From Chinese National Identity to Taiwanese Consciousness: An

Bond University DOCTORAL THESIS From Chinese National Identity to Taiwanese Consciousness: an Examination of the Cultural Elements in Taiwan's Democratization During the Lee Teng-hui Era and its Legacy, 1988-2004. Ching-Ni Liu, Jessie Award date: 2005 Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal. From Chinese National Identity to Taiwanese Consciousness: An Examination of the Cultural Elements in Taiwan’s Democratization During the Lee Teng-hui Era and Its Legacy, 1988-2004 By Jessie Ching-Ni Liu, Bbus Griff, MIR Bond A Thesis Submitted to Bond University in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences October 2004 Table of Contents List of Tables v Acknowledgements vi Note on Transliteration vii Summary 1 Introduction 3 Chapter One The Transition from an Authoritarian System to Democratization 12 1 An emerging consciousness of “renovation and protecting Taiwan” 14 supported by economic and social resources 2 Transformation and development of democratization 17 Chapter Two Elections and the Politics of Terror 23 1 The 228 Incident 24 2 The “white terror” 27 3 The elections and consolidation of the one-party authoritarian 29 regime and the influence of elections 4 Social and political differences revealed by the elections 39 Chapter Three Taiwan’s Democratization 49 1 Taiwan as the sole democracy in the Greater China region and a 50 comparison of political hierarchies in Taiwan and China i 2 The nature of democratic politics and the formation of a new society 54 3 The incentives for democratization and the political opposition groups 59 4 President Chiang Ching-kuo’s decision and plan to democratize 62 5 Reforming the political status quo and Taiwanese find their voice 66 6 The political emergence of Lee Teng-hui and the development a 69 new political market 7 The critical crisis 72 8 Relieving the crisis and addressing political divergence 76 Chapter Four The International Dimension within Taiwan’s Democratization 85 1 The theoretical concern 86 2 Taiwan’s democratic development vis-à-vis the “one China” perspective 92 3 New strategic initiatives by the Taiwanese opposition in the 1970s 94 4 The Formosa Incident (also known as the Kaohsiung Incident) and its 97 Aftermath 5 Democratic consolidation and remaining weaknesses 104 Chapter Five Taiwan’s Domestic Politics 107 1 Conflict and consolidation of power 108 2 The decline of the Chinese KMT and the progress in the Legislative Yuan 111 3 The Wild Lily Student Movement and the street movements that 114 challenged authoritarian power ii 4 The characteristics of Lee Teng-hui 119 5 Identity politics and the Chinese KMT 125 6 Lee Teng-hui and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) 130 7 The transformation of the Chinese KMT 137 Chapter Six Lee Teng-hui’s Diplomatic Strategy 147 1 President Lee’s landmark Singapore (1989) and US (1995) Visits and 148 diplomatic accomplishments 2 Taiwan’s democratization as a variable and its pragmatic diplomacy 153 3 Taiwan’s increased economic and democratic assets 157 4 The Family Metaphor: Taiwan as an adult, not a child who left home 161 Chapter Seven Taiwan–China Relations 166 1 Lee Teng-hui’s contribution to Taiwan’s national identity and the 167 transition from “the ROC in Taiwan” to “Taiwan, the ROC” 2 The theory of two countries 169 3 Lee Teng-hui vis-à-vis China 172 Chapter Eight The Cultural Flows of Taiwan 183 1 Taiwan’s Ocean Nature 185 2 Oceanic trade routes 189 3 The Aboriginal contribution 192 4 The Taiwan Presbyterian Church 197 5 The Chinese theory of Ta Tung and the Taiwanese theory 201 of Phah Pian – “to struggle for” 6 The effect of Japan’s colonial rule and the effect of the 209 Chinese KMT “foreign” rule iii 7 Common consciousness and inherent tensions in Taiwanese 212 identity formation 8 The emergence of civil society and consumer politics 215 Chapter Nine The Post-Lee Teng-hui Era 220 1 The anti-Lee Teng-hui forces and the Waishengjen’s sense of crisis 223 2 The Taiwan Research Institute and Lee’s post-presidential diplomacy 227 Abroad 3 Lee’s support for Chen at the Northern Taiwan Society’s inauguration 237 4 The Taiwan Solidarity Union 244 5 The DPP becomes the biggest party in the Legislative Yuan, 251 Legislators-At-Large, and Overseas Legislators 6 The local government elections 257 7 The Taiwan Advocates, “Separate states on either side of the Taiwan 260 Strait”, and the rectification of names 8 Women deployed diplomatically for “Mother Taiwan” 264 9 Lee’s educational and populist projects, 2003-2004 275 Conclusion 281 References 290 iv List of Tables Chapter One 1 Reported Frequencies of Social Protest Incidence in Taiwan, 1983-1987 20 2 Reported Frequencies of Social Protest Incidence in Taiwan by Type of Issue, 1983-1987 20 3 The Distribution of Popular Votes in the 1983, 1986, 1989, and 1992 Legislative Yuan Elections 21 Chapter Two 1 Local Faction Candidates in the Elections for Members of Taiwan Provincial Council (1950-1985) 31 2 The Psychological Impact of Elections on Voters (1986 and 1989) 32 3 Voter Attitudes Towards the Elections (1986 and 1989) 34 4 Types and Changes in Political Orientation (1983 and 1989) 35 5 An Analysis of Candidates’ Political Views during the 1986 Campaign 40 6 Correlations between Social Background and Attitudes while Choosing a Candidate (1986) 44 Chapter Five 1 Policies that the KMT Borrowed from the DPP and Enacted 133 Chapter Nine 1 The Result of the 2001 Legislative Elections 251 2 The Result of Taichung Mayoral Election in 2001 259 v Acknowledgements The author wishes to express deep gratitude to her supervisor and mentor, Dr Rosita Dellios, for providing generous advice and encouragement, and finding time in a busy schedule to go through the thesis thoroughly. In addition, the author is grateful to Dr Martin Lu for providing suggestions on direction and reading; as well as the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Bond University, for providing scholarship assistance for the final two semesters, thus enabling the completion of the thesis. Finally, this thesis could not have been complemented without the unstinting support and love of the author’s family and husband. vi Note on Transliteration There is no consensus on romanization of Chinese names and terminology and the debate has become ideological in Taiwan since 1998. This thesis adopts in many instances the Taiwanized Wade-Giles transcription, as it remains the most commonly used in Taiwan. However, the official pinyin system of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is used for personal and place names pertaining to the PRC, or for concepts, terms and names rendered familiar to Western readers in their pinyin transcription. Thus both systems are used in accordance with context. Characters are added in the first instance of use where this is deemed appropriate. As a great proportion of the sources used in this thesis are Taiwanese, when they appear as references they are rarely rendered in their transliterated or character form but are translated into English for convenience. vii From Chinese National Identity to Taiwanese Consciousness: An Examination of the Cultural 1 Elements in Taiwan’s Democratization During the Lee Teng-hui Era and Its Legacy, 1988-2004 Summary This thesis is an investigation of the emergence of democracy and its localized culture in Taiwan during the Lee Teng-hui era and its legacy, from 1988 to 2004. From a Leninist authoritarian system, Taiwan experienced a peaceful transition to representative democracy. The establishment of the first opposition party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), in 1986, and President Chiang Ching-kuo’s tolerance towards it, had signaled the commencement of Taiwan’s democratization. Various political opposition movements existed prior to 1986, especially between 1983 and 1986, indicating a gradual strengthening in the public’s political consciousness. The pivotal event to mark the democratization-localization movement in Taiwan was the emergence of a local Taiwanese, Lee Teng-hui, as President of the Republic of China and Chairman of the ruling party, the Chungkuo Kuomintang (KMT). This occurred when he succeeded Chiang Ching-kuo upon his death in 1988. Local politics henceforth emerged as a major force and KMT factional struggles had begun in earnest. During the democratic transformation that took place in Taiwan in the last quarter of the 20th century, the ruling power of the Waishengren (外省人) political elite (that is, the Chinese who took over Taiwan in 1945) gradually transferred to local political leaders, and the suppressed issue of building an independent Taiwanese nation became politicized. Furthermore, the KMT itself was undergoing a far-reaching transformation, moving from liberalization, to democratization, to localization or Taiwanization. As a result, the issues of national recognition and the power redistribution of different national groups (from Chinese “Mainlanders” to local Taiwanese) had combined with 1 From Chinese National Identity to Taiwanese Consciousness: An Examination of the Cultural 2 Elements in Taiwan’s Democratization During the Lee Teng-hui Era and Its Legacy, 1988-2004 democratization from the beginning. Democratization was assisted by institution-building through regular elections, an associated critical voice from opposition groups, a solid middle class, and the Taiwanization phenomenon itself.

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