After the Kuomintang (KMT) established a nationalist
regime on mainland China in 1927, some Chinese intellectuals were recruited into
the regime and served at even key positions, whereas others chose to maintain independence
and autonomy in order to check the power of the authority. In 1949, the KMT retreat
from Mainland to Taiwan with many excellent intellectuals, including both those
pro-regime ones and those liberal ones. Due to the variation of the components of
intellectuals, the KMT authority adopted different tactics to impose its control
over them. By using censorship to the critical-oppositional intellectuals, imposing
campus control to the active college students, and establishing political warfare
system to restrict pro-government intellectuals, the KMT regime managed to limit
the sociopolitical influence of the people among these groups. However, all the
strategies and tactics employed by the KMT did not work well enough to maintain
its rule during the martial law period; thus, it is appropriate to say that the
KMT’s social control over intellectuals were not effective to persist its authoritarian rule.
Cite this paper
Gao, L. and Xia, L. (2018). Authoritarian Control Mechanism over Chinese Intellectuals under the KMT Regime: A Study on Its History and Effects. Open Access Library Journal, 5, e4235. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1104235.
Zhang, X.J. (2008) Jindai Zhongguo De Qiluren: Luo Jialun Pingzhuan. [The Man Taking the Wrong Path in Modern China: A Critical Biography of Luo Jialun.] People’s Publishing House, Beijing.
Shen, C.Y. (2008) Chiang Kai-Shek’s Chief of Staff: Chen Bulei and The Politics of Republican China (1927-1948). Mater Thesis, Tunghai University, Tai-chung.
Schwartz, V. (1986) The Chinese Enlightenment: Intellectuals and the Legacy of the May Fourth Movement of 1919. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.
Cohen, M.J. (1988) Taiwan at the Crossroads: Human Rights, Political Development and Social Change on the Beautiful Island. Asian Resource Center, Washington, D.C., 141-160.
Shi, M.X. (1998) Baise Kongbu, Heian Shidai: Taiwan Ren Shounanshi. [White Terror and Dark Ages: A History of Taiwanese People’s Suffering.] Avanguard Publishing House, Taipei.