沒有國民黨就沒有中國, Without the Kuomintang there would be no China, A Republic of China Story

四十四, Without the Kuomintang there would be no China
The 20th century could be described as an age of propaganda. While the regimes most associated with propaganda were Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, even democratic countries saw the value of propaganda. The Republic of China was no stranger to propaganda, before, during, or after Chiang Kai-shek’s presidency. Much of the propaganda was centered around the greatness of China and Chinese civilization. There were themes of working to create a better and more prosperous China. During the Second World War, resisting Japan was obviously a major theme in Chinese propaganda. In 1953, posters celebrating the victory over Communists were placed in every city. Chiang Kai-shek played an important role in propaganda, as a minor cult of personality sprung up around him.

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(Propaganda poster featuring Chiang Kai-shek)

Anti-Communism was the most common theme of Chinese propaganda during the Chiang Kai-shek years. Such propaganda had two purposes. First, it was to discourage Chinese citizens from becoming Communists. Second, it was to convince anti-Communist Chinese that it was Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang that stood between China and Communism. Communism was portrayed as a foreign ideology that would lead to the destruction of 5,000 years of Chinese culture. Chinese Communists were often portrayed as doing the bidding of Russians or Germans. The Communists’ nefarious agenda was always thwarted by the brave Chinese soldier, who proclaimed his loyalty to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. The Soviet Union was often attacked in Chinese propaganda, though not during times when China and the USSR were trying to improve relations.

Positive propaganda was important as well. It wasn’t enough to convince China that Communism was bad, the people needed to be convinced that Kuomintang and Chiang Kai-shek were good. Both were portrayed as responsible for the victory over Japan and the Communists. Chiang Kai-shek was portrayed as carrying on the legacy of Sun Yat-sen (something the Communists and other anti-KMT groups also claimed about themselves). Chiang Kai-shek often spoke of Sun’s Three Principles of the People. These principles are 民族 or nationalism, 民權 or democracy, and 民生 or people’s welfare (or socialism, depending on who you were talking to). Chinese Propaganda emphasized the success of land reform, the build-up of the navy, and other successes in the nation.

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(Poster promoting the Three Principles of the People)

Though posters remained a common form of propaganda, music and film played a huge role as well. In 1961, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Republic of China, the slogan Without the Kuomintang there would be no China, was made into a song. There was also the White Sun in the Sky song, which was a tribute to Chiang Kai-shek. It was used in the 1965 National Assembly elections but became more popular after Chiang’s death. In the 1960s, China produced movies on a much higher budget, and color films became much more common. A series of high-budget historical dramas were made during the decade, depicting the Wuchang Rebellion, the life of Sun Yat-sen, and the various wars that China fought in.

These movies were typically over three hours long and contained an intermission. They were inspired by American Epics like The Ten Commandments, a movie which was promoted by First Lady Soong Mei-ling. The subject of these films were not always pro-government propaganda, but they were more often than not. For every historical film that was set before the Sun Yat-sen, there were at least two set in or after. Even the movies that ostensibly had no connection to the Republic of China often had themes of resisting foreign (whether Mongol or British) imperialism. The most popular movie of that era was The Battle of Siping, released in 1966, which told the story of the 1946 battle that many historians believe was decisive for the Nationalists to win the war. The film follows a nationalist soldier played by pop singer Liu Chia-chang, a native of the Northeast who spoke in a Northeastern accent throughout most of the movie. The film has been criticized for omitting any mention of Du Yuming, the general who led the Nationalists at the actual battle of Siping and was on bad terms with Chiang Kai-shek at the time of the film’s production.

Propaganda efforts in China were overseen by two organizations. The first was the Government Information Office, which was overseen by the Executive Yuan. The Second was the Propaganda Department of the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang, which was overseen by the Kuomintang. During the 1960s, the KMT Propaganda Department began to focus increasingly on propaganda directed towards Mongols and Uyghurs. The Government Information Office was associated most of the domestic and foreign propaganda. The organization’s most famous director during the 1960s was James Shen, a Shanghai reporter and newspaper editor who also worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under Wang Shijie. He was known for his strong support of Chiang Kai-shek, his pro-American sentiments, and his effective use of media.

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(James Shen)
 
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What are the lyrics of this like? The OTL CCP song except it praises the KMT instead of the CCP?
I am actually going to try to come up with some lyrics to this song in English and Chinese, but that's pretty much what it will be. It's a little bit different because the Communist song says "New China" while this one just says "China." The KMT slogan predates the Communist song, and it comes from the book China's Destiny. I quoted the relevant line from the book in the first chapter:

If the Chinese Kuomintang can exist for a day, the Chinese state will also exist for a day. If there is no Chinese Kuomintang in today's China, there will be no China. If the Chinese Kuomintang revolution fails, it is also the failure of the Chinese state as a whole. Simply put: China's fate rests entirely on the Chinese Kuomintang.

The Communists then wrote an editorial claiming that without the Communist Party there would be no new China, and a song was made out of it. At some pint after the retreat to Taiwan, the KMT made their own version of the song (kind of like the Union did with Dixie in the Civil War) called "Only Without the Communist Party will there be a new China."
 
I'd like to see if anyone can answer these two questions:

-I mentioned the 1956 movie The Ten Commandments. I believe that the movie would still be made TTL because Cecil B. de Mille wanted to do a remake of his old silent movie of the same name. Soong Mei-ling TTL is a big fan of the movie (she was a Christian and spoke very good English, so it makes sense that she would). Does anyone know what connection there is between that film and the Republic of China (involves a character who hasn't been mentioned yet, though his dad has).

-What is the connection between this chapter and this song (harder, I didn't learn this until today)?

 
As for The Ten Commandments, the character Lilia (not actually mentioned in Exodus) is played by Debra Paget, the only surviving member of the main cast for that film. Six years later she married Louis C. Kung. Louis Kung was the son of Chinese Premier H. H. Kung (who is the founder of Minkuo Electronics TTL) and the nephew of Chiang Kai-shek's wife Soong Mei-ling.

Many of you may have heard the song Yi Jian Mei. It became an internet meme in 2020, the famous line being "xue hua piao piao bei feng xiao xiao." That song was sung by Fei Yu-ching in Taiwan in 1983. Liu Chia-chang, who was not only a singer but an actor and director too, was responsible for Fei Yu-ching's career taking off. Liu Chia-chang is the second person I've mentioned in this TL who is still alive today (the other being the Dalai Lama).
Too bad @CELTICEMPIRE , there's a dearth of active Taiwanese members in this forum.
Understandable, it's a pretty small country and most people there don't speak English (most can speak a little).
 
Many of you may have heard the song Yi Jian Mei. It became an internet meme in 2020, the famous line being "xue hua piao piao bei feng xiao xiao." That song was sung by Fei Yu-ching in Taiwan in 1983. Liu Chia-chang, who was not only a singer but an actor and director too, was responsible for Fei Yu-ching's career taking off. Liu Chia-chang is the second person I've mentioned in this TL who is still alive today (the other being the Dalai Lama).
The theme of an eponymous 1985 Taiwanese television drama, one of the classics.
 
四十五, Experimenting with Democracy
Despite being authoritarian in practice, China was in theory a democracy. Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang claimed to be pro-democracy. After all, democracy was one of Sun Yat-sen’s Three Principle’s of the People. Excuses were given as to why China wasn’t a full democracy yet. The most common excuse was that there was an ongoing Communist insurgency in China. But as time went on, this excuse became less and less effective at satisfying the public. Anti-government violence was mostly confined to the far Northern parts of the country, with the exception of some Viet Minh who snuck into Southern China. There were increased demands for free and fair elections. Many of these demands came from within the Kuomintang. In order to prove to its own citizens that China was a democracy, the 1968 elections would be more democratic than the ones before.

The 1948 Chinese Constitution states that governors should be elected by the people. But due to the “special circumstances” that China had been in, governors continued to be appointed by Chiang Kai-shek. In 1968, it was determined that there would be elections. Chiang Kai-shek and Premier Guan Jiyu (Chen Cheng died in 1965) determined that only some provinces would hold free elections, and that provinces with high levels of violent anti-government activity would not. For most elections, voters would be given the choice between two or more hand-picked Kuomintang candidates. The point of this was to prepare for a transition to democracy where one party dominated. In some elections, non-KMT candidates were allowed to run. One ulterior motive for these elections was to gauge popular support for the Kuomintang. The idea was to see how much the KMT candidate would win by in deep-blue [1] territory.

In Shanghai, there was a mayoral election. Two KMT candidates were running; Louis C. Kung and Jiang Zemin. Kung’s father was H. H. Kung, one of the richest and well-connected men in China. Jiang Zemin ran on a campaign of increasing spending on public services. As the political establishment overwhelmingly backed Kung, he defeated Jiang 68-32%. Shanghai was located in Jiangsu, a province friendly to the KMT. Thus, it was a perfect place to test how popular opposition parties were there. The Kuomintang nominated Education minister Chang Chi-yun for governor, the China Youth Party nominated Zhu Yanfeng, and the China Democratic Socialist Party nominated Yang Yuzi. Zhang trounced his opponents, winning 62% of the vote to Zhu’s 23% and Yang’s 15%.

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(Chang Chi-yun)

Guangdong, the most populous province of China, was also a blue stronghold. Former ROC Marine Corps commander Luo Youlun, friend and advisor of Chiang Kai-shek, was the KMT candidate for governor. His opponent was journalist Li Weichen of the China Democratic Socialist Party. Luo defeated Li 73-27%. Li later became the ambassador to Indonesia as part of the KMT’s thank you to loyal opposition parties. The China Democratic Socialist Party put all its efforts into the Fujian Gubernatorial race. There the party ran its new leader Wang Shixian. They ran against long-time incumbent Dai Zhongyu. Dai won reelection 63-37%. This was the highest percentage of the vote the CDSP got in any of the 1968 elections. The election results in other Chinese provinces were similar.

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(Left: Dai Zhongyu, Right: Wang Shixian)

There were also elections for the Legislative Yuan. The Kuomintang was led by President of the Legislative Yuan Chen Lifu of Zhejiang. The China Democratic Socialist Party was led by Wang Shixian of Fujian. The China Youth Party was led by Chen Qitian of Hubei. There were also various independents. The Kuomintang dominated the elections, but opposition candidates performed well. KMT leadership expected the CDSP to be their strongest opposition, but the China Youth Party actually outperformed them, becoming the second largest party in the legislative Yuan. This was a combination of two factors. The first was that a lot of places where the CDSP would have been popular were areas where “special circumstances” prevented full democracy. Another reason was that the CYP was able to successfully energize businessmen and landlords who had gripes with the central government. In new Legislative Yuan would have 550 KMT, 93 CYP, 76 CDSP, 5 TIP [2], and 49 independent representatives.

1: Blue is the KMT's color. The CDSP is green and the CYP is yellow.
2: Tibet Improvement Party, the KMT affiliate in Tibet.
 
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In Shanghai, there was a mayoral election. Two KMT candidates were running; Louis C. Kung and Jiang Zemin. Kung’s father was H. H. Kung, one of the richest and well-connected men in China. Jiang Zemin ran on a campaign of increasing spending on public services. As the political establishment overwhelmingly backed Kung, he defeated Jiang 68-32%.
And so Jiang Zemin makes his first of many appearances.
 
I made an edit because I realized that there are supposed to be 773 seats (The first Legislative Yuan had 14 missing). I also forgot to include the Tibet Improvement Party, a party only active in Tibet and affiliated with the KMT.

Here is the current breakdown of the legislative Yuan (dark blue: KMT, light blue: TIP, yellow: CYP, green: CDSP):

2022-07-03-20-56-06-074827-11675183193019144887.svg


Here is the First Legislative Yuan, elected in 1948 (same as OTL):

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As for The Ten Commandments, the character Lilia (not actually mentioned in Exodus) is played by Debra Paget, the only surviving member of the main cast for that film. Six years later she married Louis C. Kung. Louis Kung was the son of Chinese Premier H. H. Kung (who is the founder of Minkuo Electronics TTL) and the nephew of Chiang Kai-shek's wife Soong Mei-ling.
Please to remember that Kung Hsiang-hsi ("H. H. Kung") was a 75th generation descendant of Kung Fu-tze and his son Kung Ling-che ("Louis Kung"), a 76th generation descendant.
 
I made an edit because I realized that there are supposed to be 773 seats (The first Legislative Yuan had 14 missing). I also forgot to include the Tibet Improvement Party, a party only active in Tibet and affiliated with the KMT.

Here is the current breakdown of the legislative Yuan (dark blue: KMT, light blue: TIP, yellow: CYP, green: CDSP):

2022-07-03-20-56-06-074827-11675183193019144887.svg


Here is the First Legislative Yuan, elected in 1948 (same as OTL):

View attachment 755646
What do you even call a hypermajority that’s this large? Haha
 
What do you even call a hypermajority that’s this large? Haha
I like the term hypermajority.
A one-party dominant state, of course.

It's fair to say that democratic rankers do not view China very highly, even in its current form ITTL.
Yes. The other parties largely accept their fate. They're allowed to compete in some elections and they're given positions in government in exchange for their loyalty. Chiang Kai-shek is 80 years old though, and there's no telling what will happen when he's gone.
 
I like the term hypermajority.

Yes. The other parties largely accept their fate. They're allowed to compete in some elections and they're given positions in government in exchange for their loyalty. Chiang Kai-shek is 80 years old though, and there's no telling what will happen when he's gone.
It’s like the Singaporean PAP
 
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