19
KMT government did prison political criminals, the state apparatus usually avoided
arresting internationally famous scholars, especially those who graduated from
American universities such as Shih Hu. The deprivation of freedom or physical
damage to these scholars sometimes triggered concerns from the US government.
(For example: the death of Dr. Wen-Cheng Chen, a Taiwan-born US scholar who
advocated opposition to KMT government, once significantly aroused the discontent
from the United States. The United States officially warned the Taiwanese
government for this political murder in 1980 and held public hearing in the
Congress.
18
) The fact that Taiwan’s security depended on the United States forced the
KMT government to have a more moderate relation with intellectuals.
In addition to the international pressure, the fact that the KMT government was an
external authority to Taiwanese people forced the KMT government to cultivate
popularity and earn the support of Taiwan residents by not offending the social
customs in Taiwan. Besides, as a state independent from the society, KMT had no
penetration power to mobilize full-scale struggles against local elites. In other words,
despite KMT imposed political suppressions on individual dissenters, it did not
arouse a comprehensive struggle against the intellectuals and social elites. Instead, the
18
See
http://ecophilia.fo.ntu.edu.tw/course/env/old/91-1/env91-1free/messages/22.htm
.
Convention