The Dachen Islands, Tachen Islands or Tachens () are a group of islands off the coast of Taizhou,

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , Chinese postal romanization, also romanized as Chekiang) is an East China, eastern, coastal Provinces of China, province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable citie ...

, China, in the East China Sea. They are administered by the

Jiaojiang District Jiaojiang District ( Tai-chow dialect: Tsiao-kông K'ü; ) is a district and the seat of the prefecture-level city of Taizhou in Zhejiang Province, China. It is named after the Jiao River (Jiaojiang in Chinese). The district has its mainland a ...

of Taizhou. Before the

First Taiwan Strait Crisis The First Taiwan Strait Crisis (also the Formosa Crisis, the 1954–1955 Taiwan Strait Crisis, the Offshore Islands Crisis, the Quemoy-Matsu Crisis, and the 1955 Taiwan Strait Crisis) was a brief armed conflict between the Communist People's ...

in 1955, the islands were administered by the Republic of China (ROC).

History

ROC evacuation

Until 1955, the Dachen (Tachen) Islands were administered by the Republic of China (ROC),BBC. February 10, 1955: ''US evacuates Pacific islands''
/ref> the government of which had been based in Taiwan ( south of the Dachen Islands) since major fighting ceased in the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...

. As the People's Liberation Army advanced through

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its cap ...

Province in the late 1940s, the U.S.-supported Nationalist forces under Chiang Kai-shek's

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

retreated to China’s offshore Islands. On 20 January 1955, the PLA's conquest of

Yijiangshan The Yijiangshan Islands () are two small islands eight miles from the Dachen Islands, located off the coast of Taizhou, Zhejiang in the East China Sea. During the First Taiwan Strait crisis the islands were captured in January 1955 by the People's ...

led to the

. The Formosa Resolution of 1955 passed in Congress nine days later in the United States, leading to the orderly evacuation (Operation Pullback) of the Dachen Islands by the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

in February. At the time, they served as the

temporary capital A temporary capital or a provisional capital is a city or town chosen by a government as an interim base of operations due to some difficulty in retaining or establishing control of a different metropolitan area. The most common circumstances leadin ...

of the Chekiang Province in exile. The

U.S. Seventh Fleet The Seventh Fleet is a numbered fleet of the United States Navy. It is headquartered at U.S. Fleet Activities Yokosuka, in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It is part of the United States Pacific Fleet. At present, it is the largest of th ...

used 132 boats and 400 aircraft to move 14,500 civilians, 10,000 Republic of China servicemen and 4,000 guerrilla fighters, along with 40,000 tons of military equipment and supplies from the island. Three days after the evacuation, the islands were taken by the People’s Liberation Army. Chiang Kai-shek grudgingly allowed the island to fall to the

Communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

so that the other offshore island groups,

Kinmen Kinmen, alternatively known as Quemoy, is a group of islands governed as a county by the Republic of China (Taiwan), off the southeastern coast of mainland China. It lies roughly east of the city of Xiamen in Fujian, from which it is separat ...

and Matsu, could be successfully defended. The civilian population of the islands was resettled in mostly

Yilan County, Taiwan Yilan County, alternately spelled I-lan, is a county in northeastern Taiwan, Republic of China. Name The name ''Yilan'' derives from the indigenous Kavalan people. Other former names in reference to this area in the Yilan Plain include '' ...

, but also in other urban areas in Taiwan. Many of those evacuated to Taiwan later moved to the United States as they lacked strong social networks and access to opportunity in Taiwan. Chefs from the Dachen Islands had a strong influence on

American Chinese food American Chinese cuisine is a cuisine derived from Chinese cuisine that was developed by Chinese Americans. The dishes served in many North American Chinese restaurants are adapted to American tastes and often differ significantly from those ...

Geography and Climate

The islands are located in the Gulf of Taizhou, off the coast of

, the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. The archipelago is sandwiched between Zhoushan in the north and the Nanjishan Liedao (南麂山列岛, literally Southern

Muntjac Muntjacs ( ), also known as the barking deer or rib-faced deer, (URL is Google Books) are small deer of the genus ''Muntiacus'' native to South Asia and Southeast Asia. Muntjacs are thought to have begun appearing 15–35 million years ago, ...

Archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Arc ...

) in the south, and it is located from

, which it administratively belongs to. Dachen Archipelago consists of a total of 29 islands, islets, and rocks, totaling . The fishing industry had long been the backbone of the local economy and the region was one of the largest of the Chinese class II fisheries. However, after decades of over fishing, the natural resources were depleted and as a result, most of the local population was forced to migrate to the mainland in the late-1980s and the local populace experienced a drastic decrease to a fraction of what it once was. To compensate for the depletion of natural resources, aquaculture has become prosperous and the archipelago is currently one of the largest aquaculture bases in the region. However, due to the adaptation of advanced technology which significantly reduced the need of manual labor, the local population has not recovered to its peak level despite the income generated has already been higher than that of the traditional fishery peak in the past, and in fact, the current local population was not much higher than the lowest point in the late-1980s. To diversify the local economy, tourism had become another major source of income. The annual average temperature is , and the climate is typical subtropical climate. The forest coverage rate is greater than 56% and it is the provincial level forest park. Due to the forces of nature such as that of tides and winds, there are many spectacular sceneries and the archipelago is called the Chinese Number One Oceanic

Penjing ''Penjing'', also known as ''penzai'', is the ancient Chinese art of depicting artistically formed trees, other plants, and landscapes in miniature. Penjing generally fall into one of three categories: * Shumu penjing (樹木盆景): Tree penjin ...

(Zhong-Guo Di-Yi Hai-Shang

, 中国第一海上盆景). Another tourist attraction was the military fortifications left behind by the

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

s during the

in the post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

era, because the archipelago was the site of the

Battle of Dachen Archipelago The Battle of Dachen Archipelago () was a struggle between the Nationalists and the Communists for the control of several archipelagos just off the coast of Zhejiang, China, during the Chinese Civil War in the post-World War II era, and it was ...

in the

References

External links

Tachen Islands Evacuation History
{{in lang, zh-tw 1955 in Taiwan Islands of Zhejiang Evacuations Taizhou, Zhejiang Islands of the East China Sea Military history of Taiwan

History

ROC evacuation

Geography and Climate

See also

References

External links