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Japanese princes, Taiwanese activists, a Korean martyr, American generals and presidents, Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo. It’s an action-packed episode with an amazing cast of characters. These little-known Taiwan-related assassination attempts and plots will surprise you.
And, we hope, also please you that they failed. As Eryk passionately points put at the end of the episode, assassination, even of a "bad guy" target, can lead to a worse replacement and the unleashing of chaos.
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Cover: Image shows the arrest on April 24, 1970, of Peter Huang (黃文雄), then a 33-year-old doctoral student from Taiwan who attempted to fire a gun shot at future ROC president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), in front of the Plaza Hotel in New York City. Photo via The Taiwan Revolutionary Party and Sinophone Political Praxis in New York, 1970–1986.
Below: A bronze bas-relief depicting Korean independence activist and would-be assassin Cho Myung-ha. In 2023, Professor Seo Kyoung-duk of Sungshin Women’s University, in collaboration with actress Song Hye-kyo, donated this item to the Taipei Korean School in commemoration of the Day of Patriotic Martyrs on November 17. Was this the best thing to put up in a school for kids? You be the judge.
Below: The man the person above attempted to kill in 1928 -- Japanese Prince Kuni Kuniyoshi 久邇宮邦彦王.
Below: A Korean Lego knock-off brand called Oxford currently makes a set called "Harbin Train" which lets kids reenact the 1909 assassination of Itō Hirobumi by An Jung-geun on a train platform in Harbin, Manchuria. Um... we have issues with this. Not exactly "fun for the whole family." Via Nick Kapur/ X
Below: Chiang Ching-guo's would-be assassin Peter Wen-shiung Huang 黃文雄. Born in 1937, he is now described as an activist for human rights.
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Check our very first episode, the story of a very white man who showed up in London in 1703... and claimed to be from Formosa. Or try a foodie episode from Season 3. Or, for those who want some harder-core history, hear the tale of the Lockheed U-2 pilot Wang Hsi-chueh 王錫爵, who became famous for defecting to the PRC by hijacking China Airlines Flight 334 on May 3, 1986.
