February 28 Incident 1947: Uprising and Massacre in Taiwan

The February 28 Incident, often called the 228 Incident, was an anti-government uprising in Taiwan that began in Taipei on 28 February 1947 and was crushed by Nationalist Chinese troops in March. Thousands of people, many of them local community leaders and educated professionals, were killed. The event shaped relations between Taiwanese and the mainland-born ruling elite for decades and became a central memory of Taiwan’s later democratisation.

Background: Taiwan after Japanese rule

Taiwan had been a Japanese colony for fifty years, from 1895 until the surrender of Japan in 1945. In October 1945 the island was handed to the Republic of China, governed by Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist party, the Kuomintang (KMT). Many Taiwanese at first welcomed the change.

Enthusiasm faded quickly. The new administration under Governor Chen Yi kept tight state monopolies on goods such as tobacco, alcohol and camphor, and filled most senior posts with officials from the mainland. Corruption, soaring inflation, rice shortages and unemployment spread, and some poorly disciplined soldiers were accused of theft and violence.

At the same time, the Nationalists were fighting the Chinese Civil War against the Communists, and Taiwan’s resources were drawn towards the mainland. Tension grew between the “benshengren” (people whose families had lived in Taiwan before 1945) and the “waishengren”, the newly arrived mainlanders.

What happened

On the evening of 27 February 1947, agents of the Tobacco Monopoly Bureau confronted a widow, Lin Jiang-mai, who was selling untaxed cigarettes near a tea house in Taipei. One agent struck her on the head with a pistol butt. An angry crowd gathered, and as the agents fled one of them fired a shot that killed a bystander, Chen Wen-xi.

The next day, 28 February, crowds protested at the monopoly bureau and then marched towards the governor’s office. Guards opened fire, killing and wounding several protesters. News spread by radio, and within days unrest had reached towns across the island. Local people attacked government offices and police stations, and some mainlanders were beaten.

In many places Taiwanese leaders formed “settlement committees” to restore order and negotiate. In early March the main committee in Taipei presented a list of demands for political reform, including greater self-government, the end of some monopolies and the appointment of more Taiwanese officials. Chen Yi appeared to negotiate, but he had already asked Nanjing to send troops.

The crackdown

Reinforcements from the mainland landed at Keelung and Kaohsiung on 8 March 1947. In the following weeks soldiers and police carried out indiscriminate killings and targeted arrests. In Kaohsiung, the garrison commander Peng Meng-chi had already begun a violent suppression on 6 March.

Victims included lawyers, doctors, teachers, journalists, students and members of the settlement committees. Among the best-known were the educator Lin Mao-sheng, who disappeared after his arrest, and the painter Chen Cheng-po, who was publicly executed in Chiayi on 25 March. Many families never learned what had happened to their relatives.

The scale of the killing is still uncertain. The 1992 report commissioned by the Executive Yuan, Taiwan’s cabinet, estimated between 18,000 and 28,000 deaths. Some historians argue for lower figures and others for higher ones, but all agree that the toll was in the thousands.

Consequences and the White Terror

Chen Yi was removed as governor in 1947. He was later executed in 1950 in Taiwan, though for trying to defect to the Communists, not for his role in 1947. Taiwan Province received a new civilian administration and some reforms, but political control tightened rather than loosened.

After the Nationalists lost the mainland, Chiang Kai-shek’s government moved to Taiwan in 1949. Martial law was declared on 19 May 1949 and lasted until 15 July 1987, one of the longest periods of martial law anywhere in the modern world. During this “White Terror”, tens of thousands of people were imprisoned and many executed for alleged communist or pro-independence activity.

For four decades the February 28 Incident could not be discussed openly. The memory of it nevertheless fed a distinct Taiwanese political identity and the opposition movement that grew in the 1970s and 1980s.

Memory and legacy

After martial law ended, public discussion became possible. Survivors’ groups pressed for the truth, and in 1992 the government published its official investigation. In 1995 President Lee Teng-hui formally apologised on behalf of the state, and a compensation law was passed for victims’ families.

Taipei’s New Park was renamed the 228 Peace Memorial Park in 1996, and a national memorial museum was opened there. Since 1997, 28 February has been a public holiday known as Peace Memorial Day. Debate continues over how much responsibility lay with Chiang Kai-shek personally.

Timeline

• 1945, 25 October: Taiwan is formally handed over to the Republic of China.
• 1947, 27 February: Monopoly agents assault a cigarette seller in Taipei; a bystander is shot dead.
• 1947, 28 February: Protesters are fired on near the governor’s office; unrest spreads.
• 1947, early March: Settlement committees form and present reform demands.
• 1947, 6 March: Peng Meng-chi begins the violent suppression in Kaohsiung.
• 1947, 8 March: Nationalist reinforcements land at Keelung and Kaohsiung.
• 1949, 19 May: Martial law is declared in Taiwan, beginning the White Terror era.
• 1987, 15 July: Martial law is lifted.
• 1995, 28 February: President Lee Teng-hui apologises for the incident.

Why it matters

The February 28 Incident turned early hopes for Taiwan’s reunion with China into deep mistrust. It opened nearly four decades of authoritarian rule, and its public remembrance since the 1990s has become a symbol of Taiwan’s transition to democracy and of the importance of confronting a painful past.