august philippic

Taiwanese identity is one of the world’s more complicated, volatile, and undiscussed issues. This article only hints at the depth of feeling about mainland China, and particularly Chiang Kaishek’s army, which took over the island in 1945 and retreated there in 1949 (with branches winding up in Korea and Southeast Asia). Even when Chiang ruled the mainland, the links between government, military, and organized crime were rather too close for comfort, and nothing changed when he arrived in Taipei. Taiwan’s current ruling Democratic Progressive Party leaders, including Chen Shuibian, cut their teeth as political prisoners and targets of what amounted to gangland-style violence. It explains a lot, including the tendency of legislators to get in fistfights.
Still, it is a democracy now. Seems like there are fewer and fewer of those…

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