Taiwan Today

I Since General George Marshall's ushering of the Chinese Communists into a peace­ negotiating table prepared by the Chinese Na­tionalists in 1947 and the subsequent American rebuke stormed at the Nationalist government in 1948, the prestige of the Kuomintang or the Chinese Nationalist Party was greatly reduced for the first time in its history. With Marshall's high-handed pressure for a coalition government without and the Reds' conspiracy within, the leading circle of the KMT was then actually at a loss for a tripartite settlement of political issues, and thereby gained no time to rally its strength for any emergencies. As fully testified by the later events, it was not that the Nationalist had no sincerity to accept Marshall's over­ture to widen the basis of the National Government and then to tackle the problem for a peaceful solution, but that the Communists had never any real intention for what they proposed through the Americans. Unfortunately, Marshall purely defied this essential fact. The discrepancies as demonstrated by the negotiations among the Nationalists, Communists and Marshall only gave the Communists time for a preparation of launching a full-scale rebellion against the government, which compelled the Nationalists to retreat later from their twenty-year-old capital – Nanking. Falling into the trick of the Reds, Marshall, too, had to fly back with a failure of his mission and to see the whole situation of Asia overturned by the Communists. On account of Marshall's inexpedient policy toward China which resulted in the Commu­nists' aggression in Korea and Indo-China after July last year, the US government, then, began to receive a sharp criticism both home and abroad, and had to reconsider its policy toward the Far East. What is more noteworthy is that Marshall had to quit his post at last when his appeasement only made the Korean issue deadlocked sine die, and meantime the US government was obliged to attempt to speedily switch their support to the KMT in Formosa, that they had reproached with sheer ignorance of its history. This is the simple background which brought about the situation today. While the KMT pursued the anti-Communism policy as early as twenty-five years ago, and has insisted on it throughout recent years only with a more intransigent attitude. Had Marshall not intervened in Chinese internal affairs in favor of the Russian-backed Communists, the Nationalists would never have been in a position of being attacked, and neither would have the whole situation of Asia been changed overnight. The key point of the question still lies in the short-sightedness of the US Department of State. They are also blind to the im­portant fact that the Kuomintang has influenced Chinese politics for more than half a century, and has written brilliant pages of Chinese history as evidenced by the overthrow of the Manchu rule over China in 1912, the comple­tion of China's national unity in 1928, and the victory over the eight-year Sino-Japanese war in 1946. So it is hardly justifiable to give the last word for the KMT with a lack of correct knowledge of its history. Since its first emergence from Chinese politics, the KMT has undergone reorganization for five times, and each one, as proved in history, marked a new period of progress. The reshuffles made in 1914 and 1924 are especially significant of epoch-making. For, since the abortive second revolution launched by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, a powerful warlord Yuan Shi-kai usurped the sovereignty of the Republic. He dissolved the parliament, invalidated the "Provisional Constitution", and at least turned the Republic into a monarchy. Under the pressure of Yuan, many partisans of the Nationalist Party became defectionists, daring not to talk revolution again. The situation in 1914 pressed Dr. Sun to reorganize his party in a subterranean form and to intensify party discipline more strictly than ever. It is this reorganization that enabled Dr. Sun and his followers to launch an expedition against Yuan and safely protected the Republic. While in 1924 the situation surrounded the Republic was even worse than before. With more warlords arising for rebellion and reactionaries contemplating to impede the revolutionary movement, such as Wu Pei-fu in the north, Cheng Chuen-min in the east, and Cheng Lien-pei in the south, the Republic was also embarrassed by a number of foreign imperialists. The existence of the Republic was evidently in peril of ruin. Dr. Sun, devoted to the winning of national unity, found no better way to fight out than to reorganize his party. Thus he strengthened the basis of the party by establishing the Whampoa Military Academy to train cadets on t he one hand, and deepened the antipathy of the people to monarchism through mass movement on the other. This reorganization of the party, as we know now, paved the way for the revolutionary career for the later twenty-five years. It is attributed to the influence of this reorganization of the party that the later famous Northern Expedition was crowned with success, and the eight-year anti-Japanese war was enthusiastically supported by the whole nation. II Making a review of historiqa1 development, one can easily find that the origin of the present reform of the KMT has to be traced to at least many years ago. It is significant in the tradition of fighting foreign rule and Communism. Especially, the present overall reform of the Kuomintang has been started before it was too late. But how far has the KMT actually achieved in its reform since last year, and what effective steps has it taken to attain the purpose? That is the first question one has to answer before he puts any remark. According to the memorandum submitted by the leader of the KMT to the Standing Committee of the Central Executive Committee in July 22, 1950, the reorganization of the party was originality designed to be completed within six months before the end of 1947. While by the latter half of that year, the Communists seizing the chance for negotiations and under the disguise of "democratic coalition government" began to organize a large-scale rebellion, and propagate a widespread defeatism among the messes. Meantime, the cooperation and unity between the political groups within the KMT - the party branches and the Youth Corps - was not yet ensured by the time. Owing to these rea­sons, the proposed reorganization work and the convention of the 7th National Congress of the KMT scheduled to be called on May 5, 1948 had to be postponed. However, the KMT still struggled for time to reorganize. It was not until August last, that it picked the lost theme for enforcement. As for the purport of the present reorganization of the KMT, much stress is laid on the reform of party organization and the restoration of party spirit. "Organization" is no doubt, an essential element in the composition of a political group, while party spirit is a motive power which drives the machine going. As the soul is to the body, so is the party spirit to the organization. As a matter of fact, the KMT was quite loosely formed while it remained on the mainland, and it proved to be only incom­petent to cope with the Communists. Mean­while, the revolutionary spirit of the partisans at large also deteriorated to the extent that a good number were accused of being corrupt and incompetent. Thus the Reform Program passed by the Central Executive Committee in­cludes all the important measures relating to organization and party spirit. Among them are leadership, membership, the social basis of the party, training end discipline, and the relationship between party and government. First of all, the leadership of a party does not refer to the policy-determining body alone, but the person of the bosses as well. Theoretically, a party boss is not qualified and toler­ated to go beyond policy line; he is not the policy itself. But in practice, a boss usually has a tendency to dominate and to impose his will contrary to the public opinion and interests of the mass of the party-members. Thus the boss of a party has to be chosen carefully so as to set an example for the followers. But many of the KMT bosses both in central and gubernatorial organs were indulged in private and personal interest. Party control in the name of the public became merely a mask for plunder or exploitation. For this reason, the former Central Executive Committee and the Central Supervisory Committee were stopped from functioning and replaced by the supreme policy-making body, the Central Reform Committee, and the supreme supervisory organ, the Central Councilor's Committee, respectively. The former Executive Committee was composed of more than two hundred members, while the present Reform Committee consists of only six­teen members who are carefully appointed, and of whom most are young and full of promise. Of the Reform Members of the provincial and local committees, the quality and personality are also above the level of their predecessors. Formerly, the KMT exercised its authority not only through national committees, but also through the party bosses, and the policies were determined not necessarily by democratic discussion. But now all the provincial and local committees have to be elected through democratic process by the party-members, and any policy must be made by majority through democratic discussion. That is to say, the principle of majority rule and free discussion which serves as the mainstay of democracy, must be maintained. Any individual has to be subject to the directions of the "organization" holds the power to decide everything. Formerly, the leading group was composed of a few men, who decided policies and personnel by by-passing the organization. When such leadership worked, discrepancies and controversies could not be avoided. Thus after the reform of the KMT, all the important powers and privileges formerly enjoyed by the bosses are deprived and returned to the organization, so as to make the party more representative and responsible for the mass of the party-members. Private and personal interests will henceforth find no way to overshadow the public purposes. The former practice of clique friction which lasted for years, will also be extinguished. III To leave the governing body aside, a political party is chiefly founded upon social basis. For, a party has to make itself represent clearly the public interest of a specific social stratum when it seeks for power. In so doing, the first problem confronting the organization of a party will be constituent elements, namely the party-members. It is self-evident that a party is bound to be paralyzed if its members do not work or have no interest to work for what it represents. So the popularity of a political party greatly hinges upon the efforts of its members. In view of its past weakness, the KMT has endeavored to hold the party together by discipline on the one hand and to rebuild its social basis on the other. The first step the KMT has taken since the beginning of this year is the re-enlistment of the old members. As a result, those who were permitted to re-enter the membership within the fixed period between July 4 and 23 both inclusive, amounted to 20,258. They are scattering in different parts of the country and pursuing various occupations. In terms of social stratum, they belong to young intellectuals, farmers, laborers, and diligent workers. The next step the KMT has already taken is to enlist the new members with scrutinous methods. By the end of June of this year, the new members in Taiwan reached the number of 90,619. Among them those between the age of 20 and 30 constitute 47 per cent of the total; those between the age of 31 and 45, 39 per cent; and those beyond the age of 46, 14 per cent. So far as educational standard is concerned among the new members, those graduated from colleges or universities con­stitute 10 per cent of the total; those graduated from senior middle schools, 18 per cent; those graduated from junior schools, 16 per cent; and those graduated from primary schools, 29 per cent, leaving the illiterate only 5 per cent. If classified by occupations of those new members, farmer-members cover 20 per cent of the total; laborer-members, 12 per cent; merchant-members, 10 per cent; public servant­ members, 36 per cent; and student and teaching faculty members, 2 per cent. From these statistical figures, it can clealy be seen that a greater number of the new members are between the age of 20 and 30, graduated from colleges or middle schools. Farmers, laborers, and merchants also form a large proportion of 42 per cent of the total number - being a favorable condition to meet the needs of the KMT Reform Plan. With such a broader basis among the lower classes, and the raising of the level of membership, the KMT has, in fact, reaped the richest fruit it has ever had in reorganization. As for the dispersion of the KMT overseas Chinese members, a majority have scattered since the fall of the mainland in different re­gions of Asia, being 252,637 in total. In America, the KMT party-members have reached 32,711; in Europe, Africa, Australia and Oceania have reached 12,503 altogether. Both the overseas Chinese members and the native members in Free China make the number near 410,000, with the underground-workers on the mainland excluded. In comparison with the figure maintained when the National Government was on the mainland, the number of the KMT party-members at present seems decreased. It seems too meager and weak to meet the threats from the Chinese Reds who claim that their party-mem­bership has developed to five millions. However, the quantity cannot justify the quality. The big number of party-members the KMT formerly maintained proves that the leading circle had entirely lost control over the loosely-thrown members. The more members the party possesses, the more it tends to lose control over them. Although the Communists put a strict control over the party-members under totalitarianism, it does not necessarily mean that a majority of the party-members are held together without divergence. The constant friction among the leading men of the Communists shows that they do not unanimously pursue the same policy line. For this reason, the KMT has given up the former idea since its reform and has paid much attention to training and discipline rather than to the proportion of party-members alone. And this new tactics in organization has satisfactorily shown its success in practice. Training and discipline are a problem which is often overlooked in democratic countries. A party-member in a democratic state usually has too much individual freedom for his activities. He may be a Republican today as in the United States, and a Democrat tomorrow, or even a "fence-sitter". This exorbitant freedom of acquiring the party-membership often produces an effect that the governing body of the party finds considerable difficulties to exercise the power of control, and thus weakens the party strength. With the tradition of fighting the foreign rule over China, the KMT had for a long time exercised the supreme power of control over its members, with a view to attaining the ideal of national independence. However, under the influence of western democratic thought, it gradually lost control over its members while it has been in power for the last decades. It thus gave way to the Communists to spread their influence, who following the Soviet pattern of dictatorship has permitted little individual freedom for activities and thinking. The individuality being most essential for human life is totally obliterated from the Communist dictionary. This thought is undoubtedly going extremes in company with the western democratic idea. The KMT seeking to take the middle way has attempted to tighten the party on the one hand, and to tolerate reasonable freedom for individuals on the other. For this, training and discipline had to be used as two effective means (for details regarding party discipline, see "The Reform of the Kuomintang" by Dr. Shu-Chin Ts'ui, Modern China, October, 1950). So far, thousands of the KMT veterans have already completed their training through the new training machinery - the Institute for the Revolutionary Practitioners, and a large-scale purge campaign has been under way. IV As known to all the reading public, the reform of the KMT is a matter not merely concerning the stability of the island Formosa, for the present stage, but concerning the forthcoming invasion of the Chinese mainland, which is largely in need of struggle of time. If viewed only through military angle, there is indeed, no much reason to make one optimistic. But from the viewpoint of politics, one will have every reason to believe that Communism is destined to fail. There is no example in world history that a despotic rule like Stalin's and Mao's can be everlasting. The two vital elements underlying the human life­ - freedom and democracy - have survived dictators and wars of the same nature. The KMT having fought the Communists for more than a quarter of a century, has clearly visualized its ideal of democracy along the line of Dr. Sun Yet-sen's principles. It has never had any design for dictatorship as the Communists fabricated in the past. It pursued a democratic type of government in the past with no less enthusiasm than now. But since the beginning of the party reorganization in last year, the KMT has made more efforts to put the ideal into practice. So far, 21 district and municipal governments and legislatives on the island have been elect­ed through party competitions - including the KMT, the China Youth Party, Democratic­ Socialist Party, and the non-partisans. As a result, the elections have shown a brilliant success, with little hint of manipulation and graft as often seen in many countries. The ballot system used for the elections are mostly adopted from democratic countries, and so is the nominating system. In succession of the election of local governments, the election of provincial government has now come in sight. But the successful manifestation of the election for self-government is largely attributed to the re-adjustment of the relationship between government and party. That is to say, the party put its policy into practice only through its members in government. The party-mem­bers in government, or political practitioners as they are commonly called, have the duty to reflect the party aspirations, embody the party ideal, organize activities, and direct the social forces which emanate from the party. So far, the top-ranking party-members in government have been incorporated into the "small political teams" existing in every department of the governmental machinery, which function according to the policy and instruction made by the supreme body of the party headquarters. A party-member in government may reflect his individual will through the "small political team", but has to act in accordance with the central decision. While the central policy-making body has reversely to accept every individual will and reflect correctly in policy-deter­mining. In this connection, the "small political team" serves as a bridge between the party headquarters and the party-members in govern­ment, and proves a significant change in the reorganization of the Nationalist Party. However, the KMT enjoys a majority in the Legislative Yuan - the parliament in China, where the KMT members are organized in the way of western countries. It is there that the KMT has held the power to form cabinet and put its policy into force under the Constitution. The party headquarters has no right and also no need to exercise control over the government directly. The "small politic team" in government and in parliament may also bridge the gaps, if any, between them, and thus make the government run smoothly and favorably. The Reform Programme of the KMT was originally planned to be completed carried out within a year, and the present Central Reform Committee was prescribed to stop functioning by the end of that period. But owing to the present circumstances which do not permit a speedy convocation of the 7th National Congress of the party, the Reform Committee has to continue functioning until next year. No matter when the coming National Congress will be convened, the whole work of the KMT reorganization has already been brought to a successful end, and has left a mark on Chinese history. When the old veterans as well as the new members of the KMT remaining in Taiwan resurrect their revolutionary spirit for a coming fatal defeat of the Communists, thousands of thousands of the overseas Chinese Nationalists also lose no time to reorganize themselves under the old banner. With these invincible forces of the KMT united under new political strategy and tactics, and with the military and economic assistance from the United States government, the formidability of the status of Formosa is certainly ensured. And it will be not unreasonable for us to expect the advent of liberation of the hundreds of millions who are now con­fined behind the iron curtain.