Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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.
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 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.