NORTHEAST ASIAN HISTORY FOUNDATION 07/2022
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Oh Byeong-soo, Researcher, Korea-China Relations History Research Institute
In February 2020, the Stanford University Hoover Institution Archives officially published 『Chiang Ching-kuo's Diary』. The institution is famous for collecting and archiving world-important civilian documents, with an interest in global conflicts and peace. 『Chiang Ching-kuo’s Diary』 was written over a long time, from 1937 to 1980. Following the death of Chiang, President of the Republic of China, in 1988, his bereaved family entrusted his diary and kept it in the institution. Copying or filming the original material is not permitted, and only viewing is possible. The diary as a private record can provide essential clues to understanding many complex and subtle aspects of history that are not revealed in public records. An excellent example of this is the diary of his biological father, 『Chiang Kai-shek's Diary』 (1915-1972), which is still regarded as an important historical material. When the institution published the diary in the same way in 2004, it had a considerable impact on the academic community, as much as re-evaluating the historical achievements of Chiang Kai-shek and the nationalist government, including the history of fighting against the war, caused a boom. 『Chiang Ching-kuo's Diary』, which will be released this time, is also expected to have corresponding ripple effects.
Postwar Taiwan and Chiang Ching-kuo
Many biographies have already dealt with Chiang Ching-kuo, who ruled Taiwan after Chiang Kai-shek. Because of the double roles he played in post-war Taiwan, he is criticized as a dictator who led the so-called “white fear” in Taiwan by raising several political issues under the pretext of anti-communism. He is also evaluated as the person who prompted Taiwan’s rapid growth while serving as the head of the Executive Yuan and contributed to the soft landing of democracy in Taiwan through the ‘localization’ policy, which included recruiting many mainland elites. His diary will offer an opportunity to reflect on past evaluations and historical perceptions by looking deeply into his actions from the other side.
The evaluation of such personal merits and demerits or the understanding of post-war Taiwanese history is not the sole reason his diary is noted. Instead, it is expected to provide a wide range of information that can propel the study of the ‘Cold War in East Asia,’ which is currently being examined thoroughly, by shedding new light on the relationship with the Republic of Korea/the Republic of China, which were anti-communist allies at the time. This is because ‘post-war Taiwan’ had to be associated with various countries in East Asia through the Cold War, and the role that Chiang Ching-kuo played in it was clear.
Chiang Ching-kuo and Paradox of the Cold War
First, it was after the nationalist government moved to Taiwan following the crushing defeat in the civil war when Chiang Ching-kuo established his political foothold. He contributed to solidifying the weak Chiang Kai-shek regime by independently controlling the party, government, and military information, political education, national security, and operations behind enemy lines in the post-war Republic of China. Undoubtedly, his actions resulted in political violence and political prisoners under the pretext of anti-communism. Still, he grew into an influential person and successor by demonstrating outstanding political skills based on the education of young cadres (in the party), a popular-friendly political style, and enormous control over information.
Paradoxically, however, his political power is based on the communist-style political strategies he acquired while living in the Soviet Union for a long time. While staying in the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1937, he first received Bolshevik education in politics at the Moscow Sun Yat-sen University and Leningrad State University. After that, he joined the Soviet Youth League Faction and the Communist Party. He also received military and intelligence training as an intelligence officer at the Soviet Military Intelligence Special School and the Red Army. Deng Xiaoping, Liao Chengzi, Lin Zhuhan, and other Chinese Communist Party members were his classmates at Sun Yat-sen University. Chiang worked hard in organized activities with them, including various studies and public propaganda. From the beginning, his life in the Soviet Union was already the subject of attention. However, particularly after Chiang Kai-shek's anti-communist coup in 1927, he received intensive checks and surveillance by the Soviet authorities as relations between nationalists and communists and China and the Soviet Union deteriorated. It was as if he was a hostage. Nevertheless, he acquired the political culture and skills unique to the Soviet Union while maintaining his status as a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. It became his main political asset, a resource for propelling extreme anti-communist policies. I cannot help but wonder how his diary describes this paradox of the Cold War.
Chiang Ching-kuo, USA, and the Cold War in East Asia
But one of the paradoxes is that he won the support of the United States, which always doubted him as a socialist.
He was in charge of all economic and military aid provided by the United States, and he also laid the foundation for his own power by acting as a vital partner in the US’s Cold War policy in East Asia led by the CIA. In particular, he launched various operations behind enemy lines by reconnoitering or infiltrating the mainland with the United States from beginning to end. It started as small-scale sabotage operations in China's southeastern coastal area to disperse Communist China’s capabilities focused on the Korean Peninsula during the Korean War. However, it was later expanded to a secret project called “Black Cat Squadron.” The scope of its operation covered the entire continent. However, there were many cases where it utilized the Korean Peninsula or neighboring countries. For example, a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft infiltrating Fujian Province flew through Beijing or Tianjin, dropped propaganda leaflets and supplies or picked up people in the northeastern region, replenished fuel at Gunsan Airfield in Korea, and returned to the military base at Hsinchu Base in Taiwan. The same was true for the operation in the southwestern border area. From 1962 to the spring of 1974, Chiang Ching-kuo consistently led the operation, which reportedly was executed at least 120 times. In particular, in 1962, he reconnoitered the Xian and Baotou areas and photographed China's nuclear weapon development data. At the time, Chiang Ching-kuo took these pictures to the White House, bellowing at them that he would eliminate the related facilities while demanding more military aid. The success of the nuclear test on the mainland in 1964 was a big issue that changed the Cold War Front in East Asia. It also made Taiwan desperately cling to nuclear development despite US surveillance.
As described, the operations behind enemy lines, under cover of “Counterattack the Mainland,” started during the Korean War. During the Vietnam War, they developed a strategy associated with invading five southwestern provinces adjacent to Vietnam. Chiang Ching-kuo was actively involved in the Vietnam War and the Indonesian Civil War over the United States' restraints. Virtually one can notice that the Cold War in Taiwan was a part of the Cold War in East Asia, which provided an excuse for Manchuria, led to the Chinese Civil War, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. If we could understand why Chiang Ching-kuo, who led this, pursued such a policy so desperately and his inner driving force, it can help us understand the true nature and essence of the Cold War in East Asia. In this respect, this diary is more likely to be used as groundbreaking material for studying the Cold War in East Asia, even more so than the 『Chiang Kai-shek's Diary』.
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