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Young China Party 中國青年黨 | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | YCP / CYP |
| Chairman | Lin Yishan |
| Founded | 2 December 1923; 102 years ago (1923-12-02),Paris,France |
| Preceded by | The Statists wing ofYoung China Association |
| Headquarters | 3F, 283 Songjiang Rd.,Zhongshan District,Taipei[1] |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Right-wing |
| National affiliation | China Democratic League (1941–1947) |
| Slogan | "Patriotism, Democracy, Anti-independence, Pro-unification"[I] |
| Anthem | "Song of the Young China Party"[II] |
| Party flag | |
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| Website | |
| www | |
| Young China Party | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 中國青年黨 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 中国青年党 | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Abbreviation | |||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 青年黨 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 青年党 | ||||||||||||||||||
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TheYoung China Party (YCP),[III] also known as theChinese Youth Party (CYP), is a minor political party inTaiwan (Republic of China). It was one of the three legal political parties in Taiwan during themartial law period from 1949 to 1987, the other two being theKuomintang and theChina Democratic Socialist Party. The YCP was an important political party during theearly history of the Republic of China, when its government was based onthe mainland.
Before the foundation of Young China Party in 1923. Several of its early organizers had previously been active in theYoung China Association, a patriotic cultural association founded in 1918 that promoted cultural modernization through journals and study societies. Within the Association, a communist wing led by figures such asLi Dazhao andZhang Wentian gravitated toward communism, while a statist wing associated withZeng Qi andLi Huang later carried its ideas into the formation of the YCP after the Association’s dissolution in 1925.[2][3][4]
The Young China Party was founded by a group of Chinese students inParis,France on 2 December 1923. It was originally known as the Chinese Étatiste Youth League[5] (also translated as the Chinese Statist Youth League[6]), but renamed after some time. Their name was inspired by theYoung Turks andYoung Italy. Given China's weakened condition in the early 1920s, the YCP's primary platform was to advocate the elimination of China'swarlords and the establishment of a strong central government. It also promoted anationalist agenda which focused on the abolition of the special privileges and extraterritoriality which foreign powers had obtained in China during the final years of theQing dynasty. It was also stronglyanti-communist. The party was made up largely of landlords, school teachers, and businessmen, similar to the Kuomintang.[7]
Zeng Qi, the party's first chairman, and other YCP founders such asLi Huang,He Luzhi (何魯之) andLi Buwei (李不韙) returned to China starting in 1924. The YCP then established party organizations inShanghai, other major Chinese cities, and among overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. From its foundation, the YCP's rank and file strength consisted mainly of students and intellectuals.
Initially called theChina National Youth Corps, the YCP acquired its current name during its fourth national convention in September 1929. During theNorthern Expedition, the party supported the northern warlords because they opposed theCommunists within theFirst United Front. After the anti-communist purge, they still resisted the KMT because of itsone-party state.
The party was banned after the Nationalists came to power in 1928 and the YCP refusedChiang Kai-shek's offer to merge the two parties. The Nationalists denounced them as a warlord party due to their early failed attempts to recruitWu Peifu and their opposition to the Northern Expedition. The Communists called themfascists because of their strident anti-communism and their leaders' ties to the French fascists. The YCP considered itself to be a democratic parliamentary conservative party.
They were based inManchuria under the protection ofZhang Xueliang. After theJapanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, the YCP called for an immediatedeclaration of war againstJapan, in contrast with the Nationalist government's resistance to a formal war declaration and initiating hostilities. The YCP joined the anti-Japanese United Front in 1937 to support the national government. After the initiation of the full-scale war, the YCP cooperated closely with theKuomintang (KMT) in fighting the Japanese military aggression. It joined theChina Democratic League, an umbrella group of small democratic parties. In the early years of the war, the Youth Party became the third largest party, after the KMT and the CCP, yet one informed historian called the party organization "extremely weak." The members were either personal friends ofCarsun Chang, many of whom had been followers ofLiang Qichao, or his former students. Qian Duansheng criticized Chang as "neither an organizer himself not a man able to pick capable men to organize for him."John Melby, an American diplomat who knew Chang during the war, felt that Chang was as "unrealistic" as his brother,Chang Kia-ngau, was hard headed. As a scholar, Melby conceded, Chang was "highly intelligent and well educated," but as a politician he was "utopian" and "ineffectual."[8]
In April 1945, one of the YCP's founders, Li Huang was appointed as one of the Republic of China's delegates to the San Francisco Conference at which theUnited Nations organization was created. The party left the CDL when it became pro-Communist after the war.
During the1947 Republic of China National Assembly election, the YCP won more than 100 seats in theNational Assembly and 16 seats in theLegislative Yuan. During the formation of the firstcabinet of the constitutional government in 1948, the YCP'sChen Qitian (陳啓天) was appointed minister of commerce and industry, and party headZuo Shunsheng (左舜生) was appointed minister of agriculture and forestry.
After theChinese Communist Revolution, many of the YCP's leadership and members moved overseas or relocated to Taiwan with the central government, though the YCP's headquarters were officially moved to Taipei only in 1969. The YCP cooperated closely with the KMT after 1949 and continually obtained seats in the National Assembly, Legislative Yuan andControl Yuan well into the late 1980s.
Given its intellectual foundations, the YCP placed great emphasis on periodicals and printed several reference books on party history and platforms. These includeBrief History of the Young China Party, Biography of Past Members of the YCP, Fifty Years of the Young China Party andThe Essay on Nationalism, all published in the early 1970s around the party's 50th anniversary. The YCP also published periodicals such as the fortnightlyDemocratic Tide, and the monthlyThe Modern Nation,National Tribune andAwakened Lion. For basic background on the YCP, please refer to theRepublic of China 1987 - A Reference Book, published by the Government Information Office of the Republic of China.
In the 1990s, the YCP lost all of their seats and failed to gain elected representation after Taiwan's democratic transition. Continuing as a minor force in politics, it intended to participate in the2020 Legislative Yuan election, but did not join. The party supportsChinese unification under a democratic China and opposesTaiwan independence and "One Country, Two Systems". It also supported the2019 Hong Kong protests and condemned the actions of Hong Kong police.[9]
The YCP is aChinese nationalist party[10][11][12][13][14] which followsSun Yat-sen'sThree Principles of the People.[15][16] The party supports the unification of Taiwan andmainland China, but opposes the rule of theChinese Communist Party.[17]
| Election | Total seats won | Total votes | Share of votes | Changes | Election leader | Status | President |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1948 | 6 / 759 | Zeng Qi | Minority | Zeng Qi | |||
| 1969 | 0 / 11 | 111,187 | 3.16% |  6 | Minority | ||
| 1972 | 1 / 51 | 129,115 | 2.68% |  1 | Minority | ||
| 1975 | 1 / 52 | 143,992 | 2.31% |  | Minority | ||
| 1980 | 0 / 97 | 57,919 | 0.91% | 1 | Minority | ||
| 1983 | 2 / 98 | Li Huang | Minority | ||||
| 1986 | 2 / 100 | Li Huang | Minority | ||||
| 1989 | 1 / 130 | 1 | Li Huang | Minority | |||
| 1992 | 0 / 161 | 1,035 | 0.01% | 1 | Liu Zipeng | Minority | |
| 1998 | 0 / 161 | 723 | 0.01% | | Xu Pengfei | Minority |
| Election | Total seats won | Total votes | Share of votes | Changes | Party leader | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1947 | 76 / 3,045 | ? | ? | Zeng Qi | Minority | |
| 1991 | 0 / 325 | 1,573 | 0.02% | | Liu Zipeng | Minority |
| 1996 | 0 / 334 | 6,197 | 0.06% | | Zhao Chunxiao | Minority |
| Nationally represented (Legislative Yuan seats) |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Locally represented | ||
| Other parties | ||
