Very few parties get the chance to learn from its mistakes, and relocate to a different location to rectify them and apply a new, modified structure. The political development of ROC underwent a phase of “hard authoritarianism” during the reign of Chiang Kai-shek (1945-75) and embraced a “soft authoritarianism” phase during the tenure of Chiang Chin-kuo (Lin and Chan 122). This paper studies the impact these two leaders had on the party reform process and the restructuring of the economic and political polices of Republic of China (ROC).
Changes made by Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang (KMT) party organization showed signs of faults while it was still ruling in Mainland China. After the defeat of Kai-shek in 1949, and his eventual banishment from the mainland, the party shifted its base to Taiwan or Republic of China (ROC).
When the party found itself on the losing side of the civil war, reform became an inevitable option for the Chinese leaders. The reason for the failure of the party machinery was ineffective control over local branches and members of the party along with other organizational weaknesses.
When the civil war ended, Kai-shek was determined to launch party reforms. Eventually in 1949, Kai-shek was blamed for loosing the civil war; Kai-shek was replaced by Vice President Li Zongren to preside over the rapidly faltering regime of the Nationalist party. However, Kai-shek remained the leader of Kuomingtan.
The reforms conceived by Kai-shek for party, though received agreement from the party committee to launch, however, remained a difficult task to implement. More pressing military requirements on the Southwest Chinese provinces to fight the Communists stalled the reform process (Chou and Nathan 281). The disorganized Nationalist forces were unable to restrain the Communists. By the end of 1949, it was impossible for Kai-shek to remain in Mainland China, and in December, he fled to Taiwan.
Reforms became a primary concern for Kai-shek and in 1950, he formed a group to evaluate the possibilities of reform for the party. Glimpses of his visions of a new, reformed party is gained through his diary entries: “the reform schedule should particularly stress the importance of the party as a new organization, with new party outlines, new appeals, and new tasks’ so that the reformed party would be able to attract new party members.” (Myers 187)
The main aim of Kai-shek was to eliminate the bottlenecks that remained within the part, and undertake a thorough restructuring of the party organization.
The main issues existing within the party was the interdepartmental factions and rivalries existing within the Nationalist Government of ROC. In 1950, Chiang Kai-shek began the reform movement within the party. However, the reform process faced massive opposition from within the party due to the existing fear of loosing prevailing power. External pressure on the military front also created problems for the reform process.
However, the US military interpolation in the Taiwan Strait helps Kai-shek to initiate the reform process of Kuomintang. In august 1950, Kai-shek handpicked the Central Reform Committee (CRC), which consisted of young, well-educated, vibrant leaders. This process began the course of one of the most successful reform processes in Taiwan.
Reform within the Party
The main reform requirements for the party, as identified by CRC, were as follows. First, Kuomintang was to be reformed to become a revolutionary democratic party. Second, the party aimed at becoming more inclusive, by including people from different social strata as members, like youths, peasants, workers, intellectuals, etc.
Third, the party became centralized democracy in structure. Fourth, the work team of the party would serve as the basic units of the party organization structure. Fifth, strict leadership would be maintained in all strata of society by Kuomintang and sixth, the basic ideology of the party would be based on the principles of the Three People (Myers 189). The reforms identified by CRC were made party goals to be followed by all members of the party.
The reforms that were launched by Kai-shek were based on three levels – eliminate factions, strengthen party leadership, and greater administrative control. The reformed party CRC had only 16 members that replaced the CEC and CRC comprising of 150 and 223 members respectively (Myers 189).
Further, he also created the Central Advisory Committee, a body of honorary members reporting to him directly, but with little power (Dickson 79). In order to regain power and centralize party control, people who could provide opposition to Kai-shek’s decisions were placed in the Advisory Committee:
Almost at the time when the CRC began to function, announcement was made that cliques of individuals that used to undermine the cohesion of the party, or that were in a position to challenge Chiang’s authority, such as the C.C. Clique, the Guangxi Clique and the Political Study Group (Zhengxuexi), were to be placed in this Advisory Committee. (Myers 189)
One immediate effect of the party restructuring was the consolidation of the power to a center power, which lay with Chiang Kai-shek and Premier Chen Cheng. The second in position were the 16-member CRC, who were assisted by the 25-member Advisory Committee, and a secretary general of the party. This restructuring helped Kai-shek gain greater strength and gain an unchallenged position with the party.
Political and Economic Reforms in ROC
Chiang Kai-shek followed a hardline authoritarian policy of governing the country. In 1950, the KMT government moved the seat of power to Taipei, and in 1951, direct elections were held for the first time for mayors and magistrates (Lin and Chan). Thus, the democratic initiation of the ROC was as early as the early 1950s, almost three decades before PRC. Electoral reforms continued in the resign of Chiang Kai-shek.
In 1954, direct elections were conducted for provincial assembly (Lin and Chan 123). In 1964, non-KMT members were elected as mayors in three out to of the three largest cities in Taiwan. Further, in the 1969, first legislative direct elections, Taiwan aimed at filling national level vacancies. Chiang Kai-shek restructured the party completely to form a more centralized yet democratic form of government.
At the local level, the party promoted political reforms at the local level. This was done in an effort to legitimize its rule in Taiwan and to generate local support for its government.
The main aim was to form a sustainable government in the whole of China. At the national level the Kuomintang established a democratic form of government, however, at the lower levels, they were reluctant to carry out elections. These elections, which the political reforms set forth by Kai-shek began, were the stepping-stones for the strongest support for Kuomintang’s rule in Taiwan.
The local body elections held in 1950s were essential in creating local level followers and party representatives produced both positive as well as negative results. On one hand, Kuomintang gained a unique opportunity to interact and gain support from the local people. On the other hand, with the rise of stronger local party divisions, regional factionalism became an inevitable phenomenon.
Even during the reform period, the CRC maintained that martial law was essential for security reasons (Myers 196). The perception of Chiang Kai-shek regarding the local elections was clear for it was obvious that he believed that the local elections were a stepping stone for setting up democracy in Taiwan.
Apart from political reforms, Chiang Kia-shek also implemented economic reforms in Taiwan. The idea was to set an ideal, prosperous, and successful leadership in Taiwan that would create contended society and serve as a model for effective rule of the party. The model rule of Kuomintang party in Taiwan would eventually restore its claim over Mainland China.
The post war land reform program started in Taiwan by Kuomintang created successful policies both in terms of economic and political reforms. The government undertook large-scale land redistribution to boost the socioeconomic background of the island. Land reform was believed to be a tool to reduce the garnering support for Communism in Taiwan. The reform program was divided in three phases: rent reduction (1949), “sale of public land” (1951), and “transfer of land ownership to the tenant farmer” (1953) (Myers 197).
Initially the land ceiling was set at 37.5 percent but in 1951, the ceiling was changed to one fifth of the arable land on the island for sale. In order to facilitate socioeconomic restructuring, prices were kept below the market rate and the buyers were also allowed to purchase the land in kind, instead of cash. Under the Tiller Act of 1953, landowners were permitted to keep a limited amount of land for their own use, and rest they were obligated under law to put for sale.
The tenants were allowed to purchase the land for 2.5 times the value of the land’s annual crop. The property owners were paid in 30 percent in stocks of government owned industries and 70 percent tin bonds (Myers 197). Land reforms helped landless tenant farmers to gain ownership of the land, and increased their income considerably.
The other economic reform put forth during Kai-shek’s reign was to transform Taiwan to become a wealthier state. The Kuomintang declared that they welcomed development of private enterprises. They also transferred a few of the operations like “mining, petroleum extraction and refinement, and steel production” to government ownership (Myers 198).
Further, smaller industries like tobacco and forestry were transferred under the control of provincial governments. This added to the revenue source of the local governments. Further, CRC also established further reform for greater participation of workers in management functioning, and promise to attract greater foreign investors to boost Taiwanese industry.
Chiang Chin-kuo
Chiang Chin-kuo was elected the president of ROC in 1978. During the initial years of his rule, the political situation of Taiwan was severe, as leaders who were appointed in the 1949 era, and retained office indefinitely dominated the party. During the initial years at office, he retained most of the autocratic rules of one-party democracy and martial law in Taiwan.
However, he softened the degree of centralization of the government. In Taiwan, the authoritarian regime was shifting from a pro-Leninist government to the non-Leninist government form, unlike the military authoritarian governments of South Korea and Brazil.
His major contribution was establishment of the Ten Major construction projects and introduced development projects in Taiwan that helped in development of the island (Lin and Chan 123). During his reign, the Taiwanese economy gained a boost of 13 percent and gained the world’s second largest foreign exchange research.
Further efforts were made by Chin-kuo to integrate the Taiwanese citizens in government offices, by exiling his own officials serving with the General Political Welfare Departments. In 1987, the martial law regime in China was finally ended.
Between the era of 1960 and 1980, Taiwan’s GNP increased at an annual rate of 9 percent. The exports of Taiwan increased by 20 percent. Evidently, there emerged an era of socioeconomic growth and Taiwanese economy turned into a capitalist society. The literacy rate in the state increased considerably. The regime helped in elevating the position of the working and the middle class of Taiwan.
Conclusion
The essence of the political and economic change ushered in through the regimes of Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Chin-kuo helped in development of the middle class and the proletariat by widespread land reform policy in pro-Leninist style governance of state machinery. The experience of Taiwan the middle class and the bourgeoisie were promoted through the various government policies. Further the working class gained support of the government and its coercive powers (Cheng 499).
The process of economic growth and democratization has been ingrained within the Taiwanese system and cannot be removed easily for it is ingrained within the party system and the democratic machinery of the island (Chou and Nathan 289).
The process of democratic transition in ROC has been the result of the influence and regimes of Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Chin-koi. Their influence in democratization and economic liberation of Taiwan has been immense. Though many believe that their regime was authoritarian, but it helped in placing the democratic state machinery in place.
Works Cited
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