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Period of martial law and political repression in Taiwan From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The White Terror (Chinese: 白色恐怖; pinyin: Báisè Kǒngbù; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Pe̍h-sek Khióng-pò͘) was the political repression of Taiwanese civilians and political dissenters under the government ruled by the Kuomintang (KMT).[2] The period of White Terror is generally considered to have begun when martial law was declared in Taiwan on 19 May 1949, which was enabled by the 1948 Temporary Provisions against the Communist Rebellion, and ended on 21 September 1992 with the repeal of Article 100 of the Criminal Code, allowing for the prosecution of "anti-state" activities. The Temporary Provisions were repealed a year earlier on 22 April 1991. Martial law had been lifted on 15 July 1987.[3][4]
 | You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Chinese. (July 2022) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
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| White Terror (Taiwan) | |
|---|---|
| Part of Chinese Civil War, retreat of the government of the Republic of China to Taiwan, and Cold War | |
The Horrifying Inspection by Taiwanese printmaker Huang Rong-can. It describes the hostile environment in Taiwan shortly after the February 28 incident, which marked the start of the White Terror period. | |
| Location | Taiwan and other ROC-controlled islands |
| Date | 1947–1987 |
| Target | Political dissidents, including leftists, liberals, independence activists, and intellectuals |
Attack type | Politicide, mass murder, political repression, police state |
| Deaths | At least 3,000 to 4,000 executed, not including the 228 incident (18,000 to 28,000 killed) or extrajudicial executions[1] |
| Victims | At least 140,000 imprisoned |
| Perpetrators | Government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) under the Kuomintang (KMT) |
| Motive | Consolidate rule over Taiwan after retreat from mainland China |
| White Terror | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 白色恐怖 | ||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | White Terror | ||||||||||||
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The period of White Terror generally does not include the February 28 incident of 1947, in which the KMT killed at least 18,000 Taiwanese civilians in response to a popular uprising, and also summarily executed many local political and intellectual elites. The two are frequently discussed in tandem as it was the catalyst that motivated the KMT to begin the White Terror.[5][6] Martial law was declared and lifted twice during the February 28 incident.
Two years after the February 28 incident, the KMT retreated from mainland China to Taiwan during the closing stages of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. Wanting to consolidate its rule on its remaining territories, the KMT imposed harsh political suppression measures, which included enacting martial law, executing suspected leftists or those they suspected to be sympathetic toward the communists.[7] Others targeted included Taiwanese locals and indigenous peoples who participated in the February 28 incident, such as Uyongʉ Yata'uyungana, and those accused of dissidence for criticizing the government.[8]
The KMT carried out persecutions against those who criticized or opposed the government, accusing them of attempting to subvert the regime, while dramatically expanding the scope of punishment throughout this period.[9] It made use of the Taiwan Garrison Command (TGC), a secret police, as well as other intelligence units by enacting special criminal laws as tools for the government to purge dissidents.[10] Basic human rights and the right to privacy were disregarded, with mass pervasive monitoring of the people, filings of sham criminal cases against anyone suspected of being a dissident, as well as labelling any individuals who were not conforming a pro-regime stance as being communist spies, often without merit.[11] Others were labeled as Taiwanese separatists and prosecuted for treason.[12] It is estimated that about 3,000 to 4,000 civilians were executed by the government during the White Terror.[1] The government was also suspected of carrying out extrajudicial killings against exiles in other countries.[a]
Pro-democracy demonstrations attempted during this period, such as the Kaohsiung Incident, were harshly suppressed. The KMT ruled as a one-party state, with real opposition parties strictly outlawed. There were no competitive elections. Despite the existence of nominally fair local elections, some unapproved tangwai candidates that won local elections such as Hsu Hsin-liang were spuriously impeached and often forced into exile.[13] These limited elections were also marred by electoral fraud, most notably during the Zhongli incident.
The ruling pattern and repression of Chiang Kai-shek's regime are rooted in its neo-nationalist ideology and theory. Two of the most prominent movements that practiced KMT's neo-nationalist ideas were the New Life Movement in Mainland China and the Chinese Cultural Renaissance movement in Taiwan. The New Life Movement has been described by some academics and scholars as "Confucian fascism", which imitates certain fascist regimes to increase Chiang's control of the everyday lives of the citizens.[14][15] Another example is the KMT's National Revolutionary Army (later reorganized into the Republic of China Armed Forces in 1947), which was heavily dependent on German military assistance to counter raging communist insurgencies, with its army doctrine inspired by the German military mission during the Sino-German cooperation (1926–1941) until Nazi Germany decided to withdraw in 1938 to align with Imperial Japan.[16][17][18] When Chiang retreated to Taiwan in 1949, his regime suspended the liberal democratic provisions in the ROC constitution indefinitely under the martial law, and ruled Taiwan under a variation of right-wing dictatorship. The legacy of authoritarianism during the White Terror in Taiwan has persisted until today, and political discussions about this topic continue to be highly controversial on the island.[19][relevant?]
| Declaration of Martial Law in Taiwan | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Date effective | 20 May 1949 |
| Repealed | 15 July 1987 |
The White Terror is generally considered to have begun with the declaration of martial law on 19 May 1949. For its ending date, some sources cite the lifting of martial law on 15 July 1987,[20] while others cite the repeal of Article 100 of the Criminal Code on 21 September 1992, which allowed for the persecution of people for "anti-state" activities.[3] Martial law officially lasted for almost four decades,[b] which had been the longest period of martial law in the world at the time it was lifted. It is now the second longest, after Syria's 48-year period of martial law which lasted from 1963 to 2011.[21]
Most prosecutions took place between the first two decades as the KMT wanted to consolidate its rule on the island. Most of those prosecuted were labeled by the Kuomintang (KMT) as "bandit spies" (匪諜), meaning communist spies, and punished as such, often with execution.[20] Chiang Kai-shek once famously said that he would rather "mistakenly kill 1,000 innocent people than allow one communist to escape".[22]
The KMT mostly imprisoned Taiwan's intellectuals and social elites out of fear that they might resist KMT rule or sympathize with communism and separatism.[1] For example, the Formosan League for Reemancipation was a Taiwanese independence group established in 1947, which the KMT believed to be under communist control, leading to its members being arrested in 1950. The World United Formosans for Independence was persecuted for similar reasons. However, other prosecutions did not have such clear reasoning, such as in 1968, when Bo Yang was imprisoned for his choice of words in translating a Popeye comic strip. A large number of the White Terror's other victims were mainland Chinese, many of whom owed their evacuation to Taiwan to the KMT.[23]
Many mainlander victims of White Terror, such as Bo Yang, Lei Chen, and Li Ao, moved on to promote Taiwan's democratization and the reform of the Kuomintang. In 1969, future president Lee Teng-hui was detained and interrogated for more than a week by the Taiwan Garrison Command, which demanded to know about his "communist activities" and told him "killing you at this moment is as easy as crushing an ant to death." Three years later he was invited to join the cabinet of Chiang Ching-kuo.[24]
Fear of discussing the White Terror and the February 28 Incident gradually decreased with the lifting of martial law after the 1987 Lieyu massacre,[25] culminating in the establishment of an official public memorial and an apology by President Lee Teng-hui in 1995. In 2008, President Ma Ying-jeou addressed a memorial service for the White Terror in Taipei. Ma apologized to the victims and their family members on behalf of the government and expressed the hope that Taiwan would never again experience a similar tragedy.[26]
Around 140,000 Taiwanese were imprisoned under harsh treatment during this period, with many either indirectly dying or suffering various health problems in the process. About 3,000 to 4,000 were directly executed for their real or perceived opposition to the KMT's Chiang Kai-shek government.[1] Most of the victims of the White Terror were men, however, a number of women were tortured and/or executed.[27][28]
Since the lifting of martial law in 1987, the government has set up the 228 Incident Memorial Foundation, a civilian reparations fund supported by public donations for the victims and their families. Many descendants of victims remain unaware that their family members were victims, while many of the families of victims, especially from Mainland China, did not know the details of their relatives' mistreatment during the riot. The Taiwanese government also established the Transitional Justice Commission, which aimed to erase the authoritarian legacy of the KMT regime under Chiang and deliver justice to the families and relatives of the victims.
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