Speaking of the complexity of the political ecology on the island of Taiwan, we have to mention the strange parties of all walks of life; after experiencing Chiang Ching-kuo's "policy of opening up," all parties have sprung up like mushrooms in Taiwan's "political land."Huang Guochang and the "forces of the times" he once led are one of them.
As a political party conceived from the "Sunflower Student Movement" in 2014, its future is also full of magic, but what is even more magical is the experience of its founder, Huang Guochang, whose political career is called the "House of War God" can be called a rare "laughing stock" in Taiwan's "history".
This "Taiwan independence" villain is destined to be an opportunist who cannot be illuminated by the sun, and although he bears the aura of the "Founding House God of War," his disgusting selfishness and socially endangering style have already doomed him to an end.
I. World War I Fame Becomes "God of War"
Many people on the island call Huang Guochang the "Standing House God of War", this name is not from nothing, at least from two aspects, he and this name are quite matched.
The first is the Sunflower Movement in 2014, also known as the "Sunflower Movement".
In 2014, the Taiwan authorities deliberated on the "Cross-Strait Agreement on Trade in Services", but because the content of the agreement conflicted with the DPP's "concept of seeking independence", the DPP began to throw around and roll around in every way to obstruct, and after organizing people with "ulterior motives" to instigate, the DPP quickly mobilized students.
On March 18, 2014, the "Sunflower Student Movement" broke out on the island, which shocked all walks of life, and many students began to gather outside the "Legislative Yuan" to protest.
The next day, Lin Feifan, Chen Weiting and huang Guochang, the protagonist of this story, led 400 students into the "Legislative Yuan" forum, kicking off the prelude to the 24-day "anti-service trade" Sunflower Student Movement.
The name of "Imperial War God" also gradually began to "enjoy" the island.
It is worth noting that the aura of the "Founding God of War" has indeed accumulated a lot of political capital for Huang Guochang.
From the perspective of political background, the supporter behind the "Sunflower Student Movement" is the DPP, and Huang Guochang's enthusiasm in the student movement has won the high favor of the DPP.
Although Huang Guochang and others were arrested and imprisoned after the "Sunflower Student Movement," with the DPP coming to power in charge of Taiwan's political situation, Huang Guochang and 22 other activists were still found not guilty and gloriously escaped after several trials in Taiwan courts.
In a certain sense, the DPP and Huang Guochang are more like reaching a deal with each other that can make no loss, on the one hand, the DPP has gained the "reputation" of supporting the "democracy fighter" through operation, and Huang Guochang has also won the "glorious title" of "progressive person" through the operation of the "Sunflower Student Movement" student movement.
This is also the evil result of the "political ecology" on the island, and the more it is shown, the more attention and more political capital it will receive.
Although the people on the island and the media outside the green media have scoffed at this, Taiwan's "China Times" has directly criticized such a practice on the island, saying in the report that such a verdict will not bring stability to society, but endless troubles!
But even so, Huang Guochang's life is getting better and better.
Soon he achieved more success in the Legislative Yuan, further consolidating the title of "Imperial War God".
In January 2015, Huang Guochang led the creation of the "Power of the Times" party.
The founding of this political party created the most rapid battle for power in Taiwan's chaotic "political arena."
Wrapped in the aura of the "Sunflower Student Movement", Huang Guochang led his "Time Force" to quickly gain the recognition of the people and the favor of capital by constantly attacking the blue and green camps, and in September 2016, "Time Force" became the third largest political party in Taiwan's legislature, and Huang Guochang also successfully became a "legislator".
In fact, after the "Sunflower Student Movement," the DPP did not succeed very quickly, and originally hoped to pull down the "Cross-Strait Agreement on Trade in Services" while cracking down on the forces of the Kuomintang, but it also dragged itself into the quagmire of political struggle.
Huang Guochang saw the period when the two parties were questioned and criticized by the people, and quickly won the favor of the people on the island by hyping up the so-called political concept of striving for the people's livelihood.
Perhaps after experiencing the student movement, some people who do not know the truth have been impressed by the enthusiasm shown by the "power of the times", coupled with the evasion and inaction of the blue and green battalions in the school operation, they believe that this young political party may be able to bring about some different "changes".
In this way, under such a coincidental historical opportunity, Huang Guochang got the political capital he wanted faster than others.
It is worth noting that as the heat faded, people were surprised to find that when the DPP came to the stage, the "power of the times" occupied an important seat, and the "Cross-Strait Agreement on Trade in Services" that was originally discussed to be revised should not be shelved, and the provisions that had originally promised to provide greater benefits to the people on the island were not mentioned again.
The original "Cross-Strait Agreement on Trade in Services" provided more preferential and convenient market opening measures for cross-strait service cooperation, and also gave the two sides of the strait more opportunities for development, which is a great benefit for both the government and the people.
In fact, the DPP and Huang Guochang and others are very aware of the important role of the Cross-Strait Agreement on Trade in Services, but the agreement itself is unfavorable to their political stance and political interests.
Once the agreement is passed, it means that they cannot stir up trouble on the island and force the Kuomintang to step down, so they can only choose to use extreme means to sabotage the passage of the agreement.
From this point of view, Huang Guochang, who has the aura of the god of war on his head, is famous on the island for a while, with the leader of the student movement in his left hand and the reformer in his right hand, and this seemingly independent political newcomer is actually a political opportunist.
Second, the political speculators who have worked hard to operate
Huang Guochang can be described as a "golden phoenix" that flew out of the mountain village.
In 1973, Huang Guochang was born in Xizhi, New Taipei City, Taiwan, his father can be described as a rich experience, from a farmer, to a miner, and then a dyeing worker, although Huang Guochang's father worked very hard, but still can not change Huang Guochang's poor family situation, in order to alleviate the family's economic difficulties, the young Huang Guochang came out with his mother to set up a stall.
It is also such an environment that makes Huang Guochang more determined to change his fate through reading, so he has the strength to work harder than others in his studies, and when he was in high school, he enrolled in Taipei Jianzhong And was admitted to the law department of National Taiwan University in college.
Huang Guochang, who went to college, soon showed his extraordinary talent in the "political field".
In his sophomore year, he became the president of the Taiwan University Student Union, and soon he found that this path of politics seemed to be more suitable for him, after graduation, in order to get more experience, he chose to engage in the path of professional lawyers, and 3 years later, in order to gain more experience, he chose to go to the United States to continue his studies, and finally got a doctorate in law from Cornell University in 2002.
Looking at Huang Guochang's study and work path, it is not difficult to find that his choice of timing is always so just right.
Since becoming president of the student council, he quickly saw that the essence of politics is to take sides and speculate, and although working in the legal profession did not give him much opportunity to show his talents, the idea of speculation has always been ingrained in his mind.
After participating in the student movement, Huang Guochang smelled the opportunity for rapid promotion, and he quickly figured out the situation in which the DPP would control the overall situation, so he firmly sided with the DPP.
As mentioned above, Huang Guochang took advantage of the DPP's trust to successfully enter the political arena, and he just took advantage of the struggle between the blue and green camps to obtain political capital in the cracks and thus reach the peak.
The practice of left and right Fengyuan is the best embodiment of Huang Guochang's investment art.
All this can be regarded as Huang Guochang's political talent, and his opportunistic means of feelings and family are even more breathtaking.
People on the island understand that Huang Guochang's father-in-law can be counted as the biggest capital behind Huang Guochang, and his father-in-law Gao Xi is a famous entrepreneur on the island, and it is also the full support of his father-in-law, and Huang Guochang's career path can be described as smooth.
However, the island's media seem to be deeply unconvinced by Huang Guochang's capital support, according to the Taiwanese media "Weekly Wang" broke the news, Huang Guochang's father-in-law Gao Xi in the mainland has a huge investment in the ecological agricultural park, worth up to hundreds of millions of New Taiwan dollars.
As soon as the news broke, it immediately triggered a collective ridicule among politicians on the island, because Huang Guochang had always based himself on building himself into an "anti-China" fighter, opening his mouth and shutting his mouth to fight for independence and anti-China, and even his own famous fighter was closely related to opposing China and Taiwan independence, but now his father-in-law Gao Xi is investing in the mainland, which has to make people doubt Huang Guochang's actual position.
In fact, the island is not very familiar with Huang Guochang's family situation, because he deliberately keeps a low profile, the media reports on his family are very little, but the father-in-law's high-profile behavior has revealed another side of Huang Guochang for the island media to some extent.
Many believe that Huang Guochang chose this marriage in large part because of Gao Xi's deep financial resources, which can better serve Huang Guochang's political future.
However, in the final analysis, for Huang Guochang, his biggest bet is still the DPP and Tsai Ing-wen.
In the eyes of the outside world, Huang Guochang is Tsai Ing-wen's ultimate licking dog, in many occasions are supporting Tsai Ing-wen, it is his strong loyalty, won the support of Tsai Ing-wen, in the above-mentioned father-in-law storm incident, Tsai Ing-wen also stood up for Huang Guochang at the first time, which also allowed him to successfully survive the difficulties of his father-in-law storm.
3. Where do you go when you fall off the altar?
Huang Guochang's good fortune did not seem to last long.
Speculative this time, he chose a topic that was difficult for the people on the island to accept - same-sex marriage.
Huang Guochang has repeatedly said that he will continue to firmly support same-sex marriage.
In April 2017, dissatisfied with Hwang's support for same-sex marriage, Taiwanese social group Stability Forces launched a joint signature to remove Hwang in New Taipei City, followed by a call on the public to hold a "depose Hwang 'national' healthy" cloth strip and march in Hwang's hometown, attracting nearly a thousand people to join the ranks.
In fact, since 2016, the number of signatures to remove Huang Guochang has exceeded 20,000.
The reason why Huang Guochang chose to support same-sex marriage is largely because he hopes to get the support of Western forces, flaunting the brand of "political correctness", which can allow him to get more political votes, and once he can get the full help of western forces such as the United States, he will become a key figure who is expected to take charge of the situation in Taiwan after Tsai Ing-wen.
Huang Guochang also chose to take this step after seeing the current decline in Tsai Ing-wen's approval rating, and he also clearly realized that the Western world needs to continue to cultivate a spokesperson in Taiwan, and he hopes to use political correctness to win the favor and support of the West.
However, his wishful thinking was not good, and the support rate on the island first dropped to the freezing point.
I don't know if Huang Guochang has not seriously studied Taiwan's basic people's feelings, or maybe Huang Guochang has forgotten Taiwanese folk etiquette for too long abroad, and he has always firmly believed that the political correctness of same-sex marriage will soon be accepted by the people on the island, after all, everyone is "progressive".
Unexpectedly, the reaction of the people on the island was so fierce that he could not look up at all in this storm.
After this incident, Huang Guochang's downhill road can be described as smoother and smoother.
On January 21, 2019, Huang Guochang announced on social media that he was stepping down as chairman of the executive party of "Time Force" with the aim of working hard to carry out the next step of the campaign.
However, Huang Guochang's results were not very satisfactory, and in the previous election in Taichung City, Huang Guochang's team won a defeat, which caused strong dissatisfaction from the "Time Force" party, and indirectly led to Huang Guochang resigning as party chairman to take charge.
After resigning as chairman, the relationship between Huang Guochang and the "power of the times" party figures has also been bad.
In February 2019, Chen Huimin, the new chairman of "Time Force", removed Huang Guochang from his friends list on social media, and it is said that the end of the relationship between the two also stems from Huang Guochang's usual arbitrary behavior in the "Power of the Times", and even the news of resigning as chairman has not been told to Chen Huimin, which has led to Chen Huimin's strong dissatisfaction.
In recent years, Huang Guochang's performance has not been satisfactory, after resigning as chairman, Huang Guochang has not been able to find a good way out in the political arena, in addition to the mouth cannon blue camp, Huang Guochang is left to go on TV to satisfy his desire to "spray people".
In contrast, the Green Camp is still using the "power of the times" to achieve its own political goals, and will even use Huang Guochang as a propaganda tool to hype up, and repeatedly let it hype the topic of "anti-China" in the green media.
I have to say that this political opportunist can still find some use value for the green camp in the end, which has to sigh that this old brother can always make himself shine, which is really admirable.
However, under the trend of the times, Huang Guochang's fate is bound to perish.
The island's perverted political ecology has created his unscrupulous style and his arbitrary character.
Driven by such a mentality and personality, Huang Guochang has always been unable to find a way out, not only can not tolerate him on the island, even if he quits the political arena, it is difficult to find a place to live.
Although under the protection of the Green Camp, Huang Guochang can still survive, but when the great changes occur on the island of Taiwan, Huang Guochang's patrons will inevitably fall, and when the time comes, will this "Founding God of War" really be able to stand? The answer must be no!
Bibliography:
1. "From the "Huang Guochang Recall Case" to Taiwan's Social and Political Ecology today"; Unification Forum, No. 2, 2018, No. 46-50; Li Chao
2. "The Institutionalization of Political Parties in the "Forces of the Times" and Its Dilemma"; Taiwan Studies, No. 1, 2020, 49-56; Li Wencheng, Chen Xiancai