Living with ‘the Enemies Within’: The Monitoring System for the Reborn（Hsin Sheng Fen Tzu） In Taiwan’s Late-Authoritarian Period

• Main Authors: Hung-Jui Liao, 廖泓叡
• Other Authors: 黃長玲
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2019
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/nyq67u

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 政治學研究所 === 107 === By analyzing the archives produced by Kaohsiung City Police Department, this thesis attempts to portray the ideal methods and the actual results of the monitor-reeducate duties carried out by rank and file police officers towards the local post-jail political dissidents, such as Chen San-Hsiang（陳三興）and Ko Chi-Hua（柯旗化）, as part of the overall policies of the KMT Government （hereinafter referred to as “the Government”） to deal with ‘the enemies within’ in Taiwan during the post-WWII authoritarian period from a bottom-up perspective. In light of the fact that the Government could not entirely wipe out ‘the enemies within’, namely, the post-jail dissidents, whom the Government had already identified via formal judicial procedure, all post-jail dissidents were given since the early 1950s a new identity ‘Hsin Sheng Fen Tzu’（or the Reborn）, upon whom the Government imposed constant inspection and strict restriction in case they would rebel again. Meanwhile, through the day-to-day monitor-reeducate routines, the Government also tried to transform these ‘enemies within’ into obedient, conscientious citizens of the ideal type. However, for the local police officials who were the actual executors of the day-to-day monitor-reeducate routines, the policy goal mentioned above was never achieved. In fact, due to the special characteristics of political surveillance and the bureaucratic structure of government apparatus, officials, especially at local levels, were able to retain certain leeway for their own judgement and benefit. Also, combined with the flaws within the SOP of the monitor-reeducate routines and the unreasonable working conditions of the Taiwanese police department after WWII, the daily monitor-reeducate routines, which would occupy considerable time and manpower but with very little effect, had become a headache for local police. As the paradigm of political surveillance shifted in the early 1980s, the daily monitor-reeducate routines on the Reborn were slowly replaced by other more efficient approaches. Throughout the post-WWII authoritarian period, the Government could neither accurately control (or even detect) the everyday activities of the Reborn, nor frame and arrest the dissidents at will. Practically, the bureaucracy operated with its own logic, ensuring its smooth daily function without much actual achievement while at the same time reserving flexibility for individual officials as well. Most important of all, as the Government sought to cage the Reborn in specific areas inside civil society, so as to contain any dissemination of the ‘poisonous thoughts’ harbored by post-jail dissidents, the Government itself was also caged by the bureaucracy within. Thus, from the grassroots level to the top of the police department hierarchy (or perhaps, to the top of the authoritarian regime as a whole）, the entire system, which continued to marginalize and incapacitate the role of political surveillance in practice, had failed at its core policy goal for defending its own political power.