White Terror (Taiwan)

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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

Politics of Taiwan
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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 Kuomintang (KMT)-ruled government.^[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 The Temporary Provisions were repealed a year earlier on 22 April 1991 and martial law was lifted on 15 July 1987.^[3][4]

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 excessively 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 who were suspected as 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 the existence of real opposition parties strictly outlawed, resulting in non-existent 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), 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]

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