the communist forces prevailed and the nationalists were forced to flee to the island of taiwan formerly known as formosa where they planned to regroup and then attempt to take back the mainland of which they still consider themselves to be the legitimate government it's estimated that up to two million mainland chinese participated in the migration to taiwan joining a population of approximately six to seven million native taiwanese and chinese who had already migrated to the island in the past the majority of these migrants were members of the kmt or were soldiers in the nationalist army and their arrival created a great deal of disruption to the economic and political balance of the island dr dominic meng swang yang has done some excellent work on this in his recent book the great exodus from china trauma memory and identity in modern taiwan check it out if you're interested in more details on this once the majority of officers soldiers and other members of the gorman tang as well as their families and sympathizers had withdrawn from the mainland and settled in taiwan it became chiang kai-shek's top priority to revitalize the kmt as a political force as well as to restructure the political setting of the island despite chang assuming full responsibility for the disastrous outcome of the war and the loss of mainland china to mao's communists he remained at the head of the guomentang and was even asked by the emergency committee of the party and of the legislative yuan to resume the presidency he would remain in this position until his death in 1975 and in a way he even bypassed the legislature that was supposed to limit someone's time in office to only two terms this was made possible because the national assembly more or less decided that chiang's ears as leader didn't count since there was an ongoing communist rebellion and a civil war but while chiang kai-shek was able to retain his position the same can't be said for hundreds of members of the gorman tang who were blamed for the defeats on the mainland or were deemed to be corrupt and or incompetent these men were subsequently purged from the party a central reform committee with full authority to reform the party as they pleased was established and soon thousands of returning kmt members found out that they had to re-register as members of the kmt while thousands more even underwent re-education and re-indoctrination to comply with the party's official policies once they've completed their re-education they were put to work in the various party branches that sprang up like mushrooms all over the country in this way the kmt a national level organization penetrated deeply into taiwanese society even reaching down to local administrative bodies within two years the central reform committee had managed to create a new guamin tang built around stronger leadership and with higher morale with a more solid structure it was a party that was much more appealing to the masses and membership numbers more than doubled of course we would be remiss if we didn't mention that the kmt's dominance in the politics of the period can also be explained by the declaration of martial law that chiang kai-shek had imposed as soon as he had established power in taiwan as part of this martial law the creation of new political parties or the publication of new newspapers was forbidden as long as the state of civil war existed quite conveniently for the kuomintang anyway these measures were not lifted until very much later in 1987. so as i just mentioned the nationalist party's control of politics reached all the way down to the local level which is important because it was the only level where elections were allowed to be held this was done to give the illusion that taiwan was a democratic country despite the kmt firmly controlling politics on the island in january 1951 the first elections for country and city council seats were held followed by another vote for county and municipal offices in april as you can imagine the candidates that were affiliated with the party were the undisputed favorites and not surprisingly one in most if not all cases further cementing the party's control over local administration the net effect of all this was that it quickly led to all candidates having ties to the kmt in one way or another pretty much guaranteeing the outcome of any elections however it also led to factionalism within the party which over the long run the kuomintang was unable to control but that is for another time at the higher levels of the central political scene the seats of power were frozen in an effort to gain some legitimacy as the representative of china since the republic of china claimed authority over all of china including the mainland the nationalist government needed representatives from every region even the mainland but since the last national assembly elections had happened in 1947 those elected representatives from 1947 would hold their offices until a new election could be held on the mainland with the roc established in the kmt in control of taiwan we need to consider how they were viewed on the world stage political legitimacy and recognition from foreign states was one field where the roc started with an advantage over the prc but they would later find themselves on the back foot as cold war rail politique took hold on the international level the loss of the mainland meant much more for the kmt than simply losing land south korea was the only state that transferred its embassy to taiwan right away while other countries including the united states bided their time waiting for the situation to solidify before choosing one of the china's to officially recognize as it became more clear that the roc was not going to be immediately subsumed into the prc many especially western leaning countries around the world decided to maintain diplomatic relations with the roc the socialist world as you might expect followed the soviet union's example and recognized the people's republic as the legitimate chinese state so almost from the outset there were two chinese governments with international recognition divided along ideological lines the outbreak of the korean war in the summer of 1950 turned the tide for taiwan on the foreign relations front for the better if only by a little bit the united states which had been so hesitant to provide aid and involve themselves in the chinese civil war were now quite willing to provide military and economic aid to what was being looked at as a bastion standing against rising communist influence in east asia in december of 1954 the roc in the united states even signed a mutual defense treaty further securing taiwan's position on the map this map would change slightly after the two taiwan's straight crises in the 1950s where no side was willing to risk a larger confrontation for fear of another world war but be sure to check out our episodes on the taiwan straight crisis if you haven't already watched it but while the people's republic was the external communist threat to taiwan and the roc chiang kai-shek and nagoyang had to deal with internal communists as well as other threats whether real or not in what has become known as the white terror lasting from 1949 to 1990 an estimated three to four thousand people were executed and at least 140 000 people were imprisoned with the majority of these persecutions taking place in the 1950s and 1960s the determination to root out opposition to the kmt and the brutal methods employed by the security forces can be summarized in chiang saying that he would rather quote mistakenly kill a thousand innocent people than allow one communist to escape during the time of the white terror taiwan was effectively ruled as a police state it wasn't only communists who were persecuted but any opposition to government rule with the taiwan garrison command the secret police employed to investigate and persecute anyone suspected of anti-state activity police brutality was a feature through the period as pro-democracy advocates often students were targeted accusations of extrajudicial killings have also been widely made let us know in the comments if you're interested in a deeper dive on the white terror in a future episode so political reforms designed to solidify a hold on power were not the only thing on chiang kai-shek's immediate agenda the economic collapse of the nationalist regime that had contributed to its defeat in the chinese civil war had followed the gomen tang during its exodus and migration to the island of taiwan inflation had reached the truly astronomical rate of 3 000 in the first half of 1949 and things needed to be brought under control a series of very successful economic numismatic agrarian and industrial reforms were enacted which led to what is known today as the taiwan miracle to reduce hyperinflation on the 15th of june 1949 the bank of taiwan issued the new taiwan dollar to replace the old taiwan dollar at an exchange rate of forty thousand to one in march of the following year the government moved a step further introducing a preferential interest rate to absorb the surplus currency starting at seven percent per month a rate that was gradually reduced to two percent by the end of 1952. this helped reduce the inflation rate to 300 in 1950 and around nine percent after 1952. still high but certainly better than three thousand percent the government also instituted a fairly substantial land reform plan starting in april 1949 when chen cheng the governor of the island reduced rent prices for fields to 37.5 of the annual crop yield in an attempt to eradicate the seemingly ever-present exploitation of tenants part of the land reform also split the earnings evenly between the farmer and the landlord after first deducting a fourth that would cover the tenant's labor and cultivation expenses like the cost for fertilizers we should note by the way that things like fertilizer were in fact a government monopoly and were obtainable through a rice fertilizer barter system two years later the local authorities began selling the useless land it had inherited from the japanese who had left the island at the end of the second world war around 181 and a half thousand jia that's roughly 436 thousand acres an area that amounted to one-fifth of taiwan's arable land was made available to landless farmers who could purchase up to two ja of paddy land and four ja of dry land for the price of two and a half times the annual crop yield per job as an option farmers were also given a 10-year period in which they could pay for the land with their produce instead of cash following this the government evaluated the cultivable land and initiated a land redistribution plan through the land tiller act limiting the ownership of land to three and six jia for medium-grade patty and dry land respectively any landlord with an excess amount of land had to give it to the government who later resold it to taiwanese tillers and reimbursed the original owners with land bonds and stock shares the last reform was by far the most impactful for the taiwanese agricultural sector as thousands of hectares were transferred to previously landless families effectively doubling the amount of farmer owner households and reducing the number of tenant families from 39 percent to just 11 and it wasn't just the agricultural sector that the kmt targeted the industrial sector quickly earned the attention of reforms at that time most commodities including both raw materials and machinery were imported creating a huge trade deficit and emptying the government's coffers of any foreign reserves to alleviate this two four-year plans were formulated to first revive light industry and then after that had been achieved the focus would shift towards heavy industry the first four-year plan a brainchild of the economic stabilization board was put forward in 1953 and placed heavy emphasis on developing electricity fertilizer and textile manufacturing electricity was and still is naturally a top priority as without it no other industry could exist or expand while the fertilizers and the textiles were two valuable commodities that could be produced locally it certainly helped government revenue too since as we've already mentioned the government held a monopoly on fertilizers the first four-year plan was rather successful as by its end the industrial index had risen by almost 155 the production of electricity by the taiwan electric company had more than doubled and textile exports had by 1958 surpassed imports and yet despite these developments in 1956 imports totaled around 228 million us dollars while exports only amounted to 130 million us dollars in 1957 the second four-year plan was implemented focused on heavy and national defense industries as well as advanced technology but the kmt in taipei wasn't just looking at manufacturing plans parallel to the four year plans were other measures designed to reduce unemployment and revive industry including a rebate system that began in july of 1955 as well as tax exemptions for newly created enterprises as well as existing companies that looked to expand their business at the same time the taiwanese authorities imposed heavy tariffs on imported goods which in some cases even reached 160 percent and coupled to all these measures the government gradually devalued the exchange rate of the new taiwan dollar over the course of the decade in order to make the economy more competitive as well as to attract foreign investment now you might be thinking that taiwan couldn't have achieved the economic development it did without help and you'd actually be correct luckily for chiang kai-shek and the gomintang the united states had deep pockets and was willing to throw a coin or two towards its allies well more than a coin or two really between 1951 to 1965 the taiwanese government received 100 million u.s
dollars annually in non-military aid of which about two-thirds was spent on large infrastructure and development projects including communications electricity and transportation in addition the republic of china received aid in the form of american specialists who visited the island to offer their technical expertise in various sectors while american businessmen were enticed to invest in taiwan in addition to the american specialists whose stay on the island was understood to be temporary like the us government money taipei hired a great number of chinese experts and highly trained professionals mainly economists and engineers many of whom had studied abroad and then come back to china again their knowledge of western economic theories as well as their understanding of how the chinese market and businesses worked as well as their ability to communicate and coordinate effectively with the american aid officers played a significant part in taiwan's seemingly miraculous economic recovery with these political and economic reforms in place by the end of the 1950s the coming decade would see taiwan's economic rebirth and even the creation of an organized plan to take back the mainland codenamed project national glory a plan that was eventually abandoned in 1972 after the united nations voted for the people's republic of china to become the legal representative of china in the u.n with no international support to back an attack on the prc the project was dropped chiang kai-shek would pass away three years later closing the first chapter in the history of the republic of china on taiwan taiwan's economic miracle was made possible through a combination of centralized planning and decision making harsh authoritarian government and lots of foreign cash it was a bastion of anti-communism in east asia a region which especially in the 1950s and 1960s america was highly concerned over hence the attention it received but it was never a role model for democracy or human rights and when opportunity and necessity presented itself official support for taiwan was shelved in favor of new ties to the mainland all part of the political games played in the second half of the 20th century we hope you've enjoyed today's episode and to make sure you don't miss all of our future episodes please make sure you subscribe to our channel and have recognized the bell button supporting and funding it for as long as it's politically expedient until you see the opportunity to press another related bell button one which will allow you to gain leverage against that other bell button that you well and truly despise i'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of our supporters and if you aren't a patron please consider supporting us at patreon.com the cold war or through youtube membership we can be reached the email at thecoldwar channel at gmail.com this is the cold war channel and as we think about the cold war i will leave you with the words of jfk in the final analysis our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet we all breathe the same air we all cherish our children's future and we are all mortal
2022-03-29 09:54
