Su Beng

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

Overview

Su Beng was born November 9, 1918 in the 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 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.