White Terror (Taiwan)

The White Terror () was the political repression of Taiwanese civilians under the Kuomintang (KMT)-ruled government. The period of White Terror is generally considered to have begun when martial law was declared in Taiwan on 19 May 1949, which was enabled by the 1948 Temporary Provisions against the Communist Rebellion, and ended on 21 September 1992 with the repeal of Article 100 of the Criminal Code, allowing for the prosecution of "anti-state" activities. The Temporary Provisions were repealed a year earlier on 22 April 1991 and martial law was lifted on 15 July 1987.

The period of White Terror generally does not include the 228 Incident of 1947, in which the KMT killed at least 18,000 Taiwanese civilians in response to a popular uprising, and also summarily executed many local political and intellectual elites. The two are frequently discussed in tandem as it was the catalyst that motivated the KMT to begin the White Terror. Martial law was declared and lifted twice during the 228 Incident.

Following the 228 Incident, the KMT retreated from mainland China to Taiwan during the closing stages of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. Wanting to consolidate its rule on its remaining territories, the KMT imposed harsh political suppression measures, which included enacting martial law, executing suspected leftists or those they suspected to be sympathetic toward the communists. Others targeted included Taiwanese locals and indigenous peoples who participated in the 228 Incident, such as Uyongʉ Yata'uyungana, and those accused of dissidence for criticizing the government.

The KMT carried out persecutions against those who criticized or opposed the government, accusing them of attempting to subvert the regime, while excessively expanding the scope of punishment throughout this period. It made use of the Taiwan Garrison Command (TGC), a secret police, as well as other intelligence units by enacting special criminal laws as tools for the government to purge dissidents. Basic human rights and the right to privacy were disregarded, with mass pervasive monitoring of the people, filings of sham criminal cases against anyone who were suspected as being a dissident, as well as labelling any individuals who were not conforming a pro-regime stance as being communist spies, often without merit. It is estimated that about 3,000 to 4,000 civilians were executed by the government during the White Terror. The government was also suspected of carrying out extrajudicial killings against exiles in other countries.

Pro-democracy demonstrations attempted during this period, such as the Kaohsiung Incident, were harshly suppressed. The KMT ruled as a one-party state, with the existence of any other political parties strictly outlawed, resulting in non-existent competitive elections; unapproved ''tangwai'' candidates that won elections such as Hsu Hsin-liang would be spuriously impeached and often forced into exile. Even so, such restricted elections were marred by overt voter fraud, most notably during the Zhongli incident.

The ideology, theory and repression ruling pattern of Chiang Kai-shek's KMT's regime in mainland China and subsequently in Taiwan has been compared by some academics and scholars to fascist regimes elsewhere, such as Nazi Germany, with the National Revolutionary Army heavily dependent and inspired by the German military mission during the Sino-German cooperation (1926–1941) until Adolf Hitler decided to withdraw in 1938 to align with Imperial Japan. When Chiang retreated to Taiwan in 1949, his regime refused to establish a parliamentary democracy, but continued a variation of the fascist state in Taiwan. The legacy of authoritarianism and fascism during the White Terror in Taiwan has persisted until today, and political discussions about this topic continues to be highly controversial on the island.

Time period

The White Terror is generally considered to have begun with the declaration of martial law on 19 May 1949. For its ending date, some sources cite the lifting of martial law on 15 July 1987, while others cite the repeal of Article 100 of the Criminal Code on 21 September 1992, which allowed for the persecution of people for "anti-state" activities. Martial law officially lasted for almost four decades, which had been the longest period of martial law in the world at the time it was lifted. It is now the second longest, after Syria's 48-year period of martial law which lasted from 1963 to 2011.

Most prosecutions took place between the first two decades as the KMT wanted to consolidate its rule on the island. Most of those prosecuted were labeled by the Kuomintang (KMT) as "bandit spies" (), meaning communist spies, and punished as such, often with execution. A Wang Jingwei quote, often misattributed to Chiang Kai-shek, once famously said that he would rather "mistakenly kill 1,000 innocent people than allow one communist to escape".Barnouin, Barbara and Yu Changgen. ''Zhou Enlai: A Political Life.'' Hong Kong: Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. p. 38

The KMT mostly imprisoned Taiwan's intellectual and social elite out of fear that they might resist KMT rule or sympathize with communism. For example, the Formosan League for Reemancipation was a Taiwanese independence group established in 1947, which the KMT believed to be under communist control, leading to its members being arrested in 1950. The World United Formosans for Independence was persecuted for similar reasons. However, other prosecutions did not have such clear reasoning, such as in 1968, when Bo Yang was imprisoned for his choice of words in translating a Popeye