In 1982, a letter from Chinese mainland was published in a Taiwanese newspaper. As soon as the contents of this letter were made public, it immediately caused an uproar among the people of Taiwan. It turned out to be a letter written by Mr. Liao Chengzhi to Chiang Ching-kuo. In his letter, Liao Chengzhi was moved by the people of the Taiwan authorities and strongly appealed to the Taiwan leaders to conform to the situation of the times and work together for Taiwan's return.
After receiving the letter, Chiang Ching-kuo, the leader of the Taiwan authorities, did not express his opinion and relayed the contents of the letter to Soong Mei-ling, who was far away in the United States. Song Meiling acted very cold after reading the letter, and the 8 words in the reply letter were even more chilling. So what exactly did Song Meiling write? Why does it make everyone feel cold?
Liao Chengzhi
In 1948, under the fierce offensive of the People's Liberation Army, the Kuomintang was gradually defeated, and Chiang Kai-shek foresaw the defeat of this war and transferred all his property abroad early on. He also led his own troops to retreat to Taiwan after the People's Liberation Army crossed the river.
Chiang Kai-shek, who is in Taiwan, has been recruiting soldiers and wants to make a comeback one day, but he has not waited for this day. On the Qingming Festival in 1975, Chiang Kai-shek died of illness, and on his deathbed, he expressed the hope that he would one day be buried in his hometown in Zhejiang, so his body has been stored in daxi Town, Taoyuan County in the form of floating houses. Subsequently, his son Chiang Ching-kuo took over the power of the Kuomintang and became a new generation of rulers.
At the same time, Chinese mainland has been working hard for Taiwan's return. In the 1970s, the central authorities gradually adjusted their policy and guidelines toward Taiwan, changing the liberation of Taiwan by force to "peaceful reunification, one country, two systems," and vigorously advocated the realization of the great cause of national reunification through peaceful negotiations.
Chiang Ching-kuo
In 1979, on New Year's Day, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress issued the "Letter to Taiwan Compatriots." In this statement, the central authorities called on the Taiwan authorities to put the interests of the nation first and hoped that the two sides could put an end to this situation of confrontation across the sea through talks as soon as possible. At the same time, party leaders have also actively called on Taiwan compatriots to return to the mainland to visit or visit. Subsequently, at the recommendation of Deng Xiaoping, Liao Chengzhi became the deputy head of the Central Leading Group for Taiwan Work, assisting Deng Yingchao in handling the Taiwan issue.
Soon after becoming deputy head of the Central Leading Group on The Taiwan Issue, Liao Chengzhi proposed that Chiang Kai-shek's former residence in his hometown in Zhejiang could be repaired to show the mainland's sincerity. Chiang Ching-kuo was a filial piety man, and if he knew about this, he might change his attitude toward the mainland.
This proposal may not be much if it was proposed by others, but Liao Chengzhi personally proposed it to shock everyone, because in the eyes of the outside world, Chiang Kai-shek was the murderer of Liao Chengzhi's father, Liao Zhongkai, and he did not expect Liao Chengzhi to be so reckless and understand the great righteousness. Later, the central government specially allocated 300,000 yuan to repair the former residence and ancestral tomb of the Jiang family.
In 1981, Shen Cheng, at the behest of Chiang Ching-kuo, went to the mainland to explore the wind. The central authorities immediately received this guest who had "come from afar" warmly. Under the arrangement of the central authorities, Shen Cheng was invited to visit Chiang Kai-shek's former residence, and when he saw the renovated former residence of Chiang Kai-shek, he was greatly shocked in his heart, and immediately took out the camera he carried with him and took a large number of photos back to Taiwan. Later, Chiang Ching-kuo also saw this news in the report, and he sighed one after another: "The Communist Party has done a good thing, and this money should be paid by me." ”
Former residence of Chiang Kai-shek
Subsequently, in the course of the conversation between the Central Committee and Shen Cheng, the issue of Taiwan's return was mentioned many times, and Shen Cheng, as a good friend of Chiang Ching-kuo, was well aware of Chiang Ching-kuo's thoughts, so he euphemistically said that the time was not ripe now, and this matter needed to be considered in the long run.
In 1982, Deng Yingchao, head of the CPC Central Committee's Leading Group on Taiwan Issues, saw Chiang Ching-kuo's article in Taiwan mourning his father Chiang Kai-shek, revealing a strong atmosphere of "warmth." She believes that the time is ripe at this moment and we should seize this opportunity to promote the further development of cross-strait relations. So she immediately convened a meeting to study the matter, and finally decided that deputy group leader Liao Chengzhi would write a letter to Chiang Ching-kuo in his private capacity.
The reason why the central authorities chose Liao Chengzhi to write a letter to Chiang Ching-kuo was also to take into account the relationship between the two men. Because Chiang Kai-shek and Liao Zhongkai were once old friends, the Chiang family and the Liao family had deep ties, so Liao Chengzhi was one of the few people in the Communist Party who could call Chiang Kai-shek a brother and brother.
Liao Zhongkai
After the death of Liao Chengzhi's father, Liao Zhongkai, Chiang Kai-shek insisted on launching a counter-revolutionary coup d'état despite the opposition of the people, and wantonly hunted down communists and revolutionary volunteers, and Liao Chengzhi's mother, He Xiangning, was so disappointed by this that she resigned from all her posts in the Kuomintang army and lived a life of seclusion.
After his father's death, Liao Chengzhi, who inherited his father's revolutionary spirit, joined the ranks of the Communist Party without hesitation. He began to run around for the revolutionary cause of the motherland, and on several occasions he almost lost his life. Liao Chengzhi and Chiang Ching-kuo, two old friends, parted ways. Later, after the founding of New China, Liao Chengzhi has been committed to doing overseas Chinese affairs.
In addition, Liao Chengzhi was also a classmate of Chiang Ching-kuo, who was studying in the Soviet Union when Deng Xiaoping was also in the Soviet Union. At that time, Chiang Ching-kuo was very sympathetic to the revolutionary concept of the Communist Party, so when he was studying abroad, he got closer to Deng Xiaoping and others who were members of the Communist Party. All these became the opportunity for Liao Chengzhi to write a letter to Chiang Ching-kuo.
At the same time, many people are worried that Liao Chengzhi will reject this matter because of his feud with Chiang Kai-shek's family. However, Liao Chengzhi had the great righteousness of the family and the country in his heart, and he was duty-bound to take this matter under control. Under the instructions of the Central Committee, he immediately began to write a letter to Chiang Ching-kuo. At that time, the mainland had already begun to promote the vernacular, but in order to make the people of Taiwan feel friendly to read, he deliberately used the language that Taiwan has always used and wrote a letter with earnest words. Even under the guidance of Deng Yingchao, he wrote such touching words as "the brothers who have done their best to rob the waves, meet each other and laugh and have a grudge".
Deng Yingchao
After the letter was written, the central government set a date for the release of the letter, but at this time they faced another problem, that is, how to make the letter public in Taiwan?
It should be known that in 1982, the Taiwan authorities were very strict in their inspection of newspapers, and it was strictly forbidden for any news about the mainland to enter Taiwan, let alone publish such an open letter in Taiwan's newspapers.
For this matter, the central government quickly found Yang Qi, a reporter from the Xinhua Branch in Hong Kong. In 1981, yang Qi, under the instructions of the central authorities, distributed the draft of Chairman Ye Jianying's speech on the issue of Taiwan's return to Taiwan through his own means to more than 2,000 people who participated in the National Day reception of the Xinhua Branch in Hong Kong at that time. And this time the heavy responsibility was also entrusted to him.
After passing Liao Chengzhi's letter to Chiang Ching-kuo, the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee said to Yang Qi: "Yang Qi, the letter to Chiang Ching-kuo has been approved by the Central Committee. You all go back and think of ways to make it visible in Taiwan. ”
This was much more difficult than the previous task, and Yang Qi had a headache for it. Although Hong Kong newspapers can be sent to Taiwan through customs, customs has strict censorship of newspaper content. Like Wen Wei Po and Ta Kung Pao, there is absolutely no way to enter Taiwan, and even for some politically neutral newspapers such as Sing Tao Daily and Overseas Chinese Daily, if they find problems, they will be directly detained.
After Yang Qi returned to Hong Kong, he invited his friends in Sing Tao Daily and Overseas Chinese Daily. Discuss this together.
For them, Yang Qi did not shy away from saying bluntly: "There is an important document to be published tomorrow, and this document is definitely of everyone's attention." You see if there is anything you can do to publish it in full in your newspaper in order to attract the attention of all parties. ”
When Yang Qi's friends learned that this important document was Liao Chengzhi's letter to Chiang Ching-kuo, they all understood where they hoped to publish this document. Because they had all seen Liao Chengzhi before, they also admired the deeds of the two generations of the Liao family in fighting for the interests of the country and the nation, so they also felt that it was most appropriate to write a letter to Chiang Ching-kuo with the friendship between Liao Chengzhi and Chiang Ching-kuo, calling for the reunification of the motherland.
They assured Yang Qi: "Mr. Yang, you can rest assured that we will definitely find a way to publish the full text." As for what method to use, we will wait until we have read the manuscript in the evening to deal with it. ”
The next day, Sing Tao Daily and Overseas Chinese Daily showed their magic and successfully passed Taiwan's inspection in different ways. Finally, on July 25, 1982, compatriots on both sides of the strait read the news together. The deep friendship conveyed in the letter touched the people of the whole country and caused an uproar in Taiwan.
According to people familiar with the matter at the time, Chiang Ching-kuo was silent in his office for a long time after receiving the letter, and for the first time he confronted the issue of the reunification of the motherland sent by the central authorities, albeit in the form of a private letter from his former friend Liao Chengzhi.
He did not express any opinion on the matter. However, because of Taiwan's three-no-no policy, he could not personally reply to the mainland. Subsequently, on the grounds that he needed to ask Song Meiling for advice, he sent the letter to Song Meiling, who was far away in the United States, and asked her to reply to Liao Chengzhi in the name of the elder.
On the day of August 17, 1982, Soong Mei-ling personally wrote a reply letter to Liao Chengzhi, in which she clearly expounded her views on the Taiwan issue: The country is in charge of the government and has the responsibility of continuing the republic of China, so she has repeatedly declared "no contact, no negotiation, and no compromise", which is to express the great righteousness of the Republic of China, the Chinese nation, and the Chinese Kuomintang.
For years, Soong Mei-ling was overwhelmed by the defeat of the Kuomintang, and she traveled to the United States many times to seek American support and wanted to help her husband, Chiang Kai-shek, make a comeback. Therefore, in the reply letter, she was full of malice and took the opportunity to attack the mainland of the motherland.
In the article, she wrote that "we cherish our brooms and return home", which is even more naked in front of everyone. Seeing Song Meiling's reply, all of them felt a chill in their hearts, and a few of her understated attacks tried in vain to wipe away the mainland's efforts for the reunification of the motherland.
But just as Liao Chengzhi wrote to Chiang Ching-kuo to represent the position of Chinese mainland, Soong Mei-ling also expressed her views on this matter from her own political standpoint. Therefore, even if she spoke harshly against Chinese mainland, it did not affect Chiang Ching-kuo's consideration of the Taiwan and mainland issues.
At this time, Chiang Ching-kuo was deeply aware that "the times are changing, and the trend is also changing," and finally he decided to go with the times and send a secret envoy to Beijing to discuss the Taiwan issue. Unfortunately, in 1983, Liao Chengzhi died of illness, and before his death, he was still thinking about the Taiwan issue, and in the end he could not see the return of Taiwan that he had been working for.
Two years after Liao Chengzhi's death, Chiang Ching-kuo was already full of pain, and he realized that he must solve the problems of Taiwan and the mainland as soon as possible while he can still move. By 1986, Shen Cheng had traveled to Beijing three times at chiang's behest to secretly convey Taiwan's views.
Especially for the last time, Shen Cheng was informed by Chiang Ching-kuo to accelerate communication with Beijing, so after he arrived in Beijing, he immediately launched active discussions with Deng Xiaoping, Yang Shangkun and others.
After the meeting, Shen Cheng took a letter written by Yang Shangkun back to Taipei and handed it to Chiang Ching-kuo, who dragged his seriously ill body and carefully read Yang Shangkun's handwritten letter, he said to Shen Cheng: "I think the CHINESE Communists are sincere about this matter, and this negotiation is also feasible. ”
In the second half of 1987, Chiang Ching-kuo personally set up a leading group on the mainland issue and lifted martial law that restricted the people on both sides of the strait for decades. Compatriots on both sides of the strait were very happy to learn of this news. Many Veterans of the Kuomintang who followed Chiang Kai-shek to Taiwan at that time immediately returned to the mainland to visit their relatives.
Chiang Ching-kuo was also actively organizing a group to go to Beijing for negotiations, and seeing that the third cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party was about to be reached, chiang ching-kuo suddenly died of illness in Taipei in 1988, and the plan of both sides was terminated because it could not be implemented.
After Chiang Ching-kuo's death, Deng Xiaoping, a close friend of chiang, repeatedly expressed regret in public: If Jingguo did not die, the third Kuomintang-Communist cooperation was just around the corner!