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Recovery from “Betrayal”: Local Anti-Nuclear Movements and Party Politics in Taiwan
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025
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This article investigates the history and contemporary development of the local antinuclear experience in Gongliao district, Taiwan. It traces villagers' intricate relations with political parties, their frustration with the decision making process, and efforts to sustain local anti-nuclear momentum at a time when the anti-nuclear movement was in decline. By exploring local villagers' three decades of antinuclear efforts, this article focuses on their change of tactics, networks and ideologies, and explains how these changes had happened. It argues that local anti-nuclear activists played an important role in transforming an antinuclear movement from a party-led activity to an issue-based protest independent of party control. The transformation was facilitated by the deepening of a place-based consciousness among local activists.
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References
Notes
1 Xie Yun, “Fanhe chenggong,” United Evening News, 30 September 2000; Li Shuren, “Gongliaoren fang bianpao qingzhu,” United Evening News 27 October 2000.
2 Ming-sho Ho, “Weakened State and Social Movement: the Paradox of Taiwanese Environmental Politics after the Power Transfer,” Journal of Contemporary China, Vol. 14, No. 43 (May 2005): 340; “Taiwan's State and Social Movements under the DPP Government, 2000–2004,” Journal of East Asian Studies, No. 5 (2005): 401–425.
3 Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao, “Environmental Movements in Taiwan,” in Yok-shiu F. Lee and Alvin Y. So (eds.) Asia's Environmental Movements (New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1999); Ming-sho Ho, “The Politics of Anti-Nuclear Protest in Taiwan: A Case of Party-Dependent Movement (1980–2000),” Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 37, No. 3 (2003); Pan Hui-Ling, “Taiwan fan Hesi yundong lichen zhi zhengzhi fenxi ” [Examining Anti-fourth-Nuclear-Power-Plant Movement in Taiwan], (Master thesis, National Taiwan University, 2007).
4 Benedict J. Kerkvliet, The Power of Everyday Politics: How Vietnamese Peasants Transformed National Policy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005).
5 Tessa Morris-Suzuki, “Invisible politics,” Humanities Australia (November 5, 2014): 53–64.
6 Robert P Weller, Alternative Civilities: Democracy and Culture in China and Taiwan (Oxford: Westview Press, 1999).
7 Doug McAdam, Sidney Tarrow and Charles Tilly, Dynamics of Contention (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 12, 15.
8 Doreen Massey, Space, Place, and Gender (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994).
9 Arif Dirlik, “Place-based Immagination: Globalism and the Politics of Place,” in Place and Politics in an Age of Globalization, Roxaan Prazniak and Arif Dirlik ed. (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2001),22.
10 Wu Shengfu, head of Renli borough, interview by author, 17 December 2014.
11 Cheng Shu-li, “Shehui yundong yu defang shequ bianqian: yi Gongliao xiang fan Hesi weili,” (Social Movement and Community Transformation: A Case Study on the Anti-Nuclear Movement in Gongliao), (master's thesis, National University of Taiwan, 1995), 93–94.
12 Ming-sho Ho, Lüse minzhu: Taiwan Huanjing yundong yanjiu (Greeen Democracy: Environmental Movements in Taiwan) (Taipei: Qunxue chubanshe, 2006), 59.
13 See Robert Weller and Hsin-huang Hsiao's discussion on the importance of Western-educated academics in the early environmental movement in Taiwan, “Culture, Gender and Community in Taiwan's Environmental Movement,” Environmental Movements in Asia, edited by Ame Kalland and Gerard Persoon, (Curzon Press, 1998).
14 Ming-sho Ho, “The Politics of Anti-Nuclear Protest in Taiwan,” 688; also see Ho's discussion on the transformation of intellectuals from “man of ideas”(linian ren) to “man of politics” (zhengzhi ren), in “Taiwan huanjing yundong de kaiduan: zhuanjia xuezhe, tangwai, caogen,” (The origin of environment movements in Taiwan: intellectuals, Tangwai and grassroots) Taiwan shehuixue, Vol.2, (December 2001): 97–162.
15 Lin Fu-lai, chair of Renhe temple committee, interview by author, Gongliao, 17 December 2014.
16 Chao jui-chang, head of Zhenli borough, former head of YASA, and Chen Shi-nan, former head of Gongliao township, interview by author, Gongliao, 16 December 2014.
17 Chao jui-chang and Chen Shi-nan, interview by author, Gongliao, 16 December 2014; Wu Wen-tung, former head of YASA, interview by author, Gongliao, 17 December 2014.
18 Wu Wentong, interview by author, 17 December 2014.
19 Robert Weller and Hsin-huang Hsiao, “Culture, Gender and Community in Taiwan's Environmental Movement.”
20 Chao jui-chang and Chen Shi-nan, interview by author, Gongliao, 16 December 2014; Lin Fu-lai, interview by author, 17 December 2014. Many personal and institutional blogs also document the divination. See hereand here.
21 Chao jui-chang and Chen Shi-nan, interview by author, Gongliao, 16 December 2014; Wu Wen-tung, interview by author, Gongliao, 17 December 2014.
22 Wu Wen-tung, interview by author 17 December 2014.
23 Lin Fu-lai, interview by author 17 December 2014.
24 Wu Wen-tung, interview by author 17 December 2014.
25 Wu Wen-tung, interview by author 17 December 2014.
26 YASA's charter, The Eighth Conference Newsletter of YASA, 3 October 1995, 8.
27 Chao jui-chang and Chen Shi-nan, interview by author, Gongliao, 16 December 2014; YASA's financial report of 1995, The Eighth Conference Newsletter of YASA, 10.
28 The Eighth Conference Newsletter of YASA.
29 Chen Mingtong, Paixi zhengzhi yu Taiwan zhengzhi bianqian Factional politics and the change of Taiwan political environment] (Taipei: Yuedan chubanshe gufen youxian gongsi, 1995), 5–10; Joseph Bosco, “Taiwan Factions: Guanxi, Patronage, and the State in Local Politics,” Ethnology, Vol. 31, No. 2 (April 1992): 157–158.
30 See the origin of Xinpai and Jiupai in Gongliao, Cheng Shu-li, “Shehui yundong yu defang shequ bianqian: yi Gongliao xiang fan Hesi weili,”68-71.
31 Wu Wen-tung, interview, 17 December 2014.
32 See detailed discussion on the factional division between Xinpai and Jiupai, in Cheng Shu-li, “Shehui yundong yu defang shequ bianqian: yi Gongliao xiang fan Hesi weili,” and Chen Chien-chi, “Zhengzhi zhuanxing zhong shehui yundong celue zizhuxing: yi Gongliao fan Hesi yundong weili” (Strategy and Autonomy of Social Movements in Political Transition: A Case Study of the Anti-Fourth Nuclear Power Plant Project Movement in Gong-Liao) (master's thesis, Soochow University, 2006), 57–58.
33 Wu Wen-tung, interview, 17 December 2014.
34 See Cheng Shu-li's detailed research on tensions between the Old and New factions within YASA. Cheng Shu-li, “Shehui yundong yu defang shequ bianqian: yi Gongliao xiang fan Hesi weili.”
35 Origin of the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union, TEPU website.
36 Wu Ju-ping, “Sheyun tuanti canxuan youqu xianxiang,” United Evening News, 25 November 1989.
37 Yang Tung-ching, “Lin Chun-yi jiaru Minjindang,” United Daily, 11 May 1989.
38 Source based on Chen Chien-chi, “Zhengzhi zhuanxing zhong shehui yundong celue zizhuxing: yi Gongliao fan Hesi yundong weili,” 58. Data after 2000 is collected by author based on interview with Wu Wen-tung, 17 December, 2014.
39 Li Lung-kuang, “Fanhe suodi kaishi chuzhao,” United Evening News, 2 February 1990.
40 Chen Shi-nan, interview by author, 17 December 2014.
41 United Evening News, “Yanzheng qianze fanhe baoli,” 4 October 1991.
42 United Evening News, “Dajia dou bubi fuzeren?” 5 October 1990.
43 Wu Wen-tung, interview by author, 17 December 2014.
44 Ming-sho Ho, “The Politics of Anti-Nuclear Protest in Taiwan,” 702.
45 Peng Wei-ching et al., “Fanhe da fanhe, zijiaren duima,” United Daily, 19 Oct 1996, 4.
46 Chen Su-ling, “Minjindang yu fan Hesi” United Daily, 22 Oct 1996, 4.
47 A local villager's blog article “Wu he menghuan ershi nian”.
48 On the different policies of KMT and DPP see Richard C. Bush, Untying the Knot: Making Peace in the Taiwan Strait (Washington: Brookings Institution Press, 2005), 164–198.
49 Kulao Report, “Fanhe tuanti 513 da youxing jishi baodao,” 13 May 2000.
50 Hsu Tsu-yi, “Fanhe gongliaoren bu youxing,” 14 February 2001, United Evening News, 2.
51 Chao Jui-chang, interview by author, 16 December 2014.
52 “Hesi fugong Gongliao Zhengli cunzhang gantan xingzhengfu zhengce fanfu,” 15 February 2001, 18.
53 -Nuclear-Power-Plant movement in Taiwan,“ (master's thesis, National Taiwan University, January 2007), 71.
54 Hsu Tsu-yi, “Fanhe gongliaoren bu youxing.”
55 See a Gongliao villager's blog, “Wu he menghuan ershi nian”.
56 Shen Ming-chuan,“Fugong? Taidian zhuguan: huikuijin jiang hufu,” United Evening News, 15 Jan 2001.
57 Yang Kuei-ying, interview by author, Gongliao, 14 June 2013.
58 YASA's public letter to Hsieh Chang-ting, 13 December 2001, collected by Wu Wen-tung.
59 “Wu he menghuan ershi nian”.
60 Ibid.
61 Karl Mannheim (edited by Kurt H. Wolff), From Karl Mannheim (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1993), 365.
62 Wu Wen-tung, interview by author, 17 December 2014.
63 Tsui Su-hsin, interview by author, Taipei, 11 December 2014.
64 Ya-Chung Chuang, “Democracy in Action: The Making of Social Movement Webs in Taiwan,” Critique of Anthropology, Vol. 24 (3): 247.
65 Tsui Su-hsin, “Gongliao sheng yu si: Gongliao de fanhe yundong jilu,” (master thesis to Shih Hsin University, 2001 June), 10.
66 Kangxi Gongmin Bao, Vol. 3, April 2011, 7.
67 Wu Wen-tung, interview by author, 17 December 2014.
68 Ibid.
69 Lin Wen-tsui, editor of Gongliaoren, interview by author, Gongliao, 18 December 2014.
70 Wang Ching-e, editor of Gongliaoren, interview by author, Gongliao, 20 December 2014.
71 Wu Wen-tung, interview by author, 17 December 2014.
72 Yang Kuei-ying, interview by author, Gongliao, 14 June 2013.
73 Wu Sheng-fu, interview by author, Gongiao, 17 December 2014.
74 “Lived experience” was borrowed from Brad Weiss's concept of “lived world” which he coined to describe the way the Haya people of north-eastern Tanzania inhabit and experience their environment. See Brad Weiss, The Making and Unmaking of the Haya Lived World: Consumption, Commoditization, and Everyday Practice, (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1996). Also see Tessa Morris-Suzuki's emphasis on the importance of the “lived world” in shaping our political identities, in “For and Against NGOs: The Politics of the Lived World,” New Left Review, No. 2 (March-April 2000): 63-84.
75 Robert Weller, Alternative Civilities: Democracy and Culture in China and Taiwan (Colorado: Westview Press, 1999).
76 For more on the origins of the community construction policy, see Huang Li-ling, “Xin guojia jiangou zhong shequ juese de zhuanbian: shequ gongtongti de lunshu fenxi,” (The Transformation of Community in the Construction of a New Nation: Analysis on Community Building) (master's thesis, National Taiwan University, 1995).
77 “Community construction policy” was absent from the vocabularies of my informants when they recollected their anti-nuclear experience.
78 Gongliaoren, 27 Jan 2011, 1.
79 Wu Wen-tung, interview, 17 December 2014.
80 Ibid.
81 Tsui Su-hsin, interview, 11 December 2014.
82 Blog article “Chuantou xuanxiao kanjian Gongliao”.
83 Blog article, “Fanhe de zuori jinri yu mingri,” 9 September 2010.
84 Apple Daily,“Quan Tai da youxing,” 10 March 2013.
85 Tang Ya-wen, Lin Zheng-Zhong, “Wo ai haizi, buyao hezi,” United Daily, 21 March 2011.
86 Source.
87 Ming-sho Ho, “The Fukushima Effect: Explaining the Resurgence of the Anti-Nuclear Movement in Taiwan,” Environmental Politics, Vol. 23, No. 6 (May 2014).
88 Tsui Su-hsin, interview, 11 December 2014.
89 “Taiwan Halts Fourth Power Plant,” Wise: World Information Service on Energy.
90 Ming-sho Ho, “Weakened State and Social Movement: the Paradox of Taiwanese Environmental Politics after the Power Transfer,” Journal of Contemporary China, Vol. 14, No. 43 (May 2005).
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