The White Terror Of Taiwan

The White Terror of Taiwan, from 1947 to 1987 (2009.7.19-23 the Taiwan Human Right Workshop, 2009.7.19-23)

The White Terror of Taiwan (白色恐怖, bai se kong bu) describes the suppression of political dissidents and public discussion after the 228 Incident (or the 228 Massacre, 二二八 事件, er er ba shi jiang) in Taiwan under the martial law period from May 19, 1949 to July 15, 1987. It takes its root in the anti- Communist White Terror in mainland China and the 228 Incident in 1947. During the White Terror, more than 140,000 people of Taiwan were imprisoned or executed for their real or perceived opposition to the Chinese Nationalist Party (國民黨, Kuomin-tang, KMT) government, which monocratic dominated by Chiang Kai-shek(蔣介石)1. Most of those prosecuted were labeled by the as "bandit spies" (匪諜, fei die), which means the “spies for Chinese communists”, and they would be punished as such. Certainly, among the White Terror's victims were many special agents and sincere communists, but with time of the White Terror, the Martial Law permitted countless violence abuses.

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Civil war of China (國共內戰, kuo kong nei zhan), and the CPC’s local union The Chinese Civil War was a prolonged war fought between the KMT and the Communist

Party of China (共產黨, CPC, kong chan tang), which began in April 1927. The war represented an ideological split between the US-supported Nationalist KMT and the Sovietsupported Communist CPC. The CPC had continuously stretching its international and local communist union, while fighting with the KMT army. The CPC founded local center at every province of China, in Taiwan, it was called the Pre-liberation Working Committee of Taiwan (台灣省工作委員會,tai wan shen kong tsou wei yuan hui, in short is 省工委, shen kong wei). In China, each Provincial Committee had several elite agents directed the local expansion of communism into official/ martial/ educational departments in the cities and the peasant villages. The Committee of Taiwan had two major aims: one was to make plan and take action to expel the KMT from the Taiwan islands, another was protect the public capitals and factories until the CPC came and liberated Taiwan. •

The defeated KMT and the Martial Law of Taiwan The KMT government and its agents were keen on eliminated every CPC's working

committee of each province, while its army was continuously defeated by CPC at mainland China. The “228 Incident” indicated a series of dispersed, island wide local resistance toward

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His domination of ROC (Republic of China) was from 1928 to 1975, and his son Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經 國) had helping his martial acts and followed his political measures after Chiang’s death.

the mistreats of KMT. It was broke out at Feb.2 1947 and lasting about half a year, which was not directed by communism groups. But to KMT, it most fear was that, the expansion of local rebellion might join in the communism camp. Thus, KMT used the military violence suppress the local resistances and imposed Martial Law at Taiwan in May 19,1947. •

The 1950s White Terror at Taiwan --- “Clean Up” Roughly speaking, there were two kinds of White terror victims in this time period: one

the local communists, another the immigrated mainlanders. When the KMT army retreated to Taiwan, it effort was concentrated on how to clean up the underground communists at Taiwan. As mentioned above, the branching local organizations of Pre-liberation Working Committee of Taiwan were the most important underground communism group, and they were mostly detected and eliminated by the KMT agents at 1950s. At the same time, the mainlanders who moved to Taiwan after the Chinese Civil (most of them were soldiers and officers) were stuck at Taiwan with the KMT government and found themselves couldn't go home anymore. There were widely depress among those far-fromhomeland people (外省人, wai shen ren). They often complained the corruption of KMT government and try any way to go home. But under the Martial Law, both making discourses and seeking their way home were illegal acts. •

The 1960s White Terror at Taiwan --- the gloomy Society After the successful "clean up" of the 1950s white terror, there were rarely communists'

organizations existed in local society. The 1960s white terror cases were mostly based on the collective but dispersed social depression and gloom. The scattered evidences we had now indicated that: the people this time though under great political suppression, they were gradually realizing and trying to interpret their historical and political situation they lived in. They also trying to image the future of the Taiwan islands and the whole China. There were many weak and unrealistic discourses in the school and villages, but few actual social actions occurred. During this time, apart from accusing the people who made discourses or took action, the governmental agents also made up a lot of pseudo cases and caught innocent people in order to show their ability of anti-communism. The White Terror of Taiwan left many Taiwanese (including the mainlanders moved to Taiwan after the Chinese Civil war) with a deep-seated bitterness towards the Kuomintang and Chiangs. The collective feeling of injustice and governmental suppression induce prejudices and political tension between different ethnic groups at Taiwan. As a result, almost all the wai shen ren and their descendants face this contemporary dilemma at Taiwan.