The Hukou incident (

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

: 湖口兵變) also known as the Hukou Mutiny was an attempted

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

initiated by the deputy commander of the 1st Armor Division headquarters, General Chao Chih-hwa, on January 21, 1964.

Events of the coup

The incident took place on January 21, 1964, in

Hukou ''Hukou'' () is a system of household registration used in mainland China. The system itself is more properly called "''huji''" (), and has origins in ancient China; ''hukou'' is the registration of an individual in the system (''kou'' li ...

Hsinchu Hsinchu (, Chinese: 新竹, Pinyin: ''Xīnzhú'', Wade–Giles: ''Hsin¹-chu²'') is a city located in northwestern Taiwan. It is the most populous city in Taiwan Province not among the special municipalities, with estimated 450,655 inhabi ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. During a staff meeting at the 1st Armor Division headquarters, General Chao Chih-hwa (趙志華), then deputy commander of the armored battle group, criticized General Chou Chih-jo (周至柔), the

Chief of the General Staff The Chief of the General Staff (CGS) is a post in many armed forces (militaries), the head of the military staff. List * Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ( United States) * Chief of the General Staff (Abkhazia) * Chief of General Staff (Af ...

on charges of corruption and encouraged fellow officers at the meeting to revolt. He was reported as saying "Our

leader Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets vi ...

is being deceived by treacherous people, we must move our forces to

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

to remove them." ("當今主上為小人所蒙蔽，我們要把部隊開到台北勤王清君側") He was quickly arrested by two political warfare officers, but the

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

nonetheless received erroneous information that the 1st Armor Division was on the move, and deployed troops to intercept the "rebels forces" that did not exist. Chao was court-martialed and sentenced to death, but the sentence was never carried out. His sentence was later reduced to life in prison after the death of Chiang Kai-shek, and Chao died in 1983. Chao's superior Chiang Wei-kuo, who was Kai-shek's adopted son, was also punished and never held any real power in the military again.

References

* * * {{cite web, url=http://taiwanpedia.culture.tw/web/content?ID=5719 , script-title=zh:湖口兵變 , publisher=台灣大百科全書 , accessdate=22 January 2011 , language=zh , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726055658/http://taiwanpedia.culture.tw/web/content?ID=5719 , archivedate=2011-07-26 Taiwan under Republic of China rule 1964 in Taiwan 1960s coups d'état and coup attempts Attempted coups d'état in Asia Hsinchu