Chao Tze-chi
Chao Tzu-chi was a Chinese politician, athlete and novelist. He was a member of the Tsotanhui Clique of the Kuomintang. He served as leader of the Kuomintang caucus in Legislative Yuan from 1970 to 1988 and Chairman of the World League for Freedom and Democracy from 1989 to 1997.
Biography
Chao was born in Suidong, Rehe Province. He described his hometown as a desolate village surrounded by vast stretches of yellow sand, where more than half of the residents were Mongols. Chao himself could speak some Mongolian. Chao's father owned a silk shop, and his elder sister married the younger brother of the wife of Wu Peifu's elder brother.In 1932, while studying at Nankai University, Chao participated in the student movement opposing the government's abandonment of Manchuria. As a representative of the movement, he traveled to Nanjing to protest against Chiang Kai-shek, which led to him being pursued by the police. In early 1933, Chao, along with other student representatives, voluntarily joined the Defense of the Great Wall after only three months of training. However, following several battles, he decided to return to his studies.
Chao was selected for the Jilin basketball team and the Rehe volleyball team in the 1933 National Games of the Republic of China, an event with anti-Japanese sentiment. Later that year, he attempted to return to Rehe, which had been incorporated into Manchukuo, disguised as a merchant. However, Japanese police identified him and, citing his participation in the Games, imprisoned him for five months as a suspected dissident. He later called this a turning point in his life.
After graduating from Nankai University, Chao was admitted to the Officer Training Corps in 1936, the deputy commander was Chen Cheng, while the class supervisor was Kang Tse. As a result, Chao was perceived as acknowledging his long-standing membership with this faction. During this period, he frequently participated in activities of the Blue Shirts Society, admiring its ideology without join it. This steadfast adherence led to his recognition as a hardliner within the Kuomintang.
Following the conclusion of the Xi'an Incident, he was entrusted with the personal protection of Chiang Kai-shek for a period of time.
Following the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Chao served as a platoon leader under General Sun Yuanliang in the Battle of Shanghai. From 1937 to 1944, he was assigned to training duties. In 1944, alongside Wang Zhiyun, Li Yinguo, and Wang Shulin, he planned to organize a resistance movement in Rehe Province, which had been occupied by Manchukuo. However, on the eve of their departure, the mission was canceled as an Allied victory appeared imminent, and Chao was recalled.
After the surrender of Japan, Chao returned to his hometown in Rehe Province to oversee the post-war administrative takeover. He claimed that while the local population trusted the Kuomintang, the Chinese Communist Party assassinated those who followed Kuomintang directives at night, making the takeover increasingly difficult. In 1948, he was elected as a legislator representing the Rehe constituency.
In 1964, Chao visited the United States and other 11 European countries, where he toured the U.S. House of Representatives and Chinatown in Hawaii. Upon returning to Taiwan, he published a spy novel titled Crossing the Baltic Sea. Chao also authored several other works, including The Problem of Refugee Resettlement after the Recovery of the Mainland, America, Hesitate No More, and Six Hours in East Berlin.
From 1970 to 1988, Chao served as the Secretary-General of the Central Policy Committee.The committee was responsible for overseeing the operations of party caucuses, leading policy discussions, and formulating key party policies, effectively serving as the party's whip. His tenure was marked by controversy due to his decision to deploy the Taiwan Garrison Command to investigate newspaper agencies and his own deputy, Liang Su-yung.
Pro-democracy dissident Cheng Nan-jung even claimed that Chao was the "President of the Legislative Yuan behind the scenes".
In the 1988 Legislative Yuan presidential election, Chao, as military-backed hardliner, was originally chosen by Liu Kuo-tsai as his running mate
. Since Liu planned to retire in two years, his vice president would have been positioned to assume the presidency of the Legislative Yuan in 1990. However, with the intervention of President Lee Teng-hui, human rights lawyer Liang Su-yung, a member of the CC Clique, secured the nomination instead.
Chao’s replacement was not solely due to Lee’s preference. According to contemporaneous reports, Ma Shu-li, chairman of the Broadcasting Corporation of China, and other influential figures advocated for Chao to bypass Liu and directly run for Legislative Yuan president in 1988. Chao’s ambiguous stance toward this suggestion created a rift between him and Liu. Around the same time, an anonymous letter surfaced accusing Liang of having collaborated with the Japanese during World War II. Liang publicly claimed that Chao was behind the smear campaign, further deepening the political divide. These developments paved the way for Lee Teng-hui to successfully maneuver the nomination in Liang’s favor. Chao had a very antagonistic relationship with Liang, and in his memoirs, Chao referred to Liang as ungrateful and a spreader of rumors.
In 1990, after Chao took over the World League for Freedom and Democracy, he changed its name from the original "World League for Anti-Communist" to "World League for Freedom and Democracy." This move was strongly opposed by its founder, Ku Cheng-kang, who denounced Chao as reckless and audacious.
Chao shifted the league's mission from "anti-communism" to the "promotion of freedom and democracy", transforming its approach from mass movements to an academic focus. He collaborated with the Claremont Institute to organize an exhibition on the new world order after the Gulf War. Additionally, Chao was invited by the United Nations to participate as an observer in the Fourth Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
In 1992, Chao made a high-profile visit to India to meet with the 14th Dalai Lama, marking the first contact between representatives of Taiwan and the Central Tibetan Administration since the ROC's retreat to Taiwan.
In 1994, Chao was invited by Russian president Boris Yeltsin to hold a conference of the World League for Freedom and Democracy in Moscow. During the event, Chao was invited to give a speech at the Kremlin.
In 2015, Chao established the Chao Tzu-chi Education Foundation, which provides scholarships to students of Rehe Province origin.
Chao died on 4 August 2020 at the age of 105. On 23 September, President Tsai Ing-wen issued Presidential Decree No. 1472 in commemoration of Chao. The contents of the decree are as follows:
Political views
On Mongolian Autonomy
According to The Reminiscence of Dr. Chao Tze-chi, published by the Academia Historica in 2000, Chao articulated strong positions on Mongolian autonomy and played an active role in legislative debates on frontier governance during the early 1950s. He provided a detailed account of the controversy within the Legislative Yuan concerning the legal status of Mongolian self-government, outlining both the institutional process and his own intervention in policy discussions.Chao recalled that on 16 March 1951, during the thirteenth session of the Legislative Yuan, a Statutory Revision Committee was established to compile a catalogue of existing laws. Debate over Mongolian autonomy soon generated heightened tensions between Mongol and Han representatives. The committee determined that laws should be repealed or amended under nine specified conditions, and after more than fifty committee meetings, nine plenary sessions, and six administrative reports to the Legislative Yuan, a consultative conference was convened on 26 March 1953 with representatives from the Presidential Office and the five branches of government. Chao argued that by April–May 1954 the five statutes formulated for frontier affairs were already sufficiently sound.
However, on 20 November of that year, the newly appointed chairman of the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission,, unexpectedly proposed incorporating several guiding principles—regarded by Liu as the supreme basis of Mongolian autonomy—directly into statutory law. Chao interpreted this initiative as inflaming ethnic antagonism and questioned the abrupt policy reversal:
Chao contended that the so-called “Eight Principles of Mongolian Autonomy,” advocated by Liu, included provisions such as establishing a Mongolian Local Self-Government Political Council directly subordinate to the Executive Yuan and headed by Mongols, maintaining the existing banner-and-league administrative structure, and preserving existing jurisdictional authority. He argued that these proposals ultimately derived from Japanese wartime strategy: after failing to incorporate Mongolia into Manchukuo, Japanese agents—particularly Kenji Doihara—had courted Mongol aristocrats and encouraged what he described as “Greater Mongolian chauvinism,” producing what he characterized as a fictitious puppet autonomy associated with figures such as Demchugdongrub and Li Shouxin. On this basis, Chao labeled Liu’s proposal a “bill of national humiliation.”
Chao further asserted that the “reality of Mongolian autonomy” consisted of attempts to institutionalize the alleged “national humiliation bill,” preserve the banner system, and restrict Han settlement, which he interpreted as unilateral efforts to secure legislative advantages. Drawing upon his upbringing in a village with a Mongol majority, he argued that frontier provinces had historically experienced long-standing interethnic coexistence:
He also criticized Mongolian autonomists for allegedly falsifying demographic data in an attempt to overturn what he regarded as the historically shared character of Mongolian lands between Han and Mongol populations, as well as, what he perceived as preferential treatment toward frontier minorities, citing the distribution of relief supplies under Minister of Social Affairs Ku Cheng-kang, which he believed unintentionally fostered division.
In a memorandum submitted to the central government, Chao set forth his own position on the banner-and-league system:
He further proposed a set of governing principles for Mongolia that were ultimately accepted by the central authorities after rejecting a competing platform advanced by Mongolian Politician, Wu Heling. These recommendations emphasized political equality among ethnic groups, merit-based appointment of officials regardless of ethnicity, accommodation of linguistic, cultural, and religious diversity within the framework of national unity, and the recruitment of Mongolian intellectuals and youth into public service. Economically, Chao advocated large-scale infrastructure development centered on railway expansion, improvements in animal husbandry with domestic and international assistance, the establishment of textile and leather industries, modernization of medical services, and expanded educational opportunities designed to increase social mobility and national awareness.
Chao additionally argued that, following the anticipated recovery of the mainland, policymaking should not rely solely on subjective assumptions. Instead, he recommended the formation of organized frontier inspection teams tasked with conducting field research across different regions in order to prevent disputes arising from conjecture or the partial views of a limited number of actors.
Chao recalled that his role and policy stance prompted a protest on 26 October, when a total of sixty-five Mongolian political figures gathered at the Guangfu Hall of Zhongshan Hall to denounce him as the principal instigator and petition the central government for disciplinary action. Although Chiang Kai-shek expressed support for Chao, many of his Mongolian friends subsequently severed relations with him. Chao wrote: