tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post6002551442519775419..comments2023-10-22T18:25:39.688+08:00Comments on The View from Taiwan: Final comments on whether Chiang set up 2-28 Michael Turtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17974403961870976346noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-32151943336154834902017-03-15T02:35:50.542+08:002017-03-15T02:35:50.542+08:00"Actually quite some research has been done o..."Actually quite some research has been done on the preparation committee you mention (especially by Taiwanese historians and published in Chinese). [mt: yeah, so its influence on the construction of the discourse on KMT entry into Taiwan is limited]."<br /><br />Well, here's your big chance to influence that discourse--start translating!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-59824652570808765612017-03-14T13:38:32.459+08:002017-03-14T13:38:32.459+08:00Something else that is often overlooked is the KMT...Something else that is often overlooked is the KMT experience in a China that was by no means anticipating the incorporation of all the former Qing territories into a single nationalism. Several viable nationalist movements arose in the wake of the fallen Qing--nationalisms that later took the form of warlordism--that the KMT spent 25 years trying to eradicate by extreme force. This was the experience of Chiang Kai-sheck in China. He sought to impose a strong centralized nationalism upon the peoples of the former Qing and force had always been his most successful tactic. It is through this lens that the Chiang, the warlord killer, would have viewed and dealt with any challenge to his authority in Taiwan. He would have expected nothing less and the decapitation of any local resistance. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-33416508871896699732017-03-14T00:51:07.376+08:002017-03-14T00:51:07.376+08:00Actually quite some research has been done on the ...Actually quite some research has been done on the preparation committee you mention (especially by Taiwanese historians and published in Chinese). Among other things, the committee did not have any Taiwanese members when it was founded in April 1944. CKS insisted on putting some Taiwanese on only after the first few months, but even then their influence remained restricted. The whole thing was more for show and to appease the few voices within the KMT, who argued for Taiwan's incorporation into China, most of whom were banshan.<br /><br />The committee eventually did publish a report and made all kinds of suggestions about the future rule of Taiwan, it even mentioned the possibility of some kind of self-rule. Of course, all those suggestions remained non-binding in the end and the government opted for what was in fact a military occupation. One of the main reasons being that the KMT didn't even know if the Taiwanese, in particular the soldiers, were actually going to welcome them (remember that Taiwanese in general were still despised by the KMT high echelons during the war and seen as collaborators and/or slaves of the Japanese [sound familiar?]).<br /><br />I think it's also important to remember the larger historical context here, namely that the KMT had never considered "getting back" Taiwan before the Cairo Conference in late 1943, when the allies winning the war had already become an increasingly realistic scenario. However, they were surely not prepared for the rather sudden end of the Pacific War. This is easily forgotten, but by August 1945 there was just no internal consensus among KMTers of how to rule Taiwan after the war, which was another reason CKS opted for the military occupation. The military occupation had nothing to do whatsoever with what the committee had been working on.<br /><br />Nothing of this exculpates CKS of course, quite to the contrary. He might have not really been able to anticipate the situation in Taiwan, but as you said, he did know Chen Yi and he gave him all the powers to do as he wanted.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-22908382905194755922017-03-13T23:03:04.287+08:002017-03-13T23:03:04.287+08:00I think your hypothesis is supported by the way Ch...I think your hypothesis is supported by the way Chiang planned for the looting of Chinese treasures. Certainly this could not have been planned at the last minute. Chiang and his team must have had extensive intel on what they were heading into some years before the exodus.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com