The New York Times
Date: Oct. 4, 2019
By: Chris Horton
Su Beng, a revolutionary widely known as the father of Taiwan independence for his efforts to liberate
Su Beng at his home in Taipei in 2007. His monumental book, “Taiwan’s 400-Year History,” argued that centuries of colonization had given Taiwan a distinct identity in East Asia.CreditCreditNir Elias/Reuters
His death, at Taipei Medical University Hospital, was confirmed by Ray Jade Chen, the hospital’s superintendent, who said the cause was pneumonia.
Mr. Su’s stature as a key figure in the independence movement was cemented when he wrote “Taiwan’s 400-Year History,” a three-volume foundational book published in 1962 that embraced the notion that centuries of colonization had given Taiwan’s people a distinct identity in East Asia.
Mr. Sun began his political life seeking to free Taiwan from the yoke of Japanese colonial rule, only to find himself, decades later, simultaneously fighting two oppressive Chinese governments — the Communists in Beijing and a nationalist regime in Taipei — each standing in the way of Taiwanese self-determination.
As a university student, Mr. Su had taken to Marxism and lived in China, where he assisted Mao Zedong’s revolution for more than seven years. But after Mao triumphed in 1949 over nationalist forces led by Chiang Kai-shek in the Chinese civil war, Mr. Su abandoned the Communist Party that sought to recruit him. [FULL STORY]
