The KMT: How Four Parties Came From One
Monday January 31, by Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.
To understand how autocracy and a penchant for unchanging hierarchy dog Taiwan’s nascent politics, one must look to the origins and how four parties came from one. The story begins in August, 1912 less than a year after China’s Wuchang Uprising of October 10, 1911 and a bare eight months after Sun Yat-sen’s official declaration of the Republic of China (January 1, 1912). Sung Chiao-jen, a superb organizer and an associate of Sun Yat-sen masterminded the union of the Revolutionary Alliance with a number of smaller parties and founded the Kuomintang (KMT) or Nationalist Party. The party stood for a parliamentary democracy.
Sun Yat-sen had become the first provisional president of the Republic of China at its founding (January 1, 1912) but under threat of civil war he would quickly give his position up to the ambitious and powerful Yuan Shikai who controlled the Beiyang Army. Yuan after negotiating the abdication of the last Qing emperor Henry Pu Yi on February 12, 1912 then had himself elected second provisional president by the provisional senate on February 15, 1912. (It was a time for provisionals. . .) With Yuan’s selection, the seat of the government moved to Beijing.
In February 1913, national elections were held for the new parliament. Under Sung Chiao-jen’s able guidance the KMT campaigned and won a majority of seats in the first national assembly. Sung then pushed for a party cabinet to contain the growing power of President Yuan. The ambitious Yuan Shih-kai however did not take this lightly. A man who had already had several revolutionary leaders assassinated, he was not hesitant to eliminate another threat. Sung was assassinated in March 1913.
In October 1913, Yuan pressured the parliament to formally elect him president; and then in November he ordered the KMT to be dissolved. Yuan was not through; he would later force a new constitution to be passed that would declare him president for life. Fortunately for the country and for the KMT, Yuan would die of natural causes in 1916.
Yuan’s death ushered in the warlord era of the Republic of China (ROC). In the meantime Sun Yat-sen who had fled to Tokyo secretly revived the KMT as the Chinese Revolutionary Party in 1914. This party would move back to China in 1918 and establish a government in Guanzhou in competition to that in Beijing. The party would be reorganized back as the Kuomintang in 1919. While western powers did not recognize Sun’s government, the Soviets were more than willing to help. Russians began arriving in 1923 and the KMT would develop the unfortunate Leninist structure that it has been so well known for in Taiwan.
The first National Congress of the Kuomintang met in Guanzhou (Canton) in 1924 and pledged to work with the Soviet Union and the Chinese Communist Party. This marriage of convenience would not last long. Sun Yat-sen would die in 1925. The next year Chiang Kai-shek (who had spent some months in tutelage in Russia) would become commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Forces and begin the Northern Expedition to take Beijing. The following year, 1927, the KMT would begin a bloody purge of its Communists members and helpers; this would trigger the civil war with the Communists, China’s other Leninist party. Chiang’s northern expedition would in the meantime be successful and the KMT would assume power as the Republic of China.
The following tumultuous years of the KMT will be treated more fully in a future article “What Happens When Good Men are Silent.” Now however, fast-forward to the KMT’s coming to Taiwan in 1949. In true Leninist fashion, the KMT ruled the island as a one-party state until the 1980s when tangwai (outside the party activists) illegally formed the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in 1986. The DPP would soon come to challenge the KMT’s domination of Taiwan politics.
The first major split from the KMT, however, came in August 1993. Jaw Shau-kong former head of the Environmental Protection Administration and Wang Chien-shien the former Finance Minister led several legislators and party members to form the New KMT Alliance (later named the New Party).
The New Party began with fanfare and the highest of hopes; its candidates sought to reform the KMT but they also were concerned with the issues of unification with China. From a grass roots standpoint their position was heralded as an attempt to finally clean up much of the KMT’s corruption and autocratic tendencies.
Initially the party scored several successes in elections indicating that the people were indeed sympathetic to its goals. In the 1995 legislative elections the NP took 21 seats. It was a brilliant success but it would be its high-water mark.
Unfortunately, the party lacked a clearly defined platform and leadership. Internal factions and bickering soon developed. What had once seemed to be the idealistic start of a clean up of Taiwan politics now appeared to be no more than the complaints of people just interested in getting “a piece of the pie.” Decline soon followed. In the 1998 legislative elections the party’s number of seats dropped from 21 to 11.
The party’s changing fortunes were further accentuated by their stridently holding to a pro-unificationist stance with Mainland China. They did not read well the country’s growing interest in “localization” and “Taiwan first” attitude. By the time of the 2001 legislative elections their number of seats would drop from 11 to 1.
A humorous but also desperate sense of the New Party’s straits was its candidate selection for the presidential elections (2000). With no candidates of sufficient stature in the party, the NP went outside and chose political activist, Li Ao. Li Ao in typical fashion refused to join the NP even though he was its presidential candidate. His stance reminded one of the Groucho Marx joke where he refused to join any club that would have him as its member. The New Party captured a dismal 0.13% of the vote or 16,782 votes out of 12,786,671. The handwriting was on the wall.
In the recent 6th Legislative elections the New Party simply retained its one seat. Several of its candidates did however run under the KMT banner. Any semblance of reform was now over; the party that began with such high hopes in 1993 had come back with its tail between its legs. If members did not come back, they had switched to another break off party, the People’s First Party (the PFP).
The PFP came about as a result of the March 2000 presidential elections. The KMT following its hierarchical control had chosen Lien Chan as its candidate. James Soong, the former Provincial governor felt he should be the candidate; party members of both the KMT and the NP supported his bid.
James Soong broke and ran as an independent and came close to winning. Despite financial scandals concerning him that were revealed shortly before the election, Soong ended up with 36.8% of the vote. It was only 3 % less than Chen Shui-bian’s 39.3% and far more than the distant Lien Chan of the KMT at 23.1%. The split between Soong and Lien had allowed the DPP to capture the presidency.
Shortly after the elections, Soong founded the People’s First Party and it immediately showed its strength in the 2001 Legislative elections when it captured 46 seats taking them from the KMT.
The PFP however is a one-man party. It has no real distinctive platform. It exists mainly to get James Soong elected with the hope that if elected he would share the political and financial pie with his supporters.
From the days when he was Provincial governor with a large budget, Soong has had a reputation for sharing largesse (after taking his own share) with those who would be his followers. As a result, he only attracts those who are willing to play second fiddle. When Soong chose his running mate in the 2000 elections, he chose Chang Chau-hsiung a man who could never supplant him. Like Chiang Kai-shek, Soong has shown himself to be a man who does not brook sharing the limelight with any, even in his own party.
Lacking sufficient finances for a sustained campaign, Soong cooperated with the KMT in the 2004 elections. Both sides anticipated sharing the spoils in what seemed to be a sure win. While the agreement for Soong’s cooperation has not been revealed, it had to have been costly for his acceptance. However, in the four years between 2000 and 2004, the voting attitudes and values of the country continued to change and Soong and Lien lost by a narrow margin.
The 2004 elections for the Legislative Yuan proved a further disaster for Soong’s fortunes and party; but it was an eye-opener as well. In losing 12 seats to the KMT, Soong found out quickly that in the pan-blue alliance his party would be easily sacrificed. His hopes for the 2008 presidential bid were lessened. Ironically however, his crisis also turned into an opportunity. Though weakened, Soong’s party became the clear and crucial swing vote for either the KMT or DPP to get their program’s passed.
Soong now has the advantage of being the one who must be courted by both the DPP and the KMT. This gives him a needed sense of power and importance but it can never be a long-term goal.
Soong is a man who at this stage must go for all the marbles. In the distant 2008 elections, he must find a way to discredit Ma Ying-jeou and Wang Jing-ping, his main KMT contenders. At the same time he must prove to the KMT that they should entrust their fortunes with him. His party loyalists will stay with him for that but no more. His age is a factor. It is a gargantuan task but Soong’s ambition will be up to it. The next three years will be either the do or die break point for Soong and the PFP.
The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) is the third and most unusual split from the KMT. Whereas the two previous splits had come from the right, the TSU break was clearly from the left. Its philosophy focuses on Taiwanese nationalism and localization. It prides itself on being the first party to have Taiwan in its name. With such goals, the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) was officially established on July 24, 2001.
Lee teng-hui who had formally been kicked out of the KMT in March 2001, became this group’s spiritual father though he is not an official member. Lee also is accused of being an autocrat; but Lee’s strength in guiding the party is his large past pro-Taiwan experience and that he poses no competitive threat to any future leadership development.
The TSU gained support from a natural ally, the Taiwan Independence Party, and took 13 seats in the 2001 legislative elections and 12 in the 2004 legislative elections. The TSU also joined the DPP in developing the pan-green alliance. As the New Party has pushed for re-unification with China, the TSU has pushed in the opposite direction for an independent republic on Taiwan. It is interested in a new national flag, a new national anthem and a new constitution. The TSU has not faded like the NP but it must now find a way to increase its size.
Through this all, because of its war chests of money and previously confiscated assets, the KMT has managed to outlast all these divisions in its ranks. The New Party has all but dissolved and has no drawing power and no money. The PFP stands as long as James Soong is there but once he is gone, it has little promise. Except for the TSU, most have been or are in danger of being forced to come back to the fold where the money is. But the KMT’s problems are not over. Its finances are dwindling. It still lacks a true sense of localization. It still faces the threat of corruption exposés of its past. It still fails in developing young leadership because the hierarchical old guard does not want to part with control of the party’s assets. Finally it must now bargain and accommodate other parties to get needed votes if it is to have any programs. On the other hand, there are reform-minded members in the KMT and members who have a clear sense of the localization needs of Taiwan. Can they overcome the autocracy and hierarchy of the past? The tale of four parties is not yet over.
Next comes, “The KMT: What Happens When Good Men Are Silent” and “The DPP, Green In More Ways Than One.”