Taiwan’s White Terror
Thesis
Taiwan, despite its thriving democracy today, was once an isolated nation filled with fear, after China took over when World War II ended. Conflict arose quickly after the Chinese Nationalists arrived, when citizens questioned their actions of violence and started standing up for their people. With their unwillingness to compromise, it led to executions and imprisonment of those who seemed suspicious to the government under the martial law that lasted for 38 years. The Nationalists were brutal and silent with their actions; breaking families apart and leaving them with no voice in the society.
Background
During World War II, China fought on the Allied Forces, against Japan for invading their land. The U.S. agreed
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It was fought between the Nationalists and the Communists. There were disagreements between the two parties because of their different beliefs, but they both wanted a one-party government to govern China, instead of elections with multiple parties. The Communists defeated the Nationalists in 1949 and resulted in the KMT forces fleeing to Taiwan to establish a new government.
The Kuomintang
While the Nationalists and Communists fought for the government of China, the Nationalists were still controlling Taiwan. Chen Yi, the governor-general of the KMT, was in charge of Taiwan until the KMT lost in the Civil War and Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the KMT, took over.
After the KMT arrived, they confiscated all Japanese-owned factories and monopolized food and supplies, resulting in a shortage of goods in Taiwan. The KMT took the goods to China to sell them for a high price to make money lost from the war. Many Taiwanese lost jobs and the economy faced high inflation and food shortages across Taiwan. martial law
The martial law was passed on May 19, 1949 by the KMT and is known as the White Terror period for the suppression, murder, and imprisonment of citizens to ensure that the Chinese Nationalists could keep their control of
After seven year war with Japan, China experiences an eruption of the long simmering civil war. The China civil war was the war between the China Nationalist and China Communist. “Chiang Kai-shek was the leader of Nationalist China and Mao Tse-tsung was the leader from revolutionary communist” (Sledge xix). American soldier involved in this war to support China Nationalist and defeat the China Communist. American wanted secure North China from the communist party. Moreover, American also wanted to secure the region from Japanese. In fact, civilian were welcoming American came to their country and they had a perception that American soldiers were the hero. It was because American successful defeat Japan, then th...
First, if the CCP recognizes Taipei as an independent state, the CCP risks losing it bargaining power over the decisions and actions taken in regard to the island. A country’s bargaining power is the strength of a states claim over the disputed territory. A decline in this power mea...
The Communist Party of China (CCP), in power since 1950, is not famous for its tolerance of those who do not agree with its ideology and opinion. People must adhere to the Party’s legislation, and face consequences (the severity of which is debated) if they resist or rebel. One way the CCP controls members is through religion. Although the government encourages almost cult-like devotion to the Party, it allows its constituents to participate in certain major international religions. One religion that is illegal to participate in under Chinese law is the spiritual practice of Falun Gong. A new movement, the Falun Gong grew quickly in China and globally, and was officially banned in 1999. The CCP claims the Falun Gong is evil, and should be destroyed humanely to save China. However, the Falun Gong is peaceful, and the Chinese government is the institution that tortures, jails, and abuses its citizens if they are practitioners of the religion. The international response calls for the halting of these immoral actions, but China still claims that it is destroying an evil institution. The simple fact China denies its members freedom of religion violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which China has signed, but the violence against its people if they adhere to Falun Gong beliefs is a gross abuse of its power. Although China bans many religions, there is special emphasis on the Falun Gong, and many wonder why. One highly possible reason is that the growth, international reach, and popularity of the Falun Gong threatens the universal power the CCP holds in China, weakening the government, and therefore leading to the destruction of the threat: the Falun Gong.
In today’s society the word “terrorism” has gone global. We see this term on television, in magazines and even from other people speaking of it. In their essay “Controlling Irrational Fears After 9/11”, published in 2002, Clark R. Chapman and Alan W. Harris argue that the reaction of the American officials, people and the media after the attacks of 9/11 was completely irrational due to the simple fact of fear. Chapman and Harris jump right into dismembering the irrational argument, often experienced with relationships and our personal analysis. They express how this argument came about from the terrorist being able to succeed in “achieving one major goal, which was spreading fear” among the American people (Chapman & Harris, para.1). The supporters of the irrational reaction argument state that because “Americans unwittingly cooperated with the terrorist in achieving the major goal”, the result was a widespread of disrupted lives of the Americans and if this reaction had been more rational then there would have been “less disruption in the lives of our citizens” (Chapman & Harris, para. 1).
not under communist control, the island of Taiwan. He took with him 200,000 Guomindang troops as well as all of China's gold reserves. Chiang Kaishek ruled Taiwan as the Republic of China. On 1 October 1949, the communists were able to proclaim the existence of a new China - the People's Republic of China. The Civil War had ended, the country had no gold and the country's infrastructure was
The civil war started in April of 1927 and lasted until May of 1950. It was between the Chines Nationalist Party and the Chinese Communist Party after the Northern Expedition, which took place from 1926-1928. This was an expedition to try and stop the warlords and end feudalism, or a system of government where kings and nobles ruled the land. The Nationalist Party was supported by many western countries and the Communist Party was supported by the Soviet Union in Russia. From 1936-1945 the civil war had to stop for a little while because Japan had invaded Manchuria. Instead of fighting each other during this time, both parti...
The United States were unjustified in going
In the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, China at the time confronted impending risk of being parceled and colonized by colonialist powers...
The revolution in China of 1911, led to the fall of the Manchu dynasty. The result was that the newly formed Republic failed to control China and could not prevent China from being exploited by foreign powers. To restore order and regain central control over China, the nationalists and communists first worked together. Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the nationalist forces, was anti-communist and removed communists from key positions in unified party. Chiang Kai-shek then went on to attack the communists in Shanghai 1927. This split between the communists and the nationalists led to the Chinese Civil War. The Chinese Civil War (1927-37 & 1946-49) was fought between the Communist Party of China (CCP) and the Republic of China led by the Kuomintang (KMT). The Civil War was won by the CCP because of their strengths and successes under the leadership of Mao, such as the supporting of 3 million peasants in Jiangxi, and the mistakes and weaknesses of the KMT, in particular Chiang Kai-shek’s lacking leadership skills. The decisive outcome of the Civil War was leadership between the KMT and the CCP.
Keith, Zak. “Anti-Chinese USA: Racism and Discrimination from the Onset” Zac Keith. 2009. Web. 5 May 2014.
China’s ruling party at the time was the Kuomintang (KMT). They had toppled the Qing emperor, but they were unable to truly unite the country. In 1923, the KMT and the CCP briefly allied to defeat the warlords in Northern China, but this was not an alliance that we meant to last; the KMT leader Chia...
The short story by Eileen Chang fully reflected the turmoil in China during the Japanese occupation in the 1940s. For decades, Japan has been trying to dominate China with incidents like the first Sino-Japanese war in 1894 where the two powers fought each other for the control of Korea. When Japan attacked Shanghai in what was known as the Battle of Shanghai in 28 January 1932, student bodies fought back and that resulted in the second Sino-Japanese war in history. Understandably the people of 1940s had extreme hatred for the Japanese due to the violence that Japanese military exercised on the country and its citizens. Strained political relationships in the city led to countless assassinations of Chinese government officials who worked ...
Relation between china and Taiwan Introduction The current conflict between china and Taiwan originally began in 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek (President of Republic of China) and his followers fled to Taiwan after their defeat by the Chinese communist party (led by Moa Tse-Tung) in the Chinese civil war, which erupted immediately after the Second World War. In 1950, the Chinese Communist Party established the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and invaded Taiwan, to unify all of China under their rule. Their plan failed, when the United States sent naval forces to defend Taiwan. Since then, both countries have existed in neither a state of complete independence nor integration of neither war nor peace.
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