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, Kuo-
min-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.

• 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 Soviet-
supported 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

1
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-from-
homeland 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.