The 228 Incident occurred without warning in 1947, but its effects spread quickly throughout all of Taiwan within four days. Three months later Ko Yuan-fen (
The incident was a taboo subject for 40 years, until Chen Yung-hsing (
However, the government claimed that the 228 Incident was caused by the "alienation" between officials and public and "cultural" and "language" differences. If this were true, however, then the 228 Incident should have first occurred in some other country, instead of Taiwan.
Taiwan was placed under Chinese control at the end of WWII, as per the order of the Allied Command. Battered and desperate from the war, Taiwan-ese clung to the idea that they were returning to a democratic China -- their "motherland." They thought they would be allowed to serve in all levels of the government, and educated youth entertained dreams contributing to the building of a new China.
Chen Yi
Society was further racked by KMT factional struggles, increasingly turning Taiwan into a lawless society. The appearance and discipline of the KMT army stationed in Taiwan was also appalling, and soldiers frequently bullied and stole from the people. The police carried out random searches and ran smuggling operations. Life was becoming increasingly difficult for regular people, while officials prospered.
The public soon knew all about official corruption and the ineptitude of the KMT regime under Chen Yi , but their previous belief in government propaganda tempered their anger and toned down their demands. In the end, Taiwanese only asked for equality and the chance to increase their standard of living.
The government ignored all of their political and economic proposals, however, and prohibited Taiwanese from working in the government on the basis that they "lacked democratic traditions and language competence." The Taiwanese then "stupidly waited" and threw themselves into learning Mandarin Chinese.
By November 1946, just two months after the Constitutional Assembly started its sessions, Chen revealed the so-called "Three Year Plan for Self-Governance," whereby direct elections for county commissioners and mayors would be put off until 1947, two years later than similar elections in mainland China.
The government also continued to hold "civic training" courses for residents in Taiwan. In addition to language classes, the courses also included content from the "New Life Movement," which had been promoted in mainland China 13 years previously.
People were forced to submit to norms of "propriety, justice, honesty and righteousness" while suffering the rule of corrupt and tyrannical officials.
The normally meek Taiwanese began to get angry. They started to view each of Chen's policies as a direct affront, and stopped cooperating with the govern-ment.
However, a grain shortage at the time diverted the people's attention to the grain dealers rather than the government, however, making the 228 Incident all that much more unexpected.
Chen announced that Taiwan was part of China again, yet Taiwan's legal status remained undecided as the ROC-Japan Peace Treaty had not yet been signed. Taiwan remained outside of the legal jurisdiction of China's constitution for a full year after Chen announced Taiwan's return to China.
According to the guidelines of the Pacific Charter and UN Charter, Taiwan met the requirements for national autonomy at the time, and the ROC government was most concerned over the attitude of people in Taiwan before the Cairo Declaration was signed. They were afraid that the people of Taiwan would reject China and walk away with Taiwan in the ROC-Japan Peace Treaty.
Although Chen declared Taiwan had returned to China, he acted contrarily by attempting to isolate and prevent the Taiwanese from participating in the government and the economy until the treaty was signed.
The ROC was forced to pospone the introduction of Taiwanese into the government as Taiwan's status was yet undecided. Chen refused to tell the truth and used excuses to deceive the people of Taiwan. The people thus lost their faith in the government.
The hostility between the government and people was the true cause of the 228 Incident.
Hsieh Chang-chang is a member of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not