Just doing a little research on the Chinese Civil War on the Internet, and discovered this info. Pretty interesting. Here’s a brief summary of what was going on, from wikipedia.org:
After losing the mainland, a group of approximately 1,200 KMT soldiers escaped to Burma and continued launching guerrilla attacks into south China. Their leader, General Li Mi, was paid a salary by the ROC government and given the nominal title of Governor of Yunnan. Initially, the U.S. supported these remnants and the CIA provided them with aid. After the Burmese government appealed to the United Nations in 1953, the U.S. began pressuring the ROC to withdraw its loyalists. By the end of 1954, nearly 6,000 soldiers had left Burma and Li Mi declared his army disbanded. However, thousands remained, and the ROC continued to supply and command them, even secretly supplying reinforcements at times. Raids into mainland China gradually ended by the late 1960s as PLA infrastructure improved. Remnants of these KMT loyalists remain in the area and are active in the opium trade.
Later some of the descendent of those soldiers (can we say that, it wasn’t very long ago) came to Taiwan. They were left stateless in Taiwan for many years.
They were suppose to attack mainland China from the south when USA attacked the mainland through Korea. However, the Korean War didn’t play out that way.
Personally I think they should mount a campaign against Vietnam for control of the Spately Islands.
Many of these soldiers ended up settling in northern Thailand. Some of the villages in that region are known as KMT villages along with other hill tribes such as AKha and Lahu. The town of Mae Salong in Chiang Rai province is probably the most well known. Many people there still speak Chinese today.
In Thailand many of these soldiers were employed as mercenaries to fight against the Communists. There is a very good book by Bo Yang about this but I can’t remember the title.
They ran the opium trade up until the early 1980s. Around Winter 83-Spring 84, the “General” in command was blown up and most of the old guys decided retired life in Taiwan was much safer.
[quote=“Etheorial”]Just out of curiosity, how does Comrade Stalin know so much about Chinese/Taiwanese history?
Is he a historian or just extremely well read?[/quote]
More to the point, why does Etheorial write about Taiwanese history as if noone else here knows a thing about it and as if such information has only just been discovered?
Well sir, Etheorial has an intense interest in the topic and wants to discuss it, and since this is a discussion forum for politics, feels free to voice his opinion and isn’t worried about making controversial statements. Etheorial also does not engage in prolonged personal attacks on people.
Why is Zhujianlun so worried about political correctness?
Moreover, why does he take such offense to criticism of certain languages and feel the need to defend their supposed merits?
I think this topic has been covered in other threads. Maybe a quick search could yield some other threads about this (could be wrong on this, though).
Perhaps you can find “The Politics of Heroin in SE Asia” by Alfred W. McCoy. Or “Burma in Revolt: Opium and Insurgency Since 1948” by Bertil Lintner. Both mention this topic.
As mentioned by Wix, Bo Yang’s book is OK. too. I picked up an English translation of it in Chiang Mai.
But if you are really interested in this topic, take a trip to northern Thailand and visit some of these areas. As mentioned, Mae Salong is perhaps the most obvious choice, but there are other places worth visiting.
Just get up to Chiang Rai and go from there.
There was an article about Mae Salong in the HK paper “The Standard” a few weeks ago, if memory serves.
It is an interesting and fascinating topic (well, to me and a few others it seems, at least). Please do post whatever new information you find about this.
[quote=“fee”]But if you are really interested in this topic, take a trip to northern Thailand and visit some of these areas. As mentioned, Mae Salong is perhaps the most obvious choice, but there are other places worth visiting.
Just get up to Chiang Rai and go from there.[/quote]
There are two museums dedicated to the history of opium in Chiang Rai province. One, which I have visited is at Sop Ruak, better known as the Golden Triangle. It is the village where the Thai, Burmese and Lao borders meet. The place is a terrible tourist trap, but the museum is about the only thing there worth visiting. It is run by an Akha woman and admission is about 20 baht or so.
The other museum is a royal project, sponsored by the Queen I think. I have never visited it, but I think it is near Sop Ruak or Chiang Saen. I think it is much bigger and grander than the other museum and the entry fee is correspondingly higher.
A google search for “opium museum chiang rai” should turn up plenty more information.
It certainly is an interesting topic, and there’s nothing wrong with Etheorial bringing it up, even if the all-knowing history buffs already know about it, or it my have been discussed before. It’s one of the most fascinating little snippets of KMT history, and I’m sure there were many people who were unaware of it.