Huffpost had an annoying interview of former Premier Jiang Yi-huah. Comical. A friend critiqued it on Facebook:
This is a classic statement of Confucian political values. He hits all the major themes.In other words, it's a carefully constructed alternate reality presented for outsiders. One reality left out: Ma's government was a government of mainlanders like Ma, and there is no way Jiang would have made Premier without being a mainlander like Ma. Wiki has more info on Jiang. Jiang, who set the police on the students in the Executive Yuan and has always supported the authoritarian colonial government of the KMT, was at the...
First, he is 'scholar' (note the pious invocations of Yale and NTU). Next he is reluctant to enter public life. He personally prefers the quiet life of a scholar, but he is persuaded by the Leader to set aside this selfish goal. He reaches his decision by thinking of his higher duties to his parents (xiao, filial piety) and society (zhong, loyalty).
In office, he wants to create harmony (he) and set an example to the people by his personal incorruptibility. He is hardworking ('nearly 24 hours a day seven days a week), patient, and humble.
Young people (AKA the Sunflower students) must not be impatient (i.e no street protests please) and need to "learn to coexist with other" (i.e sell out one's personal convictions).
I have no doubt that Professor Chiang is a very nice man and really believes what he is saying.
The reference to Weber is fascinating. On the one hand, Weber has been a special favorite of Taiwan's neo-Confucian Mandarins since Yu-Ying-shih popularized his 'applicability' to China. On the other hand, it is very telling that Chiang thinks that Weber's notion of a political vocation is actually a catechism for would-be politicians in Taiwan.
"The interview was done in Prague during Forum 2000 conference, an annual event dealing with human rights among other topics. Forum 2000 was co-founded by Vaclav Havel. Man who became first elected President in the then still Czechoslovakia after the fall of Communist rule following violent crack down on student protests known as the Velvet Revolution.Of course, it was under Jiang that there was a violent crackdown on student protests...
Irony is dead."
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Daily Links:
- SPECIAL: My webcast for American Citizens for Taiwan, on Taiwan politics, is out.
- SPECIAL: Great great piece at TT on gas bombing of the Seediq people by the Japanese
- Eric Chu is the second coming of Ma Ying-jeou, it's only a matter of time before the public realizes it. Here he is announcing that it is a "historical fact" that Taiwan was returned to the ROC. That's a Ma refrain, but he also asked that the DPP re-think the Japanese period, a typical mainlander position, and thanked the "anti-Japanese resistance". Scratch Chu, there's a doctrinaire mainlander hiding there. But note also the relentless drive to co-op Taiwanese resistance to Japanese rule with its many streams and sources, as a pro-China anti-Japanese movement within the standard Chinese "Japan is the font of all evil!" framework. A more sophisticated example of this subsumption is this abuse of Taiwan history.
- Dengue now at 26,000 cases
- The Economist with its usual pro-KMT reporting on the KMT's change of horses in mid-stream
Mark your calendars for Saturday November 7th; we have a great presentation... UPDATED WITH VENUE DIRECTIONS
Topic: The Eternal (sort of) Triangle of Taiwan, the US and China in light of recent developments in Taiwan and China's economic slowdown.
Speakers: Billl Stanton Director of Center for Asia Policy, National Tsing Hua University (former AIT head Taiwan)
Don Shapiro AmCham VP with decades of Taiwan experience and speaking from his personal perspective
Anna Chou, TSU Legislator (focusing how Japan figures into this)
Venue: At Room 101 Red Building, Legislative Yuan.-- same place we have met before down there.Will send details later if you forgot. 10-12 morning of the 7th.
This is two week plus advance notice so you can plan ahead and also since when we meet there, I need to have a list of names to present to guard when you come in. (if you drive, I need your license plate to get you in the inner courtyard)
Speakers will speak for about 20 min. and then we will open to Q & A; this is a chance to address people with a vast wealth of experience and knowledge of Taiwan's situation.
enue: At Room 101 Red Building, Legislative Yuan.-- same place we have met before down there.
How to get there: Since this is a weekend, this building is normally closed except for a side entrance. The official side entrance address is #1 Ji Nan Rd. (aka Chi Nan Rd). The entrance will be on Ji Nan and we will use the driveway that leads into the courtyard. It lies about midway between Zhongshan (Chung Shan) S. Rd and Zhen Jiang St. If coming from Zhongshan, the following buses stop before National Taiwan University Hospital. #15. 22, 208, 227, 261. The NTU Hospital MRT station is nearby. Across from the hospital is the Taiwan Handicraft Promotion Center (also listed as Chinese Handicraft Center) on Xuchou Rd. go a block north and you will be at Ji Nan. If coming from the corner of Ji Nan and Zhongshan, you will pass the Alliance for a Referendum for Taiwan protest/campout (there since October 25, 2009, and a small Post Office sign; it is about a half a block in. If you reach Zhen Jiang St. you have gone too far. But don't worry, we will have people and a sign at the driveway by which you will enter. It is on the north side of Ji Nan.
You can also come from the Blue Line, exiting at Shandao Temple MRT station, Exit 2 by the Sheraton and work your way south to Ji Nan.
Name required if attending: A headcount is needed; we have room, but also don't want to be overbooked. This is not one you will walk in off the street; everyone will need a badge to get in; we will have them made up and ready at the entrance and you can get them when you pay your NT$100; I will need your name by Thursday Nov. 5. No name, no entrance badge.
Those that have already given me your name, I have you down. If driving, give me also your license plate #.
This is a great chance to hear and question good people working for Taiwan at many levels, and of course network with each other.
Plan on getting there a little early so we can start right on time and get the most from these speakers.
Look to see you.
[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!
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI am a visiting scholar learning the ropes on Taiwan-US relations (as well as a recent, but regular reader of the blog, and am wondering about the event posted above. Is it open to the public, and if so, how do I register?
Just email keating direct
ReplyDelete"Jerome Keating Ph.D."
"Jerome F. Keating"
The DPP should not blame the mainlanders for their separation from Japan. If Japan had not set into motion the chain of events that led to their defeat in WWII, Taiwan would still be a happy Japanese colony today. Taiwan not being Japanese property today is entirely the work of Japan.
ReplyDeleteSPECIAL: Great great piece at TT on gas bombing of the Seediq people by the Japanese
ReplyDeletethe track field at Wushe’s elementary school the morning of the incident
killing all targets they could see.
A statue to commemorate Mona Rudao, with the inscription: A hero who fought against the Japanese.”
In 2005 the Kuomintang displayed a massive photo of Mona Rudao at its headquarters in honor of the 60th anniversary of Taiwan's retrocession from Japan to the Republic of China.
If only there was a hospital there then. Your hero could have impressed his warriors by single handedly killing all(targets) in the maternity ward. Then you could have a Great great great piece ....
,he DPP should not blame the mainlanders for their separation from Japan. If Japan had not set into motion the chain of events that led to their defeat in WWII, Taiwan would still be a happy Japanese colony today. Taiwan not being Japanese property today is entirely the work of Japan
ReplyDeleteI suspect that if you polled Taiwanese, they'd be happy to be a colony of Japan still.
Michael
Only in relative terms. My grandfather had plenty of complaints about Japan during the war, though he also said that they weren't as bad as the Chinese make them out to be or as bad as the Chinese were.
ReplyDeleteI don't recall the author, but a 1950 book about General MacArthur had an aside about Taiwan. An American diplomat reported that Formosans wanted, in decreasing order of preference:
1. Independence
2. UN trusteeship
3. American trusteeship
4. Return to Japan
5. Remain under the ROC
6. The Communists
I honestly don't know how good option 4 would have been considered.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete"If Japan had not set into motion the chain of events that led to their defeat in WWII,. . ." (Anon October 26, 2015 at 1:17 AM)
ReplyDeleteJapan had been the darling of the London-centered Anglo-Saxon world. The UK had signed the 1902 Anglo-Japanese Treaty, relying on Meiji Japan to put a damper on Czarist Russia's expansionist drive in the Far-East.
President Theodore Roosevelt had ordered from its American publisher 200 copies of Inazo Nitobe's 1900 "Bushido: The Soul of Japan". Teddy Roosevelt intended his copies of the book as gift to his Oval Office guests.
Ironically, the British shipyards-made 1905 Japanese navy's victory at Tsushima reversed that trend. After the US-facilitated Sep. 5, 1905 Treaty of Portsmouth (Maine), the US held a rising Japan the main issue hindering its "Open Doors" policy in the Far-East.
The Open Door Policy vs. Asia for Asians. From the 1890s onward, America and Japan: two trains heading towards each other down the same track. (loosely quoted from that hyperactive twerp, “yangguizi” Homer Lea, whose “The Valor of ignorance” (1909) and “The Day oF the Saxon” (1911) predicted the collision.)
The demise of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty in December 1921 on the signing of the Four Powers Treaty at the Washington Conference that also limited Japanese Navy tonnage while allowing the US to build up its own navy.
FDR needs gore to stir the American public opinion out of isolationism. And in China, a warlord clique with American connections put its own people in harm’s way to do his bidding.
After the 1937 Shanghai Incident, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt threw in overdrive the motion of the chain of events that led to the collision and ultimately to the surrender of Japan and the on-going occupation of its territory.
Sift first through the silt that the roaring torrent of pre-war and war-time propaganda left in our hazy common memory. You will uncover the uncomfortable truth. From the 1890s onward, Japan cramped Uncle Sam's style In the Asia-Pacific region. Hence, “Carthago delenda est” imposed itself as motto of the New Rome.
As it turns out, on the Japanese islands of Formosa and Pescadores (Taiwan area), nation building was put on hold sine die once the principal occupying power had unloaded an undeserving underling on that area of occupied Japan.
If territorial possession or colony of Japan it must be deemed, then Taiwan was deprived of its decolonization process.
Obviously, you badly need acquainting yourself with Robert Stinnett 's 2000 "Day of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor."
@ Carlos, if my memory serves,
ReplyDeleteA declassified 1949 Department of State Memo has prepared 5 options:
1. to be ruled by any government in China
2. to be ruled by the Chinese Nationalist "as is"
3. UN trusteeship
4. Independence
5. "Other forms of governance"
The plan was ready, including all the necessary diplomatic work, pending US Military Authority to deal with the 200 or 300 thousands Chinese Army ( which was outside the scope of Department of State).
US Military Authority did nothing at that time. I understand that it would be embarrassing for US military to have to physically remove the Chinese Army. However things are different today.
I think it's a bit far fetched to suggest that Taiwanese today would be "happy to be a colony of Japan still". Key word being colony.
ReplyDeleteI think a plurality of Taiwanese today may not object to being annexed to Japan proper (i.e. with direct participation in Japanese political system, not as a special status region or 2nd class citizens) but most would probably vote for independent sovereign nation status.
Had Taiwan remained part of Japan Empire after WW2, chances are it would have been set free during the global de-colonization wave in the 1960s and 70s. Or domestic Japanese political pressure would have forced Taiwan to be incorporated as part of Japan proper like Okinawa.
But either way, if Taiwanese were given the choice in 1945 to choose what they want, I doubt anyone would choose occupation by ROC in legal limbo.
Is it so hard to believe Taiwanese just want to be free and independent and live as Taiwanese?
ReplyDelete"I suspect that if you polled Taiwanese, they'd be happy to be a colony of Japan still. "
ReplyDeleteWhich Taiwanese? Card carrying TSU members?
To Jerome Besson:
ReplyDeleteNobody that matters believes the theory you outlined that the war was forced on Japan by the actions of the western powers. Here is the objective truth: Japan started it, the USA ended it.
All the Taiwanese people I know prefer status quo or outright independence. I've never met anyone who wants to be part of the PRC or Japan.
ReplyDelete