4.1. Taiwan’s Democratization and Media
4.1.5. Formosa Magazine and Kaohsiung Incident
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Secondly, Dangwai magazines influenced the journalistic style and attitude of Taiwan’s mainstream media. They set the pattern for cutthroat competition and extreme partisanship. This trend has only increased since the Dangwai era; after the KMT lost the presidency for the first time in 2000, Taiwan’s media fully embraced commercialism and plunged into aggressive political commentary. In many cases, the media have degenerated into mouthpieces of political parties and are more interested in advertising than in journalism.
4.1.5. Formosa Magazine and Kaohsiung Incident
Kaohsiung Incident occurred when Formosa Magazine, headed by veteran opposition Legislative Yuan Legislator Huang Shin-chieh( 黃 信 介 ), and other opposition politicians held a demonstration commemorating Human Rights Day in an effort to promote and demand democracy in Taiwan. At that time, the Republic of China was a one-party state and the government used this protest as an excuse to arrest the main leaders of the political opposition. Kaohsiung Incident is well-recognized as a critical and important event in the post-war history of Taiwan and regarded as the watershed of the Taiwan democratization movements. The event had the effect of galvanizing the Taiwanese community into political actions and regarded as one of the events that eventually led to democracy in Taiwan.
KMT was the only legal political party in Taiwan in 1970s since it took power in 1949. Many opponents of KMT asking for democracy were organized as an opposition camp gradually after the establishment of the magazine Taiwan Political Review(台灣政論) in 1975 founded by one of active members, Kang Ning-Siang. In its 5th edition it published an article on December 27, 1976 titled “Two States of
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Mind—An Evening Discussion with Fou Cong and Professor Liou” which resulted in the revocation of the publisher’s license. In the 1977 election, Dangwai expanded support significantly and won more seats than it did in previous elections. The outcome of the election manifested the potentiality of Dangwai as a quasi-opposition party of ruling KMT and laid the ground for the ensuing mass movement.
On December 16, 1978, the U.S. President, Jimmy Carter, announced that it will severe its official relationship with Republic of China as of January 1, 1979. It was the most serious challenge to Taiwan government since it lost its seat at the United Nations taken place by the People’s Republic of China in 1971. The President Chiang Ching-kuo immediately postponed all elections without a definite deadline for its restoration(Yoo, 2006). Dangwai which had won steadily expanding support was strongly frustrated and disappointing about Chiang’s decision since it suspended the only legitimate method they could use to express their opinions.
The leader of Dangwai, legislator Huang Shin-chieh, and his comrades soon petitioned KMT government for the restoration of elections, but it declined the petition(Huang, 2000). On January 21, 1979, KMT arrested Yu Deng-fa(余登發), one of the most prestigious Dangwai leader in south Taiwan, and his son with the intentional false accusation of doing propaganda for the Chinese Communist Party.
Dangwai regarded the arrest of Yu as a signal of complete suppression and decided to make the last-ditch effort by holding radical demonstrations on the street [4], resulting in the escalating conflict between the conservative KMT and Dangwai .
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In May, 1979, Formosa Magazine was established by Huang Shin-chieh aiming at consolidating Dangwai members. On August 16, 1979, the 1st edition was published under the title "Joint Promotion of the New Generation’s Political Movements". The initial issue sold out all of its 25,000 copies, the 2nd and 3rd issues sold almost 100,000 copies, and the 4th issue sold more than 110,000 (Yoo, 2006). On October 17, 1979, a meeting of 22 KMT security agencies adopted a proposal to ban the magazine after a protest from the Korean Embassy protested over an article in the 2nd issue titled "Unveil the Myth of the Korean Economic Miracle". Dangwai held many public gatherings and protests without official permission since its 1st publication. The KMT only showed its symbolic power such as anti-riot police and riot gears without suppressing the gatherings for these meetings, and such endurance and inaction led to Dangwai’s belief in its own power and stuck to the radical approach.
The event on December 10, 1979 started out as the first major Human Rights Day celebration on the island. Until that time the authorities had never allowed any public expression of discontent. Between 2:00 and 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon of December 10, 1979 (four hours before the demonstration commemorating Human Rights Day started, and before any irregularities had taken place), the military police, the army and the police had already taken up positions when the demonstrators arrived(Chang, 1991). When the event took place during the evening, the military police marched forward and closed in on the demonstrators, then they retreated again to their original position. This was repeated two or more times. The battalion commander explained that the purpose of this exercise was to cause panic and fear in the crowd and also to provoke anger and confusion. Political demonstrators clashed with troops sent by the KMT.
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