譚慎格譯

Among the American diplomats who were once stationed in Taipei, there were two who had the closest relationships with the “non-Party figures” and Taiwan’s democratic movement: Ralph Clough and Mark Pratt.

Ralph Clough, who was acting as an acting ambassador for a time, was not welcomed by the Chiang Kai-shek government, and sadly, he passed away many years ago; Mark Pratt passed away in Washington on August 11 at age ninety-five.

Photo (In November 2022, Ban Lide enjoys a cake brought by a friend visiting at his home in Washington, photo source: Photo by Stephen A. Schlaikjer)

Mark Pratt was born in a family in Massachusetts, and during his career as a diplomat he witnessed the pains of political transformations in China and Taiwan.

He firmly stood on the side of democracy and freedom, he stood on the side of Taiwan, and he stood on the side of the people rather than the government.

Under the Kuomintang party-state dictatorship, he had close contacts with “outsiders” K’ang Ning-hsiang, Lin I-hsiung, Yao Chia-wen, Chang Chün-hung, Chiang Ch’un-nan, and the rest.

Chiang Ching-kuo’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs was quite annoying, but he was unmoved.

From 1978 to 1982, he was Political Counselor of the US Embassy in Taipei and, after March 1979, Deputy Director of the American Institute in Taiwan’s Taipei Division.

During the December 10, 1979, large-scale International Human Rights Day demonstrations in Kaohsiung, Lin I-hsiung asked Mark Pratt to go south to observe on the spot.

Like Pratt himself, Lin I-hsiung was a bystander at the demonstrations, but Lin was prosecuted. Pratt could not forgive the Kuomintang.

I have seen his telegrams about the Kaohsiung incident and the court-martial trial, now at the National Archives, which are detailed and objective, and not confused by the Kuomintang propaganda; he also cooperated with David Dean, chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan resident in Washington, to persuade Chiang Ching-kuo to give the defendants lighter sentences.

In 1984, “Henry” Liu I-liang wrote “The Biography of Chiang Ching-kuo” under the pen-name (“Chiang Nan”) and was assassinated in San Francisco.

Mark Pratt was then in Washington serving as the Director of Taiwan Affairs in the State Department.

After the assassin Chen Qili had succeeded in eliminating Henry Liu, he reported mission-accomplished by a phone call he reported to ROC Military Intelligence Bureau station in San Francisco. His message was intercepted by the US Telecom Intelligence.

The Kuomintang thought they could resolve this by sacrificing Admiral Wang Hsi-ling, who had overseen the crime from his chair as the KMT’s intelligence station chief in Washington.

However, the information Mark Pratt developed in the State Department showed that the level of involvement in the murder was higher - right up to CCK’s own son. The US government was and it is unwilling to accept the sacrifice Wang Hsi-ling. The US kept the pressure on as the murder opened a wide rift between Chiang Ching-kuo and U.S. President Ronald Reagan who was very supportive of Taiwan. The case was closed only after CCK’s son Chiang Hsiao-wu, who apparently had blessed the murder, was suddenly assigned as the deputy representative in Singapore….

In 1989, During the Tiananmen incident in China, Mark Pratt served as the US consul general in Guangzhou.

While there was no turmoil in Guangzhou, Mark Pratt nevertheless insisted that his officers act in the spirit of democracy and humanitarian care, an attitude which filled me with eternal gratitude: Ch’iu Shao-ch’i, editor of the New York World Journal, was contacted by Brother Lu Shih-hsiang, called me from Beijing and said that her husband, who is Chinese, went to Beijing to collect materials for his thesis, and Beijing was closed.

Without hesitation, I gave her the names of Consul General Pratt and the political officers at the embassy in Beijing, and asked her to contact them.

Because Professor Fang Lizhi sought asylum in the US embassy in Beijing, ​​he actually lived in the embassy. The entry and exit of the embassy was strictly controlled by the Chinese police, and it was a long journey to Guangzhou.

It was easier to be arrested if he bought a ticket to check his identity. Without further ado, Mark Pratt notified the consular officer of the embassy to ask Ch’iu Shao-ch’i, who has a foreign identity, to bring her husband’s passport to the embassy for a visa. In this way, Chiu Shao-ch’i’s husband obtained a visa without going to the embassy in person, and narrowly escaped the clutches of the devil.

Mark Pratt once again stood on the side of democracy and the side of the people. The English pronunciation of Ban Li-te’s surname “Pratt” does not sound close to “Ban”. He always introduced himself as “Ban, the ‘Ban’ in Ban Chao”, expressing his admiration for “Ban Chao”.

This kind-hearted “Latter Day Banchao” was a loyal friend of the Taiwanese who fought for democracy in times of adversity. It was a blessing for the Taiwanese to have such a friend. Taiwanese who enjoy human rights and democracy will forever miss him.