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Taiwan activists form anti-communist corps

By Loa Iok-Sin | Taipei Times

Demonstrators hold banners illustrated Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou and Chinese President Hu Jintao during an anti-China protest in Taipei on 25 October 2008. The main opposition Democratic Progressive Party rallied around 500,000 protesters on Saturday against Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou’s efforts to seek better ties with China and a upcoming visit by China’s top negotiator, Chen Yunlin, to hold talks with Taiwan’s top negotiator, P.K. Chiang, from November 3 to 7.Reuters/Pichi Chuang/Taiwan

Singing patriotic songs from the Martial Law Era and shouting anti-communist slogans popular during former dictator Chiang Kai-shek’s reign, a group of pro-independence activists officially inaugurated the Taiwanese Youth Anti-Communist National Salvations Corps yesterday.

“Down with Russian bandits, we’re against communism. We’re against communism. Destroy Zhu and Mao, we’ll kill the traitors. We’ll kill the traitors,” the group sang at a press conference in Taipei yesterday.

“Mao” in the lyrics refers to former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) chairman Mao Zedong, while “Zhu” refers to Zhu De, a key CCP leader in the 1950s.

Following the songs, they shouted slogans from the Chiang era: “We’ll be victorious in the battle against the communists. We’ll succeed in building our nation.”

The group said there were using the old anti-communist songs and slogans to remind President Ma Ying-jeou, who will meet with China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin during his visit to Taiwan, about the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) firm anti-communist stance in the past.

“Ma Ying-jeou, have you forgotten all these songs and slogans?” asked Jim Lee, one of the group’s initiators and a Taiwanese culture professor at the National Taipei University of Education.

Besides the songs and slogans, the group also gets its name from the China Youth Anti-Communist National Salvations Corps that was founded by Chiang in 1952.

Paul Lin, a political commentator and the group’s convener, explained that he proposed the creation of the group because he was concerned that Ma was getting too close to China too quickly and that Taiwan’s sovereignty and Taiwanese people’s hard-earned freedoms and democracy may be compromised.

“Some people say that the CCP has changed and the anti-communist era [in Taiwan] has passed, but I say the CCP has only opened up its economy and it is still repressing the rights and freedoms of its people and threatening Taiwan, so we cannot stop voicing our opposition to the regime,” Lee said.

Ellen Huang, former presidential advisor and a political analyst, agreed.

“Capitalism and communism are just ideologies and there’s nothing wrong with following either of them — but I cannot tolerate a regime that uses communism as a cover for its authoritarian rule,” she said. “That’s why I joined the organization.”

Meanwhile, at a separate press conference yesterday, a group of Tibetans living in Taiwan, accompanied by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin, warned on the dangers of entering an agreement with China.

Eight years before the 1959 uprising and the subsequent bloody repression by the Chinese military, the Tibetan and Chinese delegations had signed a 17-point agreement in which China promised to leave Tibet alone with high degree of autonomy, religious freedom and the right to live as they wanted.

“A promise by the Chinese was broken within a decade for the Tibetans. I urge Ma to be very careful when negotiating with the CCP and not to be naive. Otherwise Taiwan may become the next Tibet,” Tien said. “I’d also like to ask our government officials to mention the Tibetan issue during their meeting with Chen, because as a democratic country that values human rights, it’s our responsibility to care for others who are suffering.”

Copyright © 2008 The Taipei Times

Published in The Taipei Times