Su Beng

Su Beng (Chinese: 史明; pinyin: Shĭ Míng; Wade–Giles: Shih Ming; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Sú-bêng), whose given name is Shih Chao-hui (施朝暉; Shī Cháohuī; Si Tiâu-hui), is a Taiwanese dissident and political activist.

Su Beng was born November 9, 1918 in Shirin Town, Taihoku Chō, Japanese Taiwan (modern-day Shilin District of Taipei, Taiwan). After graduating from Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan with a degree in political science and economics in 1942, he left for mainland China where he worked undercover with the Chinese Communists (1942–1949). For years, he averted the Chinese Communists’ bids for him to join the party. Finally he escaped from Qingdao, China, to Taiwan, just as the Chinese Nationalist Kuomintang soldiers were retreating to Taiwan.

Having returned to Taiwan for about a year, he established the Taiwan Independence Armed Corps in 1950 which plotted for the assassination of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. When the Taiwan Independence Armed Corps' stash of weapons were discovered hidden on land owned by Su Beng's grandmother in 1951, Su Beng was forced to go into hiding.

After several months on the run, he finally fled to Japan in May 1952 by stowing away in a boat exporting bananas. He served four months of detention for attempting to illegally enter the country, but when the Kuomintang reported him missing and wanted for his involvement in the plot to assassinate Chiang Kai-shek, the Japanese government granted him political asylum. Later on in 1954, Su Beng opened up a noodle shop restaurant (新珍味; Sin-tin-bī; "New Gourmet") in Ikebukuro, Japan. Su Beng used the restaurant/residence as a base to continue his work with the underground Taiwan independence movement. It was also here that he trained burgeoning independence activists and began writing Taiwan’s 400 Year History. The Japanese version of this book was first published in 1962, the Chinese-language version was published in 1980 and an abridged English version was published in 1986.

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