From the kuomintang's great defeat in 1949 to the Wang-Koo talks in 1992, the two sides of the taiwan strait have experienced 42 years of great changes. From isolation to exchanges, from a family letter to the first handshake, what vicissitudes have Taiwan and the mainland experienced?
For the video of this article, please click on "40 Years of Cross-Straits"
01 A letter from home
On the afternoon of December 10, 1949, Chiang Kai-shek boarded the "Sino-USs" plane at The Phoenix Mountain Airport in Chengdu, and the Chiang dynasty, which had ruled China for 22 years, withdrew from Taiwan. The father and son of the Jiang family did not expect that they would never set foot on the land of the mainland again in this life. With the defeat and retreat of the Chiang Kai-shek clique, the two sides of the taiwan strait began a long confrontation.
After that, the Kuomintang began to plot a counterattack on the mainland, and in the name of "guarding against espionage and secrecy and safeguarding Taiwan's security," it blockaded the Taiwan Strait, banned cross-strait exchanges, declared martial law in various parts of the island, and carried out a terrible "hatred of the communists" education in Taiwan, and society was in an extremely uneasy situation.
In the early 1970s, Chen Lifu, a kuomintang veteran who had long lived in the United States, published several articles in Hong Kong newspapers and periodicals under the pseudonym, actively calling for the two parties to negotiate again. After Chen Lifu returned to Taiwan, Chiang Ching-kuo visited him every week and entrusted him with promoting exchanges between Taiwan and the mainland.
In April 1975, Chiang Kai-shek died of illness, and Taiwan entered the Chiang Ching-kuo period. On December 16, 1978, China and the United States simultaneously issued a communiqué on the establishment of diplomatic relations. In its communiqué, the United States Government recognized that the Government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legitimate Government of China and that Taiwan is part of China.
On New Year's Day 1979, China and the United States formally established diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level. The US Government announced that it would sever diplomacy with Taiwan, terminate the US-Taiwan Mutual Defense Treaty, and withdraw US troops stationed in Taiwan within the year.
On the same day, the Chinese Government issued a "Message to Taiwan Compatriots," declaring its efforts to realize the peaceful reunification of the motherland. Defense Minister Xu Xiangqian made a speech to end the PLA's shelling of Kinmen and other islands.
In the face of the mainland's policy of peaceful reunification, Chiang Ching-kuo replaced the slogan of "counter-attacking the mainland" with the phrase "three people's principles to unify China," but still practiced the "three noes policy" of no contact, no negotiation, and no compromise with the mainland, prohibiting the People of Taiwan from traveling to and from the mainland, strictly prohibiting the people on the island from discussing the issue of peaceful reunification, and issuing various prohibitions to prohibit commerce, tourism, and other activities between Taiwan and the mainland, thus causing cross-strait relations to remain isolated for a long time.
Many Kuomintang veterans braved the high-handed policies of the Taiwan authorities and chose to return to the mainland from Hong Kong or other countries. More veterans have continued to use demonstrations and protests, media shouts, and other means to strongly demand that veterans be allowed to return to the mainland to visit their relatives and reunite.
In September 1980, Deng Xiaoping asked Chen Shubai, a Chinese-American, to bring a message to Chen Lifu, who was living in the United States at the time, and actively promoted cross-strait dialogue.
In 1981, at the suggestion of Liao Chengzhi, the relevant departments in Xikou, Zhejiang Province, repaired the graves of Chiang Ching-kuo's mother and grandmother. Liao Chengzhi commissioned overseas Chinese to bring messages and photos of Chiang's ancestral grave to Chiang Ching-kuo.
After Chiang Ching-kuo saw the photo, he did not make any remarks, and no one knew what was going on in his heart, but this incident touched him.
In September 1981, Ye Jianying issued a speech proposing a nine-point policy for Taiwan's return to the motherland. In January 1982, Deng Xiaoping established these nine contents as the principle of "one country, two systems, and peaceful reunification." The promulgation of this policy has caused great shocks at home and abroad.
In April of the same year, Chiang Ching-kuo published articles in newspapers in Hong Kong and Taiwan in memory of his father, Chiang Kai-shek. The article mentions, "I hope that the father's spirit can return to his homeland to be with his ancestors, and he expressed that he would expand his filial piety into national feelings, to love the nation, and to dedicate himself to the country." ”
After the article was published, Deng Yingchao organized a working group on Taiwan to study how to respond and talk with Chiang Ching-kuo.
Deng Yingchao offered to have Liao Chengzhi write a letter to Chiang Ching-kuo. Liao Chengzhi's father, Liao Zhongkai, and his mother, He Xiangning, were important figures of the Kuomintang in their early years, along with Chiang Kai-shek. Liao Chengzhi and Chiang Ching-kuo were childhood friends and classmates of Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow.
After consulting with Yang Yindong and others, Liao Chengzhi decided to write a letter calling on Chiang Ching-kuo to negotiate peace and achieve national reunification.
On July 25, 1982, "Liao Chengzhi's Open Letter to Chiang Ching-kuo" was published in Sing Tao Daily, but no reply was received from Chiang Ching-kuo. Unexpectedly, Song Meiling wrote a letter to Liao Chengzhi in the United States, responding instead of Chiang Ching-kuo. The letter was sent from the United States, so Soong Mei-ling had not exchanged views with Chiang Ching-kuo beforehand.
Although the two sides failed to reach a consensus, this letter became the first open exchange of letters between high-level officials on both sides of the strait after 1949.
Liao Chengzhi
02 Yingkao Project
On May 3, 1986, China Airlines B198 Boeing freighter flew from Bangkok to Taiwan, passing through Hong Kong and suddenly transferred to Guangzhou. Wang Xijue, a 57-year-old veteran driver in Taiwan, flew back to the mainland because he missed his parents and hometown.
At that time, the two sides of the strait were still in a state of isolation, and the China Airlines incident shocked Chiang Ching-kuo and Taiwan society, causing great concern at home and abroad.
After Wang Xijue landed in Guangzhou, the Civil Aviation Administration of China sent a telegram to Taiwan's China Airlines, inviting it to send someone to handle the incident through consultation. Under the pressure of public opinion, Chiang Ching-kuo sent a negotiating team to Hong Kong to negotiate with mainland representatives.
Except for Wang Xijue's strong request to settle on the mainland, all other people, planes, and goods on the same plane were returned to Taiwan. The China Airlines incident has caused great repercussions in Taiwan, and many public opinions have attributed the cause of the incident to the fact that the Taiwan authorities have forbidden the people to return to the mainland to visit their relatives.
At this time, the Kuomintang regime was facing a huge crisis of governance, and in the face of challenges outside the party and pressure from the people on the island, Chiang Ching-kuo was forced to adjust and change his policy and began to consider the issue of veterans returning to their hometowns to visit their relatives.
In early 1987, Chiang Ching-kuo instructed Zhang Zuyi, deputy secretary general of the office, to set up a group to secretly study the proposal to open up veterans to return to their hometowns to visit their relatives. At the same time, Ma Ying-jeou was sent to assist Zhang Zuyi in his work.
In 1981, after Receiving his J.D. from Harvard University in the United States, Ma Ying-jeou served as Chiang Ching-kuo's English secretary. In 1987, he became deputy director of the First Bureau of Chiang Ching-kuo's office.
In order to keep his work confidential, Ma Ying-jeou cited the allusion that during the Spring and Autumn Period, Uncle Yingkao promoted Zheng Zhuanggong to meet with his mother Wu Jiang, and specially gave the code name of "Yingkao Project" for the Taiwan Veterans Family Visit Project.
In order to break through the Kuomintang authorities' three-nos policy, with Chiang Ching-kuo's consent, Zhang Zuyi decided to open up veterans to return to their hometowns to visit their relatives in the form of non-governmental organizations. A special group was formed by Lee Teng-hui, Yu Guohua, and others, and the Taiwan Red Cross Organization was responsible for specific operations to promote the deliberation of the motion for veterans to return home.
In August 1987, Taiwan's Zili Evening News published a poll in which 64 percent of the public favored opening up to visit relatives on the mainland.
Although there were different opinions within the KUOMINTAT, after many discussions, on October 14, 1987, Chiang Ching-kuo sat in a wheelchair and presided over a regular meeting of the KMT Central Committee, and decided to open up some people in Taiwan to visit relatives on the mainland.
The next day, Wu Boxiong, head of the Ministry of the Interior, officially announced the news. The resolution stipulates that the people of Taiwan are allowed to visit their relatives on the mainland once a year for three months. It is not limited to veterans who went to Taiwan, as long as there are relatives on the mainland, they can apply.
After the news was released, the history of 38 years of non-contact between the two sides of the strait officially came to an end, and tens of thousands of veterans who went to Taiwan embarked on a journey back to their hometowns to visit their relatives.
Zhang Zuyi and Ma Yingjiu
03 The way home
On July 14, 1987, the Taiwan authorities announced the lifting of martial law in Taiwan and the Penghu region, and abolished 30 kinds of laws and regulations related to martial law.
The mainland responded to this at the first time. On 15 July, China's State Council issued a statement welcoming Taiwan's opening up to Taiwan compatriots to visit their relatives on the mainland, ensuring that family visitors are free to come and go, and demanding that the Taiwan authorities adopt a more positive attitude and allow mainland compatriots to visit their relatives in Taiwan.
On October 16, the State Council announced the measures for receiving visiting Relatives and Taiwan compatriots. Various government departments have announced that they will no longer prosecute the historical crimes committed by those who went to Taiwan before the founding of New China, properly handle the problems left over from history between them and their mainland spouses, and ensure that Taiwan compatriots are free to come and go.
In the early morning of November 2, 1987, the entrance of the Taiwan Red Cross Society was crowded, and people who met the requirements lined up in a long line, and more than 1,300 people went through the formalities of visiting relatives on the mainland. In November alone, more than 140,000 people returned to the mainland to visit their families.
The measures promulgated by the Taiwan authorities for visiting relatives on the mainland do not include military personnel and public officials on active duty, but are limited to those who have blood relatives, in-laws, and relatives within the third class on the mainland, and can register to visit relatives on the mainland, and many people are unable to realize their long-cherished wish to return home.
For example, Hao Baicun, then chief of staff of the Kuomintang, did not return to his hometown in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, until 1999 to visit his family, while Li Yingdong, a veteran of the Air Force, did not set foot on the land of his hometown until his death in 1964.
The moment they set foot on the mainland's land, many Taiwanese people could not control their inner excitement, had mixed feelings, and burst into tears. Beyond wrote the unforgettable song "The Earth" as a result.
During this period, Taiwanese artist Ling Feng decided to make a documentary about the motherland's great rivers and mountains and bring them back to Taiwan for broadcast, but was obstructed by the Taiwan authorities. Five institutions in Taiwan worked together to dissuade him from giving up filming "Eight Thousand Miles of Clouds and Moons." If you don't shoot, you can choose to do a variety show at any time of the three TV stations.
But Ling Feng did not give up, and even if he was later banned, he did not change his mind. He traveled all over China's mountains and rivers and completed the filming and production of "Eight Thousand Miles of Clouds and Moons", which allowed the veterans of Taiwan to see the changes in their homeland.
In 1949, millions of Kuomintang military and political personnel and their dependents fled to the island of Taiwan. In order to solve the living pressure caused by the rapid population growth, the Kuomintang built villages like urban villages.
Many of the veterans who lived here never married. By the time it was time to visit relatives, many were too weak to fly.
The 56-year-old Gao Binghan was entrusted by everyone to take the ashes of more than 200 veterans back to their hometown in the mainland for burial in 20 years.
Signing of the Golden Gate Agreement
04 The 1992 Consensus meets with Wang Gu
In 1987, the isolation between the two sides of the strait was broken, the exchanges between Taiwan and the mainland developed rapidly, and the mainland's tourism fever and trade tide arose on the island of Taiwan.
All kinds of sudden incidents and disputes involving the two sides of the strait, and even criminal activities occur from time to time. Many problems have arisen from this, which need to be resolved through consultation between Taiwan and the mainland.
On January 13, 1988, Chiang Ching-kuo died of infirmity, and the era of the Chiang family's father and son ruling Taiwan came to an end. Four hours later, Lee Teng-hui, then his deputy, swore an oath to succeed him.
On July 22, 1990, fishermen in Pingtan, Fujian Province, found the stranded fishing boat "Minpingyu 5540" at the wharf. When people pried open the crucified cabin, they found 26 Fujian fishermen locked in the cabin, 25 of whom had died.
Because they were doing business with Taiwanese fishermen, these coastal fishermen were arrested by the Kuomintang military police and detained in the cabin of the ship and repatriated to the mainland. In the water-starved, oxygen-starved and airtight cabins, 25 of them were smothered alive.
The only survivor saved his life because he found a small hole in the ship's board where he could breathe. After the tragedy, the Taiwan authorities' inhumane repatriation was severely denounced by compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Then, on August 13, a Taiwan warship sank a mainland fishing boat, killing 21 people on board. Two consecutive tragedies have claimed the lives of 46 people.
Due to the seriousness of the situation, the Taiwan authorities, under tremendous pressure, began to seek contacts with the mainland through various channels, and finally decided that Taiwan would conduct negotiations with the Mainland Red Cross Society. In order to speed up the resolution of the problems caused by the two tragic cases, the Taiwan Red Cross organization urged a meeting with the mainland representatives, fearing that dragging on would cause public sentiment to boil over, and put forward the demand that the venue for negotiations be set in Japan, the Philippines and other countries.
But Han Changlin, secretary general of the Red Cross Society of China, believes that this is Chinese his own business and does not need to negotiate in a third country. After consultation, the two sides set the place where they met in Kinmen.
On September 11, 1990, Han Changlin and five other people arrived at Kinmen Island by boat. The Red Cross Societies of Taiwan and the mainland held consultations on the implementation of repatriation by sea by their competent authorities and signed the Kinmen Agreement.
After the conclusion of the negotiations, in order to resolve relevant issues, the Taiwan authorities established the Straits Exchange Foundation, referred to as the Straits Exchange Foundation, for short. Gu Zhenfu, who was then a member of the Standing Committee of the Kuomintang Central Committee, served as chairman of the board, and Chen Changwen served as vice chairman.
On April 28, 1991, Chen Changwen led a delegation to Beijing to seek to establish communication channels with the mainland. This is the first time since 1949 that the Taiwan authorities have authorized non-governmental organizations to conduct public contacts with the mainland.
Tang Shubei, then deputy director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, put forward the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. Chen Changwen immediately said that the one-China principle is followed. Insist that there is only one China in the world and that Taiwan is a part of China.
On December 16, 1991, the mainland established the association for cross-strait relations, an officially authorized non-governmental organization, or the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait for short.
The Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) may, on the basis of authorization, contact the relevant departments of the Taiwan authorities and their authorized groups and personalities to negotiate and sign agreement documents. Through transactional and economic talks, we will promote cross-strait economic relations and personnel exchanges and gradually push forward the process of peaceful reunification.
Wang Daohan, who was the mayor of Shanghai, served as the first president, and Tang Shubei, deputy director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, concurrently served as executive vice president.
At the end of February 1992, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) and the SEF held their first talks in Beijing, but major differences arose. How to express and uphold the one-China principle has become a prominent issue. The SEF said it was not authorized to talk about the one-China issue and put forward a proposition that clearly violated the one-China principle.
After the talks, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) put forward three views on the attitude of the Taiwan authorities of "adhering to the one-China principle" as the core.
At the end of October 1992, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) and the Strait Exchange Foundation (SEF) held discussions in Hong Kong on how to express their adherence to the one-China principle in their cross-strait negotiations on cross-strait affairs, and the two associations reached a consensus that both sides of the Taiwan Strait uphold the one-China principle, the famous "1992 Consensus." The foundation was laid for talks between ARATS and SEF leaders.
1992 Consensus
In August 1992, Wang Daohan invited Gu Zhenfu to visit the mainland. On August 22, Koo said he accepted Wang Daohan's invitation and offered to hold talks in Singapore.
On April 27, 1993, the "Wang-Koo Talks" kicked off at the Neptune Building in Singapore, where Wang Daohan and Gu Zhenfu shook hands under the witness of more than 200 Chinese and foreign journalists, the first handshake between high-level people on both sides of the strait in more than 40 years.
During the talks, the two sides frankly stated their respective views and exchanged views on strengthening cross-strait economic exchanges and cooperation, carrying out scientific, technological, cultural, and educational exchanges, establishing a mechanism for contacts and talks between the two associations, and determining the topics for institutional discussions between the two associations.
On April 29, 1993, on behalf of the two associations, Wang Daohan and Gu Zhenfu respectively signed four documents, including the "Joint Agreement on the Wang-Koo Talks," which created a favorable environment for cross-strait economic, trade, cultural, and personnel exchanges.
The influence of the "Wang-Koo talks" far exceeds the results of the talks themselves, marking the development of cross-strait relations and a historic step.
Taiwan public opinion spoke highly of this, holding that this is a milestone in the institutionalization of cross-strait nongovernmental exchanges and a major development in cross-strait relations from confrontation to peaceful reunification. On October 15, 1998, the "Wang-Koo Meeting" held in Shanghai reached four consensuses on political, economic and other aspects of dialogue between the two sessions.
Since then, as Lee Teng-hui has gradually climbed to the peak of Taiwan's power, new changes have taken place in the development of cross-strait relations.
Wang Gu talks
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