Infamy in History 

 

Source: China Times

 

Bai To-hua

 

Deputy Editor in Chief of China Times

 

December 29, 2014

 

On December 29, 1938, KMT Deputy Chairman Wang Ching-wei (汪精衛), sent a telegram to the KMT headquarters expressing support for negotiating a peace settlement with the Japanese.  Subsequently, Wang became the head of state of what came to be known as the Reorganized National Government of China based in Nanjing, serving as the President of the puppet regime in collaboration with the Japanese.  Wang died in 1944 before Japan’s ultimate defeat in WWII.  Historians have various assessments of Wang’s legacy, with some even trying to absolve him of high treason.  However, his infamy in history remains.   

 

Wang was a close associate of Dr. Sun Yat-sen for the last twenty years of Sun’s life.  Wang participated in the Revive China Society (興中會) and the Tongmenghui (同盟會), and fought with Sun against Yuan Shikai (袁世凱) after the Xinhai Revolution (辛亥革命).  On his deathbed, Sun dictated his last will and testament to the nation. Wang took notes and reduced them to formal writing, which Sun approved without changing a word.  After Sun’s death, Wang served as Chairman of the Nationalist Government and the Military Affairs Commission (軍事委員會).  Wang went to France due to the Zhongshan Warship Incident (中山艦事件), and Chiang Kai-shek took over the reins of the KMT.  If the Zhongshan Warship Incident had not occurred, China’s history might have taken an entirely different course.  【Editor’s note: On March 20, 1926, Captain Li Zhilong of the warship Chung Shan was involved in a suspected plot to kidnap Chiang Kai-shek, dubbed the Zhongshan Warship Incident. The plot triggered a political struggle between the Communist Party of China and the Kuomintang. Wang Jingwei led the left wing against Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang right wing, resulting in Chiang becoming the head of the Kuomintang party and commander-in-chief of all armies in the Northern Expedition.】

 

Wang and Chiang were both “Japan hands” and fully understood that China’s military was no match to Japan’s.   They both supported adopting “curved” approaches to prevent China’s total annihilation in fighting against Japanese aggression.  Consequently, Chiang earned China a “Golden Decade” (黃金十年1928-37).  However, Japan continued its invasion of China and total war ensued.  Chiang delivered a speech at Mount Lu (廬山) in Jiangxi Province on July 17, 1937, marking the beginning of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.      

 

John Hunter Boyle, a professor at Stanford University, concluded that Wang’s regime in Nanjing was similar to the Vichy Regime during WWII.  Wang’s regime and France’s Vichy government both tried to maintain their nation’s strength by collaborating with the aggressors.  It was a tragedy that Japan’s Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe stepped down, allowing Japanese militarist hawks to come into power.  Wang continued to lead the puppet government in Nanjing, cementing his record of high treason, which no one should ever forgive.