Latest Taiwan news piece: Did Chiang plan for 2-28 to happen?

Downhill on gravel: not fun

Interesting news: a Chinese official said that China needs to have more contact with Taiwan's elected officials. Apparently some in China are coming to the conclusion that its policy of ignoring the DPP is hurting its ability to influence Taiwan...

Taiwan Sentinel hosted a good piece on Ma's discussion with Jerome Cohen, which basically consisted of Ma spouting nonsense about history and Cohen nodding indulgently and letting the former president say whatever he wanted, unchallenged. Cohen was asked by the local China people to address Ma as "Mr Ma" and not president, etc. Ma's twisting of history is the normal KMT practice...

...speaking of KMT history twisting, I am exploring the idea that Chiang Kai Shek probably planned for 2-28 to occur. I looked at it in a previous post. But I developed the idea further in my most recent Taiwan News column:

The KMT had abundant information on Japanese Taiwan, including lists of prominent leaders and their political positions, the Home Rule movement, and extensive information on the island's political and industrial infrastructure. In Formosa Betrayed George Kerr avers that "In addition to these reports on subversion potential, and on specific communications and industrial objectives, we also received from Chungking a long report on Formosan-Chinese leaders, and on Formosans who were exiles in China."

Moreover, Taiwanese in KMT China were closely watched by the KMT, especially after the war began in 1937. Arbitrary arrest and detention of Taiwanese in China was common, and many, even those working for the KMT, concealed their Taiwanese origins. In Fujian the local government set up internment camps for Taiwanese and hundreds were arrested, interned, and had their property confiscated.

The highest echelons of the KMT handed down the KMT's Japan-war policy of identifying Taiwanese as Japanese empire subjects like Koreans and Okinawans. It's hard to imagine how decision-makers in KMT could be aware of Taiwanese and could possess lists of who and what was important in Taiwan, including the Home Rule movement, and yet not know what would happen when it oppressed Taiwan.

The KMT was well aware of the home rule movement in Taiwan. These contacts began quite early, right after the KMT was formed. Years ago a Taipei Times editorial on the perennial topic of KMT historical revisionism observed:

It is also worth noting that when Lin Hsien-tang (林獻堂), the father of the Formosan home-rule movement, met Tai Chi-tao (戴季陶), a close associate of Sun Yat-sen, in Tokyo in 1913, Tai told him that the KMT was too busy in China to provide any assistance in Taiwan and that if the Taiwanese wanted to remedy the harshness of Japanese colonial rule they should look to Japanese liberals for help.

...that was in 1913. In fact Lin had also talked to prominent Chinese intellectual Liang Qiqiao, who had fled to Japan and remained there until 1912, and Liang had told him the same thing.

But let's not forget, during the entire Japanese period Taiwan was a political issue in Japan's domestic politics, and the KMT could hardly have failed to be aware of this. For example, in the early 1920s one of the domestic political parties was a champion of the Home Rule movement. Moreover, Taiwanese student organizations formed in major cities in China after 1922, hoping to garner KMT support by advocating a Han-based nationalism. This movement opposed the Taiwanese home rule movement, but still saw Taiwan as a nation separate from China, and incorporated strains of Leninist and Communist thinking.

The KMT would also have been aware of Japanese repression and Taiwanese resistance, of the revolts the island had suffered. They would have known that Taiwan was revolt-prone...

There is no question: the Chiang and his KMT would have had minute, extensive knowledge of the Taiwan's politics...

Of interest: Ma was criticized this week by deep Blue KMT ideologue Alex Tsai for saying that Chiang should be held accountable for 2-28. LOL.
_______________________
[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!