station was destroyed, burned down by protesters.
The police opened fire, resulting in the deaths of National Central University student Chiang Wen-kuo
and youth Chang Chih-ping, as well as severely injuring youth Liu Shih-jung.
The incident received international media attention, severely damaging the political image of then
premier Chiang Ching-Kuo and planting the political
seeds for the later Kaohsiung incident.
This “five in one” local elections were the biggest elections Taiwan had ever had. Tangwai elites,
who usually struggled on their own, began to work
together and join forces across generations, building
strong momentum. The results of the elections were
also unprecedented, with Huang Yu-jen elected Kaohsiung County mayor, Hsu Hsin-liang elected Taoyuan
County mayor, and Lin Yi-hsiung, Chang Chun-hung,
Chiu Lien-hui, and Su Hung Yueh-chiao elected provincial councilors.
In May 1978, Chiang Ching-Kuo became president as expected. Riding the momentum of the “five
in one” local elections, the Tangwai movement began
preparing to campaign for the “election of supplementary popular representatives in the central government
(National Assembly and Legislative Yuan)” on December 23 later that year. Tangwai election campaign
groups made impassioned speeches across Taiwan.
However, just a week before the election, the US
announced that it would be cutting diplomatic ties
with the ROC starting January 1, 1979. On the same
day, Chiang Ching-kuo announced that the elections
were suspended, putting an end to all political movements. What followed was a full-blown stock market
crash, outflow of capital, and waves of panic-stricken
people immigrating overseas.
To intimidate and break up the Tangwai alliance,
Kuomintang repeated the “Lei Chen incident” playbook, framing and arresting leading Tangwai figure
January 22, 1979: Tangwai leader Yu Teng-fa was framed with consorting with communists. The new generation
of Tangwai activists rapidly gathered at Chiaotou, Kaohsiung and began the first political demonstration in Taiwan
under martial law. Photographer: Chen Po-wen
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September 28, 1979: Supplementary legislator Huang Hsin-chieh giving an impassioned speech at the service office
set up by Formosa Magazine in Kaohsiung. Photographer: Chen Po-wen
Yu Teng-fa for “consorting with communists” on
January 21. However, the new generation of Tangwai
activists rapidly gathered and traveled to Chiaotou
Township, Kaohsiung County overnight. In the morning of the next day (January 22), they organized the
first political demonstration in Taiwan under martial
law, the “Chiaotou incident”.
At a time when the image of the authoritarian
regime was severely challenged both domestically
and internationally, the government did not handle
the demonstration lawfully right away, but had the
Control Yuan “impeach” Taoyuan County Mayor Hsu
Hsin-liang on April 20 for being absent from duty to
participate in illegal demonstrations, dismissing him
from public office. Hsu Hsing-liang was also dismissed by the Public Functionary Disciplinary Commission in the end.
These actions did little to intimidate the activists,
however. Instead, they further incensed Tangwai supporters, heightening the political conflict. The situa-
tion was becoming dangerously explosive, like two
trains about to crash into one another.
Formosa Magazine —
A Political Party Without a Name (1979)
~Making democracy our political system is the
biggest contribution that the 18 million people in
Taiwan can make to the ethnic Chinese~
These grand words were included in the article
“Working Together to Promote a Political Movement
of the New Generation” in the first issue of Formosa
Magazine in August 1979. The article emphasized
how the magazine’s ambition was to inherit Free
China’s pursuit of freedom, human rights, and democracy. The magazine would also perpetuate the
way Taiwan Political Theory integrated community
mobilization as it continued to challenge the authoritarian regime and fight for democracy.
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