1996 Taiwan Presidential Campaign Leaflet
This sheet was circulated by Lee Tenghui's opposition during the Taiwan presidential campaign of 1996. The sheet accused Lee Tenghui of having been a member of Taiwan's underground communist party in the late 1940s and having betrayed two of his fellow students (later executed) to the KMT government. The Wiki article on Lee says that he admitted to having been a member of the Communist Party in Taiwan. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Teng-hui
A fictionalized political biography of a character, apparently Lee Teng-hui, goes into considerable detail about this incident and the complex relationship Lee had with Chiang Kai-shek's son, security chief and subsequently successor as Republic of China on Taiwan president Chiang Ching-kuo. Chiang Ching-kuo, like Lee, was a former communist. During his long stay in the USSR, CCK believed in communism at one day, although according to the Wiki biographical article on CCK, his application to become a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was never accepted.
A fictionalized historical (ahistorical? ) novel on the political life of Lee Tenghui, also examines former ROC President Chiang Ching Kuo's motivations as Taiwan society changed during the decades after the KMT assumed control of Taiwan in 1945. Chiang Ching Kuo spent many years as a student and then a factory manager in the Soviet Union, becoming a convinced Communist before Stalin returned him to Chiang Kai-shek. He must have gone through some deprogramming! He later became head of CKS's security services and eventually succeeded CKS as the leader of the Republic of China on Taiwan -- he was the leader of Taiwan when the U.S. broke diplomatic relations with the ROC and established them with the PRC on January 1, 1979.
Chang Ta-chun's [alternate romanization Zhang Dachun characters 张大春 ] 1996 [historical/psuedohistorical/antihistorical??] novel about the relationship between Lee Tenghui (thinly disguised as Li Zhengnan [literally Lee Political Man to translate the characters of the personal name of the main character of the novel] and CCK -- The False Disciple [撒谎的信徒 Sahuangde Xintu]. I read the book about ten years ago when it came out in Taiwan.
CCK is portrayed as following Lee Tenghui's career from the late 1940s from when he was (according to the novel) involved in a communist party cell that was broken up, through his education and return to Taiwan and his late entry into the KMT in August 1941 and subsequent rise to high office. CCK is portrayed as identifying Lee early on as someone who could be very useful later in managing a transition to rule by Taiwanese.
Maybe one former communist sympathizing with another former communist?
I wonder if it might be excessive as a hatchet job on Lee, picking up on the same stories circulated during Lee's last presidential campaign that he had been in a communist reading group and had subsequently betrayed his comrades.
The portrayal of CCK as a visionary of Taiwan's poltical transformation was what I found most interesting about the book.
I found the book fascinating. Lee Tenghui doesn't come off very well in the novel -- as a scheming poltician thoroughly corrupted by power and not unwilling to sell out colleagues when it suits him, but CCK comes over as a quite prescient leader, very different from CKS (referred to in the book as "the ruler"). The book is told mostly from the perspective of a Taiwan intelligence agent who follows Lee Tenghui's case over the years. Given Taiwan's political polarization into Greens and Blues, it is easy to dismiss the novel, but it does run through a lot of Taiwan history and tie things together. So I have always wondered about it and whether I should give it any credence.
I have heard people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits attributing the saying "Better to kill 999 than to let one guilty one go free" to the KMT in mainland China before 1949.
References:
Online bookstore:
www.books.com.tw/exep/prod/booksfile.php?item=0010021705
1996 Taiwan Presidential Campaign Leaflet
This sheet was circulated by Lee Tenghui's opposition during the Taiwan presidential campaign of 1996. The sheet accused Lee Tenghui of having been a member of Taiwan's underground communist party in the late 1940s and having betrayed two of his fellow students (later executed) to the KMT government. The Wiki article on Lee says that he admitted to having been a member of the Communist Party in Taiwan. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Teng-hui
A fictionalized political biography of a character, apparently Lee Teng-hui, goes into considerable detail about this incident and the complex relationship Lee had with Chiang Kai-shek's son, security chief and subsequently successor as Republic of China on Taiwan president Chiang Ching-kuo. Chiang Ching-kuo, like Lee, was a former communist. During his long stay in the USSR, CCK believed in communism at one day, although according to the Wiki biographical article on CCK, his application to become a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was never accepted.
A fictionalized historical (ahistorical? ) novel on the political life of Lee Tenghui, also examines former ROC President Chiang Ching Kuo's motivations as Taiwan society changed during the decades after the KMT assumed control of Taiwan in 1945. Chiang Ching Kuo spent many years as a student and then a factory manager in the Soviet Union, becoming a convinced Communist before Stalin returned him to Chiang Kai-shek. He must have gone through some deprogramming! He later became head of CKS's security services and eventually succeeded CKS as the leader of the Republic of China on Taiwan -- he was the leader of Taiwan when the U.S. broke diplomatic relations with the ROC and established them with the PRC on January 1, 1979.
Chang Ta-chun's [alternate romanization Zhang Dachun characters 张大春 ] 1996 [historical/psuedohistorical/antihistorical??] novel about the relationship between Lee Tenghui (thinly disguised as Li Zhengnan [literally Lee Political Man to translate the characters of the personal name of the main character of the novel] and CCK -- The False Disciple [撒谎的信徒 Sahuangde Xintu]. I read the book about ten years ago when it came out in Taiwan.
CCK is portrayed as following Lee Tenghui's career from the late 1940s from when he was (according to the novel) involved in a communist party cell that was broken up, through his education and return to Taiwan and his late entry into the KMT in August 1941 and subsequent rise to high office. CCK is portrayed as identifying Lee early on as someone who could be very useful later in managing a transition to rule by Taiwanese.
Maybe one former communist sympathizing with another former communist?
I wonder if it might be excessive as a hatchet job on Lee, picking up on the same stories circulated during Lee's last presidential campaign that he had been in a communist reading group and had subsequently betrayed his comrades.
The portrayal of CCK as a visionary of Taiwan's poltical transformation was what I found most interesting about the book.
I found the book fascinating. Lee Tenghui doesn't come off very well in the novel -- as a scheming poltician thoroughly corrupted by power and not unwilling to sell out colleagues when it suits him, but CCK comes over as a quite prescient leader, very different from CKS (referred to in the book as "the ruler"). The book is told mostly from the perspective of a Taiwan intelligence agent who follows Lee Tenghui's case over the years. Given Taiwan's political polarization into Greens and Blues, it is easy to dismiss the novel, but it does run through a lot of Taiwan history and tie things together. So I have always wondered about it and whether I should give it any credence.
I have heard people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits attributing the saying "Better to kill 999 than to let one guilty one go free" to the KMT in mainland China before 1949.
References:
Online bookstore:
www.books.com.tw/exep/prod/booksfile.php?item=0010021705