Mr. Chiang Ching-kuo died in Taiwan on January 13, 1988. How people in modern Chinese history should be evaluated is a mess. Those who are said to be reactionaries, traitors, and traitors often have more positive than negative impacts on the country; some so-called great men are thieves of the country; and many more, their sins and merits go hand in hand.
1, write a eulogy to Chiang Ching-kuo
If I were to write a eulogy to Chiang Ching-kuo, I would write it like this.
Mr. Ching-kuo, in the last period of his life, washed his hands of the situation and announced the lifting of martial law and the opening of the party ban on newspapers in the late 1980s. For the first time, China, with its 5,000-year history, truly welcomed the light of the system. Mr. Jingguo earned respect not only for himself, but also for Chinese people all over the world. He told the world that Chinese people are not pigs, and that Chinese people can enjoy democracy and freedom. He also told the accomplices of “democracy needs to be slowed down”: stop using national conditions as an excuse to delay the Chinese people.
History will always remember that the last major political event Mr. Jingguo did during his lifetime was to open up the ban on newspapers and the Party. Twelve days before his death, on January 1, 1988, the people of Taiwan welcomed the freedom of the press.
Mr. Ching-kuo is immortalized.
That’s how a public servant should be
- Remembering Chiang Kai-shek and the Beautiful Islanders
Was the once autocrat Chiang Ching-kuo merely a matter of his conscience?
Autocrats do not give up power voluntarily. The retreats and compromises of autocrats are always made under the resistance of the ruled.
Chiang Ching-kuo’s compliance with the democratic trend was due to three main factors.
The first was the pressure of the democrats.228 The Incident, the Mirai Island Incident, and the democrats represented by the later Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) exerted tremendous pressure on Chiang Ching-kuo, making him see that democracy was unstoppable and that he had to go along with the trend. His greatness was the result of oppression, not the result of licking by lackeys. To paraphrase “Without the Communist Party, there would be no new China”, we can say: “Without Belle Isle, there would be no great Chiang Ching-kuo”.
The second is the legacy of Mr. Chiang Kai-shek. Mao Zedong said that Chiang Kai-shek had “no guts for dictatorship, but no guts for democracy”, the first half of this statement is correct, but the second half is wrong. Thanks to Mr. Chiang Kai-shek’s “dictatorship without guts” and his “democracy with a little measure”, China under his rule has not been completely authoritarian, whether on the mainland or in Taiwan, and the voice of democracy has always had more or less room. Especially when retreating to Taiwan, real democratic elections were quickly realized, and some non-KMT elected government officials appeared. The spark of democracy has been flickering.
The third is Chiang Ching-kuo’s quest for greatness. The despicable interest groups only know to loot first and emigrate later, while the great statesman knows he has to be in the history books, and he wants to leave a non-dark historical record for himself.
Put down the butcher’s knife and become Buddha on the ground, certain Chinese people do not believe it. They are still looting like crazy.
3, Jingguo with a smile on his face
Mr. Ching-kuo can smile in his nine springs because his life continues in goodness. Especially his grandson Chiang You-po, the grandson of Chiang, has set up a design company in Shanghai, which makes people feel the weirdness of history. The name of his company is “Chang Orange”, which means “Great Wall”? Is it to realize the meaning of great-grandfather’s recovery of the mainland and return my Great Wall?
The rumor on the Internet that “Chiang Youbai apologized for Chiang Kai-shek’s killing of 10 million Chinese” is wrong. What Chiang Youpai actually said was: “In the ‘Death By Government’ by Professor R. J. Rummel of the University of Hawaii, the top ten government killings in the world in the 20th century are listed. In the ‘Death By Government’ by Professor R. J. Rummel of the University of Hawaii, the top ten government killings in the world in the 20th century, my great-grandfather’s Nationalist government from 1921 to 1948 killed a total of about 10 million Chinese, ranking fourth; you can certainly argue that this statistic is unjust and inaccurate, that even if you discount it, it is still a million; you can certainly argue that it was the context of the time, that there were reasons why it had to be (I myself believe this argument deeply); but the government at the time just killed so many people, and although it wasn’t my great-grandfather’s hand that pulled the trigger on the killing, he was, after all, representing that executive government at the time.”
“I simply feel that Chiang is a human being and not a god, and as long as he is a ‘human being’, he will make mistakes; we don’t need to ‘deify’ them with such ‘great men of the generation, saviors of the nation’ We do not need to deify them with such ‘deification’ words as ‘great man of the generation and savior of the nation’; I, as one of their descendants, also implore those who have been hurt, there is no need to vent their hatred for them with words like ‘dictatorial murdering demon king’. They were mere mortals like you and me, and to keep them on the altar would hurt the hearts of the descendants of those who suffered at the time; on the other hand, to have them scourged (even if only in words) would bring heartache to those who served them at the time and to their descendants; this is a paradox, but it is the historical fact that we are dealing with today. “
Chiang Youpai said, “When I returned to Taiwan in 2001 …… I heard them call my great-grandfather and grandfather by their names only ‘Old Chiang’ and ‘Little Chiang’. . The name ‘Mr. Jingguo’ has occasionally appeared, but ‘Chiang Kung’ I really have never heard it again. However, since the opening of this blog, netizens from mainland China have almost always referred to my great-grandfather as ‘Chiang Kung’ in their comments, and also called him ‘the great man’; so when I heard the name ‘Chiang Kung’ again after 20 years, I was very happy to hear the name ‘Chiang Kung’. Jiang Gong’ from the mouths of the descendants of a group of people who used to call him ‘Jiang Bandit’ and ‘Jiang Thief’ back then, I really don’t know whether the world has gone crazy or the world wants to make me crazy. “
He even said that “50 years from now, our children and grandchildren will probably build a monument to democracy for this ‘president’ who is now criticized by some people as corrupt. Because Chen Shui-bian is “the first incumbent leader in the Chinese world in history who has not been able to protect his family from being sued”.
If you have a grandson, the Chiang family has virtue.
4, condolences to Chiang Ching-kuo
In the past, mainlanders thought Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo were dictators and traitors, but later learned that when these two people died, the island of Taiwan was crying twice, as if the sky had fallen. On the one hand, it shows how deep-rooted the Chinese people’s “loyalty” thinking is, and on the other hand, it also shows that history is not controlled or erased by a certain faction.
When I was in high school, I saw the open letter written by Liao Chengzhi to “Jingguo My Brother” and was very touched by it.
Many years later, through the Internet, I learned about the letter written by Ms. Soong Mei-ling to “my nephew Cheng-Chi” and was even more touched.
Whether the two sides of the Taiwan Strait can be reunited as one country depends on how much goodwill they express to each other. If one side is ready to call for the “liberation” of the other side, or even some Boxers call for “blood cleansing **”, that is to push the other side out. The Boxers insist that “only allow me to missiles at you, not you buy missiles”, that is also to push the other side out. That is to make the relatives feel pain and the enemies feel pleasure.
On the issue of Taiwan, I will always insist on one point of view: respect the choice of the Taiwanese people.
I have never understood the idea of “a country’s territory since ancient times” very well. I think that the map of a country is mostly the result of the violence of war. China’s map and the world’s map have undergone numerous changes. The argument of “a certain territory since ancient times” is too pale and feeble.
Deep in my heart, I pray that Taiwan and the mainland can be reunited as one country. Because the mainland and Taiwan are each other’s hope to save the other.
Mr. Ching-kuo contributed to Taiwan’s democracy and earned a reputation for the Chinese. To remember him, we must console him with a democratic and free China, so that all 9.6 million square kilometers of China can enjoy the sunshine of freedom.
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