Written by Thomas J. Shattuck.
Image Credit: IMG_8613 by Jimmy Yao/ Flickr: CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED.
The people of Taiwan elected Vice President William Lai Ching-te as the next President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) on January 13, 2024, for the third consecutive presidential term for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). While Lai only received 40 percent of the vote against Kuomintang candidate Hou you-yi, who received 33.5 percent, and Taiwan People’s Party candidate Ko wen-je, who received 26.5 percent. The close three-candidate race was one of the most dramatic and competitive in Taiwan’s democratic history.
As the country celebrated another successful election, one of the parents of Taiwan’s democracy, Shih Ming-teh, was losing a battle with cancer at Taipei Veterans General Hospital. Shih fought for most of his life for the people of Taiwan to be able to elect their leaders. When the DPP was first created in 1986, it was an illegal undertaking with deep roots in the Tangwai movement, in which Shih played an important role. Now, almost 40 years since the founding of the DPP, the people of Taiwan elected the third member of the party to serve as President. Under a democratic Taiwan, starting with the 1996 presidential election, the DPP has won more presidential elections than the KMT (5 for the DPP in 2000, 2004, 2016, 2020, and 2024 and 3 for the KMT in 1996, 2008, and 2012). With Shih’s passing, these are important developments and achievements to note.
On January 15, 2024, only a few days after the election, longtime democracy and human rights advocate, Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and politician Shih Ming-teh passed away. Given his place in Taiwan’s history and democratic development, it is important to remember him and his legacy.
I had the honour of interviewing him in 2019 for a project on the Tsai Ing-wen administration’s transitional justice initiatives. I tried to interview members of the Kaohsiung Eight about their experiences during the Kuomintang authoritarian period. Still, I was only able to speak to Yao Chia-wen and Shih. Shih’s team agreed to a one-hour interview, provided that I read two of his books prior to the interview to understand his views and personal history. I figured that he received many requests for interviews from people who weren’t familiar with Taiwan’s history and that these books would get people up to speed, so the interviews weren’t a waste of his time.
I read the books as instructed and showed up for the interview fully prepared. We ended up speaking for over three hours about Taiwan’s colonial history to the present day. Having this type of conversation with someone who lived such an important life—largely characterised by political imprisonment for challenging an authoritarian regime—remains a true honour of my life.
When I spoke to him in 2019, I could not get over the fact that he was in prison for almost the entirety of my life (I was 28 at the time, and he was in prison for 25 years and 13 in solitary confinement). Sitting in his living room, I could not fathom having only been locked up for so long, and there I was, having tea with him, listening to some of his jokes.
One joke is particularly worth highlighting, as it demonstrates his sense of humour and the surveillance state of the KMT regime. Shih said that he once had a friend who owned a restaurant that was struggling to attract patrons. The friend was worried that the restaurant would go out of business. Shih immediately told his friend not to worry that he would fill the restaurant the next night by going for dinner. So, Shih said that he went to the restaurant and lo and behold, it was packed after he arrived—no empty seats in the entire restaurant. How did Shih accomplish such a feat by only inviting a couple of people to his table? Everyone else in the restaurant was sent to monitor Shih and his comings and goings. The KMT’s surveillance apparatus saved his friend’s restaurant.
Shih is a widely known figure in Taiwan for his legacy in Taiwan’s democratisation and his role in the Kaohsiung Incident and Tangwai movement. He’s also famous for his role in the anti-corruption protests against then-President Chen Shui-bian in the early 2000s. Shih consistently called for Chen’s resignation and led the “Million Voices Against Corruption-Chen Must Go” campaign. For decades, he held politicians to high standards, and understandably so.
However, Shih himself became a problematic figure later in his life. His campaign against Chen and frequent comments about some Democratic Progressive Party politicians resulted in him getting regularly featured in People’s Republic of China state media outlets. An odd irony for someone who fought so hard against an authoritarian regime. His sexist comments about Tsai and her sexuality also tarnished his legacy. These incidents are a part of Shih’s legacy.
Many international profiles refer to Shih as “Taiwan’s Nelson Mandela” for his long-term imprisonment and push for democracy. Such a characterisation is somewhat useful for those unfamiliar with Taiwan and Shih to understand the role that he played in Taiwan’s democratisation and the abuses conducted under the KMT authoritarian regime. However, with his death, I am left wondering how much of Taiwan’s international isolation diminished not only Shih’s legacy but also other similar advocates in Taiwan. Americans learn about many similar international figures in their education, but Shih is not one of them despite doing many of the same things as people like Mandela. This can also be credited to Taiwan’s authoritarian period and democratisation not being common knowledge, either. If Taiwan remained a part of the mainstream in international politics, where would someone like Shih be placed?
Shih died after Taiwan’s eighth democratic presidential election, and the first in which the incumbent, two-term party won a third term (under a different candidate). While there is a particularly good or fitting time for someone to pass away, his passing days after the 2024 election show that his initial mission was a successful one.
Thomas J. Shattuck is a Senior Program Manager at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House. Shattuck is a Non-Resident Research Fellow at the Global Taiwan Institute, a Non-Resident Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a member of Foreign Policy for America’s NextGen Foreign Policy Initiative, and the Pacific Forum’s Young Leaders Program.
Taiwan Insight 