"The
U.S. didn't want to continue to supply Taiwan or Penghu. But the Korean War
marked a significant change in U.S. policy … The forgotten war propped up the
Republic of China government-in-exile."
-- Chen Yi-shen (陳儀深), president of the Taiwan Association of
University Professors
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, the man who lost China to the communists and fled to Taiwan: If it wasn't for the onset of the Korean War and the a sharp change in U.S. policy, he and his regime may not have survived.
On June 27, 1950, two days
after North Korea invaded the south, U.S. president Harry Truman dispatched the
U.S. Seventh Fleet to the Taiwan Strait to protect Taiwan and prevent a Chinese
invasion.
That move 60 years ago not
only set the stage for American assistance to Taiwan over the following two
decades, but it helped stabilize Taiwan's economy, allowing it to quickly
develop into one of Asia's fastest growing.
While Taiwan's military didn't
participate in the conflict - despite offers to do so by dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) - academics and Korean experts said in Taipei yesterday that it was a
defining moment for the country, which was still threatened by Chinese
aggression.
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"The U.S. didn't want to
continue to supply Taiwan or Penghu. But the Korean War marked a significant
change in U.S. policy," said Chen Yi-shen (陳儀深), president of the Taiwan Association of University Professors. "The
forgotten war ... propped up the Republic of China government-in-exile."
Following China's entry into
the war in October 1950, the Peoples Liberation Army reorganized its Taiwan
invasion force into the Northeast Frontier Force and subsequently into the
People's Volunteer Army, which was then sent into the Korean peninsula.
"It can be said that the
[Korean] conflict was beneficial to Taiwan ... it protected Taiwan from
communization due to an invasion from China," said Rick Chu (朱立熙) a Korea expert and founder of the Taiwan-based Korean Studies
Academy.
Six decades later, the Korean
War continues to offer valuable lessons in light of a burgeoning cross-strait
relationship, said Paul Lin (林保華), a political commentator and researcher who
specializes in Chinese Communist Party history.
Lin, who grew up in China
during the period, said that Chinese history books say that after the war, the
U.S. and South Korea, which they claim initiated the conflict, lost the war in
the face of Chinese participation, suffering millions of casualties.
"It is a complete
distortion of history. It shows China's continued willingness to distort
history through media and through education," he said. "But some
people in Taiwan continue to ignore the nature of China."
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Remarking that
China has never given up its ambition to unify Taiwan by force if necessary,
Lin added that, "The danger posed by China to Taiwan hasn't changed a bit."
"Before, they wanted
unification with Taiwan through the use of weapons, but now they want to use
the economy … They want to trick Taiwan into signing the economic cooperation
framework agreement."
William Kao (高為邦), who used to head the Victims of Investment in China Association,
said that through the off-shoring of Taiwanese businesses and industries to
China, which could accelerate with the signing of an ECFA,
this has become increasingly apparent.
