12 April 1927 was the Shanghai massacre. Or, in Taiwan, the April 12 incident or purge. Or, in China, the April 12 Counter-revolutionary Coup. Each tells a story of the day that Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and the conservative forces of the KMT violently suppressed Communist groups in Shanghai.
The immediate consequences were a greatly diminished Communist Party and a split KMT with Chiang Kai-shek establishing himself in Nanjing in opposition to the original left-wing KMT government of Wang Jingwei based in Wuhan.
History is the last province to be conquered by the victor. The Chinese revolutions – and there were many – has produced two victors, the mainland Chinese communist government and the much smaller but, to Western eyes, more attractive Taiwan.
What of the left leaning Wang Jingwei, one of Dr Sun Yat Sen’s closest associates?
Ironically, his fate has been determined not by his moderation but by his later identification with the Japanese invaders for two reasons, a belief that that China needed to reach a negotiated settlement with Japan so that Asia could resist Western powers and as a bulwark against Chiang Kaishek.
The fate is that his name is a byword for traitor, a Quisling or a Benedict Arnold. The fate is peculiar in that his name is traitor in both China and Taiwan.
