Chen Chih-hsiung (; 18 February 1916 – 28 May 1963) was a

Taiwanese independence The Taiwan independence movement is a political movement which advocates the formal declaration of an Independence, independent and Sovereign state, sovereign Taiwanese state, as opposed to Chinese unification or the status quo in Cross-Stra ...

activist.

Biography

Chen was born in what was known as ''Akō Chō'', a division of

Japanese Taiwan The island of Taiwan, together with the Penghu Islands, became an annexed territory of the Empire of Japan in 1895, when the Qing dynasty ceded Fujian-Taiwan Province in the Treaty of Shimonoseki after the Japanese victory in the First Sin ...

, in 1916. He studied Dutch at the Tokyo University of Foreign Languages, and was also fluent in English, Japanese, Malay, Taiwanese and Mandarin. He was sent by the Japanese government to the Dutch East Indies in 1942, shortly after Japan had begun its occupation of the territory, to serve as a translator. Chen stayed in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

after the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and found work designing jewelry. He sided with

Sukarno Sukarno (6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967. Sukarno was the leader of the Indonesian struggle for independenc ...

in the subsequent

Indonesian National Revolution The Indonesian National Revolution (), also known as the Indonesian War of Independence (, ), was an armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between the Republic of Indonesia and the Dutch Empire and an internal social revolution during A ...

and was imprisoned by the Dutch for a year. After the revolution, Sukarno named Chen an honorary citizen of Indonesia. Chen later joined

Thomas Liao Thomas Liao (22 March 1910 – 9 May 1986) was a Taiwanese independence activist and founding leader of the . Early life, education, and military service Thomas Liao was born in present-day Xiluo, Yunlin County, on 22 March 1910, to a wea ...

's Formosa Democratic Independence Party and helped secure Liao a trip to the

Bandung Conference The first large-scale Asian–African or Afro–Asian Conference (), also known as the Bandung Conference, was a meeting of Asian and African states, most of which were newly independent, which took place on 18–24 April 1955 in Bandung, We ...

held in 1955. The next year, Liao appointed Chen the ambassador to Southeast Asia upon the formation of the Japan-based . The Indonesian government eventually arrested Chen and rescinded his passport before deporting him. Chen then traveled to Switzerland and was granted citizenship there before moving to Japan to see Liao. The

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the one party state, sole ruling party of the country Republic of China (1912-1949), during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until Retreat ...

forced Chen's return to Taiwan and asked him to cease his pro-independence advocacy. Despite the Kuomintang authorities' request, Chen founded another pro-independence organization in 1961. The

Taiwan Garrison Command The Taiwan Garrison Command () was a secret police and national security body under the Republic of China Armed Forces on Taiwan. The agency was established at the end of World War II, and operated throughout the Cold War. It was disbanded on ...

arrested Chen for his actions the next year and imprisoned him in a facility on Qingdao Road in Taipei. In 1963, Chen became the first independence activist to be executed in Taiwan. Chen was survived by his wife Chen Ying-niang, whom he met in Indonesia, and three children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Chih-hsiung 1916 births 1963 deaths 20th-century Taiwanese translators Executed Taiwanese people Naturalised citizens of Switzerland People executed by Taiwan by firearm People from Pingtung County People of the Indonesian National Revolution Prisoners and detainees of the Netherlands Taiwan independence activists Taiwanese exiles Taiwanese people of Hoklo descent Taiwanese people imprisoned abroad Taiwanese revolutionaries Tokyo University of Foreign Studies alumni Taiwanese expatriates in Indonesia Taiwanese translators