This morning I had a good long chat with a fellow business student from Taiwan. Our conversation evoked some thoughts and facts which I have not had reason to contemplate in ages. Taiwan has an incredible history, and it's first Generallissimo and President, Chiang Kai-Shek is one of my favorite people of all time.
Taiwan did not exist as a country until 1949. An island mass named Formosa was located off the coast of China and owned by Japan from 1895 until its succession to the Republic of China (not to be confused with the Peoples Republic of China) after World War 2 (1945). Chiang came into power in 1927. His political party was the Nationalists, and the challenges he was about to face were ENORMOUS. His first policy was to banish Soviet advisors from China’s provinces. According to some sources, Chiang than executed all communists he could get his hands on (I love this guy). In 1927 he took off on his first military campaign - The Northern Expedition - and its purpose was to unite China and wrest provincial control from warlords – wow, first time in 3000 years, this guy is gutsy. To keep a long story short, Chiang achieved complete success in uniting China. History books accuse him of being a bad person for slaughtering communists. Unfortunately, history lies. The fact is he did not kill enough communists. Mao Tse-Tung soon threw his weight in the fray. Mao had cleverly waited until Chiang and the Nationalists were weakened militarily by his unification campaign. Mao had several cells of troops hidden in the mountains and he progressed to terrorize villages and build up his political platform. Mao was weak so he relied on terror and guerrilla warfare. And Chiang’s biggest headache was yet to come.
Japan (GRRRRR) invaded China in 1931 and proceeded to perform unmentionable atrocities upon the relatively passive and undeveloped Chinese. The death tolls of the Chinese would amount in the tens of millions – most due to dying of drought and famine caused directly and indirectly by Japan. Chiang’s decision was to fight both the Japanese and Communists at the same time. His advisors, and I suppose I can understand this, wanted him to team up with communists (bad move all the same) but Chiang remained resolute. At least, he remained resolute until his own governors kidnapped him until he agreed. The Nationalists’ and Communists fought side by side against the Japanese, and World War 2 ended almost 7 years later.
By the way, during this time there was a volunteer American air force fighter wing in China under General Chennault, the Flying Tigers (before America was officially in the war). Additionally, John Birch was in China at the same time. Birch would later be shot and killed by a Chinese communist after the war and all hostilities had ceased. Both these historical entries are amongst the most interesting stories I have ever come across.
During the war Mao didn’t do squat to help out China. He got training for his troops and when peace (yah right) was declared, his troops had been conveniently placed at strategic locations (weapons dumps, capital cities) in order to eliminate the Nationalists. Also, Russian declared war on Japan 3 days after Hiroshima got nuked (the significance here is that Japan was already defeated and Stalin just wanted to take some land). Russia invaded indiscriminately all the land Japan had formerly taken in China. Can you guess whether they ever gave this land back to China? I just found the following quote from Wikipedia which adds to the insanity: “the Soviets spent the extra time systematically dismantling the extensive Manchurian (Chinese) industrial base (worth up to 2 billion dollars) and shipping it back to their war-ravaged country”. Amidst it all, CHIANG KEPT FIGHTING. And he would have won except for one thing.
America began sending much of its surplus military supplies to Chiang. About 1948 Truman had a change of heart. Without prior notice – I kid you not – Chiang and the Nationalists suddenly found their American-built Sherman tanks shelling it out with Sherman’s manned by communists. Truman continued to back Mao all the way until Communist victory. Chiang and the Nationalists retreated to Taiwan, and to this day the Taiwanese government is called the Republic of China.
Chiang would still manage to win one brilliant victory. When he left China, he took with him the entire gold reserve of the Chinese treasury (OWNAGE). When distributed amongst such a relatively small population, Taiwan would soon recieve the following entry on Wikipedia: “Taiwan's rapid economic growth in the decades after World War II has transformed it into an industrialized developed country and one of the Four Asian Tigers. This economic rise is known as the Taiwan Miracle. It is categorized as an advanced economy by the IMF and as a high-income economy by the World Bank. Its advanced technology industry plays a key role in the global economy. Taiwanese companies manufacture a large portion of the world's consumer electronics”. Conversely, China would spend the next 50 years fighting for economic well-being, and it only emerged into a place of strength through the acts of political traitors in America who committed abuses beyond description against our fine country.
In the UN there are 5 nations that have veto power: US, Russia, China, France and Britain. Initially, Taiwan held China’s post in the UN up until 1971 at which time the UN voted to recognize the communist People's Republic of China as the legitimate ruler. So now Taiwan sits on its own with very little influence or protection from the UN. Its well known China has long viewed Taiwan as a thorn in its side. China's first move might very well to annex Taiwan. Time will tell.
No comments:
Post a Comment