Kaohsiung Incident

The Kaohsiung Incident, also known as the Formosa Incident, the Meilidao Incident, or the Formosa Magazine incident,^[1][2] was a crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations that occurred in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, on 10 December 1979 during Taiwan's martial law period.

The incident occurred when Formosa Magazine, headed by released political prisoner Shih Ming-teh and veteran opposition legislator Huang Hsin-chieh, and other opposition politicians held a demonstration commemorating Human Rights Day to promote and demand democracy in Taiwan.^[3] At that time, the Republic of China was a one-party state under the Kuomintang, called Dang Guo, and the government used this protest as an excuse to arrest the main leaders of the political opposition.

The Kaohsiung Incident is widely regarded as a seminal event in the post-war history of Taiwan and the watershed of the Taiwan democratization movements.^[4] The event had the effect of galvanizing the Taiwanese community into political actions and is regarded as one of the events that eventually led to democracy in Taiwan.