History. ROC (Taiwan) Yearbook 2011 Ch03 history

Sun Yat-sen (front center), pictured with the staff of the Presidential Office, assumes office as the Provisional President of the Republic of China. The ROC was founded in Nanjing on January 1, 1912. (Courtesy of Kuomintang Party Archives)

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At a Glance

The Republic of China has undergone profound transforma-tion since its founding a century ago, which brought to an end China’s millennia-old tradition of feudal monarchy and launched the process of forging a just and prosperous society

able to meet the challenges of the modern world. In the first half of the 20th century, the ROC struggled to cope with internal instability and external aggression. Since the relocation of the ROC government in 1949 from the Chinese mainland to Taiwan, the ROC has matured into a free-market, multiparty democracy that plays key roles in the global economy and in maintaining regional peace and stability.

In 2010, the ROC marked the 65th anniversary of the retrocession of Taiwan from Japanese colonialists and saw the signing of the Cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement—a milestone pact that will not only enhance economic ties between Taiwan and the mainland but also promote peace in the broader region. The 100th an-niversary of the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, which gave birth to the ROC, as well as the 145th birthday of the nation’s founding father Sun Yat-sen, will be observed in 2011.

• RepublicofChinacelebratesits100thbirthday

• FoundingidealsoftheROCfulfilledinTaiwan

• BuildingpeaceacrosstheTaiwanStrait

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3History

Birth of the Republic of China

Inthelate19thandearly20thcenturies,theQing-dynasty清朝government inBei-jingruledterritoriesstretchingfromthePa-cificintheeasttoCentralAsiainthewest,fromSiberiainthenorthtotheHimalayasinthesouth.Bythen,ithadbeenweakenedby decades of domestic strife and foreignaggression, and anumberof groupsdedi-catedtooverthrowingtheQinggovernmenthad arisen. Among them was the ReviveChinaSociety興中會,foundedbySunYat-sen in Honolulu in 1894 during the FirstSino-Japanese War 甲午戰爭. In Tokyo in1905,whileSunwasinexilethere,theso-ciety joinedwithothergroups toestablishtheRevolutionaryAlliance中國同盟會.

After 10 failed attempts, on October10, 1911, revolutionaries launched anuprising in the city of Wuchang 武昌,Hubei Province 湖北省, which quicklyspread throughout the country. By Janu-ary 1, 1912, the Revolutionary Alliancegroupscontrolled16ofthethen-existing22 provinces. On that date, they estab-lished the Provisional Government ofthe Republic of China in Nanjing, withSunYat-senaspresident.Later,theROCgovernmentdeclareditssovereigntyoveralloftheterritoriesthathadrecentlybe-longedtotheQingEmpire.

The Xuantong 宣統 Emperor (Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi 愛新覺羅．溥儀, most oftenreferredtoasPuYi)oftheQingEmpireabdicated on February 12, 1912. Soonthereafter,intheinterestofnationalunity,SunrelinquishedtheofficeofprovisionalROCpresidentinfavorofYuanShi-kai袁世凱,commanderofthepowerfulBeiyangArmy北洋軍innorthernandnortheasternChinasince1895.

Uncertain Beginnings Soon after being formally elected

to the ROC presidency by the National

Assembly國民大會andbeinginauguratedonOctober10,1913,Yuanassumeddic-tatorial power, dissolved the NationalAssembly and sought to disband theRevolutionary Alliance. Heedless ofwidespread opposition and foreign gov-ernments’ advice,Yuan arranged to havehimself electedby a puppet assembly asthe“GreatEmperorofChina”onDecem-ber 11, 1915. The next day, he declaredtheestablishmentoftheEmpireofChina.

These actions sparked widespreadrevolts. Just weeks later, politicians andgenerals inYunnan Province 雲南省 pro-claimedanindependentYunnanstateandcreated a National Protection Army 護國軍 to counter the BeiyangArmy underYuan’sBeijing-basedgovernment. In thespring of 1916, six additional southernprovincesdeclaredtheirindependence.

Amid such intense opposition, andafter troops dispatched to suppress therebellion were defeated,Yuan renouncedmonarchy and reaffirmed the republicansystem in March 1916. Thereafter, hefellgravely ill anddiedon June6.Gen-eral LiYuan-hong 黎元洪, vice presidentof the Republic thatYuan had sought todismantle,assumedthepresidency,whileYuan’sprotégéGeneralDuanQi-rui段祺

瑞retainedhispostaspremier.InFebruary1917,whentheAmerican

government severed diplomatic ties withGermany,itpressedtheROCgovernmenttodothesame.PresidentListronglyop-posed the move, but Premier Duan andhis supporterspushed throughadeclara-tionofwaronGermanyinAugust.

In World War I, over 100,000 ROCcitizens served in work battalions at theWestern Front in France, and thousandswere killed. Despite this, and althoughtheROCwasaccordedaseatattheParisPeace Conference, no provision wasmadeinthewordingoftheensuingtreatyrecognizing the ROC’s revocation ofGermany’sminingandothercommercial


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concessionsinShandongProvince山東省.Japan had seized the German leased ter-ritoriesandoccupiedShandongProvincewhenWorldWarIbrokeoutin1914,andthe Western powers acceded to Japan’sclaimstothemasarewardforitspartici-pationinthewar.

On May 4, 1919, students in Beijingdemonstrated against this decision. Vio-lence ensued and many of them werearrested. Protests spread to other majorcities,merchantsclosedtheirshops,bankssuspendedbusiness andworkerswentonstrike.Finally,theauthoritieswereforcedtoreleasearrestedstudentsanddischargeofficialswhohadcollaboratedwithJapan.Ultimately, the ROC government refusedtosigntheTreatyofVersailles.

The protests sparked an intellectualrevolution known as the May FourthMovement 五四運動, which promotedcriticalscrutinyandreformofvirtuallyallaspectsofChinesecultureandtraditionalvalues.Themovementwas energizedbya new generation of intelligentsia who,after the imperial examination systemwas abolished in 1905 and educationalreformswereinstituted,hadgoneabroadfor advanced studies in such practicalfields as science, engineering, medicine,law, economics, education and militaryscience.Upon returning fromJapan,Eu-ropeandtheUnitedStates,theydedicatedtheirlivestothemissionoftransformingChina into a modern nation. Throughtheirwritings,lecturesandwork,theyex-ercised a powerful influence on the nextgenerationofintellectuals.

Guided by the ideals of freedom andequality, scientific inquiryandpragmaticinnovation inconfrontingchallenges, thenew wave of intellectuals sought reformofthenation’sinstitutionsmoreprofoundthan had been accomplished through theSelf-strengtheningMovement自強運動 ofthelateQingperiodoreffortsmadeintheearlyRepublicanperiod.

Undertheleadershipofitschancellor,Cai Yuan-pei 蔡元培, Peking Universitybecame China’s most prestigious centerfor forward-looking scholarly researchandreformadvocacy,andasourceofin-spirationtoeducatorsnationwide.Amongitsmost influentialreform-mindedschol-arswasHuShih胡適,professorofphilos-ophy. In particular, Hu played a seminalrole in promoting vernacular literaturein place of the classical Chinese writingstyle that had long been the mark of aneducatedperson.

ImportanteconomicandsocialchangesoccurredduringthefirstyearsoftheRe-public.With the outbreak ofWorldWarI,competitionfromforeignfirmsabated,and domestic light industry experiencedrapidgrowth.By1918,theindustrialsec-toremployed1.8millionworkers.Mean-while, modern banks were able to meetexpandingfinancialdemand.

At the Washington Naval Confer-ence (1921-1922), attendedby theROC,the world’s major powers—the UnitedStates, the United Kingdom and Japanamong them—agreed to respect China’ssovereignty,independence,andterritorialandadministrativeintegrity;togiveitthespacenecessary todevelopa stablegov-ernment; to uphold equality of commer-cialopportunity inChina for allnations;and to refrain from seeking exclusiveprivileges there. They separately agreedtorespectChina’stariffautonomyandtowork toward abolishing extraterritorialprivilegesdatingasfarbackas1689.

The Warlord EraFollowing Yuan Shi-kai’s death in

1916, China was fractured by the es-tablishment of regional military gov-ernments. Viewing as illegitimate theinternationally recognized “GovernmentoftheRepublicofChina”inBeijingcon-trolled by the Beiyang military regime,Sun Yat-sen returned to his southern


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3History

homeprovinceofGuangdong廣東.There,inAugust1917inthecityofGuangzhou廣州,hebegan theworkof rebuildinganROC government faithful to the idealsthathadinspiredthe1911Revolution.

Insupportofthatlargertask,in1919,Sun and his confederates completed athorough reorganization of the Kuo min-tang (KMT) 中國國民黨—the ChineseNationalistParty,whichhadbeenformedin Beijing in 1912 by merging ele-ments of theRevolutionaryAlliance andvarious other political groups. And in1921, he assumed the presidency of theGuangzhou-basedgovernment.

When conflict between regionalwarlords erupted in 1922, Sun issued amanifesto calling for the unification ofChina. Under his leadership, the ROCgovernment in Guangzhou establishedthe Whampoa Military Academy 黃埔

軍校 to train an officer corps dedicatedto accomplishing that mission by forceif necessary. In 1924, Sun appointedChiang Kai-shek 蔣中正 as commandantoftheacademy.

On November 10, 1924, Sun calledfor a “national people’s convention” tobring China’s regional leaders togetherand negotiate unification. Two weekslater,DuanQi-ruibecametheprovisionalchiefexecutiveoftheBeijing-basedgov-ernment. Sun, in his capacity as head ofthe Guangzhou-based government, trav-elednorthtoholdtalkswithDuan.Whilein Beijing, however, Sun died of canceronMarch12,1925,attheageof59.

Sun’suntimelydeathleftthesoutherngovernmentinthehandsofa16-membersteeringcommittee.Thecommitteeestab-lishedarevampednationalgovernmentinJuly1925and,11monthslater,appointedChiang Kai-shek commander-in-chief oftheNationalRevolutionaryArmy國民革命

軍.Inthiscapacity,Chiangledamilitaryexpedition to subdue warlords in centralandnorthernChinaandunifythenation.

ThisNorthernExpedition北伐lastedlessthanthreeyears.

On March 22, 1927, troops of theNational Revolutionary Army enteredShanghai and, two days later, capturedNanjing, where a reorganized nationalgovernmentwasestablishedonApril18,1927.Soonthereafter,theongoingNorth-ern Expedition brought the remainingprovincesintothefold.Withtheelimina-tion of the rival Beijing-based govern-ment,thegovernmentinNanjingbecameinternationally recognized as China’slegitimategovernment.

Second Sino-Japanese War, Civil War

Much of the northeastern territoryknown to theworldat that timeasMan-churia滿洲,however,remainedundertheeffective control of Russia and later Ja-pan.ThelatteralsocontinuedtoexerciseeffectivecontroloverShandongProvince.Threatened with having to relinquishits hegemony over Manchuria and itseconomic privileges there and in otherregionsofChina,JapanineffectannexedManchuria in1931and, in1932,createdapuppetstateknownasManchukuo滿洲

國,installingPuYiasemperor.Meanwhile, Chinese Communist

Party(CCP)中國共產黨rebelschallengedthe ROC government’s legitimacy. Be-ginning in 1927, the CCP fomenteduprisings in a number of cities, and es-tablished a breakaway “liberated zone”in Jiangxi Province 江西省. While theKMT-led ROC government focused on“unity before resistance against foreignaggression”—i.e., resolving internal po-liticaldisputesbeforedealingwithJapa-nese imperialism—the CCP promoted a“unitedfront”strategyagainstJapan.

On July 7, 1937, a shooting incidentbetween Japanese and Chinese troops atthe Marco Polo Bridge 蘆溝橋 near Bei-jingmarked thebeginningof theWarof


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ResistanceAgainst Japan, or the SecondSino-Japanese War (1937-1945), whicharguably may be called the openingchapterofWorldWarII.Duringtheearlyyears of the war, Japan won successivevictories.TheROCcapitalofNanjingfellin December 1937, and Japanese forceskilledsome300,000peoplethereinsevenweeks of unrelenting carnage known astheRapeofNanjing.

Amonthearlier, in response tofight-ing at Shanghai, the government hadwithdrawn from Nanjing and moved upthe Yangtze River to Chongqing 重慶.There, the government worked to re-build its armed forces and equip themwith weapons purchased from abroad.WhenWorldWarIIbrokeoutinEurope,shipments decreased dramatically. In1941, however, before the United Statesentered the war, U.S. President FranklinD. Roosevelt ordered shipments of largequantities of arms and equipment toChina and dispatched military advisors.Following the Japanese attack on PearlHarboronDecember7,1941,theUnitedStatesandBritaindeclaredwaronJapananddevelopedclosetieswiththeROCasamemberoftheAlliedPowers.

In late November 1943, Chiang metwithRoosevelt andBritishPrimeMinis-terWinstonChurchillinCairotodiscussthepostwardispositionofJapaneseterri-tories.OnDecember1,theirgovernmentsreleased a joint communiqué known asthe Cairo Declaration. In part, the docu-ment reads, “TheThree GreatAllies arefighting this war to restrain and punishthe aggression of Japan. They covet nogain for themselvesandhaveno thoughtofterritorialexpansion.Itistheirpurposethat…alltheterritoriesJapanhasstolenfrom the Chinese, such as Manchuria,Formosa [Taiwan], and the Pescadores[Penghu Islands 澎湖群島], shall be re-storedtotheRepublicofChina.”

OnAugust6,1945,U.S.forcesdroppedan atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three

days later,a secondonewasdroppedonNagasaki. On the following day, JapannotifiedtheAlliesvianeutralSwitzerlandofitsintentiontosurrender.

On August 14, Japan announced itsformal surrender in accordance with thetermsofthePotsdamDeclarationofJuly1945,whichstatedthat“thetermsoftheCairo Declaration shall be carried out.”The Japanese government also acceptedinclusion of this provision in the instru-mentofsurrenderconcludedonSeptem-ber2,1945betweenJapanandtheAllies.The Japanese forces in mainland Chinasurrendered to the ROC government onSeptember9,1945inNanjing.

Postwar Developments on the Chinese Mainland

BeforeJapan’ssurrenderwasformallyannounced,CCPrebel troopshadmovedinto Japanese-held territory and seizedJapanesearms.TheKMT-ledgovernmentheldpeacetalkswiththeCCP,culminat-inginanagreementonOctober10,1945.The agreement called for convening amultiparty political consultative confer-encetoplanaliberal,democraticpostwargovernmentandtodraftaconstitutiontobe submitted to a national assembly forratification.Conciliationeffortsultimate-lycametonaught,however,andfightingbetween government and communisttroops resumed, with communist RussiasupplyingtheCCPviaManchuria.

Nevertheless, a new constitution waspromulgated on January 1, 1947. In thefollowingyear,membersof theNationalAssembly, theLegislativeYuan (Legisla-ture) 立法院 and the ControlYuan 監察院wereelected.AndinApril1948,theNa-tionalAssemblyelectedChiangKai-shekpresidentoftheRepublic.

Setbacks in the war against commu-nist rebels,however,combinedwithwardebtsandrunawayinflation,underminedthe ability of the central government in


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Nanjingtomaintainsocialorder.Inearly1949, President Chiang began removingtroopstoTaiwan.AftercommunistforcespushedacrosstheYangtzeRiverfromthenorth,ROCgovernmentpersonnelbeganrelocating to Taiwan. In all, some 1.3million civilians and soldiers moved totheisland.

History of Taiwan Obscure Origins of Taiwan’s Original Inhabitants

Taiwan’s first inhabitants left nowritten records of their origins. An-thropological evidence suggests that itsindigenous peoples are descended fromproto-Malayans.Their languages belongtotheAustronesianlanguagefamily(seeChapter2,“PeopleandLanguage”).

The majority of prehistoric artifactsfound at over 500 sites—including flataxes, red unpolished pottery, decoratedbronzeimplements,megalithicstructuresand glass beads—indicate an Indone-sian connection. Some items—includingpaintedredpottery,redpolishedpottery,chippedstoneknives,blackpottery,pot-tery tripods, stone halberds and bonearrowheads—suggestthatTaiwan’searli-estsettlersmighthavecomefromwhatisnowthesouthernpartofmainlandChina.

European Trading Bases in Taiwan (1624-1662)

ItissaidthatwhenaPortugueseshipon its way to Japan sailed byTaiwan in1542,thesailorswerestruckbythebeau-ty of its mountains and dubbed it “IlhaFormosa,” meaning “beautiful isle.” ItwasunderthenameFormosathatTaiwanwasknowntotheWesternworlduntilaf-terWorldWarII.

The first Westerners to establishcommunities in Taiwan came from the

NetherlandsviabasesintheDutchEastIndies (today’s Indonesia). In1622, theDutchEastIndiaCompanyestablishedabaseinthePenghuIslandsoffTaiwan’ssouthwestcoast,butwaspromptlydriv-en away by Ming-dynasty明朝 Chineseforces.Then,in1624,itsetupabaseinTaiwaninthevicinityoftoday’sTainanCity 臺南市, from which it extended itshegemony over the island’s southwest-erncoast.

Meanwhile, in 1626, a rival Spanishconsortiumbased in thePhilippinesoccu-piedareasinnorthernTaiwancorrespond-ing to today’s Keelung City 基隆市 andDanshuiDistrict淡水區ofNewTaipeiCity新北市,onlytobedrivenoutbytheDutchin 1642. Under Dutch control, Taiwan’sseaports became important entrepots formaritime trade and the transshipment ofgoods between Japan, China, SoutheastAsia,SouthAsiaandEurope.

TheDutchEastIndiaCompanyhiredlaborers from China to work its sugar-caneandriceplantationsinsouthwesternTaiwan. This marked the beginning oflarge-scale, intensive farming in Taiwan,as well as of a sizeable permanent pres-ence of Han 漢 Chinese. The sugarcaneandricecultivationinitiatedbytheDutchcontinuedtobemainstaysoftheisland’seconomyandexportbusinessuntilasre-centlyashalfacenturyago.

While the Dutch were active inTaiwan,Ming-dynastyChinaunderwentaseriesofrebellionsaswellaswidespreaddevastation and social upheaval as theconsequenceofinvasionbyManchucon-querorsfromthenortheast.Theresultanttoll in human suffering, exacerbated byfamineandbanditry,promptedthousandsof Chinese in the coastal provinces ofFujian 福建 and Guangdong to risk thedangersofcrossing theTaiwanStrait,or“Black Ditch” as they called it, to reachtheisland.By1662,anestimated40,000ofthemhadsuccessfullydoneso.


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Reign of the Zheng Family (1661-1683)

AstroopspouredintonorthernChinafromManchuriabeginningin1644,Mingloyalists fled southward, where they re-sisted Manchu incursions for over twodecades. One of the best-known leadersof armed resistance was Zheng Cheng-gong (Koxinga)鄭成功.The offspring ofaChinese fatheranda Japanesemother,he inherited his father’s position as the“godfather”ofasyndicateoftraders,pi-ratesandprivatearmieswhoseoperationsrangedfromJapantoSoutheastAsia.

In 1661, when forces loyal to theMing dynasty were on their last legs intheir fight against the Qing conquerors,a naval fleet and army commanded byZheng laidsiege to theDutchEast IndiaCompany headquarters in Taiwan. In1662, the two sides negotiated a treatywhereby the Dutch left the island. WithZheng’s forces came a number of Mingnobility,officialsandliterati.

UndertheruleofZhengCheng-gong,his son Zheng Jing 鄭經 and grandsonZheng Ke-shuang 鄭克塽, these refugeescreated a mini-kingdom with a Chinese-style political system, which lasted for

22yearsbeforeitwasannihilatedbytheQingEmpirein1683.

Qing-dynasty Rule (1683-1895)During the two-plus centuries of

Qing rule over Taiwan, hundreds ofthousands of impoverished people inChina’sFujianandGuangdongprovinc-esfloutedtheQingcourt’sbanontraveltotheislandandmigratedtheretomakea fresh start. The bulk of these peoplewere farmers who, like those hired bythe Dutch East India Company, mainlyengaged in rice and sugarcane cultiva-tion.Mostoftheirsteadilygrowingvol-umeofagriculturalexportswereshippedtoChina.

As a consequence of the SecondOpium War (1856-1860), the Qing gov-ernment opened four ports in Taiwan—Keelung,Danshui,Anping安平(nowpartof Tainan City) and Takau 打狗 (today’sKaohsiungCity高雄市)—toWesterntrad-ers. Thereafter, tea and camphor, whichenjoyed great global demand, becamemajor cash crops. Northern Taiwan, theprimarysourceof theseproductsaswellasofcoal,thusovertookthesouthwestastheisland’seconomicandpoliticalhub.

Chihkan Tower, formerly Fort Provintia, was built in 1653 by the Dutch in the city of Tainan. Statues in the foreground depict Ming-loyalist Zheng Cheng-gong in 1662 negotiating a treaty under which the Dutch left the island.


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3History

Thegrowingdemand for landby theChinese newcomers brought them intoconflict with the indigenous peoples de-fending their ancestral homelands frominvasion.Thiswasexacerbatedbythein-ternational demand for tea and camphor,whichcouldbeproducedonlyinhighlandareasinhabitedbyindigenouspeoples.

By the mid-19th century, foreignpowers were challenging the ability ofthe Qing-dynasty government in Beijingto assert its sovereignty over Taiwan. In1841 and 1842, during the First OpiumWar (1839-1842), for example, Britishforces attempted to occupy the north-ern seaport of Keelung and the western

seaport ofDa-an大安—near today’sTai-chung City 臺中市—but were repulsed.And just before the Second OpiumWar,U.S. Commodore Matthew C. Perry dis-patchedtheU.S.S.Macedonian torecon-noiter the vicinity of Taiwan’s northernportcityofKeelung,maptheharborandevaluatethepotentialofnearbycoalmin-ingoperationstosupplyU.S.steamships.

Not to be outdone by its Westerncounterparts,Japandispatchedapunitiveexpeditionary force to southern Taiwanin 1874 as the first-ever projection ofmilitary force beyond Japan’s nationalborders. While Tokyo’s publicly statedobjectivewastopunishsouthernTaiwan’s

European Activities

1624 TheDutchEastIndiaCompanyoccupiessouthwesternTaiwan.1626 ASpanishconsortiumsetsupbasesinnorthernTaiwan.1642 TheDutchdriveouttheSpanish.

Reign of the Zheng Family

1662 Ming-dynastyloyalistZhengCheng-gong(Koxinga)drivesouttheDutchEastIndiaCompany.

Qing-dynasty Rule

1683 TheQingEmpiretakescontrolofTaiwan.1885 TaiwanisdeclaredaprovinceofQing-dynastyChina.

Japanese Colonial Rule

1895 BytheTreatyofShimonoseki,theQinggovernmentcedesTaiwantoJapaninperpe-tuity.Japanrulestheislandforthenext50years.

1930 SediqwarriorsunderchieftainMonaRudaostageanuprisinginWushe.1943 TheCairoDeclarationisissued,statingtheintentionofthreeAlliedPowers—the

RepublicofChina,theUnitedStatesandtheUnitedKingdom—torestoreTaiwantotheROC.

The Republic of China on Taiwan

1945 TheROCassumescontrolofTaiwan.TheROCbecomesafoundingmemberoftheUnitedNations.

1947 TheFebruary28Incidentsnowballsintoanislandwideuprising.1949 TheROCgovernmentrelocatestoTaiwan.1951 BytheTreatyofSanFrancisco,Japanrenouncesallright,titleandclaimtoTaiwan

andthePenghuIslands.

Key Events in Taiwan’s History (1624-2011)

Note:ForacomprehensivechronologyoftheROC(1911-2010),seeAppendicesIandII.


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indigenousPaiwan排灣peopleforkillingshipwrecked Japanese sailors in 1871,Japanesegovernmentdocumentsindicatethat its real objective was to establish apermanentpresenceineasternTaiwan.

In response, the Qing government inBeijing shored up the island’s defensesand expediting development of its econ-omyandinfrastructure.Qingadministra-tors expanded the budding coal miningindustryandlaidtelegraphlinesbetweennorthern and southernTaiwan aswell asan undersea telegraph cable between theislandandFujianProvince.

Finally, in October 1885, soon afterthe Sino-French War (1884-1885), in

which French forces invaded parts ofnorthern Taiwan, the Qing governmentdeclared Taiwan a province of the Em-pire,appointingLiuMing-chuan劉銘傳asitsfirstgovernor.

Japanese Colonial Rule (1895-1945)

In 1894, war broke out between theQing Empire and the Japanese Empireafter the latter invaded Korea, which theQing court regarded as its satellite state.Under the terms of the 1895 Treaty ofShimonoseki that concluded the conflict,known as the First Sino-Japanese War,

1952 IntheTreatyofPeacebetweentheROCandJapan,JapanacknowledgesthepeopleofTaiwanasnationalsoftheROCandthatthedispositionofpropertyofJapananditsnationalsinTaiwanandthePenghuIslandsshallbedeterminedbyspecialarrangementbetweentheROCandJapanesegovernments.

1971 TheROCgovernmentwithdrawsfromtheUnitedNationsinanticipationofaGen-eralAssemblyvotetogivetheChinaseattothecommunistauthoritiesinBeijing.

1979 DiplomatictiesbetweentheROCandtheUnitedStatesaresevered.AdemocracyrallyinKaohsiungCityturnsviolentinaneventknownasthe

KaohsiungIncident.1986 TheDemocraticProgressivePartyisestablishedindefianceofabanontheforma-

tionofnewpoliticalparties.1987 Martiallaw,ineffectsince1949,islifted;thebanonprivatevisitstomainlandChina

isrepealed.1996 TheROC’sfirstdirectpresidentialelectionisheld.2000 TheseconddirectpresidentialelectionresultsinthefirsttransferofROCgovern-

mentexecutivepowerbetweenpoliticalparties.2002 TheROCbecomesamemberoftheWorldTradeOrganization.2004 Thethirddirectpresidentialelectionandthefirstnationalreferendumsareheld.2005 Constitutionalamendmentsprovideforratificationoffutureamendmentsthrough

referendum,andforoverhaulofthesystemforelectinglegislators.2008 Thefourthdirectpresidentialelectionresultsinthesecondtransferofpowerbe-

tweenpoliticalparties.SeveraleconomicandothertechnicalagreementsaresignedwithmainlandChina,

markinganeweraofdétente.2009 ROChealthministerleadsanobserver-statusdelegationtoattendtheWorldHealth

AssemblyoftheWorldHealthOrganizationunderthename“ChineseTaipei.”2010 TheROCinkstheCross-StraitsEconomicCooperationFrameworkAgreementwith

mainlandChina.2011 TheROCcelebratesitscentennialinTaiwan.


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Taiwan was ceded to Japan. Rejectingthis outcome, Taiwanese intelligentsiaproclaimedtheestablishmentoftheDem-ocratic Republic of Taiwan 臺灣民主國.This bid for self-rule failed, however, asJapanesetroopscrushedallresistanceof-feredbylocalmilitiaswithinhalfayear.

Pacification and Special Governance (1895-1919)

In addition to “hard” measures takentosuppressanddeterrebellion,theJapa-nese colonial government instituted anumber of “soft” measures designed toease the transition from existing condi-tions to those deemed more desirable.These included a phased ban on opiumsmoking and a land reform programwhose main feature was “one person,one farm.” In addition to taking controlof opium distribution, the colonial gov-ernment nationalized the production andmarketingofcamphor,saltandanumberofothercommodities.Italsostrovetoex-pandsugarandcoalproduction.

Assimilation of Taiwan as an Extension of Japan (1919-1936)

Tokyoproclaimed that theTaiwaneseenjoyedthesamelegalrightsasJapanesecitizens in the home islands. Compul-sory Japanese-language education wasenforced,whileprogramsforculturalas-similationwerepromotedandthepaceofeconomicdevelopmentaccelerated.

Kominka or Japanization (1937-1945)

After the Second Sino-Japanese Warbroke out in 1937, the Japanese colonialgovernment promoted a JapanizationMovement (Kominka 皇民化運動) by en-couraging Taiwanese to adopt Japanesenames and customs, including Shintoreligious practices. To meet wartime de-mands,thedevelopmentofheavyindustrywas stepped up, and Taiwanese were re-cruitedintotheJapaneseImperialArmy.

By the time the United States de-clared war against Japan in December1941,Taiwan boasted what some schol-ars describe as the most modern indus-trial and transportation infrastructure inAsiaoutsideofJapan,anditsagriculturaldevelopmentwassecondtonone.Publichealth programs had eradicated diseasescommoninmanyplacesinAsia,sophis-ticated banking and business practiceswere in place, and literacy levels hadgreatlyimproved.

Despitesuchadmirablematerialprog-ress, persistent discrimination, whichdenied Taiwanese positions of author-ity throughout society, led to protestsagainstJapaneserule.PromotedmainlybyTaiwanese university students in Japan, amovement seeking autonomy for Taiwanandtheestablishmentofa“TaiwanAssem-bly” 臺灣議會 was launched in the 1920sandcontinuedintothe1930s;however,itseffortsultimatelycametonothing.

TheWushe Incident霧社事件, a shortbut bloody conflict, began in October1930 in the mountain village of Wushein today’sNantouCounty南投縣. Inout-rage at Japanese colonial administrators’humiliatingtreatmentof theSediq賽德克people (seeChapter2,“PeopleandLan-guage”), their chief, Mona Rudao莫那魯

道, ledhundredsofwarriors inanall-out

The Origin of the Name ‘Taiwan’Itisgenerallybelievedthatthename

“Taiwan” came from an indigenous,Austronesian-languagenameforalocalein the vicinity of today’s Tainan City.Literature from the late Ming dynastycontainsseveralwrittenvariationsofthesamename,includingTa-yuan大員,T’ai-yuan臺員,Ta-yuan大圓,Ta-wan大灣andT’ai-wan 臺灣. The island’s official ap-pellationbecameTaiwanin1684duringthereignoftheKangxi康熙EmperoroftheQingdynasty.


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waragainst theJapanese.Ultimately, theuprising was crushed not only by virtueof superior numbers, but by the use ofpoisongasbombsdroppedfromaircraft.

JapanesecolonialruleofTaiwancametoanendasa resultofJapan’sdefeat inWorldWar II.After Japanannounced itssurrender in August 1945, ROC troopsand officials assumed administrative au-thorityoverTaiwanandreceivedthesur-render of Japanese troops in Taiwan onOctober25,1945.

The ROC on Taiwan (1945- )After taking control of Taiwan, the

Nanjing-based ROC government incorpo-ratedTaiwanasaprovinceoftheROCinline with the Cairo Declaration. October25, the date upon which Japanese troopsinTaiwansurrenderedtoROCadministra-tors,became“RetrocessionDay”光復節.

Over the six decades since the ROCgovernment relocated to Taipei in 1949,it has exercised jurisdiction overTaiwanandanumberofother islands,while theBeijing-based CCP regime has exercisedjurisdiction over the Chinese mainland.During that time, the two societies havedeveloped in radically different direc-tions: Taiwan has joined the ranks ofdemocracies while the mainland has re-mainedunderauthoritarianrule.

The February 28 Incident and Martial Law

The first years of the Nanjing-basedROCgovernment’sruleoverTaiwanweremarked by rampant corruption, contro-versial expropriation of property, gal-loping inflation, outbreaks of contagiousdiseases and shortages of essential com-modities.OnFebruary28,1947,protest-ers demanded that Governor ChenYi 陳儀 institute reforms. When the demandswentunmet,peoplethroughouttheisland

rebelled against the government. In thesucceedingweeksandmonthsofturmoil,referred to as the February 28 Incident二二八事件, military reinforcements dis-patchedfromtheChinesemainlandkilledthousandsofpeople.

The ROC government’s relocationfrom the mainland marked the formalbeginning of martial law. This periodofficially lasted from 1949 to 1987, al-though the islandhad ineffectbeen inastateofmartiallawsincetheFebruary28Incident. Under martial law, the KMT-controlled government imposed presscensorship, banned the establishment ofnew political parties, and restricted thefreedoms of speech, publication, assem-blyandassociation.

Political Developments and Reform

Upon the death of President ChiangKai-shek in 1975, then Vice PresidentYen Chia-kan 嚴家淦 served as presidentuntil 1978, when he was succeeded byChiang’sson,ChiangChing-kuo蔣經國.

The late 1970s and early 1980s sawthe formationanddevelopmentofan in-formalcoalitionofoppositionpoliticiansandpoliticalactivistsknownastheDang-wai 黨外 (“party outsiders,” alluding tothefactthattheywerenotaffiliatedwiththeKMT).

In December 1979, a rally in Kao-hsiung City organized by leading Dang-wai figures to observe InternationalHuman Rights Day turned violent whenthousands of participants were hemmedinbymilitarypolice. Inconnectionwiththis event, known as the Kaohsiung In-cident 美麗島事件, prominent dissidentsweredetained,convictedofseditionbyamilitarytribunalandimprisoned.

Ultimately, however, the incidentand the repression that followed addedsteam to the democracy movement. In


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3History

September1986,Dangwai leadersestab-lished the Democratic Progressive Party(DPP) 民主進步黨, in defiance of the banonformationofnewpoliticalparties.

President Chiang Ching-kuo rescind-edmartiallawin1987shortlybeforehisdeath. His successor, Lee Teng-hui 李登

輝, took vigorous action to reform thepolitical systemanddismantle theparty-statemachinerythathadbeeninplaceinTaiwan for the preceding four decades.Under his administration, bans on theestablishmentofnewpoliticalpartiesandnewspublicationswerelifted;privatevis-itstotheChinesemainlandincreaseddra-matically;andtheROCConstitutionwasamendedtorequiredirectelectionof thepresident and all legislators by citizensresidinginitseffectivejurisdiction.

In1995,PresidentLeemadethefirstformal apology on behalf of the gov-ernment for the February 28 Incidenttragedyand thedecades-longrepressionthatfollowed.Thatyear,theFebruary28Incident Disposition and CompensationAct二二八事件處理及賠償條例wasenactedto compensate victims and their surviv-ingrelatives.

In 1996, incumbent President Leewas voted in asTaiwan’s first popularlyelected president. Previously, the ROCpresident and vice president had beenelected by the National Assembly (seeChapter4,“Government”).In2000,DPPcandidate Chen Shui-bian 陳水扁 waselected president, marking the first-evertransfer of governing power betweenpolitical parties. He was re-elected inMarch2004.

Under the Chen administration, theReferendum Act 公民投票法 was enactedin 2003, the first national referendumswere conducted in 2004, the NationalAssembly was abolished, and its powerto ratify constitutional amendments wastransferred to the people through themechanismofreferendumin2005.

Recent DevelopmentsThe inauguration of the KMT’s Ma

Ying-jeou 馬英九 as the Twelfth-termPresident of the Republic of China onMay20,2008markedthenation’sseconddemocratictransferofpowerbetweenpo-liticalparties.

During a 1986 interview with The Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, President Chiang Ching-kuo (left) indicates that the martial law imposed nearly four decades prior would be lifted. Chiang’s English secretary Ma Ying-jeou (center), elected president in 2008, later described this historic moment as “electric.” (Courtesy of Academia Historica)


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Since the Ma administration cameintooffice, tensionsbetweenTaiwanandmainland China have eased as the con-sequence of resuming long-suspendedinstitutionalized talks between Taiwan’ssemi-officialStraitsExchangeFoundation

海峽交流基金會 and its mainland counter-part,theAssociationforRelationsAcrossthe Taiwan Straits 海峽兩岸關係協會 (seeChapter 6, “Cross-strait Relations”). Asa complementary aspect of the Ma ad-ministration’s determination to promotepeaceandprosperityregionallyandglob-ally,thegovernmenthaspursuedadiplo-macyaimedatendingcounterproductivecross-strait rivalry in the internationalarenaandredirectingresourcestoworthyends,while at the same time integratingTaiwan more fully into the Asia-Pacificregionaleconomy(seeChapter5,“For-eignRelations”).

In May 2009, the ROC became anobserverattheWorldHealthAssemblyoftheWorldHealthOrganizationunder thename “ChineseTaipei.”This marked thecountry’s first significant participation inthe activities of a U.N. agency since the“China” seatwas transferred to theCCPregimein1971.ThisoffershopethatBei-jing now sees the wisdom of no longeropposingTaiwan’sactiveparticipation inotherinternationalbodies.

On June 29, 2010, Taiwan and themainland signed the Cross-Straits Eco-nomic Cooperation Framework Agree-ment (ECFA) 海峽兩岸經濟合作架構協議,regarded as the most significant pact to

have been concluded between the twosides of theTaiwan Strait since they be-came separately governed more than sixdecadesago(seeChapter6,“Cross-straitRelations”). The ECFA, more than anagreement on trade and economic rela-tions, underlines the understanding onbothsides that fosteringcooperationandbuilding trust will usher in a new era ofpeaceful development across the TaiwanStraitandinEastAsia.

Nevertheless,withthepossibilitythatBeijingmightresorttoforcetosettlethesovereignty issue, the Ma administrationhas stressed the imperative for Taiwanto maintain military preparedness andenhancenationalsecurity(seeChapter7,“NationalDefense”).

Taiwan’sdemocratization,thethreatof war and flourishing economic andculturaltieswiththeChinesemainlandhighlight both profound differencesbetween, and the common interests of,people on the two sides of theTaiwanStrait.While public debate concerningtheROC’sfutureandTaiwan’srelation-shipwiththemainlandcontinues,whatunitesROCcitizensistheiraffirmationoftheimperativetoprotectandnurturetheir hard-won freedom, democracyandprosperity.

In2011,theROCcelebratesthe100thanniversary of its establishment. HavingrealizeditsfoundingidealsonTaiwan, itwill continue to strive for greater peaceand prosperity and serve as a beacon ofdemocracytoAsiaandtheworld.

• Academia Historica (Chinese only): http://www.drnh.gov.tw • Taiwan Historica: http://www.th.gov.twRelated

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