Taiwan Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ====Martial law era (1949–1987)==== {{See also|Martial law in Taiwan|Taiwan Miracle}} [[File:Chiang Kai-shek in full uniform.jpeg|thumb|upright|[[Chiang Kai-shek]], leader of the [[Kuomintang]] from 1925 until his death in 1975|alt=A Chinese man in military uniform, smiling and looking towards the left. He holds a sword in his left hand and has a medal in shape of a sun on his chest.]] [[Martial law]], declared on Taiwan in May 1949,<ref name="martial">{{cite web |publisher=National Archives Administration, National Development Council |url=https://www.archives.gov.tw/Publish.aspx?cnid=1014&p=857 |script-title=zh:三、 台灣戒嚴令 |language=zh |trans-title=III. Decree to establish martial law in Taiwan |date=2 October 2009}}</ref> continued to be in effect until 1987,<ref name="martial" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.taiwandc.org/228-intr.htm|title=28 February 1947 – Taiwan's Holocaust Remembered – 60th Commemoration|year=2007|publisher=New Taiwan, Ilha Formosa|access-date=2 July 2009}}</ref> and was used to suppress political opposition. During the [[White Terror (Taiwan)|White Terror]], as the period is known, 140,000 people were imprisoned or executed for being perceived as anti-KMT or pro-Communist.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Malaysia/Story/A1Story20080716-77050.html|title=Taiwan president apologises for 'white terror' era|agency=Reuters|access-date=2 July 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401191615/http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Malaysia/Story/A1Story20080716-77050.html|archive-date=1 April 2019}}</ref> Many citizens were arrested, tortured, imprisoned or executed for their real or perceived link to the Chinese Communist Party. Since these people were mainly from the intellectual and social elite, an entire generation of political and social leaders was destroyed. Following the eruption of the [[Korean War]], US President [[Harry S. Truman]] dispatched the [[United States Seventh Fleet]] into the [[Taiwan Strait]] to prevent hostilities between the ROC and the PRC.<ref name=1950-US-DoD>{{Cite web |author=US Department of Defense |title=Classified Teletype Conference, dated 27 June 1950, between the Pentagon and General Douglas MacArthur regarding authorization to use naval and air forces in support of South Korea. Papers of Harry S. Truman: Naval Aide Files |publisher=Truman Presidential Library and Museum |year=1950 |url=http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/korea/large/week1/kw_22_1.htm |page=1 and 4 |quote=Page 1: In addition 7th Fleet will take station so as to prevent invasion of Formosa and to insure that Formosa not be used as base of operations against Chinese mainland." Page 4: "Seventh Fleet is hereby assigned to operational control CINCFE for employment in following task hereby assigned CINCFE: By naval and air action prevent any attack on Formosa, or any air or sea offensive from Formosa against mainland of China. |journal= |access-date=9 March 2006 |archive-date=19 April 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060419074919/http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/korea/large/week1/kw_22_1.htm }}</ref> The United States also passed the [[Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty]] and the [[Formosa Resolution of 1955]], granting substantial [[United States foreign aid|foreign aid]] to the KMT regime between 1951 and 1965.<ref>{{Cite journal|first=Neil H.|last=Jacoby|url=https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNAAK054.pdf |title=An Evaluation of U.S. Economic Aid to Free China, 1951–1965|journal=A.I.D. Discussion Paper|date=January 1966 |publisher=[[United States Agency for International Development]] |access-date=15 May 2022}}</ref> The US foreign aid stabilized prices in Taiwan by 1952.<ref>{{harvnb|Makinen|Woodward|1989}}: "It was the fiscal regime change on Taiwan, as in the European episodes, that finally brought price stability. It was the aid policy that brought the budget to near balance, and when the aid programme reached its full proportions in 1952, prices stabilized."</ref> The KMT government instituted many laws and [[Land reform in Taiwan|land reforms]] that it had never effectively enacted on mainland China.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://taiwantoday.tw/news.php?unit=4&post=6666|title=The Land Reform Movement in China|website=Taiwan Today|date=1 June 1951}}</ref> Economic development was encouraged by American aid and programs such as the [[Sino-American Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction|Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction]], which turned the agricultural sector into the basis for later growth. Under the combined stimulus of the land reform and the agricultural development programs, agricultural production increased at an average annual rate of 4 percent from 1952 to 1959.<ref>Ralph Clough, "Taiwan under Nationalist Rule, 1949–1982," in Roderick MacFarquar et al., ed., ''Cambridge History of China'', Vol 15, The People's Republic Pt 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), p. 837</ref> The government also implemented a policy of [[import substitution industrialization]], attempting to produce imported goods domestically.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Liu|first1=Da-Nien|last2=Shih|first2=Hui-Tzu|date=4 December 2013|title=The Transformation of Taiwan's Status Within the Production and Supply Chain in Asia|url=https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/the-transformation-of-taiwans-status-within-the-production-and-supply-chain-in-asia/|access-date=6 January 2021|website=Brookings}}</ref> The policy promoted the development of textile, food, and other labor-intensive industries.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Zhu|first=Tianbiao|year=2006|title=Rethinking Import-substituting Industrialization: Development Strategies and Institutions in Taiwan and China|journal=Research Paper 2006/076|publisher=UNU-WIDER|url=https://www.wider.unu.edu/publication/rethinking-import-substituting-industrialization}}</ref> As the Chinese Civil War continued, the government built up military fortifications throughout Taiwan. Veterans built the [[Central Cross-Island Highway]] through the [[Taroko Gorge]] in the 1950s. During the [[Second Taiwan Strait Crisis]] in 1958, [[Nike Hercules]] missiles were added to the formation of missile batteries throughout the island.<ref>{{cite web|last=Smura|first=Tomasz|date=17 October 2016|url=https://pulaski.pl/en/in-the-shadow-of-communistic-missiles-air-and-missile-defence-in-taiwan/|title=In the shadow of Communistic missiles – Air and Missile Defence in Taiwan|website=Casimir Pulaski Foundation|access-date=10 January 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Halperin|first=M.H.|year=1966|url=https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_memoranda/2006/RM4900.pdf|title=Memorandum RM-4900-ISA (Abridged), The 1958 Taiwan Straits Crisis: A Documented History (U)|website=RAND Corporation|access-date=10 January 2023}}</ref> [[File:U.S. President Eisenhower visited TAIWAN 美國總統艾森豪於1960年6月訪問臺灣台北時與蔣中正總統-2.jpg|thumb|left|With Chiang Kai-shek, US president [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] waved to crowds during his visit to Taipei in June 1960.]] During the 1960s and 1970s, the ROC maintained an authoritarian, single-party government under the Kuomintang's [[Dang Guo]] system while its economy became industrialized and technology-oriented.<ref name="bbctimeline-coldwar">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/asia_pacific/2000/taiwan_elections2000/1955_1972.stm |title=Taiwan Timeline – Cold war fortress |year=2002 |work=BBC News |access-date=2 July 2009}}</ref> This rapid economic growth, known as the [[Taiwan Miracle]], occurred following a strategy of prioritizing agriculture, light industries, and heavy industries, in that order.{{sfnp|Hsü|1982|p=173}} [[Export-oriented industrialization]] was achieved by tax rebate for exports, removal of import restriction, moving from multiple exchange rate to single exchange rate system, and depreciation of the New Taiwan dollar.<ref>{{cite web|last=Wu|first=Tsong-Min|year=2016|title=From Economic Controls to Export Expansion in Postwar Taiwan: 1946–1960|url=https://www.rieti.go.jp/en/publications/summary/16030030.html|website=RIETI|access-date=5 February 2023}}</ref> [[Ten Major Construction Projects|Infrastructure projects]] such as the [[Sun Yat-sen Freeway]], [[Taoyuan International Airport]], [[Taichung Harbor]], and [[Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant]] were launched, while the rise of steel, petrochemical, and shipbuilding industries in southern Taiwan saw the transformation of Kaohsiung into a special municipality on par with Taipei.{{sfnp|Hsü|1982|p=174}} In the 1970s, Taiwan became the second fastest growing economy in Asia.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,917286-3,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091220041321/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,917286-3,00.html |archive-date=20 December 2009 |title=China: Chiang Kai-shek: Death of the Casualty |date=14 April 1975 |newspaper=Time |page=3 }}</ref> Real growth in [[Gross domestic product|GDP]] averaged over 10 percent.<ref name="Wu&Cheng2002">{{cite web|last1=Wu|first1=Rong-i|last2=Cheng|first2=Cheng-mount|url=https://taiwantoday.tw/news.php?unit=8&post=12649&unitname=Economics-Taiwan-Review&postname=Going-Up|title=Going Up|website=Taiwan Today|date=1 June 2002|access-date=5 February 2023}}</ref> In 1978, the combination of tax incentives and a cheap, well-trained labor force attracted investments of over $1.9 billion from [[overseas Chinese]], the United States, and Japan.{{sfnp|Hsü|1982|pp=175, 176}} By 1980, foreign trade reached $39 billion per year and generated a surplus of $46.5 million.{{sfnp|Hsü|1982|p=173}} Along with Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea, Taiwan became known as one of the [[Four Asian Tigers]]. Because of the Cold War, most Western nations and the United Nations regarded the ROC as the sole legitimate government of China until the 1970s. Eventually, especially after [[United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758|the expulsion in the United Nations]], most nations switched [[diplomatic recognition]] to the PRC. Until the 1970s, the ROC government was regarded by Western critics as undemocratic for upholding martial law, severely repressing any political opposition, and controlling the media. The KMT did not allow the creation of new parties and competitive democratic elections did not exist.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sun |first=Yat-sen |author2=Julie Lee Wei |author3=Ramon Hawley Myers |author4=Donald G. Gillin |title=Prescriptions for saving China: selected writings of Sun Yat-sen|editor=Julie Lee Wei |editor2=Ramon Hawley Myers |editor3=Donald G. Gillin |publisher=Hoover Press |year=1994 |page=36 |isbn=978-0-8179-9281-1 |url={{GBurl|id=YA3TzmnYRpYC}} |quote=The party first applied Sun's concept of political tutelage by governing through martial law, not tolerating opposition parties, controlling the public media, and using the 1947 constitution drawn up on the China mainland to govern. Thus, much of the world in those years gave the government low scores for democracy and human rights but admitted it had accomplished an economic miracle.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Chao |first=Linda |author2=Ramon Hawley Myers |title=Democracy's new leaders in the Republic of China on Taiwan |publisher=Hoover Press |year=1997 |page=3 |isbn=978-0-8179-3802-4 |url={{GBurl|id=tIiAd4MABAIC}} |quote=Although this party [the KMT] had initiated a democratic breakthrough and guided the democratic transition, it had also upheld martial law for thirty-six years and severely repressed political dissent and any efforts to establish an opposition party.{{nbsp}}... How was it possible that this party, so hated by opposition politicians and long regarded by Western critics as a dictatorial, Leninist-type party, still remained in power?}}</ref>{{sfnp|Fung|2000|p=67|ps=: "Nanjing was not only undemocratic and repressive but also inefficient and corrupt.{{nbsp}}... Furthermore, like other authoritarian regimes, the GMD sought to control people's mind."}}{{sfnp|Fung|2000|p=85|ps=: "The response to national emergency, critics argued, was not merely military, it was, even more important, political, requiring the termination of one-party dictatorship and the development of democratic institutions."}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Copper|first=John Franklin |title=Consolidating Taiwan's democracy |publisher=University Press of America |year=2005|page=8|isbn=978-0-7618-2977-5|url={{GBurl|id=761bWuEtEfEC}} |quote=Also, the "Temporary Provisions" (of the Constitution) did not permit forming new political parties, and those that existed at this time did not seriously compete with the Nationalist Party. Thus, at the national level the KMT did not permit competitive democratic elections.}}</ref> From the late 1970s to the 1990s, Taiwan underwent political and social reforms that transformed it into a democracy.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Chou|first1=Yangsun|last2=Nathan|first2=Andrew J.|year=1987|title=Democratizing Transition in Taiwan|journal=Maryland Series in Contemporary Asian Studies|volume=1987|issue=3|url=https://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/mscas/vol1987/iss3/}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Ko|first1=Jim W.|year=2004|title=Cold War Triumph – Taiwan Democratized in Spite of U.S. Efforts|journal=Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law|volume=36|issue=1|pages=137–181|url=https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1389&context=jil}}</ref> [[Chiang Ching-kuo]], Chiang Kai-shek's son, served as [[Premier of the Republic of China|premier]] from 1972 and rose to the presidency in 1978. He sought to move more authority to "[[bensheng ren]]" (residents of Taiwan before Japan's surrender and their descendants).<ref name="Kagan">Richard Kagan. ''Taiwan's Statesman: Lee Teng-hui and Democracy in Asia.'' Naval Institute Press, 2014. p. 91-93. {{ISBN|978-1-61251-755-1}}</ref> Pro-democracy activists ''[[Tangwai movement|Tangwai]]'' emerged as the opposition. In 1979, the [[Kaohsiung Incident]] took place in [[Kaohsiung]] on [[Human Rights Day]]. Although the protest was rapidly crushed by the authorities, it is considered as the main event that united Taiwan's opposition.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/asia_pacific/2000/taiwan_elections2000/1972_1986.stm|title=Out with the old|year=2002|work=BBC News|access-date=30 October 2009}}</ref> In 1984, Chiang Ching-kuo selected [[Lee Teng-hui]] as his vice-president. After the [[Democratic Progressive Party]] (DPP) was (illegally) founded as the first opposition party in Taiwan to counter the KMT in 1986, Chiang announced that he would allow the formation of new parties.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1986/10/08/taiwan-president-to-propose-end-to-islands-martial-law/363c7248-ccc9-4173-8599-419a587b5800/|title=Taiwan President to Propose End to Island's Martial Law|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=8 October 1986}}</ref> On 15 July 1987, Chiang lifted martial law on the main island of Taiwan.<ref>{{cite news|last=Southerl|first=Daniel|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/07/15/after-38-years-taiwan-lifts-martial-law/6ba420e6-f061-467a-9647-63858e4956b3/|title=After 38 Years, Taiwan Lifts Martial Law|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=15 July 1987}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://law.moj.gov.tw/ENG/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?pcode=F0120018|title=Compensation Act for Wrongful Trials on Charges of Sedition and Espionage during the Martial Law Period|website=Laws and Regulations Database of the Republic of China (Taiwan)|access-date=10 December 2022|quote=if the case took place in Kinmen, Matsu, Dongsha and Nansha, the term "martial law period" refers to the period of time from December 10, 1948 to November 6, 1992.}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page