Taiwanese Communist Party
Encyclopedia
The Taiwanese Communist Party was a revolutionary organization active in Japan
-ruled Taiwan
. Like the contemporary Taiwanese People's Party
, its existence was short, a mere three years, yet its politics and activities were influential in shaping Taiwan's anti-colonial enterprise. For a brief time after World War II
individual members continued to play a role in anti-Kuomintang
activities, most notably in the aftermath of the 228 Incident in 1947
.
-trained Taiwanese students began to contact like-minded individuals in China
and Japan
. By late 1927 Comintern
had instructed Japanese Communists (organized since 1922) to draft political and organizational charters (綱領) for a "Japanese Communist Party
, Taiwanese National Branch". Following the draft, Lin Mu-shun and Hsieh Hsüeh-hung secretly met in Shanghai
with seven others – of whom three represented the Chinese
, Korean
, and Japanese Communist Parties, respectively – to form the nascent organization.
In 1931, Comintern elevated the group's status from party branch to that of a full-fledged party directly answerable to it.
's army and later settlers from southeastern China. Both Koxinga and the Manchu
rulers established a feudal system, which in its view began to disintegrate with the introduction of 19th century Western capital into the island. The Republic of Formosa
represented a revolutionary movement of feudal landowners, merchants and radical patriots, but one doomed to failure given the immaturity of the native capitalist class. It saw Taiwan's capitalism as utterly dependent upon its Japanese counterpart. The proletariat revolution would be driven by the "contradiction" between the dominant Japanese capital and the native (and poorly developed) capital and rural feudalistic elements. The goal of the party was to unite the workers and the peasants. Toward that goal the party would use the left-leaning Taiwanese Cultural Association
as a platform and legal front, as well as expose the "lies" of the Taiwanese People's Party
, which had been moving toward the left under Chiang Wei-shui
's leadership.
Although Japanese Communists had been entrusted with the task of guiding the Taiwanese branch, massive repression in Japan proper, starting in 1928, left the Taiwanese adrift. Some leftist students were also forced to return to Taiwan. Leadership fell to Hsieh Hsüeh-hung to re-organize in light of the development.
the party led a failed strike by print workers. In the island's south cadres sparked a strike by railroad workers in Kaohsiung
. Overall, however, the TCP was neither as active nor as successful as the Alliance of Taiwanese Workers (affiliated with the Taiwanese People's Party).
The party had more success organizing peasants. Earlier a bottom-up farmers' movement had spread rapidly in 1925, leading to the creation of the island-wide Taiwanese Peasants' Union. The TCP was able to cultivate its faction within the Union and by late 1928 the Union had openly declared its support for the Communists. At that time the Great Depression
of 1930 was seen by many Communists worldwide as a sign that the proletariat revolution was on the verge of exploding. Japan's war efforts in China had also bogged down. By 1931 the TCP-led Peasants' Union was secretly training farmers (many of Hakka
ethnicity) in preparation for armed struggle to form a soviet
– one that some believed would soon elicit support from the Communist Party of China. A leak allowed the authorities to liquidate a key group, putting a halt to the plan.
From its inception the TCP had plans to infiltrate the Cultural Association, already left-leaning after a group of moderate and conservative leaders had left in 1927. It was a convenient platform that could serve as a legal front. The third congress (1929) saw the Communists succeed in electing several cadres to the Association's central committee. They proceeded to purge the leadership of the remaining conservatives and non-TCP leftists, particularly Lien Wenqing.
Between 1931 and 1933 authorities arrested 107 TCP members, who were sentenced to terms up to fifteen years. A few died in prison.
was to be the priority. Hsieh, who had been leader up to this point, was opposed to the new turn. She and her supporters were forced out of the party.
, individual Communists (most notably Hsieh Hsüeh-hung) resumed activities. The Kuomintang's repression of Communists led them to flee to the Mainland
, where they merged into the ranks of the Communist Party of China
. Some of them formed the Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League
in November 1947. Communist activities subsequent to the Nationalist "retrocession" to Taiwan, in 1949, were therefore directed under the auspices of the Communist Party of China.
in 1987, attempts have been made to re-establish a legal party of the same name. However, these applications to the Republic of China Ministry of the Interior
were rejected on the grounds that Article 2 of the Civic Organization Law forbids civic organizations and activities from promoting communism
.
The Communist Party of China
, too, has shown no recent interest in promoting communism on Taiwan
, and as of 2005, most of its efforts are directed at promoting Chinese nationalism
on Taiwan and this has led to increasingly warm relations with the Pan-Blue Coalition
. Nevertheless, in 2000 one Dai Chung, a Taiwanese resident, self-proclaimed a "Taiwan Province branch" of the Communist Party of China
without applying for official status as a political party and without any support or interest from the Communist Party of China.
The Taiwan Communist Party
was legally formed on July 20, 2008, one month after the Judicial Yuan
declared Article 2 unconstitutional. Unlike Dai Chung, it has no intentions on forming relations with the Chinese party. On March 31, 2009 the Communist Party of the Republic of China
(中華民國共產黨) was formed after approximately a year after the formation of Taiwan Communist Party
and have formal relation with the Communist Party of China.
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
-ruled Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
. Like the contemporary Taiwanese People's Party
Taiwanese People's Party
The Taiwanese People's Party , founded 1927, was nominally Taiwan's first political party, preceding the founding of the Taiwanese Communist Party by nine months...
, its existence was short, a mere three years, yet its politics and activities were influential in shaping Taiwan's anti-colonial enterprise. For a brief time after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
individual members continued to play a role in anti-Kuomintang
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
activities, most notably in the aftermath of the 228 Incident in 1947
228 Incident
The 228 Incident, also known as the 228 Massacre, was an anti-government uprising in Taiwan that began on February 27, 1947, and was violently suppressed by the Kuomintang government. Estimates of the number of deaths vary from 10,000 to 30,000 or more...
.
Inception
The party was officially formed on April 5, 1928. Its planning went back to as early as 1925, when MoscowMoscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
-trained Taiwanese students began to contact like-minded individuals in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. By late 1927 Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
had instructed Japanese Communists (organized since 1922) to draft political and organizational charters (綱領) for a "Japanese Communist Party
Japanese Communist Party
The Japanese Communist Party is a left-wing political party in Japan.The JCP advocates the establishment of a society based on socialism, democracy and peace, and opposition to militarism...
, Taiwanese National Branch". Following the draft, Lin Mu-shun and Hsieh Hsüeh-hung secretly met in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
with seven others – of whom three represented the Chinese
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
, Korean
Communist Party of Korea
Communist Party of Korea was a communist party in Korea. It was founded during a secret meeting in Seoul in 1925. The Japanese colonial regime had banned communist parties under the Peace Preservation Law , so the party had to operate in a clandestine manner...
, and Japanese Communist Parties, respectively – to form the nascent organization.
In 1931, Comintern elevated the group's status from party branch to that of a full-fledged party directly answerable to it.
Organization and ideology
Organizationally the 1928 charter subjected the Taiwanese Communists to the Japanese party. Politically it described the "Taiwanese nation" (Taiwan Minzu) as those descendants of KoxingaKoxinga
Koxinga is the customary Western spelling of the popular appellation of Zheng Chenggong , a military leader who was born in 1624 in Hirado, Japan to Zheng Zhilong, a Chinese merchant/pirate, and his Japanese wife and died in 1662 on the island of Formosa .A Ming loyalist and the arch commander of...
's army and later settlers from southeastern China. Both Koxinga and the Manchu
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
rulers established a feudal system, which in its view began to disintegrate with the introduction of 19th century Western capital into the island. The Republic of Formosa
Republic of Formosa
The Republic of Formosa was a short-lived republic that existed on the island of Taiwan in 1895 between the formal cession of Taiwan by the Qing Dynasty of China to the Empire of Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki and its invasion and occupation by Japanese troops...
represented a revolutionary movement of feudal landowners, merchants and radical patriots, but one doomed to failure given the immaturity of the native capitalist class. It saw Taiwan's capitalism as utterly dependent upon its Japanese counterpart. The proletariat revolution would be driven by the "contradiction" between the dominant Japanese capital and the native (and poorly developed) capital and rural feudalistic elements. The goal of the party was to unite the workers and the peasants. Toward that goal the party would use the left-leaning Taiwanese Cultural Association
Taiwanese Cultural Association
The Taiwanese Cultural Association , founded 1921-10-17, was an important organization during the Japanese rule of Taiwan. Founded by Chiang Wei-shui in Dadaocheng, Taipei....
as a platform and legal front, as well as expose the "lies" of the Taiwanese People's Party
Taiwanese People's Party
The Taiwanese People's Party , founded 1927, was nominally Taiwan's first political party, preceding the founding of the Taiwanese Communist Party by nine months...
, which had been moving toward the left under Chiang Wei-shui
Chiang Wei-shui
Chiang Wei-shui was a founder of the Taiwanese Cultural Association and the Taiwanese People's Party. He is seen as one of the most important figures in the colonial resistance movement....
's leadership.
Although Japanese Communists had been entrusted with the task of guiding the Taiwanese branch, massive repression in Japan proper, starting in 1928, left the Taiwanese adrift. Some leftist students were also forced to return to Taiwan. Leadership fell to Hsieh Hsüeh-hung to re-organize in light of the development.
Activities
The party sought to organize workers in as-yet unorganized key industries, including the transportation sector and mines in northern Taiwan. Party cadres were sent to work and propagandize in the logging ranches of Yilan and the mines in Chilung, with mixed success. In TaipeiTaipei
Taipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...
the party led a failed strike by print workers. In the island's south cadres sparked a strike by railroad workers in Kaohsiung
Kaohsiung
Kaohsiung is a city located in southwestern Taiwan, facing the Taiwan Strait on the west. Kaohsiung, officially named Kaohsiung City, is divided into thirty-eight districts. The city is one of five special municipalities of the Republic of China...
. Overall, however, the TCP was neither as active nor as successful as the Alliance of Taiwanese Workers (affiliated with the Taiwanese People's Party).
The party had more success organizing peasants. Earlier a bottom-up farmers' movement had spread rapidly in 1925, leading to the creation of the island-wide Taiwanese Peasants' Union. The TCP was able to cultivate its faction within the Union and by late 1928 the Union had openly declared its support for the Communists. At that time the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
of 1930 was seen by many Communists worldwide as a sign that the proletariat revolution was on the verge of exploding. Japan's war efforts in China had also bogged down. By 1931 the TCP-led Peasants' Union was secretly training farmers (many of Hakka
Hakka people
The Hakka , sometimes Hakka Han, are Han Chinese who speak the Hakka language and have links to the provincial areas of Guangdong, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan and Fujian in China....
ethnicity) in preparation for armed struggle to form a soviet
Soviet (council)
Soviet was a name used for several Russian political organizations. Examples include the Czar's Council of Ministers, which was called the “Soviet of Ministers”; a workers' local council in late Imperial Russia; and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union....
– one that some believed would soon elicit support from the Communist Party of China. A leak allowed the authorities to liquidate a key group, putting a halt to the plan.
From its inception the TCP had plans to infiltrate the Cultural Association, already left-leaning after a group of moderate and conservative leaders had left in 1927. It was a convenient platform that could serve as a legal front. The third congress (1929) saw the Communists succeed in electing several cadres to the Association's central committee. They proceeded to purge the leadership of the remaining conservatives and non-TCP leftists, particularly Lien Wenqing.
Between 1931 and 1933 authorities arrested 107 TCP members, who were sentenced to terms up to fifteen years. A few died in prison.
Factionalism within the party
Initially the party had been under the sway of the Japanese theorist Yamakawa Hitoshi, who advocated uniting the workers, peasants, and the petty bourgeoisie to form a mass party. Comintern also initially favored Communists uniting with "bourgeoisie forces" to wage an anti-imperialist war of national liberation. The TCP's 1931 charter, however, reflected new assessment that downplayed the revolutionary potential of the bourgeoisie. Class struggleClass struggle
Class struggle is the active expression of a class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle"....
was to be the priority. Hsieh, who had been leader up to this point, was opposed to the new turn. She and her supporters were forced out of the party.
Post-World War II
There is no evidence that surviving members of the party managed to re-constitute the TCP after Japan's surrender to the Allied Forces. However, during the two-year period between 1945 and the aftermath of the 228 Incident228 Incident
The 228 Incident, also known as the 228 Massacre, was an anti-government uprising in Taiwan that began on February 27, 1947, and was violently suppressed by the Kuomintang government. Estimates of the number of deaths vary from 10,000 to 30,000 or more...
, individual Communists (most notably Hsieh Hsüeh-hung) resumed activities. The Kuomintang's repression of Communists led them to flee to the Mainland
Mainland China
Mainland China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term that refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China . According to the Taipei-based Mainland Affairs Council, the term excludes the PRC Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and...
, where they merged into the ranks of the Communist Party of China
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
. Some of them formed the Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League
Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League
The Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League is one of the eight legally recognised political parties in the People's Republic of China that follow the direction of the Communist Party of China and are member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference...
in November 1947. Communist activities subsequent to the Nationalist "retrocession" to Taiwan, in 1949, were therefore directed under the auspices of the Communist Party of China.
Recent attempts at forming a Communist Party
After the lifting of martial lawMartial law
Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...
in 1987, attempts have been made to re-establish a legal party of the same name. However, these applications to the Republic of China Ministry of the Interior
Ministry of the Interior (Republic of China)
The Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of China is a cabinet level executive yuan agency responsible for home affairs and security throughout the Free Area of the Republic of China...
were rejected on the grounds that Article 2 of the Civic Organization Law forbids civic organizations and activities from promoting communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
.
The Communist Party of China
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
, too, has shown no recent interest in promoting communism on Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, and as of 2005, most of its efforts are directed at promoting Chinese nationalism
Chinese nationalism
Chinese nationalism , sometimes synonymous with Chinese patriotism refers to cultural, historiographical, and political theories, movements and beliefs that assert the idea of a cohesive, unified Chinese people and culture in a unified country known as China...
on Taiwan and this has led to increasingly warm relations with the Pan-Blue Coalition
Pan-Blue Coalition
The Pan-Blue Coalition 泛藍聯盟 or Pan-Blue Force is a political alliance in the Republic of China , consisting of the Kuomintang , the People First Party , and the New Party . The name comes from the party colours of the Kuomintang...
. Nevertheless, in 2000 one Dai Chung, a Taiwanese resident, self-proclaimed a "Taiwan Province branch" of the Communist Party of China
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
without applying for official status as a political party and without any support or interest from the Communist Party of China.
The Taiwan Communist Party
Taiwan Communist Party
The Taiwan Communist Party is a political party of the Republic of China established legally on July 20, 2008 at Xinhua, Tainan County...
was legally formed on July 20, 2008, one month after the Judicial Yuan
Judicial Yuan
The Judicial Yuan is one of five branches of the government of the Republic of China in Taiwan and serves as the highest judicial organ in Republic of China. Its Justices of the Constitutional Court , with 15 members, is charged with interpreting the Constitution...
declared Article 2 unconstitutional. Unlike Dai Chung, it has no intentions on forming relations with the Chinese party. On March 31, 2009 the Communist Party of the Republic of China
Communist Party of the Republic of China
The Communist Party of the Republic of China is a political party in the Republic of China . It was officially registered on March 31, 2009 by the Ministry of the Interior, making it the 147th registered political party in the country and the second legally recognized communist party in Taiwan...
(中華民國共產黨) was formed after approximately a year after the formation of Taiwan Communist Party
Taiwan Communist Party
The Taiwan Communist Party is a political party of the Republic of China established legally on July 20, 2008 at Xinhua, Tainan County...
and have formal relation with the Communist Party of China.