Det er et fantastisk bilde: Han er generalissimo, har overlevd mordforsøk og kidnapping, drømte om å jage japanerne ut av Kina, knuse Maos kommunister, flyktet til Taiwan og drømte om å invadere fastlands-Kina derfra – og til sist: drømmen om å gjøre Taiwan til en liten modell for en bedre verden. I 1960 får Chiang Kai-shek en urinveissykdom. Han blir operert to ganger av amerikanske leger, men er inkontinent resten av livet. Derfor innfører han den rutinen at han blir sittende når alle møter er slutt og til alle – bortsett fra hans personlige assistent – har forlatt rommet. Han døde 87 år gammel i 1975.

On October 31:

1517 Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg.

1795  John Keats, British poet, was born.

1960  Juliette Low American founder of the Girl Scouts was born.

1863  British forces in New Zealand led by General Duncan Cameron began their Invasion of the Waikato.

1887 Chiang Kai-shek, Nationalist Chinese leader, former Republic of China president, was born.

 1908 – Muriel Duckworth, Canadian activist, was born.

1913 Dedication of the Lincoln Highway, the first automobile road across United States.

1917 The Battle of Beersheba took place, the ”last successful cavalry charge in history”.

A photograph of a re-enactment of the Charge on Beersheba taken in early February 1918.

1920  Dick Francis, Welsh born jockey & author, was born.

1923 The first of 160 consecutive days of 100 degrees (37.6 C) at Marble Bar, Australia.

1931 Dan Rather, American television journalist, was born.

1984  Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two Sikh security guards.

1985 Keri Hulme’s book The Bone People  won the Booker Prize.

1999  Yachtsman Jesse Martin returns to Melbourne after 11 months of circumnavigatingthe world, solo, non-stop and unassisted.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Anita Dunn,David Axelrod,Rahm Emanuel,Obama,Robert Gibbs at white house

• Anita Dunn- speaking at a high school graduation in June 2009
  “A lot of you have great deal of ability. A lot of you work hard. Put them together and that answers the why not question. There is usually not a good reason. And then the 3rd lesson and tip actually come from two of my favorite political philosophers. Mao Tse-tung and Mother Teresa, not often couple with each other, but the two people that I turn to most to basically deliver a simple point which is you’re going to make choices, you’re going to challenge, you’re going to say why not. You’re going to figure out how to do things that have never been done before. But here’s the deal, these are your choices, they’re no one else’s.

“In 1947, when Mao Tse-tung was being challenged within his own party, on his plan to basically take China over, Chiang Kai-shek and the nationalist Chinese held the cities, they had the army, they had the air force, they had everything on their side and people said how can you win, how can you do this, how can you do this against all odds against you, and Mao Tse-tung said “You fight your war and I’ll fight mine.” Think about that for a second, you don’t have to accept the definition of how to do things and you don’t have to follow other people’s choices in the past. Okay. It is about your choices in your path, you fight your own war. You lay out your own path. You figure out what is right for you. You don’t let external definition how good you are internally. You fight your own war. You let them fight their’s. Everybody has their own path.”

• Van Jones -appointed czar by Obama  said “And we found inspiration in the revolutionary strategies developed by Third World revolutionaries like Mao Zedong and Amilcar Cabral.”

• David Rockefeller- “Whatever the price of the Chinese  Revolution, it has obviously succeeded not only in producing more efficient and dedicated administration, but also in fostering high morale and community of purpose. The social experiment in China under Chairman Mao’s leadership is one of the most important and successful in human history.”
  

Related articles:
“United in Hate: The Left’s Romance with Tyranny and Terror”

In the following video Glen Beck makes a valid point about creepy Anita’s admiration of murderer, Mao.

While describing her admiration for murderer Mao Dunn keeps licking her lips and sticking her tongue out. One wonders if creepy Dunn is channeling the joker from the movie Barman.   She is creepy. She  admires the control, Mao Tse Tung brought China after he subjugated China and brutally murdered 72million.

On October 15:

70 BC The Roman poet Virgil, was born.

A bust of Virgil, from the entrance to his tomb.

533 Byzantine general Belisarius makes his formal entry into Carthage, having conquered it from the Vandals.

1582 Pope Gregory XIII implemented the Gregorian calendar. In Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain, October 4 of this year was followed directly by October 15.

1815 Napoleon I of France began his exile on Saint Helena

1844 German philosopher –Friedrich Nietzsche was born.

1877 Sir George Grey became Premier of New Zealand.

1878 The Edison Electric Light Company began operation.

1881 English author – P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse was born.

1905 English author  C. P. (Charles Percy) Snow was born.

1908 Canadian born US economist John Kenneth Galbraith was born.

1920 Mario Puzo, US author, was born.

1924 US industrialist – Lee Iacocca was born.

1928 The airship, the Graf Zeppelin completed its first trans-Atlantic flight.

1934 The Soviet Republic of China collapsed when Chiang Kai-shek’s National Revolutionary Army successfully encircled Ruijin, forcing the fleeing Communists to begin the Long March.

1951 Mexican chemist Luis E. Miramontes conducted the very last step of the first synthesis of norethisterone, the progestin that would later be used in one of the first two oral contraceptives.

1959 Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, was born.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Victor Bjorgan - Publisher of Bloggers of the Americas.

Last October 1st, the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China was commemorated in Beijing.

Sixty years ago, on that day in 1949, Mao Zedong, as leader of the Communist Party of China, presided over the first parade of the People’s Army and the people of China in Tiananmen Square.

The communist soldiers bore the arms bought during the chinese Civil War, plus some weapons seized in combat from the japanese invaders and also arms of the defeated nationalists followers of Chiang Kai-shek.

At the end of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union surged as the two main global powers. Both England and France, started to loose grip of the colonies .

Mao and the communist cult of Personality

The first commemoration of the communist victory in China was attended by representatives of the Soviet Union (USSR), of the People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), and representatives of many communist political parties and guerilla groups from all over the world.

Mao was -then- a good friend of Stalin.

A few years after that, in 1953, Fidel Castro and some of his followers assaulted the Moncada Garrison, but was imprisoned and after a short period of jail, Fidel was released by the corrupted dictator Fulgencio Batista.

It was the time of the cold war, the west against the “commies”. Sixty years after that, the world is quiet another.

The core of world communism, the Soviet Union, dissapeared without a shot. Also the communist regimes in Eastern Europe.

However, world communism is not dead, it just suffered a metamorphosis.

Chinese Poster.-Zheng Nian, Party, oh Party, beloved Party, 1991

The Soviet Union was replaced by the People´s Republic of China which is still a one party state but with a mixture of central planning and market economy. China is now the leader of the world neo-communism.

Also, Communist China has gained influence in the world, within many countries, regimes and organizations. Democratic or non democratic. With pariah states like Sudan , Iran and North Korea, but also with the western countries.

In our continent, the cuban communists leaded by Fidel Castro are behind the surge of the radical left in Latin America. The best example of that is Hugo Chávez, the “President” of Venezuela, nowadays big financer of the cuban “revolution”.

Another world force is now also in place: the global terrorism. The jihadists and terrorists are strongly defying the western hemisphere and acting for the weakening of the west, specially its military alliances like NATO. The jihadists are strong in many arabic and european countries, and are seen with simpathy by many leftist movements around the world.

Also, Russia is now trying to win influence in the world. With its neighbours like in Georgia or Ukraine, in Europe with the energy and selling arms in our continent, mainly to Chavez.

Sept.30.- China has bootlickers in some other places, too... The Empire State Building lit in red and yellow to honnor the 60t aniversary of the founding of the People´s Republic of China.

In the meantime, the western democratic hemisphere is in big trouble. As a result of the interaction of many factors, the West do not longer seems to have enough economical strength to lead the world, nor the political willingness to do so.

Europe is an isolated fortress, a sort of Festung Europa.

And the bearish USA is licking its wounds after some major mistakes (f.e. the lack of a viable strategy after the end of the cold war, the .com bubble , the Iraq war, the misuse of “science fiction” financial products like the derivatives, the house bobble, the weak regulation and lack of control of the financial and the insurance system, the excess printing of US dollars and the increasing consume of foreign products, goods and services).

Chinese Leader Hu Jintao (L) and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro (R)

Meanwhile all of this is happening, Fidel Castro praises Chinese military power and the surge of communist China as a global power, as a sort of panacea, as an answer to Fukuyamas idiot essay about “the end of history”.

In his weekly “reflection” , Fidel Castro – maybe ill but still very active and more dangerous for latinamerican democracies now than ever- contrasted China with the United States and praised China’s “glorious” military power and its foreign policy, which contrasted with the U.S. in a new article of his series “Reflections”.

The military parade held in Beijing last day 1 was “a demonstration of power,” says Fidel in his letter , released by the official Cuban press.

Chinese Military Parade

With a militaristic view, Castro started to lick the communist chinese boots (as he did before with the soviets) and said that “it was amazing that China placed 52 new types of armaments, including the latest generation of tanks, amphibious vehicles, radar, aircraft navigation and sophisticated communication equipment.” The 83 years dictator also wrote about the military strength of China by emphasizing the presence of the DF-31 intercontinental missiles capable of hitting targets with nuclear warheads that are located just 10 thousand miles away, and the medium-range missiles and antimissile defense.”

Castrist poster of the 60s.- The Latinamerican continent described as a fist, raising a rifle

Ideologically, the reflections of Fidel are based on the same Marxist mumbo-jumbo that inspired the Cuban Revolution and according to castrists “they were capable of passing the difficult tests posed by the division between the two great communist states in the 50s (China and the Soviet Union), which inflicted so much damage on the world revolutionary movement.”

After the disappearance of the USSR, China, like Vietnam, Laos and North Korea all maintained their communist relations of solidarity with Cuba. They were the only four countries that, together with Cuba, maintained in the 90s the banners of communism on high through the days when the United States became the solely superpower on earth.

Fidel Castro reflection about China is characterized by hypocrisy. Fidel is being a hypocrite about China, because he do believe the father of the postmodern communism Deng Xiaoping was a traitor to communism.

Deng Xiaoping is the fundamental reason behind the current chinese process. Not Mao. Not the wife of Mao. Not the Cultural Revolution. Not the Little Red Book. Not Lin Piao. Not the Red Guards. Not the gang of 4. Current Castro´s current perspective is the same as Mao´s in the 50´s and 60´s.

Communist Poster in China- Always keep the gun firmly in hand.

Both, Fidel and Mao, believed that by extra effort on the “cultural” level, the people could improve their economic conditions. That kind of thinking costed millions of lives during Mao´s Freat Leap Forward, and was the reason behind Fidel´s Revolutionary Offensive in 1968, which ended with the failure and total breackdown of the cuban communist model. Castro does not believe in changes in Cuba. Each time he allowed small changes or reforms, after a short while he decided that the concessions were over. That is what happened to his critics in 2003, to his attacks to some foreign investors in Cuba, his attacks to small cuban endeavours, to his histerical anti US policies in conjunction with his new disciple Hugo Chavez.

History cannot be ignored.

Fidel was, is and will be an admiror of communist mass murderers. He never said a single public word in favor of the chinese communist reformer, Deng Xiaoping.

Mao and the communist cult of Personality

On the contrary, when Hu Jintao visited Cuba in 2008, his brother Raúl singed in chinese and in public an old communist song praising Mao as the Sun. A song from the Cultural Revolution.

Fidel is in favor of the invasion of Taiwan. In his “reflective” bootlicking of the chinese, he states that Taiwan must be liberated and that the island belong to the communists in Beijing.

His reflection letter describes with passion the details of the 60 years commemoration military parade. He says with admiration: “It did not pass unnoticed, but was rather a motive for surprise, that China should have presented 52 new types of armaments, including the latest generation of combat tanks, amphibious vehicles, radars, reconnaissance aircraft and sophisticated communication systems. The press highlighted the presence of DF-31 intercontinental missiles, capable of striking targets located at a distance of 10,000 kilometers with nuclear warheads, as well as medium-reach missiles and anti-missile defenses.”

People´s Liberation Army PLA soldiers

Fidel Castro continues “the 151 hunter aircraft, the heavy bombers, modern means of aerial observation and helicopters surprised avid news seekers and military technicians. The Chinese army now possesses the majority of the sophisticated weapons that make up the arsenals of the Western countries. The 500 armored tanks and the 60 armored cars that paraded past the Mao´s mausoleum made a profound impact. The advanced technology was irrefutable evidence of the developed military capacity, which started from zero a few decades ago.”

But Fidel achieves high levels of paroxism the moment he starts describing how the chinese military were marching on the parade.

Tiananmen Square- Chinese Military in Formation

He said and I quote ” what was unsurpassable was the human factor. No developed Western country could have reached the level of precision and organization demonstrated by China that day. With a certain disdain, there was talk of officers and soldiers marching at 115 goosesteps per minute. The distinct forces that paraded there, men and women, did so with unsurpassable bearing and elegance. Anybody could have refused to believe that thousands of human beings were capable of achieving such perfect organization. Both those marching on foot and those parading in their vehicles passed before the tribunal and saluted with a precision, order and martialism hard to attain. While those qualities would seem to have been the fruit of military discipline and the rigor of practices, more than 150,000 citizens from the enormous human beehive of civilians – in their majority young men and women – surprised everyone by their ability to achieve en masse the level of organization and perfection attained by their armed compatriots.”

Fidel was a paid pimp of the soviets and now is desperate about being a paid pimp of the communists in China.

Castro´s reflection was also an act of envy for the “success of the glorious parade”.

In his letter, he wrote “the beginning of the commemoration, and the saluting of the troops by the head of state and general secretary of the Communist Party, was an impressive ceremony. One could appreciate a tremendous identification between the leadership and the people.”

The Chinese president, Hu Jintao (5th L), accompanied by former president Jiang Zemin (5th R), top legislator Wu Bangguo (4th L), premier, Wen Jiabao (4th R) and other leaders watch the proceedings

And with his tongue tired of such energic bootlicking he stated about the chinese leader ” Hu Jintao’s speech was brief and precise. In just under 10 minutes he expressed many ideas. That day he surpassed Barack Obama in the capacity for synthesis. When he talks he represents a population almost five times greater than that of the president of the United States.”

And then , Fidel’s classical attack on the United States. “Hu Jintao does not have to close down torture centers, he is not at war with any other state, he is not sending his soldiers more than 10,000 kilometers away to intervene and kill with sophisticated military means, he does not possess hundreds of military bases in other countries or powerful fleets plowing through all the oceans; he does not owe trillions of dollars and, in the midst of a colossal financial crisis, Hu Jintao is offering the world the cooperation of a country whose economy is not in recession and is growing at an elevated rate.”

Well, enough of writing about Castro´s chinese bootlicking…

The truth here is that currently China is in the hands of a totalitarian state dominated by one single party: the Communist Party.

The truth is that the chinese “revolution” has killed tens of millions of its citizens, a great famine during Mao´s first phase of his revolution, more millions of victims during the “cultural” revolution, and much less since Deng Xiaoping.

Torture in China of Mrs. Gao Rongrong with electric bastons. She was a Falun Gong activist.

However, the totalitarian state still remains and the violation of human rights are many. The occupation of Tibet is one of the crimes. Organ harvesting in China from prisoners and other unwilling donnors should cease. But every year new situations appear, last month an unrest in Xinjiang was severely punished and many died among the uighur population. We must not forget the killing of thousands of students in the Tiananmen Square, nor China being at the top of the countries with death executions in the world.

Speech suppression in China

Torture is still widespread in China. Immersion in sewage, ripping out fingernails, sleep deprivation, cigarette burns and beatings with electric prods – these are some of the torture methods used by China’s police and prison officers to extract confessions and maintain discipline, said a United Nations investigation team leaded by Manfred Novak (an United Nations UN Special rapporteur on torture).

Massive protests & riots in China

Mr Nowak’s investigation in 2005 was the first ever permitted by China (maybe the last one too) and, as such, represents a breakthrough in human rights. Despite this, he said he had been obstructed by security officials, who intimidated some victims and their relatives or prevented them from seeing him. Almost each jail facility in China is a torture chamber. Mr.

Religion & Belief persecution in China

Novak was able to visit prisons, detention centres and “re-education” labour camps in Beijing and the troubled regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, as well as interviewing academics, justice officials and detainees.

China Live Organ Illegal Harvesting Report

Among the prisoners, Mr Nowak said he observed a “palpable level of fear and self-censorship”, which he had not seen in missions to other countries. Human rights groups say brutality and degradation are common in Chinese prisons, where many of the victims are from the Tibetan and Uighur ethnic minorities, political dissidents, followers of the banned Falun Gong sect and members of underground churches. Although China outlawed torture in 1996, its definition of illegal acts – those leaving physical marks – is so narrow that interrogators can employ a wide range of methods contravening UN standards. Suspects are manacled in contorted positions, deprived of sleep and subjected to psychological torture. Some techniques have been given names, such as “reversing an aeroplane”, where a victim must remain standing, bent double, with arms splayed upwards and backwards. Mr Nowak welcomed an apparent decline in the incidence of torture, as well as improved police training. But one big problem, he said, was that officers remained under heavy pressure to obtain confessions. Even after imprisonment, those who refuse to admit guilt are subjected to “re-education”, aimed at breaking their will. Mr Nowak called this “inhumane and degrading punishment”. In relation to torture Mr Nowak’s visit is a step in the right direction, but that China still has far to go.

“The government maintains a system of laws and practices that give rise to torture,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.

Castro is right about the following things in his “reflection” letter: Obama must close asap the Guantanamo Prison, the US should stop being in every single corner of the world and they should start to give some discipline to its economy.

Designer unknown, 1993 - Chinese Poster-New Era of Deng Xiaoping: A New Year print bearing evidence of the new times. The traditional gods of happiness, wealth and longevity present a pot filled with money: Chinese 50 yuan and 100 yuan bills and a stack of American $ 100 bills.

I also agree that , from an economic point of view, the chinese regime acted seriously during the last world financial crisis, not only in this one we are all experiencing, but also during the past asian financial crisis (South Korea, Thailand, Japan, etc..).

One last comment, I wonder if Castro´s detailed description of the new chinese arms industry , instead of a letter to his readers, is just a message to Chavez and another “castro friendly leaders” in the world, saying the following: the chinese weapons are good, getting even better, buy chinese, not russian nor american.

On October 6:

1769 Nicholas Young, ship’s boy on the Endeavour, was the first to spot land in New Zealand. Young Nick’s Head was named for him, he was also given a gallon of rum.

1889 Thomas Edison showed his first motion picture.

1914 – Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian explorer was born.

1921International PEN was founded in London.

Britt Ekland and Peter Sellers 1964.

On 1 October 1949, the People’s Republic of China was declared. I wasn’t yet born, but I remember vividly at my primary school in Eccles in the late 1950s the headmaster standing in front of a world map (the British Empire still reassuring coloured pink) explaining how ‘we’ (the Western world) were going to liberate China from the murderous Reds, by backing Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalists on the island of Taiwan. Thank God the man was only in charge of a school, not the country. But something about that lesson stuck in my mind, so that by the time I was in secondary school, I was doodling Chinese characters (some real, most imagined); for some strange reason, ideograms fascinated me. The fact that ‘Red China’ had by then cut itself off from the world and was entering what would turn into the long nightmare of the Cultural Revolution only made it more mysterious, more alluring.

To cut a long story short, I ended up reading Chinese at university and was in Taiwan, doing my year abroad, when Richard Nixon went to China. The family I was lodging with near Taipei were frozen on the spot with fear as we listened to the broadcasts on the radio. They couldn’t believe that their great ally, the United States, had defected to the other side. Nixon was a class act. He was taken to the Great Wall and declared, ‘Gee, this is a great wall!’ Little did I realise that only two years later I would be asked to write a book about it (the Wall, that is). At last I got to go to the People’s Republic, to see things for myself. Beijing was all bicycles, seemingly millions of them, and most people still wandered round in Mao suits.

Sixty years on from the day that the Great Helmsman stood before the cheering masses in Tiananmen Square, China is one of the most materialist societies on earth. Skyscrapers shoot up in every city, while the streets are clogged with cars. People’s life expectancy has doubled since 1949 and for most people — not all — the quality of life has improved exponentially. China is now poised to make the 21st century its own. Should this be something we in the West celebrate or fear? As the late Prime Minister Zhou Enlai said when asked what he thought about the French Revolution, ‘it’s too soon to tell.’

Kisah Para Diktator, Biografi Politik Para Penguasa Fasis, Komunis, Despots dan Tiran ; karya Jules Archer ini memang termasuk buku lawas – tetapi enak dibaca dan terasa ringan untuk kita mengetahui sekilas kiprah 16 tokoh diktator dari 12 negara ini, termasuk Indonesia. Tentunya, sepanjang kita tak perlu sampai mengerutkan dahi mempertanyakan keabsahan kategorisasi Archer tentang jenis-jenis diktator yang berasal dari kata dictare (Lt.), buku ini dijamin menarik buat dinikmati. Kendati dalam cetakan pertama (April 2004) ini ada beberapa kesalahan serta pencantuman data yang cukup mengganggu. Berikut adalah cuplikan bebas yang menarik dari buku ini untuk kita simak dan renungkan bersama.

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (10.04.1870 – 21.01.1924)

Sewaktu diminta mendefinisikan Komunisme, Lenin menjawab : “ Republik Soviet ditambah dengan elektrifikasi “.  Lenin memperkerjakan penasehat-penasehat teknis dari negara kapitalis Jerman dan Prancis. “ Satu orang ahli tehnik (entah dari negara manapun) sama nilainya dengan sepuluh orang komunis, “  katanya pahit kepada Leon Trotsky. Dan ketika ia mendatangkan modal asing ke negerinya, Lenin berkilah dengan alasannya sendiri. “ Mengapa kita harus menutup mata dari hal itu ? Secara sederhana, kita harus berjalan di garis dunia kapitalisme “. Bagi Lenin, tujuan selalu menghalalkan cara.

Josef Vissarionovich Stalin (21.12.1879 – 05.03.1953)

Tahun 1905 menghantam Stalin dengan dua pukulan : pertama, gagalnya revolusi sosial Rusia dan yang kedua, kematian seorang gadis petani yang dinikahinya, Katherine Svanide. Di kuburan istri tercintanya itu, ia menangis, “ Saya kenal ia. Tetapi, ia kini telah tiada. Inilah perasaan hangat saya yang terakhir pada seluruh manusia. “  Stalin pun berubah makin dingin, sarkastis, penuh curiga, dendam dan kejam. Stalin dituduh membunuh ribuan korban karena teror-teror yang dilakukannya. Ketika hal itu dinyatakan suatu kali padanya, Stalin hanya mengangkat bahunya, “ Kau tidak bisa menciptakan revolusi dengan bersikap lemah lembut. “

Nikita Sergeyevich Khruschev (17.04.1894 – 11.09.1971)

Saat Khruschev berkunjung ke Amerika Serikat, ada dua hasil produksi AS yang paling mengesankannya yaitu keripik kentang (potato chip) dan serpih jagung (pop corn). “ Makanan ini lezat dan bergizi, “ katanya kepada pembantu terdekatnya. “ Dan lagi harganya murah. Lihatlah baik-baik, kita punya panen kentang dan jagung yang berlebih ! “  Saat pemerintah AS berupaya mencegahnya berkunjung ke Disneyland. Ketika mengetahui upaya ini, Khruschev kontan meledak marah, “ Apa ! Anda punya tempat peluncuran peluru kendali di sana ? “

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29.07.1883 – 28.04.1945)

Dalam pertemuan khusus dengan parlemen, Mussolini memperteguh kekuasaannya dengan merangkap jabatan Perdana Menteri, Menteri Dalam Negeri, dan Menteri Luar Negeri. “ Saya dapat memenuhi ruangan ini dengan mayat, “ teriaknya mengancam, “ Saya dapat juga memaku pintu (gedung) parlemen. Kamu semua duduk disini hanyalah karena keinginan baik saya pada persatuan nasional bangsa ini. Tetapi, kemauan baik saya itu tidak boleh dihalangi sedetik pun oleh pidato yang tak berguna ! “

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (12.03.1881 – 10.11.1938)

Demonstrasi dan kerusuhan mulai melanda seluruh negeri itu. Sekelompok penganut agama yang fanatik mulai bekerja sama dengan tentara bertujuan untuk menghancurkan “republik yang ateis”. Dengan gerak cepat Ataturk menggantung tiga puluh pemuka agama dan mengawasi gerakan pemberontak yang lain dengan ketat. “ Saya dapat membuat Turki menjadi negara demokrasi bila saya hidup limabelas tahun lagi, “ katanya penuh mimpi, “ Tetapi jika saya mati sekarang, itu akan memerlukan waktu tiga generasi. “

Chiang Kai-Shek (31.10.1887 – 05.04.1975)

Tahun 1931, mengambil keuntungan dari perang saudara yang memecah belah bangsa itu, Jepang melakukan invasi dan menjajah Manchuria. Ancaman Jepang itu pada daratan Cina sangat jelas, pembantu-pembantu Chiang memohon kepadanya agar mau rujuk dengan Mao ; untuk bergabung dan berjuang melawan Jepang. “ Tidak ! “  jawabnya marah, “ Jepang hanya luka di kulit, sedangkan Komunis adalah penyakit jantung ! “  Beberapa pejabat yang dilaporkan menucurigai Chiang pro Jepang pun dihukum mati.

Mao Ze-dong (26.12.1893 – 09.09.1976)

Mengambil tempat sembunyi di pegunungan, Mao mulai mengembangkan teknik-teknik perang gerilya. “ Rakyat  mirip dengan air, “ demikian nasihatnya. “ Kita harus berenang di dalamnya seperti ikan. Pertama kali kita harus belajar dari massa dan kemudian mengajari mereka. “  Ia menyandarkan perjuangannya pada petani sebagai pendukung baik tempat persembunyian, pasokan makanan maupun sebagai cadangan tentara. “ Peralatan bukan faktor penting dalam perang, “ katanya, “ Yang penting adalah manusianya. “

Raffael Trujillo (24.10.1891 – 30.05.1961)

Sebagai imbalan atas pajak tinggi yang dipungutnya, Trujillo mengijinkan lebih dari 2.000 warga Haiti tinggal di Dominika, sebagai buruh pabrik-pabrik gula milik investasi Amerika. Tetapi, tahun 1937, setelah harga gula meluncur turun, mereka pun dipecat. Sebagian dari mereka demi mempertahankan hidupnya terpaksa mencuri. Trujillo merenungkan masalah itu. “ Warga Domniika mungkin akan lebih senang, “ renungnya, “ Jika kita membasmi warga Haiti. “

Fulgencio Batista y Zalvidar (16.01.1901 – 06.08.1973)

Batista berhasil mengambil alih kekuasaan di Kuba dan dengan cepat menaikkan pangkatnya sendiri menjadi kolonel. Seluruh komando militer kini dipegangnya. Ia mengirim telegram kepada seorang sersan : “ Secepatnya bergerak. Engkau diangkat menjadi Kapten. Perhatikan ! “  Jawaban telegram dari sersan itu kembali dengan isi : “ Telegram Anda terlambat. Saya telah mengangkat diri saya sendiri menjadi Kolonel. “  Namun, kendati terheran-heran dan terpesona, Batista menerima hal itu dengan baik.

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13.08.1926 -  … )

Jumlah tentara reguler dikuranginya dengan tajam. Bahkan satu pos militer yang besar diubahnya menjadi sekolah. “ Saya sebenarnya seorang militer tulen, “ sumpahnya, “ Saya tidak punya medali. Saya tidak senang dengan peralatan senjata. Kita semua kini adalah negeri tanpa Jenderal dan Kolonel ! “ ia menolak menaikkan pangkatnya dari pangkat Mayor yang dimilikinya sebagai pemberontak.  Dan Castro bekerja dengan energi yang bagai tak habis-habisnya – sepanjang hari untuk mengubah ekonomi Kuba. Ketika diingatkan bahwa ia kan jatuh sakit jika tidak beristirahat, ia hanya tertawa.  “ Obatku adalah rakyat, “ jawabnya, “ Aku harus bekerja keras ; mengerti dan berbicara dengan rakyat ! “

Francois Duvalier (14.04.1907 – 21.04.1971)

Tahun 1966, selubung keterasingannya terkuak saat ia menerima wartawan Amerika Serikat. Dalam satu kesempatan wawancara, wartawan itu bertanya apa gunanya pistol Colt 45 di meja kerjanya, disamping Alkitab yang selalu terbuka. Papa Doc, demikian julukan diktator Haiti itu, dengan ekspresi dan gaya seperti belum pernah melihat pistol itu sebelumnya, mengangkat dan mengamatinya. “ Ini merupakan kekeliruan, “ katanya sambil memberikan senjata itu ke tangan salah seorang pembantunya. “ Bawa pergi, “ perintahnya.

Antonio de Oliveira Salazar (28.04.1889 – 27.07.1970)

“ Saya seorang tawanan, “ satu kali ia pernah berkata dengan agak bangga, “ Dengan seluruh hidup dan pikiran yang saya persembahkan untuk pemerintah. Saya telah membuang jauh-jauh semua kehidupan pribadi yang seharusnya saya miliki.”  Ia memang hidup spartan, hemat dan sederhana, tidak merokok, tidak minum minuman keras, tidak tergoda dengan uang, tidak menikah dan seorang pendiam. Demi memerangi kesepiannya, ia pun mengangkat anak dua orang gadis. Ketika salah seorang terkena serangan demam panas, Salazar dengan setia menungguinya siang dan malam. “ Ini membuktikan betapa bijaksananya tidak memelihara keluarga sendiri, “ katanya, “ Lain halnya jika saya tidak harus memperdulikan Portugal. “

Adolf Hitler (20.04.1889 – 30.04.1945)

Tahun 1934, Hitler memerintahkan kaum Nazi Austria membunuh Kanselir mereka, Engelbert Dolfuss. Tetapi usaha Nazi untuk merebut kekuasaan terancam, ketika Mussolini yang cemas mengirim tentaranya ke perbatasan Austria. Hitler bergegas pergi ke Venesia menemui tokoh yang menjadi idolanya dulu, tetapi di sana Mussolini mengecam dirinya. “ Sulitnya dengan Jerman adalah bahwa mereka tidak menghargai kebudayaan. “  Hitler pun menyergahnya, “ Kebudayaan ? Jika saya mendengar kata kebudayaan, saya hanya punya satu dorongan – menggambar pistol saya ! “  Mussolini berkomentar pada isterinya, “ Orang ini betul-betul gila ! “

Francisco Franco Bahamonde (04.12.1892 – 20.11.1975)

Pernah terjadi ketika ia sedang menginspeksi pasukannya, seorang tentara legiun tegap yang tidak puas dengan menu makanan yang dihidangkan setiap hari di barak militer itu, melemparkan piring makanan ke muka Franco.  Dengan tenang, jenderal bertubuh kecil itu melap muka dan baju yang tersiram makanan dengan sapu tangan. Dan terus melanjutkan inspeksinya. Setelah selesai inspeksi, ia mengeluarkan tiga perintah. Mutu makanan diperbaiki. Seluruh perlengkapan bagi garnizun itu dibatasi selama 3 bulan. Dan terakhir, serdadu itu ditembak mati.

Soekarno (06.06.1901 – 21.06.1970)

Soekarno berpidato serampangan menyerang program bantuan PBB : “ Apa itu Unicef ?  Hanya susu bubuk. Aku lebih suka makan peuyeum (tape) Bandung. FAO mengirim para ahli yang tidak tahu apa-apa tenang pertanian Indonesia. Aku katakan pada mereka, pergilah ke neraka dengan bantuanmu ! “  Kemarahan pribadinya di arena diplomasi internasional malah memperburuk situasi ekonomi Indonesia dengan makin terisolasinya Indonesia dari dunia internasional.  Ketika para menterinya datang menghadap untuk membahas masalah terbangnya modal asing dari Indonesia, ia menggerutu, “ Masalah-masalah ekonomi membuatku sakit kepala ! “

Gamal Abdul Nasser (15.01.1918 – 08.09.1970)

Seorang diplomat ulung Rusia, Alexander Shelepin dikirim bergegas ke Mesir dengan memanfaatkan kemarahan Nasser pada Amerika Serikat, untuk mengikatnya menjalin pakta kerjasama Moskow – Kairo. Tapi diktator Mesir itu dengan dingin menolak : “ Kami tidak akan menjual kemerdekaan kami dengan tiga puluh, empat puluh atau lima puluh juta poundsterling. “ Tetapi seorang pengamat di Kairo menasihati Shelepin : “ Coba enam puluh … “

Sumber   :

Kisah Para Diktator, Jules Archer – Penerbit Narasi, Yogyakarta – 195 Halaman
Wikipedia.com untuk nama lengkap tokoh, tanggal lahir & tanggal wafat.

First Time China Has Lent Rare Artifacts To Taiwan Since End Of Chinese Civil War In 1949

"Art Diplomacy" has the potential to increase cooperation between China and Taiwan

As ties between China and Taiwan have gradually become closer (particularly in the last year, following the election of Ma Ying-jeou), stories of cross-straits cooperation are becoming increasingly common. From China’s opening of direct flights to Taiwan to increased Taiwanese investment in the mainland (and vice versa) to today’s story about China sending 40 Qing Dynasty-era artifacts to Taipei’s National Palace Museum this October, cooperative gestures between Beijing and Taipei are something of a welcome sign.

Although simmering disputes remain between the two governments about thousands of artifacts taken to Taiwan as the Nationalist army made its retreat to the island in 1949 — which Beijing has sought to repatriate for decades — this exhibition is seen by many as a conciliatory step towards more direct talks on the future of the Chinese artifacts held in Taiwan’s National Palace Museum. As the BBC writes,

About 650,000 paintings, bronzes, porcelain and jade from Beijing’s imperial collection were packed into crates to escape the Japanese army in the 1930s.

When the Communists under Mao Zedong won the Chinese civil war, Mao’s defeated rival Chiang Kai-shek left for Taiwan and took the artefacts with him.

Decades later, the loss of these artefacts still riles the Beijing government.

China recently criticised the Taipei museum for telling a distorted historical story with some of the objects, and Taiwan is very careful when lending the artefacts abroad for fear of Chinese attempts to seize or claim them.

But now, according to the BBC’s arts correspondent Laurence Pollard, the Chinese appear to be dealing with the museum in a normal, scholarly way, helping mount a joint exhibition.

This exhibition illustrates the importance culture can have in diplomatic exchanges, our correspondent says.

As Shanghai Daily points out, these artifacts — from the reign of Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) — will be displayed with 209 items from royal collections owned by the Taiwan museum:

The royal collections that will travel to Taiwan include portraits of Emperor Yongzheng and his mistresses.

“They were outstanding artworks among our collections in the reign of Emperor Yongzheng,” Li said. “We sent the best we have.”

The joint exhibition is the result of hard work from both sides, Feng said.

“The cooperation and exchanges between the two museums progressed very quickly. What we did in the past six months was what we should have done in the past six decades,” she said.

“Inisiatif politik Aidit, melontarkan gagasan Angkatan Kelima, sebenarnya adalah semacam take over atas suatu gagasan yang muncul sebelumnya pada kwartal terakhir tahun 1964”. “Terkesan pada mulanya Soekarno tertarik sedikit saja meskipun memperlihatkan sikap cukup menyambut baik gagasan itu dan untuk seberapa lama belum menunjukkan sikap persetujuan yang jelas”.

KARENA meninggal dunia di tahun 1925, Dr Sun Yat-sen tak berhasil menyaksikan rencana-rencananya rampung terwujud. Ia meninggalkan dua kelompok kekuatan di belakangnya, yakni Chiang Kai-shek bersama sayap kanan Kuomintang-nya dengan tentara yang sudah lebih kuat di satu sisi dan pada sisi lain Partai Komunis Tjina yang juga sudah memiliki sejumlah besar manusia yang terlatih sebagai militer. Pada dasarnya sejak awal kedua kelompok ini tak pernah cocok, dan terpaksa ‘bersatu’ dalam satu belanga hanya karena mengikuti kemauan Dr Sun Yat-sen. Setelah Sun Yat-sen meninggal dunia, Jenderal Chiang Kai-shek agaknya sudah merencanakan untuk pada waktunya mengusir para instruktur Rusia kembali ke negerinya dan membersihkan militer dan pemerintahan dari unsur-unsur komunis. Namun sebelum itu, ia memanfaatkan pasukan tentara –termasuk orang-orang komunis di dalam tentara– untuk suatu operasi militer penaklukan, tidak sekedar mengertak seperti rencana semula almarhum Sun Yat-sen, terhadap para panglima militer terutama di bagian utara daratan Cina, satu persatu.

Chiang Kai-shek berhasil karena masing-masing warlord itu berdiri sendiri, tidak punya hubungan satu sama lain. Chiang pun menundukkan yang terkuat, rezim Shih-kai yang menguasai Peking dan sekitarnya. Chiang lalu menjadi yang paling kuat untuk saat itu, karena selain menguasai militer dan telah mempersatukan seluruh kekuatan militer se-Cina melalui penaklukan, ia pun seperti halnya Sun Yat-sen mengawini seorang puteri keluarga Soong dari Shanghai, keluarga pedagang amat kaya dan memiliki akar pengaruh yang kuat di Cina pada masa itu. Setelah berhasil mengkonsolidasikan kekuasaannya, yang mulai terpetakan sejak 1928 dan menuntaskannya di sekitar tahun 1930, Chiang lalu mulai menjalankan rencananya sejak lama, mengusir orang-orang Rusia dan melakukan pembersihan terhadap orang-orang Partai Komunis Tjina.

Kaum komunis ini terpaksa mengundurkan diri ke bagian tengah dan selatan. Dari daerah-daerah terpencil di sana mereka melancarkan perlawanan dengan pasukan gerilya, dan itulah cikal bakal Tentara Merah. Tahun 1931, Mao Zedong, salah satu pendiri Partai Komunis Tjina dan kemudian menjadi pemimpinnya, dari provinsi Kiangshi memproklamirkan berdirinya Republik Sovjet Cina. Di wilayah-wilayah yang dikuasainya Partai menata ulang tanah-tanah pertanian. Mereka merampas tanah milik para tuan tanah, membagikannya kepada para petani untuk digarap sebagai sumber penghasilan partai. Tapi Chiang Kai-shek yang tak mau mengambil risiko lebih besar kelak di kemudian hari, pada tahun 1935 segera menyerang wilayah yang dikuasai kaum komunis. Mao dan pengikutnya terpukul dan lari ke arah barat untuk kemudian berputar ke utara menuju pangkalan yang mereka telah bangun beberapa tahun sebelumnya di Cina Utara sebelum ‘perang’.

Mao dan lebih dari 300.000 ribu Tentara Merah serta sejumlah kader partai dan pengikut, menempuh hampir dua puluh ribu kilometer pada daerah-daerah yang sulit dan berbahaya keadaan alamnya. Berkali-kali berhadapan pula dengan suku-suku terpencil yang curiga sehingga tak jarang melakukan serangan bersenjata yang menewaskan banyak dari mereka. Bahkan menghadapi serangan gabungan di wilayah Tibet dan Mantzu. Dihujani batu dari lereng-lereng gunung, dan tersiksa oleh serangan-serangan malam yang mendadak dan mematikan, tatkala kebanyakan dari mereka lelap karena keletihan.

Selain karena pertempuran sepanjang jalan, korban-korban di kalangan Tentara Merah berjatuhan pula karena keganasan alam, pemangsaan khewan liar hingga pada kematian tertelan rawa dan kubangan lumpur hisap. Tapi mereka akhirnya berhasil tiba di tujuan. Peristiwa perjalanan panjang menempuh belasan ribu kilometer dan memakan waktu berbulan-bulan yang penuh penderitaan dan kematian inilah yang dikenal sebagai Peristiwa Long March yang bersejarah. Di tempat tujuan, mereka langsung menghadapi pula babak baru Perang Saudara Cina, yang sempat jeda di tahun 1937, karena harus ikut menghadapi serbuan tentara Jepang ke daratan Cina. Setelah jeda, perang saudara diteruskan dan dimenangkan kaum komunis. Chiang Kai-shek bersama pengikutnya lalu melarikan diri menyeberang laut ke arah Timur ke pulau-pulau Taiwan.

Pengalaman Cina Komunis dan Tentara Merah, menjadi salah satu sumber inspirasi kaum komunis di Asia, termasuk bagi Partai Komunis Indonesia. Peristiwa Madiun tahun 1948, memakai model perjuangan Cina Komunis dengan Tentara Merah-nya. Di Madiun, PKI menggunakan kekuatan militer bersenjata dan memproklamirkan suatu Republik Sovjet Madiun. Tapi tak berusia panjang.

Model Tentara Merah sebagai sayap militer partai, menjadi semacam obsesi bagi para tokoh PKI yang menguasai kendali partai. Ketika sudah berada di atas angin pada tahun 1964-1965 gagasan sayap militer kembali dikembangkan, melalui infiltrasi ke tubuh tentara. Cukup memadai tetapi belum mencukupi untuk suatu orientasi kekuasaan. Dan pada awal 1965, Aidit melontarkan gagasan pembentukan Angkatan Kelima. Gagasan itu pertama kali dilontarkan oleh Dipa Nusantara Aidit, Kamis pagi 14 Januari, ketika akan dan sewaktu menghadap Presiden Soekarno di Istana Merdeka.

Inisiatif politik Aidit, melontarkan gagasan Angkatan Kelima, sebenarnya adalah semacam take over atas suatu gagasan yang muncul sebelumnya pada kwartal terakhir tahun 1964. Sewaktu Soekarno berkunjung ke Cina, dalam suatu percakapan, Mao Zedong dan kemudian Chou En-lai, mengusulkan agar Soekarno mempersenjatai buruh dan tani bila ingin memperkokoh diri dan memenangkan perjuangan melawan kaum imperialis, khususnya dalam konfrontasi terhadap Malaysia. Mao yang merasa punya pengalaman historis dengan Tentara Merah yang revolusioner yang menopang berdirinya Republik Rakyat Tjina (RRT), berkata tak cukup bila Soekarno hanya mengandalkan tentaranya yang sekarang. Percakapan yang lebih terperinci terjadi antara Soekarno dengan Perdana menteri Chou En-lai. Sang perdana menteri menyampaikan pendapatnya dengan  ungkapan-ungkapan terus terang kepada Soekarno, bahwa Soekarno tak bisa seratus persen mempercayai tentaranya, terutama Angkatan Darat, karena banyak perwiranya yang pernah dididik di Amerika Serikat sampai sekarang masih punya hubungan-hubungan khusus dengan Amerika Serikat. Banyak pimpinan tentara Indonesia adalah termasuk kaum reaksioner, bukan kaum progresif revolusioner yang bisa diandalkan melawan kaum imperialis. Maka kaum buruh dan tani yang dipersenjatai itu, harus dibentuk di luar koordinasi tentara, sebagai Angkatan Kelima yang berdiri sendiri.

Sejak awal pula, Chou En-lai sudah membayangkan kesediaan RRT membantu bila gagasan itu mau diwujudkan. Belakangan muncul angka bantuan awal yang akan diberikan dan katanya disetujui Mao, berupa 100.000 pucuk senjata Tjung, sejenis senapan ringan buatan RRT. Dengan jumlah senjata itu saja, setidaknya bisa terbentuk sedikitnya 10 divisi bersenjata. Terkesan pada mulanya Soekarno tertarik sedikit saja meskipun memperlihatkan sikap cukup menyambut baik gagasan itu dan untuk seberapa lama belum menunjukkan sikap persetujuan yang jelas. Agaknya, Presiden Soekarno masih memperhitungkan juga faktor reaksi dan sikap Angkatan Darat nantinya.

ADALAH Aidit yang dengan gesit  mengambil alih gagasan itu dan merubahnya menjadi suatu inisiatif politik. Dan sebenarnya, ketika pembicaraan Soekarno dengan para pimpinan Cina itu terjadi, Aidit pun dengan cepat pada waktu yang hampir bersamaan telah diinformasikan oleh Duta Besar RRT di Jakarta mengenai adanya pembicaraan tentang gagasan Angkatan Kelima tersebut. Aidit pun tampil dengan gagasan itu. Tatkala tampil terbuka pertama kali dengan gagasan itu, bersama Aidit pada 14 Januari 1965 di Istana Merdeka itu hadir Ketua Umum Barisan Tani Indonesia (BTI) Asmu serta dua tokoh unsur Nasakom lainnya, yakni Idham Chalid Ketua Umum NU dan Hardi SH Ketua I PNI/Front Marhaenis.

Masih sebelum menghadap kepada Presiden, Aidit dicegat oleh Bernhard Kalb wartawan Columbia Broadcasting System, Amerika Serikat. “Saya akan mengusulkan kepada Presiden Soekarno agar kaum buruh dan tani segera dipersenjatai”, ujar Aidit kepada Bernhard. ”Seluruhnya lima belas juta orang, siap dipersenjatai !”. Sepuluh juta buruh, lima juta petani.  Tetapi kemudian sempat terjadi pertukaran kata yang keras antara sang wartawan dengan sang pemimpin partai, setelah Kalb melontarkan beberapa pertanyaan yang tampaknya dianggap menyebalkan oleh Aidit. Setelah pertemuan dengan Soekarno, Aidit menegaskan kembali kepada para wartawan, bahwa ia memang mengajukan tuntutan kepada Panglima Tertinggi Angkatan Bersenjata RI, kaum buruh dan kaum tani yang merupakan sokoguru revolusi, segera dipersenjatai. Menurut Aidit, Soekarno menyambut baik tuntutan PKI itu. Maka pada petang harinya, Harian Warta Bhakti, organ pers Baperki, menurunkan berita dengan judul besar “PKI usulkan 15 djuta massa tani dan buruh dipersendjatai”.

Selang tiga hari, agaknya PKI berhasil menciptakan kesan bahwa tuntutan itu telah menjadi tuntutan seluruh kekuatan politik yang ada. Lembaga Kantor Berita Nasional ‘Antara’ menurunkan berita tentang adanya kebulatan tekad bersama yang menuntut agar sokoguru-sokoguru revolusi segera dilatih dan dipersenjatai. Menurut berita bertanggal 18 Januari 1965 itu, “Sidang bersama Pengurus Besar Front Nasional dan Pucuk Pimpinan Partai-partai Politik, Organisasi Massa, Golongan Karya serta lembaga-lembaga persahabatan, hari Minggu malam (17 Januari) dalam kebulatan tekad dan instruksi bersamanya, mendesak kepada pemerintah dan alat-alatnya yang berwenang untuk segera  melatih dan mempersenjatai sokoguru-sokoguru revolusi, sebagai jaminan utama guna mencegah dan mengalahkan tiap bentuk agresi Inggeris dan agresi Nekolim pada umumnya”.

Sidang bersama menurut berita itu lebih jauh, berlangsung di Gedung BPI (Badan Pusat Intelejen) dipimpin Wakil Sekertaris Jenderal PB Front Nasional AM Rachman. Berita itu menyebutkan secara jelas beberapa nama yang berperan dan turut serta dalam sidang yang mengambil keputusan mengenai Kebulatan Tekad. Nama-nama itu, yang adalah tokoh-tokoh kelompok komunis, antara lain Anwar Sanusi, Mohammad Munir, dan Ir Surachman yang dikenal sebagai Sekertaris Jenderal PNI. Satu nama lain yang disebutkan adalah Menteri Koordinator/Ketua DPRGR (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Gotong Royong) Arudji Kartawinata seorang tokoh unsur A dalam Nasakom.

Kehadiran beberapa nama tokoh partai politik, organisasi-organisasi massa dan Golongan Karya disebutkan dalam berita, namun tanpa pencantuman nama orang dengan jelas. Dan memang, belakangan beberapa pihak menyangkal keikutsertaannya dalam kebulatan tekad. Tapi ada pula yang tak terberitakan lagi pembenaran atau sangkalan keterlibatannya di media mana pun. Selain tuntutan mempersenjatai para sokoguru revolusi, kebulatan tekad itu menyatakan pula mendukung sepenuhnya kebijaksanaan dan keputusan Presiden/Pemimpin Besar Revolusi untuk keluar dari PBB (Perserikatan Bangsa Bangsa). Sepuluh hari sebelumnya, Soekarno memang mengambil tindakan drastis menyatakan Indonesia keluar dari PBB. Keluarnya Indonesia ini adalah sebagai reaksi atas terpilihnya Malaysia –yang justru menjadi sasaran konfrontasi Indonesia kala itu– sebagai anggota Dewan Keamanan PBB. Bagi Soekarno, tentu saja keberhasilan Malaysia menduduki kursi dalam Dewan Keamanan PBB dan kegagalan Indonesia mencegahnya, merupakan kejadian yang menjengkelkan.

Berlanjut ke Bagian 3

On September 11th, former Taiwan president Chen Shui-bian was sentenced to life in prison for charges which included corruption, embezzlement, and money laundering. Much has been written about the gross procedural transgressions that the prosecution and judiciary have committed in their zeal to bring Chen and his family to justice, so instead of rehashing those arguments here, I offer you a few links for reference:

• Taiwan News: Taiwan deserves better justice from Chen trial
• Open Letter to President Ma from international scholars
• Joint statement on reform of the detention system, human rights in the administration of justice, and the detention of former President Chen Shui-bian

What I think would be revealing is to compare Chen’s case with corrupt rulers around the world and their eventual fates. Throughout history, we find that these rulers usually end up in one of the following outcomes:

1. The ruler is forcefully removed from office, often by military coup or popular revolt. Chiang Kai-shek is a good example of this with the overthrow of the KMT regime in China in 1949 by Mao Zedong’s Communist army.
2. The ruler maintains a tight grip on his power, ruthlessly crushing any forms of opposition, and dies in office. Chiang Kai-shek is also a good example of this with his death in 1975. Mao also fits this mold.
3. The ruler prematurely ends his term of office by stepping down under a credible threat of impeachment. Richard Nixon is the infamous American example of this kind of leader.

I have not done a comprehensive survey, but I would guess that the great majority of corrupt rulers throughout history fall into either the first or second category. Only a tiny percentage would fall into the last category.

Chen Shui-bian’s case, however, seems to be occupy an entirely separate category. How many rulers can you think of who served out his entire term, peacefully stepped down, and handed the highest office over to the political opposition with the full knowledge that he and his family would be prosecuted for capital crimes? I cannot think of any. If Chen really was so obviously corrupt, than he has defied the examples set by hundreds of rulers before him throughout history. He must also be the most compliant when you consider that:

• Chen Shui-bian’s son, Chen Chih-chung, and daughter-in-law voluntarily returned from the U.S. to Taiwan to cooperate with the prosecutor’s investigation. Contrast this with the behavior of KMT-associated figures like Gloria Chu, Liu Sung-pan, and Wang You-theng who flee overseas, usually to the U.S., after being charged with crimes such as embezzlement or fraud.
• When news of an investigation into Chen’s assets broke, he quit his membership of his party, the DPP, when he could have easily used it as his own personal vehicle to battle the government. He has also never called upon his supporters to besiege the Presidential Office, fight for a revolution, or engage in any socially disruptive activity of this kind.

In light of this, I can see that there are only one of two possibilities:

1. Chen Shui-bian is guilty as charged. However, he also holds democratic norms and the rule of law in the highest regard and is willing to follow them to the end, even if it means disgrace and jail time for him and his family members.
2. Chen Shui-bian is innocent and mistakenly assumed that Taiwan’s judicial system would give him a fair trial and clear his name.

I’ll leave it up to you to figure out which of the two I think is more likely. But in either case, a life sentence is, at best, greatly disproportionate to the unique circumstances of the case, and, at worst, a tragic mistake that will serve as yet another tremendous blight upon Taiwan’s judicial system.

“Berbeda dengan Angkatan Darat, sumber dana politik PKI sedikit lebih terselubung dan nyaris tak terbuktikan, karena tak ada pihak yang betul-betul memiliki bukti-bukti hitam putih aliran dana PKI”.

ADALAH menarik bahwa dalam kurun waktu Nasakom, PKI yang menempatkan perjuangan kelas sebagai kegiatan politik ideologisnya, boleh dikatakan tak pernah menyentuh wilayah persoalan kesenjangan sosial yang terkait dengan kelompok etnis Cina. Hubungan PKI di bawah Aidit dengan Cina Komunis –Aidit dianggap sebagai kelompok sayap Peking– dan keberadaan Baperki sebagai organisasi kaum peranakan Cina di Indonesia yang berkiblat kiri, dapat menjelaskan mengapa PKI relatif menjauhi masalah kesenjangan sosial dan ekonomi yang terkait dengan etnis Cina di Indonesia. Terdapat pula unsur pragmatis dalam hal ini.

Secara umum, sumber dana untuk segala kegiatan politik PKI tak banyak disinggung. Ini berbeda dengan kelompok jenderal yang memegang kendali Angkatan Darat yang berhadapan dalam pertarungan politik dan kekuasaan dengan PKI. Sumber dana ‘non budgetair’ para jenderal saat itu senantiasa dikaitkan dengan perilaku korupsi, terutama karena posisi sejumlah jenderal atau perwira tentara dalam berbagai badan usaha milik negara, yang sebagian adalah bekas perusahaan Belanda yang dinasionalisir pada tahun 1957. Termasuk di sini adalah Pertamin dan Permina yang kemudian hari dilebur menjadi Pertamina, dan diserahkan penanganannya kepada seorang dokter yang juga adalah perwira Angkatan Darat, Ibnu Sutowo, yang berpangkat kolonel kemudian naik ke jenjang jenderal. Beberapa posisi penting di bawahnya umumnya juga dipegang kalangan tentara. Konsesi di perusahaan perminyakan ini diberikan sebagai bagian dari semacam deal politik maupun saling pengertian –yang mungkin saja tak pernah diucapkan dengan cara yang betul-betul terus terang– antara Presiden Soekarno dengan pihak militer di bawah Mayor Jenderal Nasution sebelum Dekrit 1959.

Berbeda dengan Angkatan Darat, sumber dana politik PKI sedikit lebih terselubung dan nyaris tak terbuktikan, karena tak ada pihak yang betul-betul memiliki bukti-bukti hitam putih aliran dana PKI. Sumber dana utama PKI di masa-masa awal sebelum Pemilihan Umum 1955 adalah dari gerakan dan jaringan komunis internasional. Selanjutnya, sumber dana itu bergeser yang mulanya terutama datang dari Moskow menjadi lebih banyak berasal dari Peking, tatkala Aidit secara kasat mata membawa PKI lebih berkiblat ke Peking. Namun Moskow tak pernah sepenuhnya menghentikan bantuan keuangan, karena pemimpin blok Timur itu masih tetap mengalirkan dana ke kelompok PKI sayap Moskow yang masih eksis sebagai faksi ‘urutan kedua’ di tubuh partai tersebut. Apalagi, di balik yang terlihat, ada gambaran bahwa Aidit tidak pernah betul-betul meninggalkan Moskow. Menurut Muhammad Achadi –Menteri Transmigrasi dan Koperasi pada Kabinet Soekarno– hingga dekat-dekat saat terjadinya Peristiwa 30 September 1965, Aidit tetap menjalin hubungan dengan Moskow. Aidit pun –tanpa banyak diketahui pihak lain– berkali-kali datang ke Moskow sekitar waktu tersebut.

Sumber dana dalam negeri PKI, termobilisasi melalui Jusuf Muda Dalam yang memegang kendali Bank Sentral. Tapi sumber keuangan PKI lainnya yang tak kecil juga berasal dari kelompok-kelompok pengusaha bidang perdagangan dan industri beretnis Cina yang berhaluan kiri dan atau punya alasan ataupun kepentingan lain. Bandingkan dengan Masjumi, yang sebelum menjadi partai terlarang memperoleh aliran dananya antara lain dari satu dua ‘pengusaha’ anggota Masjumi yang mendapat fasilitas lisensi –di zaman bermunculannya pengusaha aktentas yang sekedar memperjualbelikan lisensi tersebut– melalui suatu program yang sebenarnya dimaksudkan untuk membantu ‘pengusaha nasional’  pada masa tokoh PSI Soemitro Djojohadikoesoemo menjadi Menteri Perdagangan dalam kabinet Natsir di tahun 1950-1951. Suatu ‘ladang’ yang sempit dan ringkas. Pengusaha aktentas memang bukan jenis yang bisa sepenuhnya diandalkan.

Sebaliknya, pada tahun lima puluhan, menteri-menteri yang berasal dari Masjumi juga banyak membantu pengusaha nasional. Jusuf Wibisono, Menteri Keuangan dalam Kabinet Sukiman-Suwirjo (1951-1952) dan Kabinet Ali Sastroamidjojo II (1956-1957) selama setahun-setahun, pernah antara lain membantu TD Pardede, pengusaha asal Sumatera Utara beragama Kristen dan anggota PNI. Hal serupa dilakukan pula sebelumnya oleh Sjafruddin Prawiranegara yang menjadi Menteri Keuangan dalam Kabinet Natsir (1950-1951) dan pada dua kabinet lain pada masa-masa sebelumnya. Menurut penuturan Pardede (kepada Professor Deliar Noer), suatu kali ketika usahanya menjadi besar dan sukses ia mendatangi keduanya, serta M. Sanusi tokoh Masjumi yang juga seorang pejabat di Departemen Perindustrian, untuk memberikan ‘amplop’ sebagai tanda terima kasih. Dengan cara yang baik-baik dan menyenangkan, ketiga tokoh Masjumi itu menolak menerimanya.

Selain karena faktor militansi tinggi yang dimiliki massa PKI, kelancaran aliran dana yang dikelola lebih efektif dan efisien –dan harus diakui relatif tak ‘tergigit’ oleh pengelola partai, seperti yang terjadi pada beberapa partai politik lain waktu itu– menjadikan manuver-manuver politik PKI lebih mobile dan efektif pula. Maka PKI muncul menonjol di berbagai lini medan pertarungan politik dan kekuasaan.

Hanya satu obsesi PKI yang belum juga tercapai, yaitu keberhasilan menciptakan sayap bersenjata yang tangguh, yang dengan gemilang dicapai oleh Partai Komunis Tjina di bawah Mao Zedong (Mao Tsetung) masih sejak tahun-tahun awal sejak kelahirannya. Sebagai ganti dari belum terpenuhinya obsesi tersebut adalah keberhasilan dalam kadar tertentu dari PKI menginfiltrasi dan menyusupkan pengaruhnya ke tubuh militer, khususnya Angkatan Darat, yang menjadi lebih intensif setelah terbentuknya Biro Khusus PKI di tahun 1964. Kelak akan ternyata bahwa pada saat dibutuhkan sayap PKI dalam militer, meskipun mencapai tingkat yang cukup signifikan, tidaklah bisa mencapai hasil optimum.

Partai Komunis Tjina yang lahir tahun 1921, meskipun lebih muda setahun dari PKI, dalam banyak hal dijadikan PKI sebagai percontohan dari waktu ke waktu, termasuk dalam obsesi memiliki sayap bersenjata yang andal. Pintu masuk untuk memenuhi obsesi tersebut, di luar dugaan dibuka oleh Dr Sun Yat-sen pemimpin Republik (Nasionalis) Cina yang pada sekitar tahun 1920 mengalami akumulasi kekecewaan terhadap pihak barat. Melihat keberhasilan Revolusi Bolsjewik dan berbagai keberhasilan Lenin setelahnya, Sun Yat-sen yang memiliki sikap dan pandangan yang sosialistis, terangsang untuk berhubungan dengan Uni Sovjet dan berharap bahwa dari hubungan itu nantinya ia bisa mendapat apa yang tidak didapatnya dari barat sekaligus bisa mengakhiri beberapa perlakuan buruk pihak barat pada Cina. Lenin, pemimpin Sovjet, ternyata tanggap dan segera mengalirkan banyak bantuan kepada Cina yang dipandangnya dapat bergeser ke kiri di bawah Sun Yat-sen yang juga memahami Marxisme dan Sosialisme dengan baik. Salah satunya adalah pengiriman sejumlah penasehat politik dan militer.

Satu di antara program prioritas Sun Yat-sen kala itu adalah memperbesar militer Kuomintang dengan bantuan para penasehat militer Sovjet itu. Memperbesar militer menjadi kebutuhan objektif bagi Sun Yat-sen, karena pada masa itu sebagian besar panglima militer di berbagai wilayah cenderung menciptakan diri sebagai warlord di daerah kekuasaannya masing-masing dan banyak menunjukkan ketidakpatuhan kepada pemerintah pusat. Sun Yat-sen mendengar banyak laporan mengenai perilaku seenaknya dari para panglima wilayah itu, yang bekerjasama dengan tuan-tuan tanah dan orang-orang kaya setempat, memeras dan menindas rakyat dengan berbagai tindak kekerasan. Mereka pun mengorganisir kegiatan kriminal dan premanisme untuk tujuan ‘komersial’ serta pengumpulan keuntungan materil, mulai dari pelacuran, permadatan hingga berbagai macam pemerasan. Kelompok ‘kriminal’ ini juga bersenjata dan berlaku sewenang-wenang. Para panglima dan perwira-perwiranya, bahkan sampai prajurit lapisan bawah, sangat koruptif.

Situasi ini dianggap Sun Yat-sen sangat melemahkan Cina dan bisa membawa Cina ke ambang kehancuran. Untuk mengatasinya, Sun Yat-sen membutuhkan militer Kuomintang yang diperbarui dan diperbesar, sehingga akan lebih disegani dan mampu menundukkan para warlords itu. Sun Yat-sen bertindak ‘radikal’ dengan membuka pintu bagi Partai Komunis Tjina turut serta sebagai sumber daya manusia ‘baru’ dalam pengembangan militer itu serta mengakomodir para kader partai komunis ke dalam institusi-institusi pemerintahan. Sejumlah besar kader Partai Komunis mengalir ke sekolah militer baru yang didirikan dan ditopang instruktur-instruktur militer dari Rusia (negara ‘induk’ Uni Sovjet). Ia mengangkat seorang perwira kepercayaannya, Chiang Kai-shek, sebagai pimpinan sekolah militer itu.

Suatu program lain, yang menyenangkan bagi Partai Komunis Tjina dipimpin Mao Zedong adalah program penataan ulang tanah –land reform– bagi para petani kecil di daratan Cina yang pada masa itu menjadi salah satu kelompok masyarakat sasaran pemerasan dan penindasan fisik dari para tuan tanah yang bekerja di bawah topangan dan lindungan para tentara korup. Para petani dijadikan sebagai ‘kuda’ yang diperas tenaganya, sementara anak-anak gadis mereka dijadikan sebagai objek seks bagi lapisan berkuasa beserta para kaki-tangan mereka dan setelah puas menikmatinya dijadikan pelacur di rumah-rumah hiburan. Program land reform diharapkan Sun Yat-sen menjadi jalan menyelamatkan petani dan karenanya akan memperoleh dukungan petani sebagai lapisan akar rumput guna menundukkan para warlord.

Berlanjut ke Bagian 2

Stellen wir uns mal vor, in Berlin würde eine Linkspartei-Regierung die Stasi-Gedenkstätte Hohenschönhausen schließen und Walter Ulbricht eine Gedenkhalle widmen. Unvorstellbar, oder?

Kürzlich ist es mir gelungen, zwei nicht ganz unwichtige Themen in einem deutschen Medium unterzubringen: Die Rück-Umbenennung der Chiang-Kai-shek-Gedenkhalle (zuvor “Nationale Demokratie-Gedenkhalle”) und die Schließung der Gedenkstätte im ehemaligen Militärgefängnis Jingmei.

Beides sind Beispiele dafür, dass Teile der regierenden Kuomintang-Partei sich vielleicht doch noch nicht so ganz von ihrer autoritäten Vergangenheit (ca. 40 Jahre Einparteienherrschaft per Kriegsrecht, zehntausende tote Taiwaner) distanziert haben.

Der Beitrag lief in der Sendung “Fokus Asien” im Radioprogramm der Deutschen Welle. Man kann die Sendung hier nachhören und den dazugehörigen Internettext lesen.

Mir fehlt die Zeit, die Geschichte des Gefängnisses und der Namens-Kontroverse um die Gedenkhalle hier im Detail aufzurollen. Ich hoffe, irgendwann kann ich das nachholen. Bis dahin bildet Euch ein Urteil anhand des Radiobeitrags und dieser Bilder.

Für die Öffentlichkeit nicht mehr zugänglich: Das ehemalige Militärgefängnis Jingmei (eigentlich auf dem Stadtgebiet von Xindian, nicht Taipeh).

Eine sehr schöne Fotogallerie des Jingmei-Gefängnisses vor und nach der Schließung mit weiteren Informationen hat Günter Whittome erstellt.

Die Menschenrechts-Gedenkstätte im Jingmei-Gefängnis.

Blogger David Reid über die Eröffnung der Gedenkstätte 2007 und die geschlossene Ausstellung 2009.

Stacheldraht und Polizisten sorgten dafür, dass die Rück-Umbenennung der Chiang-Kai-shek-Gedenkhalle ungestört über die Bühne ging. (20.7.2009)

Berichte über die Rück-Umbenennung der Chiang-Kai-shek-Gedenkhalle in der Taipei Times (regierungskritisch) und der China Post (regierungsfreundlich).

Nur wenige Demonstranten protestierten vor der Absperrung. (20.7.2009)

Als einer ihrer ersten Amtshandlungen hatte die KMT-Regierung nach dem Amtsantritt im Mai 2008 den alten Zustand in der Gedenkhalle wieder hergestellt.

Innenraum der CKS-Halle im März 2008: Zu Füßen des Diktators eine Ausstellung über Taiwans Demokratiebewegung. Die Drachen sollten den "Wind der Freiheit" o.ä. symbolisieren.

Die Gedenkhalle heute: Absperrung statt Ausstellung. Außerdem wurde wieder eine Ehrenwache (nicht im Bild) aufgestellt.

Im Souvenirshop der CKS-Halle gibt es T-Shirts mit dem Diktator zum Auf-der-Brust-Tragen.

KMT-Präsidenten unter sich: Chiang Ching-kuo (1978-88), sein Vater Chiang Kai-shek (bis 1975), Ma Ying-jeou (seit 2008).

While most people consider World War II to have begun with Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939, there had been serious fighting between Japan and China for some time.  In fact, by 1937 (a full two years before Germany’s aggression), the two Asian nations had already been in open conflict (mostly in Manchuria) for six years.

In July 1937, the Japanese used a small skirmish at the Marco Polo Bridge as the impetus for an invasion into northern China and a move on the city of Shanghai.  The Japanese military, trained and conditioned to believe themselves superior, really didn’t expect much of a fight.  So when the battle for Shanghai began with relatively light small-arms fire on August 13, 1937, the Japanese really didn’t expect much of a fight.  In fact, they kind of figured a couple weeks should be enough to suppress resistance in the city.

On the Chinese side, General Chiang Kai-shek had decided that “Battle 813″ (given for 08/13, the starting date) was where his forces would stand and fight.  His goals were two-fold:  push the Japanese out of the city, and bring the plight of the Chinese to the world stage.  He believed a protracted campaign here would at least give him success with the second, if not both.

The battle would last much longer than the Japanese expected, and much less than the Chinese hoped.

MONDAY 072009

I find myself strangely hungry today. It might have to do with my before sleeping workout. Hmm. So we went out for breakfast with my little uncle’s wife, su mu, for soy drink, you tao, and a rice roll.

Next we’re on our way to Hichu in Taoyuan Country where Chang Kai Shek was buried. Took pictures with the guards at the building where he’s supposedly buried. The person working there wiping the sweat for the guards was like you have to take it with both guards cause it’s not polite or whatever. We were already turning and walking, but went back and took the picture. Ha. Awkward. Because the guards aren’t allowed to move, I think I saw the second guard trying to suppress a smile when we walked away. We stayed until the o’clock for them to do the changing of the guards and it lasted for about ten minutes. I took the video below and could only get eight minutes because I lost memory space on my card. My aunt was telling me to go take pictures with the new guards cause they had on different color clothing and were more handsome than the previous two. Haha. No thanks.

Me with guard #2. Haha.

Mom with Little uncle's wife and the numerous head statues in the background that were placed in every school when the person was president

Then we were off to Nai Wan, which was another market place where we had lunch and as we were walking it began to rain pretty hard and the electricity for the stores was out for some time. Hiding from the rain, we happen to stop at a booth with the glass sculpture type things. We started to have a conversation with the boss and then my aunt haggled a glass sheep thing from 500 down to 250 when the guy was only willing to drop it to 300. Haha. Score. We were really waiting for the booth across the road that did the caricature portrait type things. Because of the rain, we ended up not doing it. Bought an ice cream fish head flavor on the way back and then also stopped for some mango ice dessert. Yum.

The guy selling us the glass sheep thing. Forced smile? Haha. Nice guy.

Side note: I finally get to notice how similar my dad is with his little brother, the small uncle, and my mom with her brother. The way they act, their personality, what they like…What happened to us ge? Haha. It must be because the other one is not in Taiwan. Ha.

In times past, I have made half-assed attempts to come up with a refutation of Nigel Harris’ The Mandate of Heaven, an article written in 1978 which attempts to lay out the “history” of the People’s Republic of China and inparticular, the political corruption and tyranny of Mao Zedong. I read this book several years ago after it was brought up during a debate with a Trotkyist fellow. On the surface, it appears to be a book made primarily of hyperbole, rumour and dramatic damnation, but as I read deeper, analyzed its content, traced its sources and in general studied it and its background, I began to see that its factual errors appeared to be outright lies.  During that debate I spent a day or two briefly refuting some of the claims made and vowed later on that I would spend more effort into a larger refutation of it.

Some background: Nigel Harris was a leadership figure in the UK-based Socialist Worker’s Party (SWP), itself an affiliate of the International Socialist Tendency (IST), a Trotskyist “international” composed of various political activists adhering in one form or another to Trotskyism and its ilk. The SWP and the IST were founded by Tony Cliff, whose followers are charged with the monicker “Cliffites”. Today Nigel Harris is a more moderate centre-left political figure, having worked for the World Bank and an activist in such issues as immigration and the arts.

What will follow will be a piece-meal article that I will continually add to as time goes by, as its estimated length will probably require several days of writing. Now, without further pause, let’s begin.

COLLABORATION
Nigel Harris’ first chapter, titled “The Worker’s Revolution”, quickly dives into the peculiarities and nuances of China’s revolutionary periods from 1911 to 1926. In it he describes, in apparent detail, the level of dissaray, chaos and anarchy in China during this period; the state of foreign imperialist domination, the unchecked power of well-armed warlords and mercenary armies, and a fledgeling worker’s movement peering from the stormclouds like a ray of hope and sunshine.

He continues to describe the birth and growth of the Koumintang and the Communist Party of China, and their relations with the Communist International and, by extension, the Soviet Union. He describes how the COMINTERN and, obviously, Stalin, exhuberantly embraced tghe Koumintang and Chiang Kai-Shek as unquestionable revolutionaries and men of progress, and how Chinese communists were strictly ordered to comply with Chiang and the Koumintang at all costs — even if it meant betraying workers and peasants who the KMT would crush on a regular basis.

Several paragraphs are devoted to this bleak outlook; how the KMT crushed fledgeling worker’s organizations and uprisings, banned unions and popular assemblies and routinely purged communists and left-wingers at every turn, an apocalyptic tale of suppression dotted with calls from the COMINTERN to hold their tongue, to not question the KMT for fear of shattering the KMT’s nationalist anti-imperialist alliance.

Throughout, Nigel makes repeated jabs about Stalin’s involvement in the whole affair; his constant subservience to the KMT, his material and financial support and his constant appraisal that the KMT was to China as the Bolshevik Party was to Russia.

This seems a lot to believe. Did the Comintern force the Chinese Communist Party into subservience to the ruling-class-aligned KMT? Did the Chinese Communists pledge unconditional loyalty even as KMT soldiers gunned down striking workers and protesting peasants? Did they conspire to keep a veil of silence over the butchering of China’s workers and peasants?

The chapter seems rife with contradictions. While adamantly claiming that the Communists maintained strict loyalty to the KMT, he explains how at every turn the KMT acted to purge Communists and leftists; were they so blind and helpless that they would line themselves up infront of a KMT firing squad at Stalin’s “orders”?

Of particular note, Harris repeatedly claims that the KMT’s northern expedition — the conquest of villages, towns and cities under the control of warlords — followed a constant and predictable route: First, the Communists would advance, spreading propaganda, organizing the workers and peasants and assembling popular councils and committees to overthrow the warlords and foreign and national bourgeoisie; that the KMT would then come in, suppress the workers and peasants through force, killing countless Communists in the process and secure their own control.

Even as Communists organize and arm self-determined workers, incite them to stand up against oppression and defend themselves with workers’ militias and armed cadres, Harris claims this was all part of the act — that those Communists were heartlessly setting up the workers and peasants, and themselves, to be massacred; in effect, gathering the enemies of the KMT into a clearing to be more easily gunned down with rifle and machinegun.

And this, he claims, was all part of Stalin’s plans. That the author is a Trotskyist seems confirmed in his ability to bring Stalin to blame for each and every anti-worker incident in the whole of China.

There are small amounts of truth in the text — as you’ll soon learn, Harris based much of his writing on facts, albeit facts taken out of context, spliced together and shown in a certain light as to make it seem something it is not. The KMT, for instance, does seem to have had a close relationship with the Bolsheviks in Russia, and the Communist Party of China, during its younger years, did support the KMT in its campaign of national liberation. These are perfectly logical courses of action to take; during the early 1920s the Communist Party, founded in actuality in 1921, contained a tiny number of members in a country with a population in the hundreds of millions. The KMT  for its part was a more-or-less centrist party, more a coalition of various progressive forces in China — from workers, peasants, petit-bourgeois, low-tier landowners and nationalists — who sought, through the KMT, to fight the rampant warlordism and foreign domination which plagued China and promote a central government of national unity. It was, for a time, the only political opponent to this chaos; its thousands of members had experience in China’s earlier revolutionary periods, and its goal — a bourgeois revolution to bring China into the 20th century and rid itself of fuedalism and chaos — was one which should have been supported.

The Communists on their part were a young, but growing force. The period of 1911-1926 in China was one of unprecedented social unrest. China’s tiny proletariat, based primarily in its eastern cities which themselves were the domain of foreign capitalists tapping China’s resources and manpower to produce goods and commodities to send to the west, were in a state of uproar; factories, warhouses and shops went on strike in protest of foreign domination, while peasants rose up against the tyranny of their warlord masters. The Communist Party grew exponentially during this period, tapping into and eventually dominating the underground political scene in the cities and eastern countrysides. Many thousands, and eventually millions, rose up against their bitter shackles and cried out for freedom.

It was a coup d’etat which finally brought the KMT and Communists to blows. As the KMT planned its great Northern Expedition — a military campaign set to recapture important Chinese towns and cities and liberate them from warlordism and foreign domination — it also planned a great purge of its ranks. During the workers uprisings — which it at first supported due to its anti-imperialist nature but then began to oppose due to its anti-bourgeois nature — the KMT would come to realize the danger communism posed to its future ambitions. For the KMT did not seek to liberate the people from exploitation — merely to liberate them from foreign exploiters so that it could become China’s ruling class in its post-revolutionary period. Up until that point, the KMT was a progressive force. China’s self-determination could not be secured without the expulsion of foreign power from Chinese soil, and the defeat of the authoritiless warlords, both of whom the KMT pledged to fight. But it was the KMT, it is true, who struck the first blow against the Communists and the workers movement; in a sudden, almost overnight move, thousands of communists and workers leaders were arrested and executed, and workers uprisings across eastern China were crushed.

We know how this played out as it is written in the halls of the Communist Party’s own history, through documents, letters, messages, propaganda and articles. An alliance with the bourgeois “spirit” of the KMT was never out of the question; Marx himself would write: “Communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things.” Fuedalism, warlordism and foreign domination were the order of things in China during the 1910s and early 1920s and it was the KMT who represented the most developed form of struggle against this sociopolitical order.

Despite this, Mao seems to explicitely refer to the growing dissent within the revolutionary movement — with Chiang and the right-wing of the KMT on the one hand, and the Communists and the left-wing of the KMT on the other — and urges caution for the future during his writings in 1926. He recognized that, while the KMT did, for the moment, represent the pinnacle of progressive movements in China, they did not represent the revolutionary proletariat and exploited peasants. In an article named Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society, written in 1926, he explicitely refers to the enemies of the proletariat — “the warlords, the bureaucrats, the comprador class, the big landlord class and the reactionary section of the intelligentsia attached to them”. This seems to refute the claims that a veil of secrecy was laid over the eyes of communists at the time; that subordination to the KMT (which itself was composed of warlords, beauraucrats, compradors, big landlords and reactionary intellectuals) was the most important thing and that Chiang and the KMT were under no circumstances to be antagonized, criticized or publically called-out.

It is true that during this period there was a rift within the Communist Party itself, between those who wanted to follow Chiang and the KMT and those who held the tenets of revolutionary communism as above all else. Chen Tu-hsiu was a prominent member of the “right-wing” faction who urged the party to comply with Koumintang demands lest the KMT attack. It was primarily these oppurtunists who, ironically, became the victims of the KMT’s purge; they stood hoitily in their fortress of Wunan as frail tailers of the KMT and were easily caught and executed, while more revolutionary men and women, Mao himself included, were participating in activities across the country. It could be said with some amount of accuracy that the KMT purge was more helpful to the party then damaging; like a rampant disease, only the strongest and most determined communists survived.

And while the Comintern and Stalin did not represent foreign generals ordering the Communist Party of China to do this or that, we do know that they did apply pressure to form an alliance with the KMT, and supported the KMT militarily. It is true, afterall, that during the early 20s the KMT defined the progressive revolutionary movement in China. But their support did not amount to a betrayal. Communists were active in nearly every peasant or worker uprising during the late 1920s, and bore the brunt of the KMT’s viscious suppression; and it was the Communists who were the focus of Chiang’s coup and purge in 1927. Uneducated comrades within the Communist Party were caught off-guard, believing that their continued loyalty to the KMT assured their continued protection. Those head-smart comrades survived the purge, and would take up the cause of the revolution that the KMT was in the process of abandoning.

It is impossible to see any real form of “subordination” to the KMT on the part of the Chinese communists. There was co-operation, yes of course, but not blind subordination.

FROM DEFEAT TO VICTORY TO… VICTORY?

Harris’ next chapter deals with the immediate aftermath of the KMT coup of 1927. In brief, it explains the immediate reaction of the Chinese communists and the Comintern: to abandon the workers, abandon the principles of Marxist revolution.

The accusation is bitter and contradictory; Harris goes so far as to claim that the Communist Party’s real defeat came at their own hands and not the KMT; that through their own abandonment of worker solidarity they segregated and alienated themselves from the masses, focusing instead on the growth of their own future power. As he says, “The tactics Communists should follow in such a situation had been outlined at the third Congress of the Communist International in 1921. The party should try to take up the limited material interests of workers through established trade unions, no matter how corrupt their leadership, to build a defensive “united front” of all workers in order to restore their confidence in their capacity for collective action. In Tsarist Russia, the Bolsheviks had survived defeat by such methods.”

This, of course, isn’t quite true. In Tsarist Russia and during the revolutionary period, this was not the established way of things. Not all unions could be worked with, as the Krondstadt “rebellion” showed; the development of workers’ Soviets is not the same as the development, co-operation and “takeover” of trade unions, which are often administered by petit-bourgeois or even capitalists themselves, who turn the workers’ eyes away form the real issue of state control and focus them instead on issues such as benefits and wages and vacation time. This plague, this beauraucratization of unions has only worsened to this day. Unions are seen as little more than a tool for a worker to defend his gains. Not as revolutionary tools; not as tools for change, but rather the opposite, tools to maintain the status quo, to fight change. This reliance on the ineffibility of the official union is a common disease infecting revolutionaries, then as it did now. The Chinese communists were quite correct in their appraisal of the situation; during that period there existed mainly two forms of unions. “Sanctioned” unions which were little more than tools for worker control controlled by thugs and gangsters on the payroll of capitalists; and “yellow unions” (as Harris points out), corrupt, beauraucratic unions which were defeatist and minimalist in nature. To bring about a socialist revolution in China, these tools, which were at the control of the bourgeois, would need to be swept aside; replaced by real organizations of workers and peasants, operating outside of the state’s baleful influence.

And for this reason, according to Harris, the Communist Party fell from grace; not because of the thousands of dead Communists and workers’ leaders, not the purged offices and burnt houses of the KMT’s rage — those events had little to do with it, apparently — but through the Communist’s own inability to realize that it should have given up all hope of national conquest and focused entirely on the plight of the worker and his limited, small-scoped defense against capitalist exploitation.

This was not the way  the Bolsheviks accomplished their success in 1918. On the contrary, the Chinese Communist’s actions bare much more resemblence to Lenin’s actions during the period of the Russian revolution; organizing workers independant of state control; urging those workers to go further than protecting what limited rights they currently had but to fight for more rights; and to secure state control.

Harris is stuck on the old dogmatic principles that every revolution should look exactly like the Russian (or more accurately, should look exactly like how they see the Russian revolution). Differing conditions, socially, politically, economically, have no say in this decree; if the revolution does not follow the steps laid out by Lenin (and Trotsky), then it is not a revolution.

Fortunately, Mao, and other leaders of the Communist Party of China, were much more adaptable then that. They realized that conditions in China were much different than in Russia in 1918. They realized that revolution in China would not come under the command of the Comintern or Russian revolutionaries. They realized that in order to carry out a revolution in China, to fight back against their setbacks at the hands of the KMT, to secure a future for a socialist China, they would have to break the mold, as it were; to create a new revolution, of a new style.

Harris goes on to criticize Mao’s statement, which he quotes: “Only after wiping out comparatively large enemy units and occupying the cities can we arouse the masses on a large scale and build up a unified political power over a number of adjoining counties. Only thus can we arouse the attention of the people far and wide.” And herein this accusation, we find the first questionable use of quotation and sourcing that Harris uses. He continued in his next sentence: “It followed that urban workers became no more than ancillary. The militants of the labour movement were now required to leave the cities as recruits for the partisans.”
Harris’ first quote comes from an article dated January 1930 called “A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire” — a quote famous article in Maoist circles. While Harris claims that the above quote are evidence of the CPC’s abandoning of the urban proletariat, this very article seems to say differently: “…the present task of the Party [here the words "in the big cities" should have been added] is to win over the masses and not to stage immediate insurrections.” it says at one point. “Proletarian leadership is the sole key to victory in the revolution.” It continues: “Therefore, it would be wrong to abandon the struggle in the cities”

Rather than form the ideology that the peasants were the only revolutionary class in China, as many of Mao’s detractors claim (and thus, they say, are proof of the revolution in China not being communist but being bourgeois at best), the Chinese Communists were very adamant in maintaining the dominancy of the urban proletariat, as small as it was, on the revolution; that it was a worker’s revolution in which the peasants would ally themselves with rather than the other way around. Mao would even go on to say: “in our opinion it would also be wrong for any of our Party members to fear the growth of peasant strength lest it should outstrip the workers’ strength and harm the revolution. For in the revolution in semi-colonial China, the peasant struggle must always fail if it does not have the leadership of the workers, but the revolution is never harmed if the peasant struggle outstrips the forces of the workers.” In other words, while leadership of the proletariat is necessary for any Chinese revolution, this does not mean that the revolutionary potential of the peasants should be stiffled or suppressed; if anything, and reflecting the reality of China at the time, the peasants served as a much more powerful and numerically superior revolutionary force than the much smaller proletarian population, which according to their best estimates numbered only around 5,000,000 in all of China’s eastern cities, compared to China’s population of over 300,000,000.

The rest of the chapter deals with the immediate aftermath of the Communist victory in 1949; the various betrayals of the revolution during the 1945-1949 period; and, of course, finds room to include a bit of sectarian damnation of Stalin’s ever-present meddling hand.

Of the more notable accusations are statements that the Communist Party granted amnesty to rich landowners in exchange for their loyalty against the KMT; protecting assets of rich peasants; that the peasants must be bribed to maintain their loyalty to the Communist Party and not the KMT.

A particular quote Harris gives — “the masses in the newly liberated areas will not be able to tell which of the two parties, the Communist party or the Kuomintang, is good and which is bad” – is blatantly taken out of context. The original quote from the original passage is:

“Reduce rent.  In accordance with the November 7, 1945 directive of the Central Committee, all areas must launch movements in 1946 for the reduction of rent and interest in their newly liberated areas, movements on a large scale, of a mass character, but with leadership. As for the workers, their wages should be appropriately raised. Through these movements the broad masses should be able to emancipate themselves, organize, and become the conscious masters of the Liberated Areas. Without these determined measures, the masses in the newly liberated areas will not be able to tell which of the two parties, the Communist Party or the Kuomintang, is good and which is bad;”
Rather than securing domination of the masses by the Party, Mao seems more concerned with emancipating the masses — more accurately, giving the masses the ability to emancipate themselves and lead themselves in the liberated zones. This is telling of the motivation driving the work of the Communist Party — not to become masters of the masses, but to allow the masses to become masters of themselves, with the party serving only as the vanguard, the most advanced portion of the revolutionary movement organizing the defense of that revolution against its outward threats.

To be continued…

A year ago, we discussed the death of General Simon Bolivar Buckner.  In command of the U.S. Tenth Army (comprised of both Army and Marine Divisions), the General had been killed in the closing days of the Battle of Okinawa (on June 18, 1945 to be precise).  He had gone out to visit the front and see a bit of the closing action, but was felled by shell-fire from one of the few remaining Japanese artillery units.

Marine General Roy Geiger took over for the fallen General as a temporary replacement until an Army General could be brought in.  The man chosen was a bit of a surprise.  General Joe Stilwell.  Stilwell had gained fame (or infamy, depending on who one asked) in the jungles of Burma.  In May of 1942, he led (on foot) the exodus from Burma as it was being overrun by the Japanese.  And over the next two-and-a-half years, he worked to retake it and open the Burma Road in order to supply Chiang Kai-Shek’s forces in China.

There was no questioning his military prowess.  In fact, his acceptance of the responsibilities in Southeast Asia probably cost him the chance to have General Dwight Eisenhower’s role in the Mediterranean and Europe…he was that capable.  But Stilwell didn’t mix politics and warfare (a trait sorely needed in Ike’s position), and it got him into immense trouble.

General Stilwell clashed (and clashed badly) with Chiang Kai-shek, considering him to be a corrupt leader with no idea of how to lead an army and no real desire to do so.  Kai-shek constantly hounded President Roosevelt to sack his intolerable subordinate, and get “Vinegar” Joe’s thorn out of his side.  And Roosevelt resisted…until October of 1944.

The President needed to assuage the growing hostility between the two and, since he couldn’t replace the Chinese leader, he replaced his own and Stilwell was out.

Now usually, when a General loses his command, his career is largely over.  He still serves in some capacity, but it usually involves a desk, and the chance at major command is gone.  Stilwell, however, hadn’t lost his job because he had made grievous mistakes as a General.  So when Buckner was killed, Stilwell was the “unnatural” choice to be brought in.  He took over command on June 23, 1945, and served the remainder of the War.

Recommended Reading:  The Burma Road – Webster’s book is a concise, well-written account of the much-ignored, but important theater.

Charles Gregory’s plane went down just like JFK Jr’s plane went down, straight down, killing him, his wife, his seeds just like JFK, Jr! 

Charles Alex Gregory had been an exceedingly brilliant young Black entrepreneur and visionary, A Golden Boy and Jewel of Oakland. He was a naturally born genius, father, gifted musician, lawyer, physicist, financier, philanthropic builder and real estate developer.

In 1972, Gregory graduated from Tuskegee Institute in Alabama with a B.S. in Physics. Before entering law school at Boalt Hall at U.C. Berkeley, Gregory worked in high nuclear physics at the National Accelerator Laboratory in Botavia, Illinois.

After graduating from Boalt Hall in 1975, the multi-genius Gregory developed an interest in urban development and became a successful Oakland housing financier developer and urban planner. Charles wasn’t born into wealth and privilege like JFK, Jr. By his wit, Charles amassed millions worth of properties and assets brick by brick to pioneer in building affordable low income housing developments, shopping centers, educational and business opportunities for Oakland’s poor and disenfranchised.    

Charles was a pioneer in inter-space housing development and federal housing tax credit program financing. Inter-space development involves taking available existing city vacant parcels and lots and building new affordable and low income single and multi-family units on the parcels. The federal housing tax credit program is a means of directing private capital toward the creation of affordable housing. In fact, Gregory had an exclusive development agreement with the City of Oakland to develop at least (10) ten city lots into low-income single family or multi-family units. On the Monday subsequent to his death, Charles had an appointment with the city to sign the formal agreement officially turning over the parcels for development.         

Charles was also leading a campaign to convert the municipally owned West Oakland Acorn Housing/Apartment Project into low-income condos to benefit its Black residents. Charles was also pursuing turning the Clawson Elementary School corridor on the border of Emeryville into a West Oakland shopping center.

In April 1992, Gregory’s plane went down just like John F. Kennedy Jr’s plane went down, straight down, killing him and his young family. Before Gregory’s body was cold, a team of professionals had entered his home and business to remove files, documents, data and compromised his entire computer system by removing the hard drives. They placed his handwritten will in the top drawer of his desk.

After a National Transportation Safety Board investigation, it concluded that the crash was result of pilot error, “flying by the seat of his pants.” Just as in the case of JFK, Jr., the L.A. Times reported “The accident that killed Kennedy was caused by an inexperienced pilot  … the NTSB concluded in its final report” [1]

NTSB’s conclusion was far from the truth. Both JFK, Jr. and Gregory were “cautious and methodical” and experienced pilots. [2]  Gregory had been a holder of a private pilot’s certificate since 1972. At Tuskegee, Gregory flew with the infamous and legendary Tuskegee Airmen of World War II fame. Just as in the case of JFK, Jr., the planes with autopilots are capable of flying itself to within 100 feet of an airport. [3]

What Happened To America’s Golden Boys? WHO BENEFITED? That is a question that should be asked following a political assassination, or even when foul play is suspected.

But why would anyone want to kill John Kennedy Jr.? He was planning to run for National office according to Newsweek and People. He told friends he would have run for Senate in New York, but let Hillary Clinton run instead.

On August 1, 1999, JFK, Jr. had planned to announce, that like his father, he was going to run for President in 2000. His relatives, however, warned him that the U.S. Secret Service would not and could not protect him and they did not protect his father. A JFK, Jr. presidency campaign would have interfered with the plans of Senator Al Gore as well as George W. Bush, and the Dragon Lady Hillary Clinton.

Senate or the presidency, JFK, Jr. would have won. He was the one of the most popular men in America. From most accounts, despite his wealth and privilege, JFK, Jr was a truly down to earth just individual like Robert F. Kennedy. He acknowledged a conspiracy in his father’s death. He published an article by Oliver Stone, in his magazine, George, about assassinations, conspiracies, and lying history books. Who would want to kill him? The people who killed his father had to kill him. JFK, Jr. was going to go after them.

The City of Oakland has a deadly dark side that Charles didn’t seem to realize until it was too late. Oakland has a secret evil anti-man “doppelganger.” [4] When Sovereign Grand Commander Albert Pike visited Oakland in 1883, [5] he came to plant a seed and initiate 12 Oakland men into the “Luciferian Doctrine, and the Secret Doctrine.”[6]  

Albert Pike was a Confederate Brigadier General who had been sentenced to death for treason during the Civil War in conspiring in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln [7] until another president by the name of Johnson, Andrew Johnson, pardoned him. Immediately upon Pike’s release, President Johnson subsequently received masonry degrees 4 through 32 in one night in 1867. Sovereign Grand Commander Pike was also one of founding fathers of the Ku Klux Klan in Tennessee. [8]

The Masonic Brethren planned to use the Civil War and the assassination of Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy to strengthen their power over the American government and its people. They represented the invisible government, and were a law among themselves like Hitler’s Vehm. Writer Allen E. Roberts wrote in his book about freemasonry “The Craft’s relationship to any nation was clearly explained at the time of the Civil War 1861 letter from the Grand Lodge of York Masons in Pennsylvania to their counterparts in Tennessee. The letter said, “Masonry is as old as government. It constitutes a government in itself. Masonry is sovereignty and a law unto itself. It knows nothing but the principles and teachings of its faith.”[9] Just like the Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler’s SS (Schutzstaffel).

For decades, the city has had an unmerciful subversive invisible unholy alliance where governmental agencies, officials (Alameda County Mafia) and police have worked hand in hand in combination with the mob and secret societies in corruption, and stifle the legitimate will and happiness of the people by brute lethal repression, assassinations, terrorism, a law unto itself.

Why would anyone want to kill Charles Alex Gregory and his innocent family? Who benefited from his death?

OAKLAND’S SECRET CRIMINAL SOCIETIES: THE TRIADS

In 1977, by a majority, Black residents elected Lionel J. Wilson (1923-1998) as the first Black mayor of the City of Oakland. Unbeknown to the majority of his constituents, one of the first things that Wilson did was to go to China and recruit as a matter of city policy Hong Kong financiers and corporations who were fleeing the end of British rule in the colony, which included China’s ancient secret criminal societies, the Triads. In Hong Kong under British rule, the Triads reportedly entered all levels of society, wielding influence everywhere from politics to the film industry.

The term ‘Triad’ was given by the Hong Kong government to Chinese secret societies based on the triangular symbol which once represented such societies. The symbol is the Chinese character ‘Hung,’ encased in a triangle, representing the union of heaven, earth, and man. So Triads even today are sometimes referred to as the ‘Hung Society’ or the ‘Heaven and Earth Society.’ [10]

By 1970, there were more than 30 Triad societies in Hong Kong, some groups numbering less than 40 persons who knew one another on an individual basis and other groups including as many as 28,000 members. The three largest groups were the Wo Shing Wo, the Chiu Chau, and 14K. [11] More than any others, Chiang Kai-shek’s faction of the 14K would have found itself perfectly at home in Oakland

Chiang Kai-shek was the Generalissimo of the Republic of China (Mainland China) before the Red Chinese takeover in 1948. Chiang Kai-shek had encouraged the foundation of 14K. It was established at 14-K Po Wah Road, Canton, China in 1945 to marshal the forces of secret societies against communism, and the Mao Zedong’s Red Army after the defeat of Japan. 

The Generalissimo was a fascist and fanatic anti-communism. After being overran, he retreated to the Island of Formosa and reformed the Republic of China on the island which became Taiwan. On the Island of Taiwan, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek set himself up as the Director/General of the Kuomintang Army, and President of the Republic of China in exile.

Chiang’s blatant connections with the Triads in the days of his control of Mainland China were well authenticated. He ordered a million of his followers indoctrinated in Triad principles between 1946 and 1949. These agents were to continue Triad policies in deeply covert connections with some of the Tongs in the United States and Europe after the Republic of China’s migration to Taiwan.

Much of the illegal activity occurring in the Far East was attributed to control from Taiwan. Several officials fled from Hong Kong to Taiwan when the Royal Hong Kong Police caught on to the game after forming their Anti-Triad Unit in 1956. There was no extradition from the Republic of China, and most of the wanted subjects already had Taiwan Triad connections.

Chiang had begun to exploit his Triad connections in Shanghai in 1927, where he built up enormous caches of gold from drug sales, gambling, loan sharking and prostitution. These illicit funds were later used by his Triad-oriented adherents to bargain with and buy off officials of other nations in a bid to maintain Taiwan’s international recognition as the only legitimate seat of Chinese government.

Chiang Kai-shek and Taiwan’s greatest benefactor and lobbyist was Senator William F. Knowland, Editor/Owner of the Oakland Tribune. So much so, Knowland was often referred to as the “Senator from Formosa (Taiwan).” With Senator Knowland as a leader of the China Lobby, Congress passed the Mutual Defense Treaty with Taiwan. In 1954, U.S. President Harry Truman was forced into a threatened nuclear war confrontation with Red China if Chiang Kai-shek’s Republic of China in Taiwan was attacked. [12]

There are over thirty subgroups to the 14K, and it remains one of the most powerful triads internationally devoted to the traditional pursuits of organized crime such as smuggling, gambling, kidnapping, drug trafficking, murder, robbery, prostitution, and extortion. [13]

According to the 2004 annual report of organized crime in California prepared by the Department of Justice, Department of Justice/Division of Law Enforcement /Criminal Intelligence Division, between 1995 and 1996, approximately 125 individuals were involved in 11 computer business takeover robberies in California. This organized crime group, Triads, operates in San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, Stockton, Los Angeles, San Diego, and other major cities in the United States, China, and Thailand. Criminal intelligence sources indicate that this group has an international hierarchical organizational structure, consisting of bosses, crew chiefs, lieutenants, and soldiers. The bosses orchestrate and direct armed robberies after receiving orders for specific computer components from the buyers. The bosses are so well insulated that many of the group’s members are unaware of their identities. In April 1996, this joint investigative effort led to the indictment and arrest of seven subjects on violations of the Federal Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization (RICO) statute and conspiracy to interfere with interstate commerce by threat under the Hobbs Act. As a result of the criminal intelligence gathered during this investigation, two murder cases and several armed robbery cases were solved. [14]

In Oakland, the Triads as in Hong Kong have embedded themselves in most levels of Bay Area society, wielding influence everywhere in the affairs of state. Triads are difficult to break because everybody gets a piece of the action, even their Black collaborators and facilitators.

THE BLACK Facilitators: virtual murrell & The oakland redevelopment advisory committee

The Oakland Bay Area has one of the largest concentrations of some of the most traitorous and dangerous backstabbing cut throat Black Police, CIA, FBI and military intelligence contractors, informers and agent provocateurs in the country. 

Most of the organized criminal activity of the Triads, corruption in the affairs of the state, and clandestine police CIA, FBI and military intelligence operations such as assassinations would not be successful without the dynamic cooperation and collaboration of Black Facilitators.

Just before his death, Gregory had been a leading minority real estate developer bidder on developing Victoria Court Development of the Oak Center Redevelopment Project on 14^th & Adeline Street in West Oakland. [15]

The Victoria Project was a multi-million dollar housing development. Gregory Development was planning building multiple low income affordable condos on land owned by the city.  Gregory had offered to fully fund the project and build the units independently without municipal funding and bonding. Gregory had to win final approval from the Oakland Redevelopment Advisory Committee (ORAC).

Gregory had vowed not to play back door politics to win bids to develop West Oakland low income housing projects for its residents, which probably brought him into the crosshairs of the wolves of the Alameda County Mafia, and the Triads.

The authority to establish a redevelopment agency is granted by the Community Development Law of the State of California. Every city or county within the state may establish a redevelopment agency by adopting an ordinance declaring the need for such within the jurisdiction. In the City of Oakland, as in most California communities, the City Council serves as the local Redevelopment Agency (RDA). 

The ORAC serves as a state mandated community-citizen clearing house to make recommendations to RDA to fund selected projects within a redevelopment area. Redevelopment funds are a deep well of extremely contentious financial capital, where all the wolves and cut throats gather.

 California’s 400 plus community redevelopment agencies generate more housing subsidies than any other group in California. Redevelopment agencies reported that they deposited nearly $1.1 billion into their housing set-aside funds during Fiscal Year 2002-3. At the end of the year, the total equity in the RDA housing funds exceeded $2.2 billion. [16]

In 1992, Virtual Murrell was a key gatekeeper to Oakland’s deep well of redevelopment capital. Murrell had been appointed to the committee by Mayor Elihu Harris. Virtual Murrell a.k.a Virgil Murrell was ORAC’s chairperson. Murrell was an aide to City Councilman Leo Bazile. I had known of Virgil at old Merritt Jr. College with Soul Students Advisory Council. The word on the street then was that Murrell was an opportunist that couldn’t be trusted.

I was among the first members to be purged from the Black Panther Party for Self Defense in 1969 along with the notable Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown. To my surprise, Virgil Murrell initiated the purge as part of the governing body of the Black Panther Party (Central Committee). I had been with the panthers since 1967. I didn’t know Virgil had been on the Central Committee. My impression was that the Great Purge of 1969 was the doings of the late Attorney Charles Garry and benefited COINTELPRO, Project CHAOS, and Nixon’s Huston Plan.

After the purge of the old members, the panthers formed a “Goon Squad”. The Goon Squad was a death squad with a license to kill setup to control public opinion, and silence us. At old Merritt Jr. College, the Goon Squad engaged in a well publicized attack on Professor Fritz Pointer in this classroom for criticizing the new panthers. Fritz was the well respected and beloved brother of the Pointer Sisters, and the community. To my surprise, Charles Garry showed up in court to defend the Goon Squad. We didn’t know at the time, but Garry was a running dog for military intelligence asset Mobster Joseph Bonanno, Sr. [17]

Joe Bonanno engineered and directed the major drug connection between the Sicilian and U.S. Mafias and remained an active partner with gangsters Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Santo Trafficante, and Carlos Marcello in the Syndicate’s heroin operations. When a Mafia friend and key government witness testified about the death of mobster Johnny Rosselli in the investigation of the assassination of JFK and the involvement of Trafficante in that death, Bonanno had that witness killed. One of the key conspirators in the post-JFK assassination cover-up was Joe Bonanno, Sr. [18]

In 1973, Garry appeared to be Dr. Marcus Foster’s control agent. Garry was actually a double agent watching Dr. Foster. Garry was a setup to protect and shield military intelligence assets, operations and agents. Garry had also been SLA Thero Wheeler’s attorney. In 1976, Garry became Jim Jones’ attorney. Garry was intimately involved in developing cover for the CIA mind control and medical experiment settlement, and the mass murder in Jonestown, Guyana.

In 1995, Murrell pled guilty in federal court to violating the Hobbs Act. Murrell had been shaking down local real estate developers such as Gregory Construction in return for official acts and preferential treatment before ORAC. Murrell was also living rent-free in some type of safe/party house in the Berkeley Hills controlled by William Dallas. Dallas’ firm (Lucas Dallas, Inc.) was involved in a multi-million dollar development proposal (Housewives’ Market Project) with ORAC and the City of Oakland.
 
William Dallas was actually a covert cutout laundering money for the Hong Kong/Chinese Triads. Members of the California Fair Political Practices Commission said that Dallas was part of ``the largest campaign money-laundering scheme in the history of the state of California.'' [19]       

Sue Associates, an Oakland-based architecture and planning firm, and co-owner Amy Sue, committed campaign disclosure violations by acting as intermediaries when they laundered campaign contributions for William Dallas made to four candidates for Oakland City Council totaling $56,000. [20]

Part of Murrell’s pled agreement was that he would name names and provide details of the fraud, corruption and Triad connections on ORAC and the City of Oakland. Murrell was shipped out for a year to a federal prison resort in Michigan for white collar criminals, but the government failed to pursue the investigation of ORAC, the Alameda County Mafia and the City of Oakland.

In 2006, Murrell’s name surfaced again when a federal grand jury issued a subpoena to Oakland’s Peralta Community College District for records regarding Virtual Murrell investigating real estate developer Alan Dones and his dealings with the District. [21]

THE BLACK Facilitators: the Dones-Grigsby-Guillory (Barbara lee) combine

Sitting at the well of about 60 million dollars in subsidized funds for Oakland’s Uptown Redevelopment Project [22] was Strategic Urban Development Alliance (SUDA).

Alan Dones is the managing partner of the Oakland development firm SUDA. The Oakland-based partnership, SUDA, is co-owned by Don Perata’s old friend San Francisco financier Calvin Grigsby. Grigsby is also part of the “Good Ole Boys” Boalt Hall connection graduating from the law school in 1974 or 1975. [23]

In 1996, Grigsby, former CEO of Grigsby, Brandford & Co. was charged in Miami with bribery and using his bond business to steal more than $1 million in public funds to finance everything from political contributions to expensive cars and Super Bowl tickets.

Subsequent to a 1992 deep cover investigation by former Miami-Dade County Commissioner, Joe Gersten, of racketeering, drug trafficking and money laundering at the Port of Miami[24], seaport boss Carman Lunetta and Gribsby were indicted on 10 counts of embezzlement and money-laundering. [25]

The Miami Herald reported:

“Billions of dollars in illegal drugs are pouring into South Florida every year, according to a new state report. It seems that drug smugglers are getting inside help at the Port of Miami…” [26]

Lunetta and his running dog Grigsby were running the Port of Miami. The charges against Lunetta and Grigsby included large illegal donations to the Democratic National Committee in Washington.  Grigsby is a master deal maker whose firms have made about $340,000 in campaign donations around the United States during the late 1980’s. Grigsby is a native son of Bill Clinton’s hometown, Hope, Arkansas. [27]

In 1995, Grigsby firm ran $1.2 billion in bond issues, according to the Securities Data Co. In 1996, Grigsby was a trustee of the Democratic National Committee and President Clinton’s appointee to a U.S. economic mission to Albania. Grigsby was a guest of the late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown on a trade mission to China. Grigsby is a longtime friend of San Francisco’s Mayor Brown.

Grigsby Miami cohort, Mobster Carman Lunetta [28], one of the most powerful bureaucrats in Dade County, organized the largest Clinton-Gore fundraiser ever held outside Washington, which raised 3.4 million dollars. Lunetta was a quest of one of Vice-President Al Gore’s fundraiser on December 15, 1995. These frequently illegal gatherings-where government favors and contributors to the Democratic Party were exchanged blew up into what was dubbed “Coffeegate”. Coffeegate almost earned Gore a special prosecutor, but Attorney General Janet Reno eventually decided against it. Instead, Reno and FBI went after Whistleblower Joe Gersten to send him to prison on false capital murder charges, which resulted in a special 2001 congressional investigation of Janet Reno and the prosecutors. [29]

In 1999, a federal judge not a jury in Miami threw out the embezzlement charges, but the damage of the trial and declining business compelled Grigsby to shut down his investment bank, but Grigsby proved to be a fish too big to fry and soon was back to his old influence peddling business in Oakland.

Done and Grigsby’s partner on SUDA is John Lee Guillory. Guillory is Congressperson Barbara Lee’s cutoff on SUDA. At sometime prior to 2000, Congressperson Lee sold her main firm, Sentinel, Inc., to Guilltone Properties on some type of installment payment agreement. Guilltone Properties happens to be John Lee Guillory. [30] As part of the installment agreement, Guillory makes regular payments to Congressperson Lee, and employees of Guilltone Properties funnel money into Lee’s campaign. [31]

In 2000 after unloading Sentinel, Guilltone Properties was setup with federal contracts with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in the sum of $2,510,000, and Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service for $564,000, totaling $3,074,000 in federal contracts. [32]

A senior Peralta official speculated that the feds want Dones in order to get to Lily Hu, one of his lobbyists, who is tight with state Senate president Don Perata. The Peralta official suggested that if Dones implicates Hu in wrongdoing, the feds can pressure her to snitch on Perata. [33]

The federal probe into the Dones-Grigsby-Guillory combine may not be that simple, Lily Hu had also been on Dones, Grigsby, and Guillory’s payroll. Additionally since 2000, the various members of the Dones-Grigsby-Guillory team have donated at least $66,900 to Don Perata and a variety of campaign committees associated with him.

In 2004, the city of Oakland adopted the final EIR for the multi-million dollar Forest City Project (Uptown Redevelopment Project), which covered several blocks between 18th and 21st streets, and Telegraph and San Pablo avenues. The project featured more than 200 residential units, a governmental building, and some retail, plus the potential for 1500 high rise condominiums. With the collaboration of Hu, the multi-million dollar Forest City ($187 Million) project was awarded to Dones-Grigsby-Guillory’s SUDA.

Prior to the election of a Democratic President Barak Obama, the Dones-Grigsby-Guillory combine, Don Perata and cohort Lily Hu were all under a federal grand jury investigation for violations of the Hobbs Act and federal anti-racketeering statutes, and maybe even murder. [34]

Lily Hu is a Taiwanese National that rocketed into Oakland’s crooked governmental affairs in about 1994. Hu learned the Oakland inside loyalist trade from a successful Black entrepreneur, Frank Wishom. After giving up all his secrets and inside information, Hu kicked Wishom to the curb.

In 2003, Wishom went to the FBI as revenge. It is unclear exactly what Wishom told the FBI in regards to Hu’s Chinese Triad connections. Within months, Wishom was dead. Whatever was left of his wealth, papers, and personal belongings, Hu seized it by a 1998 will which left everything to her leaving Wishom’s daughters of his body without an inheritance. Before his death, “Good Ole Girl” from the Boalt Hall Connection, Fayedine Coulter, had been stealthy implanted into Wishom’s confidence as a potential bankruptcy attorney.

THE BLACK Facilitators: attorney fayedine coulter  

Along with John Burris, John Grigsby, Earl Warren, D. Lowell Jensen, Edwin Meese; Thomas Jensen, and DA Thomas Orloff, Fayedine Coulter is a 1976-77 graduate of U.C. Berkeley’s Boalt Hall’s “Good Ole Boys Club” forever loyal to the Alameda County Mafia, the Military-Industrial-Medical-Congressional Complex, and Lucifer’s servants. [35]

The motive that Chauncey Bailey was killed to stop him from exposing the financial woes of YBMB was/is a false flag. A key to setting up the false flag for Chauncey’s assassination and the final fall of bakery enterprise was the appearance of Attorney Fayedine Coulter.

On October 24, 2006, Coulter filed a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition forYour Black Muslim Bakery (YBMB). As YBMB’s bankruptcy attorney, Coulter had the entire inside and outside web of information and documentation regarding the entire financial affairs of YBMB. [36]

If Chauncey had been setup to obtain confidential documents regarding YBMB’s confidential financial affairs, who would obviously have been the source? “Good Ole Girl” Fayedine Coulter.

After the death of Chauncey, the bankruptcy court forced YBMB into an involuntary Chapter 7 then completed the total liquidation and the Final Fall of YBMB. Coulter conveniently and quietly slipped underneath the foliage like a snake for her next dirty operation for the Alameda County Mafia, the Military-Industrial-Medical-Congressional Complex, and Lucifer’s servants

In Wishom’s case, Coulter was able to quietly further shield the entire inside and outside web of information and documentation regarding the entire corrupt financial affairs of the Dones-Grigsby-Guillory combine, Don Peralta and cohort Lily Hu, the Alameda County Mafia, and the Hong Kong Triads. [37]

Like a snake in the grass, Coulter has currently quietly crawled into the Final Fall of the Estate of Charles Alex Gregory to try to finally destroy his name, legacy and immediate family in Oakland. [38]

Oakland Redevelopment Advisory Committee & THE TRIADS

Anchored at 1975 Telegraph Avenue of the Foster City (Uptown) Project was David Ho Yin Lee. Lee opened Cybelle’s Pizza at the site. Lee had advanced notice of the project and land grabbed the property to reap a handsome profit when the project was officially infused with redevelopment money. Lee was part of the Chinese Triad Criminal Network in Oakland and San Francisco. Lee’s triad collaborator on ORAC with Virtual Murrell was Franklin Young a.k.a Franklin Doung. Young had been placed on ORAC by Elihu Harris at sometime before 1992.

I suspect that if anyone would check, you’ll find that most of the people that bought property between 18th and 21st streets and Telegraph and San Pablo avenues before the Forest City Project (Uptown Redevelopment Project) was officially announced in 2000 were Hong Kong Triad syndicate members land grabbing properties to reap the profits from the well of redevelopment federal/state and city money.

In 1995, while Murrell was being packed off to prison, Young and Lee were indicted by the federal grand jury under anti-racketeering statutes for conspiracy in an ongoing criminal enterprise. Lee, the local boss of the enterprise, was running drugs out of his Cybelle’s Pizza restaurants in Oakland and Berkeley at 1050 Gilman Street.

Young and Lee were also running a burglary ring specializing in ripping off truckloads of computers for the Chinese international syndicates. They employed Black and Latino drug addicts as cutouts for their dirty work. Two of their cutouts, Deshane Stuart and Arthur Luis Martinez, were busted in a laptop computer caper that bagged a truckload shipment of brand new Toshiba Laptops. Stuart and Martinez took the truckload shipment of computers directly to the Port of Oakland. Lee loaded the trailer with the laptops from the truck on a container ship bound for Hong Kong, China.

Meanwhile, John Burris of the “Good Ole Boys” Boalt Hall connection moved in as Franklin Young’s defense counsel to shield the Triad.

Young and Lee received sentences of 37 months each, about 3 years; in federal prison. Nevertheless both Young and Lee refused to cooperate in breaking the Triad ring and recovering the stolen computers. Their hapless pasties, Arthur Luis Martinez received 30 months, and Deshane Stuart received 37 months even though both Martinez and Stuart fully cooperated in prosecuting Triad ringleaders, Young and Lee.

Whereas, by the time the Foster City (Uptown) Project was officially approved and infused with about $60,000,000 redevelopment funds Lee was out of prison to collect. The City of Oakland paid Lee handsomely in public redevelopment capital for 1975 Telegraph and for everything in Cybelle’s Pizza including the furniture and fixtures.  

There is no statute of limitations for murder!

Former Miami-Dade County Commissioner, Joe Gersten, was from a South Florida prominent family of lawyers and judges. Even with the power of his family, they were unable to protect him. Gersten, like a normal citizen, went to the FBI with evidence of Lunnetta and Grigsby’s corruption at the Port of Miami under an assumption in psycho-analytical terms of mental aberrations, behaviorism and relativity of morals. According to congressional findings, the FBI paid crack addicts to falsely frame Gersten for killing a transvestite at a local crack house. In combination with the U.S. Justice Department, Gersten was setup to spend life in prison. Gersten left the country and safety settled in Australia.  

In Oakland, Charles was surrounded by a pack of wolves and cut throats at the deep pool of redevelopment capital. We have no evidence that Charles went to the FBI regarding ORAC’s corruption, because nobody seems to know who Charles Alex Gregory or Gregory Construction, Inc. is or were. Nevertheless Gregory Construction, Inc. has been in the real estate development business in Oakland for almost 20 years. Nevertheless on the Monday just subsequent to his death, Charles had an appointment with the city to sign a formal land development agreement to officially (inter-space development) develop at least 10 (ten) parcels for the city. Nevertheless, Gregory Construction, Inc. immediately subsequent to his death was the leading real estate developer on track to build a multi-million dollar condo development (Victoria Courts) in West Oakland. Nevertheless, Charles was the leading proponent to develop a major West Oakland shopping center, and transmute Oakland’s Acorn Project into privately owned and financed condos. Nevertheless, Gregory Construction, Inc. developed an entire award winning low income housing tract (Beautiful Elmhurst) in the City of Oakland.  Repeated requests to the city and state pursuant to the Public Records Act regarding Charles Alex Gregory or Gregory Construction, Inc. have come back negative.

Almost 12 (twelve) years after Virtual Murrell was sent to federal prison for public corruption in Oakland, as early as 2006, a federal investigation continues into Murrell’s connections to Oakland’s corrupt redevelopment finances and players surrounding it. 

Almost 15 (fifteen) years after Gregory’s plane down, the City of Oakland is continuing to destroy documents regarding its redevelopment affairs. People are asking questions and want answers regarding the den of corruption surrounding the public’s redevelopment capital, which included Chauncey Bailey.

Subsequent to his assassination on August 2, 2007, “Bailey had also sought answers from Brown and City Attorney John Russo concerning Brown’s destruction of police and economic development records prior to his departure from the mayor’s office.” [39]

Some parties are still interested in breaking the pack of wolves’ stranglehold on the affairs of the City of Oakland. What do the City of Oakland, Alameda County Mafia and the “Good Ole Boys” Boalt Hall Connection have to hide in regards to the assassination of Charles Alex Gregory and his innocent family?

Charles Alex Gregory was a shining prince of his people, and a Golden Family Jewel of Oakland that I will never forget or betray.

There is no statute of limitations for murder!

[2] http://john-f-kennedy-jr.com/murdered.htm

[3] Id.

[4] See Ravenscroft, Trevor, The Spear of Destiny, Samuel Weiser, Inc. York Beach, ME (1973)

[5] http://www.scottishritecalifornia.org/about_us!6.htm

[6] http://www.geocities.com/endtimedeception/worship.htm

[7] http://www.rense.com/general76/MAA1K.HTM

[8] http:// itwasjohnson.impiousdigest.com/fox.htm

[9] Roberts, Allen E., A House Undivided, The Story of Freemasonry and the Civil War, 1961, pp. 33-35

[10] http://www.illuminatedlantern.com/cinema/archives/triads.php

[11] http://www.brockmorris.com/btigers/btigers08-3.html

[12] http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/HH17Ad01.html

[13] http://ag.ca.gov/publications/org_crime2004.pdf

[14] http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/docs/orgcrm96.pdf

[15] Oakland Redevelopment Agency Resolution No. 93-39 C.M.S. (6/29/93)

[16] http://www.hcd.ca.gov/rda/

[17] http://www.newsmakingnews.com/torbitt.htm

[18] http://www.kenrahn.com/jfk/the_critics/evica/Perfect_cover.html

[19] http://www.sfgate.com/c/a/1995/01/06/mn13854.dtl

[20] http://www.fppc.ca.gov/index.html?id=178

[21] http://www.berkeleydaily.org/issue/2006-12-15/article/25876?headline=Peralta-Faces-Funding-Cuts-Federal-Investigation

[22] http://www.abetteroakland.com/what-is-the-city-of-oaklands-subsidy-to-forest-citys-uptown-project/2008-11-08

[23] http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/e/a/1996/03/31/NEWS11506.dtl&hw=Proposition+prostitution&sn=142&sc=123

[24] http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/03/us/old-foe-of-reno-revives-a-miami-fugitive-s-case.html

[25] http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/msg53150.html

[26] Id.

[27] Id. At footnote 14

[28] http://www.miamibeach411.com/news/index.php?/news/comments/most-corrupt/

[29] http://bulk.resource.org/gpo.gov/hearings/107h/76596.pdf

[30] http://www.fedvendor.com/contractor/PRO000000000P0161178/profile.htm

[31] http://watchdog.net/empl/guilltone%20properties

[32] http://www.fedspending.org/fpds/fpds.php?parent_id=136527&detail=-1

[33] http://www.eastbayexpress.com/news/dones__deal/Content?oid=312751

[34] Id.

[35] http://princeraystore.com/about/johnny-come-lately-the-alameda-county-mafia/

[36] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Your_Black_Muslim_Bakery

[37] http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/PrintFriendly?oid=288227

[38] Alameda County Superior Court, Case No. RG07-343536

[39] http://www.sfbayview.com/2009/coverage-of-chauncey-bailey-case-dramatizes-need-for-black-media/

The Generalissimo’s review was one of my best, and it was certainly the longest at 850+ words. I considered the book to be so important that I pitched it to an international newspaper. They initially gave me approval to proceed and to do a final edit for them to publish it. Then they discovered my review for my company online and called me, accusing me of being unethical by giving them a ‘reprint.’ I was confused momentarily and I gave the editor a stunningly inept reply on the phone that I didn’t know it was wrong. What I should have said was that my reviews on the book were different, to the point that over half of my submitted review to them were fully different (my overall view was the same) from the review for my company. I recovered my wits to email them an explanation, twice, and invited them to compare my articles. I gto polite replies but basically their initial denial stood.

Here is the version of The Generalissimo that I sent them and you can compare it to my company version in the post below to see if it is the same.

Over the past year, significant progress has been made in ties between China and Taiwan. Few modern historical figures may have gotten such a tarnished reputation as their former leader, the late Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang is remembered by many as an inept leader for losing China to Mao Tse-tung’s Communists after the Chinese Civil War. Even on Taiwan, Chiang suffered the posthumous ignominy of having his own memorial hall renamed.

Jay Taylor’s The Generalissimo offers an extensively-researched portrayal which is more balanced, complex and in-depth than others, and succeeds in presenting a better understanding and appreciation of Chiang. This epic volume covers the whole span of Chiang’s life from his youth to his rise to leader of China and finally, his twilight years in Taiwan.

Chiang has been accused of many things, such as deliberately not fighting the Japanese during World War II and for being an incompetent leader. He is also widely detested by many in Taiwan who perceive him as a tyrant.

In reality, many of these criticisms are unfair or unfounded. As the book makes clear, Chiang was a leader who was forced to face significant adverse political, military and economic obstacles, both internal and external, virtually though-out much of his reign on China and later, Taiwan.

Chiang had the striking misfortune of having to fight three major foes, almost consecutively over three decades from the late 1920s to 1949: Chinese warlords, the Communists, who he fought twice, and the Japanese. Chiang was unable to conduct needed land and economic reforms, maintain stability or deal with problems like corruption.

As Taylor correctly states, Chiang always held a weak hand in dealing with enemies and allies alike after 1937. Even before that, the fight against the Communists and the challenges of reuniting China after it had been a collection of fiefdoms ruled by warlords for most of the preceding two decades, prevented Chiang from ever consolidating government control.

Much criticism of Chiang has been made over his supposed refusal to fight the Japanese after they invaded, instead conserving his forces to fight Mao’s Communists. It is true that Chiang believed that the Communists were the greater threat, but Chiang lost more than three million men fighting the Japanese army. In contrast, the Communists hardly fought significant campaigns against Japan and from 1937-1944, they only lost a little over 100,000 men. Not only did Mao not fully commit to fighting the Japanese, but Mao was very intent on defeating Chiang, despite their supposed partnership.

Taylor’s detailed exchanges do well to show the inefficient support and even obstruction from the U.S. that illustrate the near hopelessness of Chiang’s position. The difficult relationship between Chiang and his American chief of staff  Joseph Stilwell is well-known. Taylor reveals the depth of mistrust, arrogance and malice that Stilwell showed towards Chiang. Referring to Chiang as “Peanut” in his journals and openly among his staff, Stilwell’s harsh and often misleading reports on Chiang to superiors such as Army chief of staff George Marshall had dire consequences on American support to China during WWII.

This inefficient support extended to the Civil War, where flawed advice and insufficient aid from the Americans influenced Chiang to make terrible military decisions against the Communists, who enjoyed strong aid from the Soviets.

Far from being ignorant about international affairs, a prescient Chiang foresaw the onset of the Cold War and the French and U.S. failures in Vietnam. Contrary to popular belief, he did not genuinely believe he could retake China, but expressing this intention was a “matter of appearances, psychology and domestic morale.”

It would be unwise to shift the blame for Chiang’s problems to external circumstances. His flaws are detailed such as stubbornness, excessive self-belief and a tolerance of corruption which he saw as a problem to be faced only after national unity was achieved.

However it is unquestioned that he faced almost insurmountable odds on a continuous basis during his entire rule in China, which no leader could be seen to have prevailed.

Whilst Chiang’s rule on Taiwan was authoritarian, it was not brutal or dysfunctional. Reforms carried out under him led to today’s Taiwan, a testament to his cherished dream of a modern, stable and vibrant Chinese society, which he was not able to realize on the mainland.

History is usually written by the victors and seems to have dealt Chiang a cruel hand.

But in the end, though Chiang lost to Mao and had to flee the country he loved, it is his (and his mentor Sun Yat-sen’s) vision which is thriving on Taiwan, whilst China is moving further and further away from Mao’s. Time will tell if China will become more like Taiwan as relations between them improve. In this case, it will be Chiang who can be seen to be the ultimate victor.