Why are China and Taiwan even Separate? A Tale of Two Chinas - Part 1

A rival nationalist government formed on the island of Taiwan following the Chinese Civil War in 1949. This separation from the communist controlled mainland China has been a source of International tension ever since. Here, Victor Gamma looks at how and why mainland China separated from Taiwan. He starts by looking at early 20th century China.

A 1920s portrait of Sun Yat-sen.

When Vladimir Putin recently claimed that Taiwan belonged to the People's Republic of China (PRC), he triggered a withering rebuke from Taipei. In response to Putin's remarks, the Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs fired back, "the Republic of China (ROC/Taiwan) is an independent, sovereign nation… The ROC and the autocratic PRC are not subordinate to each other. The regime of the Chinese Communist Party has never ruled over Taiwan for one day and does not enjoy any sovereignty over Taiwan'' …The future of Taiwan can only be determined by the Taiwanese people and Taiwan will never surrender to any threats from the PRC government.”

The communist (PRC) regime, on the other hand, like Putin, sees Taiwan as part of its territory. Thus, in their view, they have every right to demand reunification - by force if necessary. Why are there "two China's" anyway? What lies behind this threat to peace that has even Japan ramping up its military muscle? Let’s see what history has to tell us.

Background

The current Taiwan-China conflict grew out of the crisis of the "Century of humiliation" as the Chinese call it. This was a period from roughly 1840-1949 when China fell victim to foreign aggression and internal division. By 1900, after 50 years of one disaster after another, it was clear to many that the Imperial Qing Dynasty was hopelessly inept and corrupt. It had long proven itself incapable of coping with the challenges of modernization. 

With chaos and humiliation swirling around them, increasing numbers of Chinese became convinced that they needed major change. Numerous reform and anti-Qing movements arose with the goal of solving China’s problems. Many Chinese realized the need to copy Western techniques if China were to survive. As reformer Kang Yu Wei put it in 1906, “We need, too, governmental and political reforms and a reorganization of our political machinery.” 

Among the many organizations seeking to help was the Revive China Society (Xingzhonghui). Today’s Kuomintang Party or Guomindang (GMD) traces its history to this movement, founded on November 24, 1894. The next year the Society adopted an official flag, the blue sky with a bright sun. This emblem remains the Kuomintang flag and adorns the national flag of Taiwan to this day. In 1905 the Revive China Society was merged into the Revolutionary Alliance aka Tongmenghui. By this time Dr Sun had enunciated his famous “Three Principles of the People;” Nationalism, Democracy and the welfare of the people. The Three Principles were partly influenced by his travels in the United States. Especially influential was Lincoln’s philosophy of government “by the people.” The Principles included civil rights or limited government. termed ``popular soveriegnty'' in the US.  Dr. Sun explained that the people should control their government through means such as elections, referendum, recall and initiative. These principles remain as foundational elements to the Kuomintang and the Constitution of the Republic of China. These are the values Taiwan espouses today. Taiwanese revere Sun Yat Sen as "father of the nation. '' Dr Sun's portrait, in fact, hangs in the main legislative chamber in Taipei.

Revolution

Finally on October 10, 1911 (“double tenth”) an uprising triggered an anti-Qing revolution. There was nothing remarkable about an uprising, but then something incredible occurred: Within a few short months, a system that had lasted 2,000 years collapsed like a house of cards. The ROC (Republic of China) was established by the Chinese people through the Provisional Presidential Election held on December 29, 1911. Dr. Sun won a whopping 94% of the vote to become the first president in his country’s history. On January 1, 1912 he was sworn in and announced the official beginning of the Republic of China. On February 12, 1912 the last Qing monarch abdicated the throne, formally beginning China’s troubled venture as a republic. 

At the time of the Revolution, Sun Yat Sen was the acknowledged leader of the Chinese revolutionary movement. In 1912 the Revolutionary Alliance and several other parties merged to form the Kuomintang (Nationalist) Party, KMT for short, aka “National People's Party.” It evolved out of the revolutionary league that had worked to overthrow the Qing. But it was one thing to overthrow a government, quite another to assert authority. By 1913 Sun had lost the power struggle and fled to Japan in exile, not to return until 1916. China’s infant experiment in parliamentary democracy collapsed. In practical terms,  this meant the dissolution of China into a state of anarchy with regional rulers exercising control.

Mao

Meanwhile, another pivotal event took place in 1893: the birth of a son to a prosperous farmer of Hunan Province, named Mao Zedong. Although reared in the ways of traditional China, including the Confucian Classics, Mao rebelled against all this at an early age. He was expelled from more than one school and ran away from home briefly. When he was 14 a marriage was arranged for him and the young women moved into the family home. Mao refused to even acknowledge her. Instead, he moved to Changsha to continue his studies. When the 1911 Revolution came, Mao quickly joined the Anti-Qing military and did everything he could to overthrow the hated Manchu. Having tasted the wine of politics, Mao became insatiable. Between 1913 and 1918, as a student at the Changsha Teacher’s Training College, he devoured works on political ideologies. Especially impressive to him was the 1917 Russian Revolution and the ancient Chinese Legalist philosophy. Upon graduation he took a job at the Beijing University Library. It just so happened that his boss at the library, Li Dazhou, was a budding communist and soon exerted a major influence on the young Mao. He was one of many who became convinced that the solution to China’s problems lay in Marxism.

By 1919, while Mao was still a lowly librarian, a new revolutionary ferment broke out. Seven years after Dr Sun had proclaimed the Republic, China was still mired in political and economic chaos. Warlords and bandits ruled their own territories in defiance of any national government. Sun returned to China in 1916 but his authority was limited to a small area around Canton. To make matters worse, although China had joined the Allied cause in hopes of attaining an end to its semi-colonial status, China was betrayed at the Versailles Peace Conference; Japan was allowed to keep the territory in Shandong Province it had captured from Germany in 1914. This was a massive slap in the face to China. On May 4, 1919 a crowd of students gathered at Tiananmen Square to voice their frustrations. This was part of a resurgence of nationalism. Among other results, leftist ideologies gained momentum. Movements like Sun’s now expanded into a more grass-roots effort. Leaders such as Li Dazhao and Chen Duxin emerged from the May 4 movement. These two, like many others, began to abandon Western-style democracy and turned to leftist ideology. They looked to the new Bolshevik government in Russia as an example. In 1920, Li was head of the library at Peking University and professor of economics. Captivated by the Russian Revolution, he began to study Marxism. Many were impressed with the apparent success of the Bolsheviks. Li founded a study group to discuss Marxism. This evolved into the Chinese communist party, founded in July 1921. Mao Zedong was among the founding members.  

Sun

Meantime Sun and his Kuomintang, lacking military support, had been unable to build a strong enough political organization to assert their authority. Sun began to realize that his movement needed help if he were to unify China - they had proved to be no match for ruthless warlords and helpless to end the foreign concessions. Sun had tried to enlist the aid of Japan and the West. He even wrote to Henry Ford, imploring his help.  In a  letter to the famous auto manufacturer he wrote; “There is much more to hope, in my opinion, from a dynamic worker like yourself, and this is why I invite you to visit us in South China, in order to study, at first hand, what is undoubtedly one of the greatest problems of the Twentieth Century,” The request came to nothing. Rebuffed by the West, he took a step that would have momentous consequences. By 1921 the Bolshevik in Russia revolutionaries had proven they could take and hold on to power. They had established themselves and were carrying out their reform program. They had accomplished this in four short years while the Chinese revolution had now been floundering for a decade. He invited Russian help in building his party. The Russians were only too glad to help but they attached a price tag: Sun must allow the communists to join his kuomintang. Mikhail Gruzenberg, known as Borodin, was sent to Canton in 1923 to advise Sun. Here was a seasoned agent of the newly-formed Comintern. He had already been to several countries to spread bolshevism. He and Sun established a formidable partnership as Borodin put his considerable political skills to work. It would hardly be an overstatement to say that he almost single-handedly turned the Kuomintang into an effective force. He gave them a tight party organization, drafted a constitution for them and taught effective revolutionary and mobilization techniques. Borodin also convinced Sun to admit the small (300) communist party into his nationalist movement and create the first United Front between the KMT and CCP. This was a potentially powerful move to bring unity and stability to China. This United Front thus combined the conservative and leftist political movements of China. Unity was essential to overcome the warlords, who dominated all of north China. Nonetheless, this is where the conflict between the two China’s begins. For all their cooperation, the two ideologies, communism and nationalism, would prove absolutely incapable of working together for long. Some consider this to be Sun’s greatest mistake. Once given legitimacy, the communists would be very difficult to control.

Additionally, Sun and his followers established a military academy to train officers in the struggles to come. Known as the Whampoa Military Academy, it played a critical role in the centuries major conflicts. In 1924 Sun Yat Sen appointed the general Chiang Kai Shek to be the first commandant of the Academy. Chiang had met Sun in Japan and became a devoted follower. Over the years he had proved his faithful commitment to Sun, even at the risk of his own life. Subsequently, several Academy members, including Chiang, were sent to Russia for training. He remained, at least in word, dedicated to Dr. Sun’s principles throughout his career. In a 1942 message to the New York Herald Tribune Forum on Current Problems Chiang asserted “(our) Revolution is the attainment of all three of Dr Sun’s basic principles.” After the death of Sun Yat Sen in 1925, Chiang continued his rise to power. He became commander in chief of the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) and in June, 1927 began the long-awaited “Northern Expedition” with the objective of destroying the warlords and reuniting the country.

What do you think of the early 20th century in China? Let us know below.

Now read Victor’s article on the explosive history of the bikini here.

Mao Zedong’s Childhood — A Telling Catalyst

Mao Zedong is often considered the main perpetrator of the Great Chinese Famine, the harrowing ramification of a series of incompetent and shortsighted policies that engendered the deaths of tens of millions of people. A good majority of the blame is often put on Mao, owing to his brutal and ruthless behavior and little regard for human life. But what is it that forged such a malevolent personality? What about him leads some to believe he was instead a benevolent ruler? To understand one’s inherent mindset and actions, many often look at his upbringing to determine how it affected his character. This brings forward the question: to what extent, good or bad, did Mao’s childhood affect who he became?    

David Matsievich explains.

Mao Zedong, from circa 1919.

Mao’s Parents

It is imperative that we first discuss the background of Mao’s parents. Mao’s ancestors came from the valley of Shaoshan, in Hunan, having lived in this humid region for five-hundred years. Mao’s father, Yi-chang, was born in 1870 to a peasant family. He was a hard-working man. After leaving the army, which he had joined to pay off family debts, he brought back home savvy business ideas, beginning to sell top-quality rice to a nearby village, in time becoming the richest man in his village. He was able to afford a six-room house, although the rooms stayed furnished with only the most basic structures: wooden beds, wooden tables, wooden chairs, some mosquito nets, etc..

Before all of this, however, when Yi-chang was fifteen, he married Wen Qimei, or literally “Seventh Sister Wen”. Wen Qimei, being merely a girl, was not given a name, so as she was the seventh sister of the Wen clan, she was duly given her title. Her betrothal to Yi-chang was arranged for a practical purpose: the Wen family resided in a village ten kilometers away from Shaoshan, but they had a deceased relative buried in a grave in the latter which had to had rituals be undertaken from time to time; therefore, having someone from the family in the area would be ideal. 

Early Childhood and Education

Born into a rural community of traditionalists on December 26, 1893, Mao was the third and only son to survive his infancy. His given name, Tse-tung, or Zedong, literally means “to shine on the East”. Auspicious names were reflective of parents’ expectation that their children would be successful in life. However, in order to not tempt fate with such a grandiose name, he was given a pet name by his mother — “the Boy of Stone,” Shi san ya-zi. After an elaborate ritual, somewhat like a “baptism”, at a rock deemed to be magical, he became “adopted” by the rock. He expressed his fondness for this name even in his older years.

Until the age of eight, he lived with his mother at the Wens’ village. He was loved by all his family there, and his uncle even became his Chinese equivalent of a godfather. Life was happy and careless, Mao only doing mild farm labor like gathering pig fodder and taking the buffalo for a walk by a shaded pond. It was in this idyllic village that he began learning to read.  

He returned to Shaoshan only to attend primary education. Mao had to learn by rote the Confucian classics, then an essential part of education in China, at which he was exceptionally talented. He was known by his pupils as a diligent and smart student, gathering a good foothold in Chinese history and learning to write legible calligraphy. Mao absolutely adored reading, flipping through pages well into the night when the entire village was asleep.

Father and Son

Nevertheless, he was a very recalcitrant and obstinate child. He was expelled from at least three schools for disobedient behavior. When he was ten, he ran away from his first school because, he claimed, his teacher was strict and harsh. This — and Mao’s dislike for menial laborious work — put him at odds with his father. The hatred of physically demanding work was especially what engendered the conflict between father and son: Yi-chang only obtained his wealth through hard labor, and he expected his son to do the same. 

Mao despised his authoritative father, who would hit him whenever he did not comply. Some scholars even put forward that Yi-chang was abusive towards Mao and his mother. Whatever the case, Mao likely never forgave his father, whom many years later, when Mao was chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), he said he would have liked to be treated as brutally as all other political prisoners, had Yi-chang still been alive.

But Mao, as reflected in his future years, was never a submissive man; he fought back. On one occasion, as Jung Chang writes in her book The Unknown Story: Mao, after Yi-chang berated his son in front of guests, Mao ran from his father to a pond and threatened to jump in if his father came any nearer; Yi-chang relented. However, other scholars claim a different outcome; instead of backing down, Yi-chang demanded that Mao kowtow to him, which Mao did, in exchange for avoiding a beating. Two different realities offer two different implications. If we trust the latter, it would be further proof of the severity, and perhaps abusiveness, of Mao’s father, which might evoke sympathy for Mao. But if we are to choose the other, we are shown that Yi-chang did indeed love his son — and that Mao’s unscrupulous cleverness and opportunistic mindset developed at a young age. “Old men like [Yi-chang] didn’t want to lose their sons,” Mao allegedly said. “This is their weakness. I attacked at their weak point, and I won.” Either way, it was an unpleasant father-son relationship.

Yi-chang wanted to tame Mao, to make him docile and responsible. His resolution was to have his son marry his niece, after whom Mao would have to take care of, a mild “white elephant”. And so in 1908, Mao, at the age of 14, married Luo, 4 years his senior. (For the same reason as Wen Qimei, Luo was given not a name but rather a title: “Women Luo”). Mao had no affection for her. “I do not consider her my wife…” Mao said to journalist Edgar Snow in 1936, “and have given little thought to her.” He didn’t even live in the same house as her. She died barely a year later in 1910 (from natural causes, of course). In an article written years later, Mao decried his forced marriage with Luo, and all arranged marriages in general: “This is a kind of ‘indirect rape.’ Chinese parents are all the time indirectly raping their children…” This hatred of paternal authority naturally turned his father into an arch-nemesis. 

A Loving Mother

A pious follower of Buddhism, Mao’s mother became even more devout to the Buddha so that he would protect her only surviving son hitherto. Unlike with his father, Mao’s relationship with his mother was endearingly harmonious. Neat and kindhearted, she was also tolerant, indulgent, and, according to Mao, never raised her voice at him. At a young age he followed her around everywhere, attending Buddhist rituals and visiting Buddhist temples. In emulation of her, Mao espoused Buddhism, although he later forsook it in his later adolescence. His love of her was a complete polar opposite of the hate for his father. In October, 1919, Mao, in his twenties, was horribly distraught to learn of his mother’s death. Yet only a few months later, when Yi-chang was on his deathbed and wished to see his son for the last time, Mao coldly refused to come visit him. He was indifferent to his father’s death.

Once again another controversy opens up, this time about Mao’s absence at Qimei’s death. The generic argument is that Mao simply wasn’t there, away at studies or work, simple and believable. But Jung Chang proposes a more contrived and unpleasant motive: selfishness. Mao had always perceived  his mother as a healthy and clean woman; he did not want that idyllic image to be spoiled by his now ailing mother. He supposedly said to a close staff member, “I wanted to keep a beautiful image of her, and told her I wanted to stay away for a while… So the image of my mother in my mind has always been and still is today a healthy and beautiful one.”

He had agreed with his understanding mother to this arrangement. Mao did indubitably love her very much, but so did he his own interests.

Mao’s childhood: a catalyst?

More attention is usually focused on Mao's later stages of life, like in his early adulthood, when he “became” a communist, and especially later adulthood, when he was chairman. But it cannot be denied that childhood in essence is the foundation for later acts of life. For one, Mao’s ardent hatred and snubbing of traditional customs, like arranged marriage and filial piety, prompted him to espouse the newfangled Chinese Republican values in the early 20th century — and especially develop some very radical ideas of his own — culminating in his notorious communist image, although, as Jung Chang claims, with an “absence of heartfelt commitment” in this new ideology.

It is widely believed among Mao's supporters, past and contemporary, that his Shaoshan peasant background contributed to his empathy and astute concern for peasants in his party years. Mao himself purported that he indeed benevolently cared for the rural and marginalized people of China. Is this true? Jung Chang provides a concise answer: no. There is no sufficient evidence to prove he felt about them this way in her earlier days. Although he had referenced them in a few of his writings, there is no tangible or strong emotion in them to indicate sorrow or sympathy for peasants. In fact, he voiced more emotion on the “sea of bitterness” that was being a student, of which he was one. Mao additionally claimed that his emotion was first roused by the execution of a certain P’ang the Millstone Maker, although there are no records corroborating the existence of such an individual.

It’s safe to conclude that in order to attain a better understanding of Mao’s outlook on the world, it’s worth examining all stages of Mao’s life, not least his college years, where his egotism and fringe ideas were first transcribed on paper. But what qualities did transfer over from his childhood? From what we can confirm, his stubborn behavior is definitely reflected in his later attitude to the CCP leadership; his defiance of his orthodox-viewed father encouraged his adoption of the novel ideas and ideologies, such as democracy, republicanism, and communism, flooding into the country into early 20th century China; and his early-discovered love of books correspondingly prompted him to absorb one after another these recently translated socio-political writings, ranging from moderate to extreme. Although Mao’s childhood was perhaps not the most major period in his life, nor the one in which he adopted communism, it was to a fair degree a stepping stone to his controversial career.  

What do you think of Mao’s early life? Let us know below.

Now read David’s article on the Medieval European Jewish State here.

References

Chang, Jung, and Jon Halliday. The Unknown Story: Mao. Anchor Books, 2005. 

Spence, Jonathan. “A Child of Hunan.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 2000, https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/s/spence-mao.html. 

Snow, Edgar. “Interview with Mao.” The New Republic, The New Republic, https://newrepublic.com/article/89494/interview-mao-tse-tung-communist-china.

Communist China’s Great Leap Forward – To 10,000 years of Happiness?

The Great Leap Forward took place some 60 years ago in Chairman Mao’s communist China and led to the greatest famine in human history. Here, Stepan Hobza discusses why the Great Leap Forward took place and how Chairman Mao can be viewed today.

Chinese leader Chairman Mao Zedong.

Had any Western tourist gone to China 60 years ago, they would certainly have been surprised. They could have wondered if a horrible mistake had taken place and they had actually arrived in England taking part in a Monty Python sketch.

At the beginning of 1958 hundreds of thousands of citizens of the People’s Republic of China flooded the streets with drums and trumpets in their hands. Yet they were not celebrating. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on the sky. Now and then, a shot was fired into a treetop… The sole purpose of this strange behaviour would seem surprising to us: the Chinese simply went out to kill sparrows. The poor birds had fallen into disgrace with the Communist Party of China since they “harmed the crops”, and were probably lucky enough not to be labelled as imperialistic agents. The sequel is emblematic of Mao’s Absurdistan. After annihilating two billion sparrows, an excessive reproduction of insects followed. These vermin now really set about harming the crops and in order to kill them off, China had to import millions of sparrows from the Soviet Union.

This escapade was by no means a one-off eccentricity, rather one of the many components of a wider motion called The Great Leap Forward. This glorious operation was supposed to mean, “three years of hard work”, after which “ten thousand years of happiness” would follow. In fact, what followed was the greatest famine in human history. While in the West “Chinese cuisine” was becoming popular, the actual people of China were happy to obtain a bowl of rice. In one of thousands of starving villages “a teenage orphan kill[ed] and [ate] her four-year-old brother“ and “the last remaining resident, a woman in her 60s, [went] insane. Others [were] tortured, beaten or buried alive for declaring realistic harvests.“

The official account of the Chinese government acknowledges 15 million victims. In the 1990s, when the topic was more thoroughly explored for the first time, historians assumed that the real number could very well be twice as big. However, while it may seem unbelievable, a new and very well researched book concerning the topic, Frank Dikötter‘s Mao’s Great Famine speaks about “at least 45 million“ dead people. By way of contrast, this number is almost twice as big as the toll of all military casualties in WWII. You may as well imagine that a whole modern-day Ukraine would perish in the course of four years - because that’s exactly what happened in China from 1958 to 1962.

The reasons for the tragedy

The question could not be more obvious: Why? As happens to be the rule concerning huge catastrophes, a combination of factors rather than a single one was to blame for the outcome. A major geopolitical shift of global scale stood at the beginning. After the death of Stalin a new set of Soviet leaders vied for power in the Kremlin. Though the biggest chances were attributed to Georgy Malenkov – in fact, not so feckless and compliant as depicted in Armando Ianucci’s recent farce film The Death of Stalin –, Nikita Khrushchev finally prevailed. Yet, unlike the Soviet apparatchiks, Mao didn’t trust him. When they met in 1957 he was absolutely sure that the First Secretary would sacrifice anyone in order to reconcile with the USA. China was alone. Characteristically, Mao didn’t recoil from this new and awe-inspiring prospect. He already felt like an ideological leader of the socialist bloc, anyway. What could he learn from those “grandsons of the Revolution” who held sway in Moscow? With a single Great Leap Forward China would jump over the Soviets and pair its spiritual supremacy with an economic one.  

In Chinese Communists’ minds the ultimate goal of the socialist world – Communism as such – was within arm’s reach. It would suffice to mobilize the masses. In order to achieve this, the Party established mammoth-like communes. Many fanaticized farmers were guided to believe that an economic paradise was descending upon the Earth. Before entering the communes, they killed off their cattle and held carnivorous orgies. Needless to say how dearly they would appreciate the meat later, when they would have not even rice or bread. After their last happy days they finally set out for a journey to giant dams, the Red Flag Canal or other – true or failed – masterpieces of water management. Their working conditions were naturally horrific. An even bigger problem, though, was that since they left, there was – what a wonder – no one to plough their fields. However, this fact didn’t stop provincial officials from reporting massive harvest increases to Beijing. Thus starving cities demanded even bigger supplies from the country which didn’t have enough to feed its peasants. The circle of death soon closed. Nothing could have described the situation better than the words in which Zhou Enlai (contrary to widespread habit to quote this as Mao’s motto) summed up the Chairman’s convictions: All under heaven is in chaos, the situation is excellent.

Mao in perspective

Few countries have ever changed as rapidly and profoundly as China has since 1960s. Although little has been revised in the official doctrine, the Trotskyist idea of permanent revolution seems ludicrous under the shades of hundreds of skyscrapers owned by trillions of dollars’ worth’ Chinese banks. Nevertheless, the white-collared communists keep addressing each other “comrade” and humming Pioneer songs. Chairman Mao is still considered a demigod-like hero and the myth surrounding his exploits is sacrosanct. Unfortunately, this lack of self-reflection is not a uniquely Chinese problem. With the People’s Republic possessing every thinkable potential to become a superpower, it is rather disturbing that the Great Famine of 1958-62, one of the biggest and most consequential crimes in human history, is still redubbed Three Years of Natural Disasters in Chinese vocabulary. Now, since Xi Jinping recently declared himself de facto dictator for life, the chances for change have grown even smaller, if not plummeted to zero.

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