Chapter 47 Section 3 The Evil Consequences of False Democracy

On March 29, 1948, the first session of the Constitutional National Assembly was held in Nanjing.As early as 1936, before the Anti-Japanese War, the national government prepared to hold a national assembly, elect Chiang Kai-shek as president, and drafted a constitution on May 5, giving the president command over the national army, declaring war, negotiating peace, signing treaties, amnesty, amnesty, In addition to the power to appoint and dismiss civil and military officials, there is also the power to issue emergency orders, which is known as the Fifth Five-Year Constitution.However, due to the Japanese invasion, it was not implemented.After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the convening of the National Assembly was put on the agenda again.

The National Assembly was convened, claiming to return power to the people and make the people the masters of the country.But the question is, who are the people?The vast majority of peasants simply don't know and cannot be masters of their own affairs.It is also impossible for farmers to elect representatives who truly represent their own interests. Zhang Taiyan pointed out in the early days of the Republic of China that in the real situation of China, the representatives must elect the powerful and powerful, making the local tyrants and evil gentry even more powerful.This reality has not fundamentally changed since the victory of the Anti-Japanese War.If the KMT does not change its one-party dictatorship, the elected national representatives will be nothing but "local tyrants and evil gentry" who are pro-KMT.Elections are neither fair nor are those elected representative.

Therefore, under the appeal of post-war democracy and under the mediation of Marshall, the Political Consultative Conference was held in Chongqing on January 10, 1946, and it was decided to reorganize the Kuomintang government and form another coalition government with a relatively large foundation, and then prepare to proceed. constitution. After 21 days of hard work, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference formulated the "Amendment to the Draft Constitution of the Republic of China", amending the draft constitution of the Fifth Five-Year Plan, called the "CPPCC Draft Constitution", which expanded the principles of democracy.Although Chiang Kai-shek publicly expressed his acceptance of the CPPCC resolution at first, he believed that it was a conspiracy by the Communist Party and the Democratic League to seize power from the Kuomintang.

The way Chiang Kai-shek undermined the resolution of the CPPCC was to call the National Assembly on November 12, 1946, before reorganizing the government.Under the strong protest of the CCP, Chiang Kai-shek only allowed the extension for three days.When the National Assembly opened in Nanjing on the 15th, the CCP and the Democratic League refused to participate, which was one of the main reasons for the complete breakdown of the KMT-CCP ​​peace talks.Leighton Stuart, the US ambassador to China, sent a telegram to the State Department in Washington showing that after the National Congress, Chiang still expressed his willingness to negotiate peace with the CCP. This was obviously a gesture to show the United States.However, the CCP insisted on canceling the National Congress and returning to the situation before January 13, 1946, as a prerequisite for peace talks.Jiang then ordered the CCP representatives to leave Beijing. (See Rea & Brewer ed., the Forgotten Ambassador, p. 57, 74)

The National Assembly convened by the Kuomintang and several vase parties concluded on December 25 of the same year, and formulated the "Constitution of the Republic of China", which was officially promulgated by the Nanjing National Government on New Year's Day 1947. In view of the objective situation, Chiang Kai-shek intends to reorganize the government after the constitution is implemented, and change "one-party training" to "multi-party training". The "Party Training and Government" is famous but not real. In fact, it is still the one-party dictatorship of the Kuomintang, and it is impossible to embark on the path of real democratic constitutionalism. It can only make up fake democracy.

Fake democracy is most visible in fake elections.The KMT, the Youth Party, and the Democratic Socialist Party agreed that part of the delegates were nominated and supported by the party, but in fact it was a situation of "quantitative distribution", "bargaining", "guaranteed election", and even "central competition".Therefore, there are many people who have not been selected and have already been appointed by default.Election day was November 21, 1947.The "Ta Kung Pao" reported on the capital Nanjing that "the national flags of the whole city are flying like a grand celebration". Behind the "grand celebration" is Chiang Kai-shek's strict order to county magistrates and commissioners to support a certain person, and that person must be elected arbitrarily.So the county government had to reserve a part of the votes to support someone to be elected.For example, the election in Hubei Province was just a formality. Most of the ballots had already been filled out secretly, and a few ballots were randomly distributed to voters as a cover. Everything was controlled by the Baochang and his minions. (Refer to Liang Shangxian's "Glance at the Pseudo General Election in Hubei Province", the fifth series of "Hubei Literature and History Materials") All the competition is actually just a factional struggle within the Kuomintang, and the election has triggered a more intense party-group struggle.

This kind of election will naturally cause double-package cases.For example, Li Zonghuang was from Heqing, Yunnan, and was nominated by the central government to be elected, but Lu Han, chairman of Yunnan Province, supported Li Yaoting's election as a representative of the National Congress of Heqing County.After Li Yaoting was elected, he was unable to attend the National Congress, so he sued for land, and Chen Lifu and others tried to resolve it. As a result, both of them received their election certificates.There are too many jokes like this. After the election, on November 22, 1947, the organizational regulations of the National Assembly Preparatory Committee were promulgated and the Preparatory Committee was established.At that time, the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party was already raging, and the war situation was already unfavorable to the Kuomintang. They were still actively preparing for the election of the president and vice president of the founding of the country. Obviously, they had the intention of boosting morale and winning greater support from the United States with the illusion of democracy.The Nationalist Government then issued an order on December 25 to convene the National Assembly on March 29 of the following year (1948).

Before the opening of the conference, due to the unequal election dispute, farce such as hunger strike, coffin lifting, and occupying the venue were staged, and finally the plainclothes police forcibly removed it after midnight. Fortunately, the thrilling first scene did not get out of hand. (Refer to Zhou Jianxin's "Reminiscences of the National University", "China and Foreign Magazine" Volume 19, Issue 2) The first meeting of the first National Congress was held on March 29 as scheduled. Chiang Kai-shek attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech Said: "I think the country and the people today should pay equal attention to fighting chaos and enforcing the constitution. We will not delay the implementation of constitutional government because of fighting chaos; Obstacle and enemy of democracy."

On April 9, Chiang Kai-shek delivered a policy speech at the venue as the chairman of the government. The topics were nothing more than economics and military affairs. He expressed optimism.He said that the amount of currency reserves is huge, and the economic problem is not serious. He also solemnly declared: "The government has absolute confidence in the military suppression of bandits. It is convinced that the bandits south of the Yellow River can be wiped out within six months. It is absolutely impossible to guarantee that the Communist bandits will control China. (Quoted from Sima Jiming's "The Appearance of Chiang Kai-shek's National Congress", pages 167-168) He seems to have forgotten what he said two years ago to eliminate the Communist bandits within three to five months, and now he said six months It is nonsense to eliminate bandits south of the Yellow River.At this time, the Kuomintang has been losing battles in the front, and these defeats were all controlled by him personally. Dozens of times", can you also circumstantially prove what kind of public opinion these representatives represent?

However, representatives from the Northeast couldn't hold back, because the Kuomintang was losing ground in the Northeast, and the situation was so bad that it was irresponsible and optimistic.They did not dare to directly fire at Chiang Kai-shek, and pointed their arrows at Chen Cheng, Chiang Kai-shek's popular chief of staff and who had presided over the military administration in the Northeast for five months, and demanded "please kill Chen Cheng to thank the people of the country and to boost the morale of the army."It's no surprise that requests for speakers are particularly active at military reviews.

At the banquet, the representative from the north even urged Chiang Kai-shek to imitate Zhuge Liang in beheading Ma Su with tears. Chiang Kai-shek’s answer was wonderful. He said: “I am not Zhuge Liang, nor is Chen Cheng Ma Su. Kill Ma Su.Ma Di should be beheaded if he loses the street pavilion, but should Chen Cheng be beheaded if he loses the northeast?But having said that, the loss of Jieting was Ma Su's own mistake, and the loss of Northeast China was the result of Chen Cheng's execution of Chiang Kai-shek's order. It was Chiang Kai-shek himself who should be killed.When Chiang Kai-shek heard that he asked to kill Chen Cheng, could he not feel as if he had felt it himself, and his face turned angry?Can he kill someone who took the blame for him? The highlight of NUS is of course the election of the president. In fact, it is the election of Chiang Kai-shek as president. However, when NUS first opened, Chiang dramatically prepared to give up running for president, which is quite amusing.Just one day after the opening of the National Assembly, that is, on March 30, Chiang Kai-shek sent Wang Shijie to send a message to Hu Shi, announcing that he would not run for president, and that he would mention Hu Shi as a presidential candidate, and that he himself would be the executive president.This sudden "attack" even the clever Hu Shi was "fascinated" and wrote in his diary: I admit that this is a very clever and great insight, which can refresh the eyes and ears at home and abroad.I also admit that Jiang Gong is very sincere.He said: "Mr. Shizhi please show courage", but I really don't have the courage. (The Sixteenth Manuscript of "Hu Shi's Diary") On March 31, Hu Shi really thought about it "seriously", and asked Zhou Yusheng to talk in the morning, "ask him to think about it for me"; in the afternoon, he had a three-hour long talk with Wang Shijie.Finally, at 8:15 p.m. that night, Wang Shijie came to ask for a reply, and Hu Shi accepted it.However, there is still room for Hu Shi to accept. He wants Wang Shijie to convey a few points: First, ask him to consider more suitable candidates.Second, if there is any difficulty or resistance, please cancel it immediately. He has absolutely no responsibility for his promise to me. (The Sixteenth Manuscript of "Hu Shi's Diary") This kind of "room" can easily be regarded as "polite" and does not affect "acceptance". Therefore, after Hu Shi thought about it all night, he went to see Wang Shijie on the evening of April Fool's Day, "finally decided not to do it", obviously "It's hard to believe it's true" ("too good to be true")? Election However, Chiang Kai-shek still read a prepared speech at the Extraordinary Plenary Session of the Kuomintang Central Committee held on April 4, stating that he would not run for office and proposed a People without party affiliation came out to run for candidates and set five conditions for the candidates: 1. abide by the law; 2. have a democratic spirit; 3. have an understanding of Chinese culture; , International relations have a clear understanding.Although he did not name the candidate, Hu Shi himself said: "Everyone present and not present guessed that I was the candidate" (see the sixteenth manuscript of "Hu Shi's Diary") Chiang Kai-shek wanted to ask Hu Shi to run for president, and he would personally nominate him to the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang. However, at the meeting, except for Wu Zhihui and Luo Jialun who agreed with Chiang’s proposal, the rest of the participants firmly advocated that Chiang should be the candidate. , The Central Standing Committee decided to support Chiang, so the episode of Hu Shi's presidential election came to an end.This period of history is just like what happened back then, and it is true; the contact between Jiang and Hu is Wang Shijie, Wang has a record of this incident, and Hu himself has also recorded this incident.But how to explain this matter?Wang Shijie said to Hu Shi that according to the Constitution of the Republic of China: the president has no real power, so Jiang is willing to submit to Hu Shi as the executive president with real power.This explanation seems to make sense, but it turned out afterwards that Chiang Kai-shek could not be troubled by constitutional issues.How could Lao Jiang not want to be a big president because of this small problem?Wang also told Hu on behalf of Jiang that Jiang should not be president in order to put an end to the chaos.From a practical point of view, of course it is possible.If we take things a little further, Jiang is determined to fight chaos and desperately needs the strong support of the Americans. If he plays the Hu Shi card, he can win the favor of Uncle Sam? However, if you think about it calmly, if Chiang Kai-shek really insists on not being president , I really want to invite Hu Shi to run for office, but his Central Executive Committee and the Central Regular Meeting dare to veto his proposal. What is going on?Is this strongman so uninfluenced by his executive council and regular council?If it is hypocrisy, then why send Wang Shijie to persuade Hu Shi again and again?What is its purpose?What is the truth?Confused? Choose After more than forty years, Liu Xinhuang, the then emperor of the country, unintentionally helped us uncover the appearance and gain insight into the truth.In Liu's letter to Li Ao on November 7, 1989, there is the following paragraph: As for the section about Jiang Zhongzheng persuading Hu Shi to run for president, I think it was Mr. Jiang who wanted to ask Hu Shi to represent the virtuous of society and Qingliu to issue a statement, saying: "In today's world, the post of president must be held by Mr. Jiang Zhongzheng." At that time, Hu Shi When being persuaded, he only said that he couldn't do it, and he didn't even say that he supported Mr. Jiang to do it. Jiang could only persuade him again and again, hoping that Hu would understand. He finally accepted his support from the Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and became a presidential candidate. (Contained in "Li Ao Qianqiu Review Series", Volume 100, p. 107) Liu Xinhuang's "belief" not only has circumstantial evidence and no previous convictions as he said, but also makes people feel that it is so suspicious.It turned out that Jiang had never thought of being second person when he was president. It turned out that Jiang asked Hu to run for the election because he was urging Hu to support himself and urged him repeatedly because Hu was ignorant and hoped that he would understand.As a result, Hu not only failed to comprehend, but also thought that "Jiang Gong is very sincere", so he actually wanted to do a fake show.But how can a fake show be real?It turned out that the Central Committee of the Kuomintang was completely pre-determined, and Jiang was completely confident.From the perspective of "political culture", Chiang once again performed the Chinese tradition of "advance with retreat" and "duplicity", and once again revealed his character.He is an egomaniac, coupled with feudal superstition, he thinks he is the real dragon emperor, and there is no second day in the sky, how can he be willing to be inferior to others?At the same time, he is a person with a sense of inferiority, otherwise why should Qingliu support him? After the drama is over, it is how to amend the constitution to increase the power of the president.The representatives of the National Congress discussed the amendment to the Constitution on April 18. Chiang Kai-shek attended the first representative seat for the first time and passed the "Temporary Provisions for the Mobilization and Anti-Insurgency Period" in one hour, completing the third reading procedure. The main content is to improve the powers of the president.The representatives debated fiercely on other parts of the constitutional revision, and they refused to give in. They had no objection to raising the power of the president alone. It can be seen that the vast majority of the representatives are loyal to Chiang Kai-shek. struggle.Chiang Kai-shek summoned all Kuomintang representatives to give a speech on April 17, asking them to "obey the leader and respect party discipline." On April 5, the Standing Committee of the KMT Central Committee unanimously supported President Jiang as the presidential candidate, and the provisional Central Plenary Session the next day also expressed support for Chiang as the first presidential candidate.On April 9, more than 150 representatives of the country signed, please choose Chairman Chiang as president, and the number of joint signers reached 2,489.The day for the election of the president was April 19th, and the registration began at 8:50 am. The representatives, guests, and reporters present were very enthusiastic, and the seats were full.At 12:45 noon, the ballot count was announced. As a result, Chiang Kai-shek won 2,430 votes, while Ju Zheng, who was elected alongside him, only got 269 votes.The audience applauded and shouted long live. The presidential election is a one-sided situation. No one can run against Chiang Kai-shek.However, the vice-presidential election is very different. Under one person, the heroes compete.There are so many candidates, mainly because Chiang Kai-shek affirmed the principle of free elections.Among them, Jiang is most worried about Li Zongren, the leader of the Guangxi faction. Merit and post-war popularity made Chiang feel threatened. However, Li Zongren did not listen to the persuasion of the Guangxi family, one white and two yellows, and willingly took the lead in Jiang Zhi's suspicion and jealousy, and came forward to run for office.Knowing Jiang so well, he certainly expected that Jiang would oppose it, but he believed that the more Jiang opposed it, the more likely he would be elected.In "Political Memories", Cheng Siyuan said that Li Zongren's election for vice president was "completely instigated by Leighton Stuart", which is obviously exaggerated.Now all the telegrams sent to the State Council by Situ have been made public, and there is no trace of "complete" or "instigating". Instead, he expressed doubts about whether Li Zongren can play a supporting role after being elected. When Chiang Kai-shek first heard that Li Zongren intended to run for vice president, he still said that comrades in the party could run for office openly, and he had no prejudice against anyone.Li Sui organized an election office in Peking.After the Associated Press reporter learned about it, they reported it and spread the news at home and abroad, Chinese and foreign newspapers, especially American public opinion that Li Zhi's candidacy would help the implementation of democratic politics in China.Hu Shi, President of Peking University, also sent a letter of encouragement: Mr. Delin: I read the news in the newspaper the day before yesterday that Mr. was willing to be the vice-presidential candidate. I am very happy.Once upon a time, I wrote the "Song of the Chinese Public School Games". The first chapter said: "Athletes? Choose everyone to come forward. Only one person is the first. Everyone must fight for the first. It is gratifying to win, and it is also happy to lose. Athletes? Choose everyone Go forward." Here, "Only one person is first, everyone must strive to be first", this meaning comes from the posthumous letter of Paul in the New Testament. Although there is only one first, everyone must join the race, and the first is the first.I admire Mr.'s move very much, so I write this text message to express my admiration and approval.Congratulations to both of you in a hurry.Sincerely Hu Shi, early January 11th, 1937. Following Hu Shi's intention of fair competition, Li Zongren wrote back to encourage Hu Shi to run for president: Mr. Shizhi: After receiving the letter, Mr. Cheng is very grateful for my enthusiasm and encouragement in running for vice president.My participation in the election was just like my husband said, "Although there is only one number one, everyone must join the race, and the number one is the number one."Yesterday, the Beiping Xinsheng Daily published the Nanjing Newsletter, "If Chairman Jiang does not participate in the election, who can be elected as the first president", there is Mr. Mr.'s name, I thought that Chairman Jiang would run for the election, and with his great personality and lofty reputation, The chances of being elected must be very high, but I think Mr. Zhang should also participate in the presidential election in the sense of "everyone joins the race".This is the first general election after the adoption of the Constitution. Only by participating can more people participate in the spirit of democracy. Apart from Chairman Jiang, the candidates who participated should not only be merciful but also duty-bound in terms of academic prestige.Best of luck.Li Zongren.January fourteenth. (Both letters can be found in the sixteenth manuscript volume of "Hu Shi's Diary", January 1948) The two letters of Hu and Li were published in the newspaper side by side, which is quite eye-catching, and it also shows the democratic spirit of athletes and Li Zongren's election campaign.Perhaps because of this background, many mainland scholars believed that Li Zongren was in charge and that Americans were behind the scenes. They even said that Li dared to challenge Jiang because of the support of Americans. This is obviously an unfounded assumption. Inspired by Chiang Kai-shek's declaration of free elections and the spirit of democracy, KMT veterans Cheng Qian and Yu Youren, as well as the Democratic Socialist Party's Xu Pulin and non-party Mo Dehui publicly announced their candidacy for vice president.But these people were obviously not Li Zongren's opponents. When Li learned that Sun Ke had no intention of running for the election, he felt more confident, so he went into the vice presidential election with great fanfare. After Li arrived in Beijing on March 25, he met Chiang Kai-shek and received a guarantee from Chiang that he had no prejudice against running for the election.But after the opening of the National Assembly, since there was no room for competition in the presidential election, the vice-presidential election was particularly enthusiastic.When Li Zongren's voice became louder and louder, Chiang Kai-shek became unhappy.According to Li Zongren's own analysis, the reasons are roughly as follows: He is such a narrow-minded person that he can't see someone he doesn't like as the vice president.He especially hates people who have made great contributions to the party and the country, or who have an open-minded style and have a high reputation in the country.I remember that when the news of Taierzhuang's victory came out, the whole country was in a frenzy and the sky was shaken by firecrackers.When Mr. Jiang heard the people cheering in the street at his official residence in Wuchang, he asked what was the matter.Left and right told him that the people were celebrating the Taierzhuang victory.When Mr. Jiang heard the news, his face showed displeasure, and he said, "What is there to celebrate? Tell them to stay away and stop messing around here." That's all for me... So in this vice presidential election, Mr. Jiang must suppress me in spirit. ("Memoirs of Li Zongren", pages 859-860) Chiang Kai-shek initially wanted to use the party's nomination method to determine his favorite candidate. He sent Wu Zhihui and Zhang Qun to demand that Li Zongren accept it, but Li refused.Li has a big reason for the correction: since Chiang must implement the constitution, everything should be handled in accordance with the constitutional conventions.The ruse of the party's nomination is also gone. However, Jiang did not give up because of this. After the party and state officials tried to persuade him to quit, he went out in person and summoned Li Lai alone to persuade him to quit.Li insisted that he would not back down after having "appeared in full bloom", while Jiang also insisted that Li give up voluntarily. (See "Li Zongren's Memoirs", page 579) In the Kuomintang at that time, Li Zongren was probably the only one who could talk back to Chiang Kai-shek face to face. Naturally, it was "news", which spread like wildfire and made Li get more sympathy.According to Liu Chengzhi, a "protégé of the Son of Heaven" who participated in the confidentiality, told Li Zongren that Jiang had "convened a very confidential meeting of his confidants. All the important cadres from the Whampoa and CC departments attended. During the meeting, Mr. Jiang claimed that I, Mr. Li, attended the meeting. Running for vice president is like a dagger stuck in his heart, if you really can be loyal to the leader, you should pull out the knife from the leader's heart." (Same book, page 580) It really got worse and worse, Jiang's narrow mind made him dig deeper and deeper into the corner. After Chiang Kai-shek was unable to dissuade Li Zongren, he decided to launch Sun Ke, who had no intention of going out, as a "dark horse".The intention of this game is very obvious: Sun Ke is the son of Sun Yat-sen, has certain influence in the party, and is also a Cantonese. He can divide Li's southwest votes. He thinks that together with the efforts of Huangpu and CC, he can defeat Li Zongren.Jiang said that after Sun Ke ran for the election, he made a big publicity campaign, threatened and lured the representatives of the National Congress, and at the same time discredited Li Zongren (see Sima Jiming's "The Appearance of Chiang Kai-shek's National Congress", Volume 2, pages 335 to 341) , that is, the so-called "anti-campaign" by foreigners.On April 19th, Chiang Kai-shek was elected president, and the next day the National Assembly announced six candidates for vice president.On April 23, the vice president was voted for for the first time. Li won 195 votes more than Sun.The competition became more intense. Sun Fo's campaign supporters saw that the National Salvation Daily had published articles unfavorable to their candidates, so they destroyed the newspaper. The violent behavior made Sun Fo's election situation even worse.In the re-election the next day, Li was still in the lead, with 218 votes more than Sun, still not more than half.Knowing that the situation was becoming more and more urgent, Chiang Kai-shek decided to resort to extraordinary measures and mobilize party and government agencies and special police to strengthen threats and inducements.What embarrassed Li the most was that Chiang Kai-shek sent people to distribute leaflets, attacking Li Zongren to "force the palace" after being elected vice president, forcing Chiang to go abroad, doing his best to confuse the public.Under Huang Shaohong's guidance, Li adopted the clever strategy of "advancing through retreat" as a counterattack. On April 25, he announced his withdrawal on the grounds of unfair elections and pressure from behind the scenes. As expected, Cheng Qian and Sun Ke were forced to abandon the election. , causing the embarrassment of the abortion of the vice presidential election. The convening of the National Congress and the election of the president and vice president were originally Chiang Kai-shek's play, but now that the play can't go on, he had to restrain and soften. He summoned Bai Chongxi to persuade Li to resume the election, and declared, "I am especially angry about spreading rumors and causing trouble; Vote, Chairman, and solemnly declare absolute liberty".So the third election was held on April 28, and Li still led without a majority; In the first election, Li Zongren was finally elected as the first vice president with 1438 votes. Chiang Kai-shek's anger can be imagined.Li Zongren heard Jiang's abnormal reaction from the guards of the presidential palace, and he gave a very vivid description: When the fourth voting reached its climax, Mr. Jiang listened to the election situation on the radio with bated breath in his official residence, and listened to reports by phone at any time.When the announcer reported that I was elected with more than half of the votes, Mr. Jiang kicked over the radio in a fit of rage, panting like a cow, picked up his cane and cape, and immediately ordered his attendants to prepare the car.After getting in the car, the attendant hurriedly asked: "Chairman, where are you driving?" Jiang still didn't say a word. The driver always liked to go to the cemetery when Mr. Jiang was bored, so he drove to the Zhongshan Cemetery.As soon as he drove into the Cemetery Road, Mr. Jiang suddenly shouted: "Turn around, turn around? Choose" the driver drove back to the mansion.Mr. Jiang just got out of the car, got in the car immediately, and ordered to drive out again.Seeing that Mr. Jiang was going crazy, the accompanying guards were afraid that he would commit suicide, so they sent additional vehicles to accompany him.As soon as Mr. Jiang's car entered the cemetery, he ordered to turn around again.After turning back, the driver was ordered to drive to Tangshan.I'm really panic like a bereaved dog, I don't know where to go, but I suffer from the attendants. ("Memoirs of Li Zongren", page 583) Li Zongren also personally felt Chiang Kai-shek's unhappiness.One day after being elected, the Lis and his wife went to the official residence on Huangpu Road to pay a visit. They sat in the living room for 30 minutes before the Jiangs came out. The scene was embarrassing.On May 20, at the inauguration ceremony of the president and vice president, the two wore very different clothes. Jiang wore a long gown and mandarin jacket, while Li wore a military uniform. The hand orders the uniform of the army.But at that time, without Li Quan's knowledge, Jiang Tu appeared in a long robe and jacket, and Li Yi stood behind him in military uniform, like an adjutant.Although Li was put together by Chiang, he actually wore a military uniform to participate in the grand ceremony, which is very eye-catching, but this historic photo fully shows Chiang Kai-shek's narrow-mindedness and small-mindedness.Even Ambassador Leighton Stuart noticed that Vice President Lee Tsung-jen was completely ignored at the presidential inauguration ceremony, and he sent a telegram to the US State Department on May 22, 1948. (See Rea & Brewer ed. The Forgotten Ambassador, p. 235 in the original telegram.) Even in his later years, Jiang still felt resentful, saying: "Li Zongren took advantage of the deterioration of the war situation and cleverly manipulated the frustrated elements who fantasized about peace. He won the votes by luck. Not long after, he was insulted by the Communist Party, tended to the so-called peace-seeking activities, and betrayed the Republic of China." ("Secret Records of President Chiang", p. 3078) What he said is obviously inconsistent with the facts. Although the Northeast War situation was not good during the National Congress, the overall war situation has not deteriorated, and there are not many frustrated elements in the Kuomintang who dream of peace.In all fairness, Li Zhi's victory was definitely not a fluke, but he won under Jiang's vigorous interference, let alone a fluke.As for the subsequent peace-seeking activities, after Xu Bang's defeat, Jiang asked Li to come forward to seek peace before Jiang went to the field. How can you "betray the Republic of China" because of the peace-seeking activities?The ancients said that "the prime minister can pull a boat in his belly", but Chiang Kai-shek, as the "son of heaven", has a surprisingly small belly.Of course, Mao Zedong of the Communist Party cannot be tolerated in his stomach, nor is Li Zongren of the Kuomintang Party.Although the little people have done great things, they cannot maintain the big situation after all. Democracy requires a grandiose attitude, and Chiang Kai-shek's attitude and character are not compatible with democracy, so it is not surprising that what he is doing is a fake democracy. He has a political purpose in doing fake democracy, especially to create the illusion of democracy , in order to gain greater support from the United States, which advocates democracy.But things backfired, the goal was not achieved, and many serious consequences and sequelae were caused.When the U.S. ambassador to China called the State Department, he pointed out that after the election of the National Representative, Chairman Chiang's prestige was greatly lost. (See Rea & Brewer ed., the Forgotten Ambassador, p. 239) Regardless of the fact that the convening of the National Congress cost 804 billion, equivalent to the price of gold at that time, 20,000 taels is strange (see "National University Foreign History", p. 60 to 61), it is undoubtedly a heavy burden when the financial situation is extremely difficult and inflation is very serious.The National Congress, which spent a lot of money and was dominated by the Kuomintang, not only failed to achieve political unity, but intensified the struggle within the party and exposed the corruption within the party. want.The election of the president was originally intended to highlight Chiang Kai-shek as the supreme leader of the country. However, many signs before and after the meeting showed that he was not enough to be the leader of the country. The leaders of the entire party are problematic, at best they are the absolute leaders of CC and Whampoa.He was elected as the president by the Kuomintang-led National Congress. Although he went all out and did not hesitate to coerce and lure him, he could not prevent Li Zongren from being elected as the vice president. Light.The rift between Chiang and Li could no longer be closed due to the hurtful election.Neither a president nor a vice president can work together, and the collapse of the Kuomintang building can be predicted.Doesn't this costly National Assembly make the already deteriorating situation worse?Chiang Kai-shek wanted to engage in fake democracy to gain political benefits, but in the end he reaped the consequences, and the gains outweighed the losses.