Huang Shin-chieh

Huang Shin-chieh ( Chinese  黃 信 介 , Pinyin Huáng Xìnjiè , actually 黃金龍 , Huáng Jīnlóng ; born August 20, 1928 in Taipei Taiwan ; † November 30, 1999 ibid) was a Taiwanese politician of the Democratic Progressive Party and an important representative of the Taiwanese democracy movement in the 1970s, 80s and 90s.

Youth and early political career

Huang Shin-chieh was born during the Japanese rule over Taiwan . After primary school, he lived in Japan from 1940 to 1946, where he attended middle school and trained in a printing company.

In 1946 he returned to Taiwan and two years later successfully applied for a place at the University of Beijing , but was unable to begin the course due to the Chinese Civil War . In 1949, he enrolled in the Law and Economics Faculty of the Taiwan Provincial Public Administration College (now part of Taipei National University ) and graduated in 1951.

Huang showed a keen interest in politics and campaigned for various candidates for the mayor's office and city council of Taipei City in the 1950s. In 1961 he ran for the city council himself and was elected member of parliament with a large number of votes.

As a tribute to Kishi Nobusuke , the former Prime Minister of Japan , who during his term of office had rendered outstanding services to relations between Japan and the Republic of China (Taiwan) and who had visited Taiwan, Huang from now on used the first name Shin-chieh ( 信 介 , Xìnjiè ) , the Chinese version of the Japanese name Nobusuke .

Dangwai Movement and Imprisonment

In 1964 Huang was re-elected to the city council and in 1969 as a non-party member of the Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China. This body was known at the time as the " Long Parliament " because it consisted primarily of members who were elected for all of China in the last general election in 1947 and who postponed new elections indefinitely since martial law was imposed on Taiwan (1949) had been. Supplementary elections were only held in the event of death or resignation for other reasons. Opposition parties were not allowed, the Kuomintang ruled the country in a one-party dictatorship (see article Taiwan conflict ).

Huang took a critical stance towards the Kuomintang dictatorship. He and other non-party politicians and civil rights activists gradually came together in the Dangwai ("outside the party") movement. In 1975 he and other Dangwai politicians founded the magazine "Commentaries on the Politics of Taiwan" ( 台灣 政論  /  Táiwān Zhènglùn ), which was soon banned.

Huang became one of the leading figures in the Dangwai movement and, in 1979, co-founded Formosa with other members of the opposition. After a pro-democracy demonstration organized by the magazine in Kaohsiung on December 10, 1979, protesters clashed with the police, the Kaohsiung incident . The incident was followed by a wave of arrests, which affected almost all well-known Dangwai personalities. Along with seven other prominent dissidents (collectively known as the "Eight of Kaohsiung"), Huang was tried in a military tribunal and sentenced on April 18, 1980 to 14 years imprisonment for disturbing people. Huang's attorney in the trial was Chen Shui-bian , who later became President of the Republic of China.

Later political career

After martial law was repealed in 1987, Huang was released on parole at President Chiang Ching-kuo . The following year Huang joined the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), founded in 1986, and was elected party chairman in 1988. He held the office until 1992.

Despite his affiliation with the opposition party DPP, Huang supported the reform course of Kuomintang President Lee Teng-hui , who has been in office since 1988 , which earned him criticism within his party. In 1991, Huang was elected a member of the National Assembly for Taichung County. Since Lee Teng-hui annulled the judgments following the Kaohsiung incident that same year, Huang was also restored to his Legislative Yuan status. Forty minutes later, he gave a speech in which he announced his exit from the Legislative Yuan (the "Long Parliament") and appealed to the other MPs to join him in "saying goodbye to the past" to pave the way for to clear a democratically elected parliament.

On April 19, 1992, Huang organized a large protest rally calling for the people to vote directly for the President of the Republic of China . In late 1992, he participated in the elections for the Legislative Yuan in Hualien County . He failed to get into parliament by 63 votes, but since the Kuomintang could be proven electoral fraud, he finally got into parliament.

Huang considered participating in the first democratic presidential election in 1996 , but then waived in favor of Peng Ming-min for health reasons . After being elected president, Lee Teng-hui appointed Huang to his advisory board.

On November 30, 1999, Huang Shin-chieh died of a heart attack. President Lee Teng-hui wrote a letter of praise for his funeral. To this day, political figures visit his grave in Bali ( New Taipei ) to pay their respects.

rating

Huang Shin-chieh is often referred to as the "uncle of Taiwanese democracy" and is still highly respected, especially in the DPP. Typical of him was his moderate stance on many political issues. As chairman of the opposition party, he did not shy away from working with Kuomintang President Lee Teng-hui. Within the DPP, too, he often appeared as an arbitrator between opposing positions.

Quote

"Some things can be said but not done ( the reclamation of China by the Kuomintang ). Other things can be done but not done ( Taiwan independence )."

literature

Ye Boxiang (1994), 黃 信 介 前 傳 ： 民進黨 的 永遠 大老Huang Xinjie qianzhuan: Minjindang de yongyuan dalao . Taipei, Yuedan Publishing House.

Web links

• Short biography on the Taiwan Ministry of Culture website
• Short biography on the China Times website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://forums.chinatimes.com/report/imoh/88120102.htm
2. ↑ http://forums.chinatimes.com/report/imoh/88120107.htm
3. ↑ http://www.nownews.com/2011/04/11/11490-2703877.htm
4. ↑ http://www.nownews.com/2011/04/11/11490-2703877.htm

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Huang is the family name here, Shin-chieh is the first name.