In his youth, Hu Ren was one of millions of Kuomintang soldiers who fought tooth and nail against the Communist army in China's ferocious civil war after the Second World War.
Then, as the victorious Communist forces tightened their noose, the young soldier from the province of Yunnan in southwestern China joined hundreds of thousands of fellow Kuomintang troops in their mad-dash escape to the island of Taiwan in 1949.More than 46 years later, Hu Ren still feels like a mainlander.
"Ever since that moment, when I left the mainland, I have always, always dreamed that one day I would again be part of China."
Today, Hu's dream of reunification remains the cornerstone of official KMT policy. But almost everything else has changed.
Current Kuomintang leaders preach defiance in the face of an increasingly belligerent People's Republic of China, and people like Hu, the old true believers from the mainland who dominated the island's political, cultural and economic life for 40 years, are on the outs. Many have abandoned their long-standing KMT allegiance to join the opposition New Party.
Where once no one was more virulently pro-American and anti-Communist than those who came over in 1949 with General Chiang Kai-shek, they and their supporters now embrace positions incredibly similar to those of Communist China.
Like mainland Chinese, they believe Taiwan is part of China, that Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui secretly supports independence, and they are angry at the United States for sending an armada of aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and battleships close to the island.
"We want the Americans to mind their own business and send their ships back home," said Zhang Mingzhen, 66, who came to Taiwan in 1949 because he hated communism.
"They just want to split up China for their own interests. They don't want to see a big, powerful China."
The man responsible for these ironic twists of history is Lee, Taiwan's vigorous president and the first native-born Taiwanese to head the KMT.
Lee has no time for the nostalgic yearnings of the organization's so-called old guard. While still paying lip service to reunification, he has worked relentlessly to bring Taiwan greater international recognition, placing it on a potentially dangerous collision course with China.
But his increasingly pro-Taiwan stance is anathema to the aging KMT faction now in the New Party. With less than a week to go before next Saturday's presidential election, they gathered in the thousands Sunday for a boisterous pep rally, trying their best to demonstrate that they are not a spent force, and that Chinese nationalism is just as alive on Taiwan as on the mainland.
"There is no Taiwanese culture," said Hu, the old KMT soldier. "We are all Chinese, of course. Yes, I fought against the Communists, but that's not important. We want a peaceful relationship with mainland China."
Covered in bright yellow streamers and New Party flags, 65-year-old Wai Keiqu said he had been a KMT member for 40 years, after fleeing Shanghai for Taiwan because of his hatred of Communists.
"Now I hate the KMT," he said. "Under Lee Teng-hui, they have become separatist. Ninety percent of Taiwanese are originally from the Chinese mainland. We are the same race, have the same cultural background. There's only one China," Wai declared.
Others said they feared China would wage war if Lee maintains his aggressive pro-Taiwan policies.
"My parents are from mainland China. We want peace. We don't want a war," said a woman wearing dark sunglasses who would not give her name "because Lee will catch me."
"Too many people in Taiwan watch TV and think it will just be like the (Persian) gulf war," she said. "But I know war is very terrible."
The pro-unification New Party surprised most observers in last December's legislative elections, tripling their seats from seven to 21. Many attributed their success to voter jitters, after pre-election war games and missile tests by the Chinese.
This time, however, China's military intimidation may be having the opposite effect. People appear to have become angry rather than frightened over China's ever-encroaching war games. Recent polls show that support for Lee, who is running for re-election, has increased since the exercises began, and that for the first time the number of Taiwanese supporting outright independence is greater than the number advocating clear-cut reunification.
The New Party is backing KMT maverick and former vice-chairman Lin Yang-kang in Saturday's vote, Taiwan's first democratic presidential election. Besides Lee, the other candidates are Chen Li-an, former KMT defence minister, and Peng Ming-min, considered the "godfather of Taiwan independence."
During an all-candidates forum Sunday, Lin said Taiwan should sign a peace agreement with China and slow its high-profile efforts to secure a seat at the United Nations. He blamed Lee directly for the state of high tension between the mainland and Taiwan.
"Lee Teng-hui directs and acts the play himself, and leads the two sides to the edge of a war," said Lin, who was booted out of the KMT earlier this year. "He should take full responsibility."
For his part, Lee kept up the combative pose he has maintained since China's military exercises began nearly two weeks ago, branding its actions "state terrorism."
China's "power came from a gun, and it relies on guns to maintain its power, and the biggest threat to its power is the democratic direct election across the Taiwan Strait," he declared.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)