Taiwan Church News
3526 Edition
September 23 – 29, 2019
Obituary Su Beng, Guardian of Taiwan Independence, Dies at 103 Reported by Chen Yi-fang Su Beng, the protagonist of modern Taiwan independence movement and the “die-hard revolutionary” dubbed by Taiwan society, died at Taipei Medical University Hospital around 11:00 p.m. on September 20, 2019. Both President Tsai Ing-wen and her general secretary at Presidential Office, Ms Chen Chu, pay tributes to Su Beng on their Facebook for his life-long contribution and works for Taiwan’s freedom, democracy and independent sovereignty. Su Beng, whose real name is Seh Chao-huei, was born at Su-Lin district of Taipei in 1918. He was attracted to Marxism’s ideal society when he studied in the department of political economics of Waseda University in Japan. In 1942, he attended the Chinese army to fight against Japan’s invasion in China. Yet, during his Marxist engagement to fight for China, Su Beng was gravely discontent toward the Chinese communist’s corruption and dictatorship. He fled back to Taiwan in 1949. Later, seeing Jiang Kai-sheik’s tyranny toward Taiwanese peoples, he tried an assassination but failed in 1952. He escaped to Japan by sea, though immediately caught by Japan government when he arrived the harbor, yet finally granted a political asylum. The most renown and important publication within Su Beng’s life is his book: “Taiwan’s 400 Year History: The Origins and Continuing Development of the Taiwanese Society and People”, initially published in Japanese in 1962. In this book, Su Beng proposed an innovative Taiwanese nationalism based on an up-to-date and persuasive analysis of contemporary perspective of political economics studies. Translated by Peter Wolfe |