I would definitely want to learn more about the White Terror. You can find a lot about the Red Terror. But objective information about the White Terror is very hard to find. And how the Indigenous Taiwanese are still treated as second class citizens to this day. (afaik)
I had a schoolmate whose family fled to Brazil because of the White Terror. His grandfather was a Christian student leader who participated in the democratization movement in the 1950s. Eventually, with the end of the dictatorship, he returned to Taiwan and was even honored in parliament. But it's funny that he always said that the main crimes were never recorded, because most of the executions were always clandestine and officially designated as "accidents" or robbery. He claimed that the real death toll easily exceeded 30,000, because virtually every family had someone arrested, tortured or killed even for criticism and silly statements, while he lived there (around 1958-9).
"Made in Taiwan" was quite prominent in Sweden during the 80s as I was growing up. It was synonymous with poor quality. I remember a comedy sketch wherein the world is a mess, and at the end the camera pulls out to reveal the stars of the universe spelling "Made in Taiwan". It's remarkable how quickly that label and image disappeared and for "Made in China" to become the synonym for poor quality.
I remember a similar joke in a goosebumps novel. It was a big meme in the 80s and early 90s. Now they're associated with high tech chips so that's good progress.
It was fairly prominent here in the US as well, when I was a kid (late 80s/early 90s). Every once in awhile I’ll be rummaging through an old box of stuff, and will come across something with the “made in Taiwan” tag on it. A weird type of nostalgia. 😊
2:02 Kuomintang loss in Chinese Civil War & exile to Formosa (Taiwan) 3:34 Political reforms of KMT (still under Chiang Kai Shek's leadership) 5:47 Martial law in Taiwan & one-party rule 7:57 Reception in the international stage 9:57 Handling of communists & other oppositions (The White Terror) 11:21 Economic crisis & subsequent Economic & Agricultural reforms (Taiwan miracle) 14:33 Industrial reforms (Two four year plans) 17:07 Foreign (mainly US) aid 18:28 Project National Glory (plan to take back China which was later abandoned in 1972) 3:20 *Book Recommendation* The Great Exodus from China:Trauma,Memory & Identity by Dr. Domenic Meng-Hsuan Yang
My earliest memories are of living on Taiwan 1954 - 56. My father was a US Army officer and Advisor. We lived in the middle of the island by Taichung. My dad told stories of a place called "The Racetrack" up north in Taipei. It was an actual racetrack where Chiang Kai-shek sent people he didn't like and they never came back. Of course there are other things I actually remember. Airplanes flying over dropping leaflets and long columns of tanks and half-tracks running around the island. Chiang was always threatening to invade the mainland back then. Edit - I became a Merchant Marine officer and visited Taiwan many times from 1974 to 1998. Watched the island grow from dirt roads and bicycles to bright lights and fancy cars. I was also very glad to see Taiwan become a democracy. It has been a long hard road for the Taiwanese people.
Should be highlighted that during the time, there was also Kuomintag in Myanmar, who essentially were setting up their own country within them, and participating in opium trade. They attempted to invade China several times aswell.
@@azimisyauqieabdulwahab9401 Most people don't like the Kuomintang. Today's Kuomintang is more pro-Communist-CCP and pro-China. Anyone who likes freedom and democracy will not vote for the Kuomintang.
I very much enjoyed this. I think more people need to know about Taiwan and it’s history. I hope you do another episode about Taiwanese history from the late 70s onward.
Thank you for bringing greater attention to the authoritarian element of KMT rule on Taiwan. A deeper dive into how the White Terror influenced Taiwan's political trajectory would be incredibly welcome as it is often overlook by Western understanding of how Taiwan became the vibrant democracy it is today.
@@glennmandigo6069 This paints a negative picture of Taiwan. They were a brutal dictatorship. The west doesn't want you to know this as it doesn't fit the narrative of "China bad, Taiwan good". South Korea was also a brutal dictatorship until recently And I'm pro-democracy, so don't accuse me of simping for Putin's Russia or something
@@Josep_Hernandez_Lujan How does stating historical facts paint a negative picture of Taiwan? It is a fact that the KMT committed brutal atrocities to Taiwanese people already living on the island: mass incarcerations, banning all languages except Mandarin, extrajudicial executions, and so many more. However, these were the actions of the KMT government at the time and not a reflection of who we are today. The transformation of Taiwan and South Korea into democracies is something to be proud of, even more so due to the "bloodless" transition. Even to this very day we are still trying to rectify injustices that were committed during the dictatorship era.
Taiwan is a full liberal democracy today but it’s easy to forget that a generation ago they were ruled by a dictatorship that was no better than the one in China right now.
@@Bensaccount-qk6pst is common knowledge to western influenced countries. The real history was different. You should learn Chinese history from Chinese not westerner.
White people don’t like to learn about the KMT because it makes them look bad. Americans don’t want to hear about us imposing dictatorships on countries. We only want to hear that we have everyone democracy.
@@jonathankessler7436 It's not PRC or USSR bad, but still bad. Also that doesn't count February 28 Incident in 1947 (White Terror officially started after ROC retreated to Taiwan at 1949), which killed about 30,000 Taiwanese in 3 months.
Good to see a video on the ROC. Visited Taiwan twice a couple of years ago. To understand the early years of Taiwan under the ROC, the February 28 incident ( 二二八事件) would be a good starting point.
@@garmenlin5990 yes, they also pretty much created the golden triangle and made the shan state a war lord area of Myanmar to this day. Because the Burmese army had to fight them they and were unable to fight off other rebellions like the KNDO and CPB. Because of that Myanmar is still in a civil war to this day and because of this civil war and having to deal with KMT at the same time the government become weak and ended up in a coup in 1962 which has lasted to this day. So as a Burmese I am not too happy with what the KMT did.
Thanks for covering such an interesting topic! My maternal great grandfather was one of those that were taken and never heard from again during the White Terror, more specifically during the 228 incident, it is nice to see this topic discussed and the stories come to light. Thank you for such an informative channel! Big fan of this and your sister channels
I always get instantly happy when i see new @thecoldwar episodes lol. You do a great job David. Quick idea for you guys if I may? In relation with current world events, maybe a Cold War™️ lesson (lessons maybe?) about Ukraine and their 20th century history, especially with their membership in the Soviet Union, Holodomor, Collectivization, the first 5-year plans under Uncle Joe, industrialization, exploitation, subjugation, stagnation and eventually liberation, revolution and invasion. All those "-ations" most definitely make a helluva good story and can inform people's opinions and give some context and history to what's going on right now in Ukraine. Anyway, hope you guys see this, think it would be a hit. Anyway, thanks for the upload today and please carry on doing your thing.
Soothing and sweet love song,isn't it? I love the both lyrics(Chinese & Japanese).Thank you for sightseeing of Taipei(cool pictures).I really enjoyed it.🚌🚖🚊,
A video on the changes/status of the political condition to the present time of Taiwan would be helpful when the time frame for such would be informative.
KMT was a much well educated party compared to CCP back then. You can say whatever bad things you like to KMT but you can not deny the truth that it was the KMT who actually created modern China to begin with. CCP won the civil war because they were the leader of masses and farmers and KMT was at its weakest time after defeating Japan. Also KMT wasn’t united as CCP didn’t help them either. The defeat of KMT in Chinese mainland, is a huge national disaster for Chinese people and there must not to be another Chinese civil war between main land china and Taiwan in the future.
In the post-Cold War period following the White Terror, Taiwan also met the divisions and quarrels between Hokkien-Taiwanese nationalism and Chinese nationalism. In addition, the issue of "Waishengren" is also worth discussing. Not all mainlanders who moved to Taiwan during the Second Chinese Civil War in 1949 were supporters of the KMT. Most of them are fleeing the Chinese Communist Party's terrorist rule. When studying the 228 event and the period of the White Terror, we can explore it from various angles of academic research. After 1945, the Taiwanese Communist Party was active and under the orders of the Chinese Communist Party, which became one of the factors of the 228 Incident.
I think you could make a filler episode later on on the names/demonyms of Taiwan in the international stage after it lost its seat in the UN. There really are quite a variety of names used for Taiwan in the international stage with different causes (and political meanings) behind them. "Republic of China", "Taiwan", "Chinese Taipei", "China Taipei", "Chunghwa", "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" ... I believe that this will be an interesting topic to see from you guys:)
Great to have videos like this explaining complex relationship of Taiwan (including how they claimed all of mainland, and technically still does). Some western media way oversimplify this topic and make it seem like China is threatening to take over another country for no reason
They claim a lot more than just mainland China. They also claim Mongolia and parts of other countries. Ibx2cat made a good video about this: This Country Claims To Own 300x Its Actual Territory
@@homuraakemi493 Facts don't care about your feelings. Educate yourself. I bet you didn't even watch Ibx2cat video (who is a British guy and not pro-China at all)
President of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen's major announcement: "Taiwan and the People's Republic of China are not subordinate to each other." This is not “Taiwan claims to own China” like you said. Usually the CCP-Chinese like to say that Taiwan's claim to own China is just an excuse for CCP to invade Taiwan. In fact, only the old Kuomintang claimed to own China, however, today's ruling party, the DPP, doesn't say that at all. The DPP is a party that pursues more independence
I sincerely thank the KMT for bringing stability and prosperity to Taiwan and prevented a communist take over of Taiwan, especially to the many soldiers who followed Chiang to Taiwan. A lot of them were never married, were far away from their hometown and relatives in the Mainland, sacrificed their youth and what-could-have-been personal lives to the protection of Taiawn from the CCP. Without them the Taiwan as we know today wouldn't exist.
Regarding its importance in local memory today, it's quite surprising David didn't raise (or at least mentioned) the 228 events. Hope he will if a second video comes out
Great segment. Fascinating story of a land in a really bad situation that eventually evolved into a Cinderella story, with Taiwan a significant developed economy and democracy in the world now - just a great country to visit. As for the KMT history, there was a big round of repression aimed at native Taiwan residents in 1947, with the February 28 incident. That was at a time when it wasn't necessarily certain that the KMT would lose the Civil War (in fact, the KMT took the old Chinese Communist bastion of Yan'an in March of that year, and key battles were just unfolding in Manchuria then). But not well known is that Taiwan was one of the more developed provinces due to Japanese investment in the colonial years of the Japanese Empire. The latter point is important, because the KMT was able to pursue "right wing" land reform like that in Eastern Europe between the world wars, in redistributing resources that were Japanese assets - something that was recognized in the peace agreement between the PRC and Japan after the San Francisco treaty. Ezra F. Vogel has a good, succinct chapter on Taiwan's development in his book "The Four Little Dragons" from 1990/1991.
I never realised the extent to which the USA supported the development of Taiwanese industry and economy. It certainly explains how they got so technically proficient. I wonder what the possibilities would be us they had invested that much effort and expertise in one of their own states.
The issue of Taiwan independence is not a Chinese issue. It is not a choice between reunification of China and separation from China. The true color of the issue of Taiwan independence is an unfinished decolonization job. Why decolonization should be applied to Taiwan? First, Taiwan was a Japanese colony since 1895. Because Japan renounced her territorial sovereignty over Taiwan in 1952 without designating the successor, Taiwan became a former colony with undetermined status. Second, because the post-war disposition of Taiwan is still undetermined, the Allied Powers’ post-war military occupation arrangement is still effective. In other words, Taiwan is still a territory under Allied Powers’ military occupation. Finally, according to UNGA Resolution 1514, decolonization should be applied to non- self-governing territories and lands under military occupation is certainly non-self- governing. Hence, decolonization should be applied to Taiwan. The Allied Powers’ military occupation is an operation of All allied members of the world war 2. The Allied Powers as a whole, is the owner of military occupation rights, and members mentioned on the occupation plan General Order No.1, are the actual executors. They are empowered agents of all members of the Allies. The ONE CHINA cage cannot and should not cover the Allied Powers’ military occupation entity and Taiwan. So you may ask, what can I do? Well, if you are a member of legislature in any sovereign state, please spend some time to check related archives and confirm the facts mentioned in this video, stop passing bills or resolutions demanding executive branch to form official diplomatic relation with the ROC regime, stop pushing executive branch to form official diplomatic relation with the ROC regime, and use the facts you have confirmed to ask executive branch, especially the department of foreign affairs, about their position on the status of Taiwan. Please ask the executive branch, especially the department of foreign affairs, about executive branch’s position on Taiwan’s status based on the San Francisco Peace Treaty. If the answer is not clear, request the executive branch to do research. Then pass resolution to request executive branch to support the entity of the Allied Powers’ military occupation to represent people on Taiwan in international organizations as observer, and request executive branch to demand the UN to put Taiwan on the list of non-self-governing territories. If you are a nice person, and you really love Taiwan and its people, please check related archives and confirm the facts. Also, please stop requesting your government to form official diplomatic relation with the ROC regime, but instead, request your government to study the actual situation of Taiwan. To help Taiwan and its people, please stop calling 🇹🇼this the national flag of Taiwan and stop regarding the ROC regime as the Taiwan government. Because this will only put Taiwan and people on Taiwan into the ONE CHINA cage. ua-cam.com/video/lss2OdMhi90/v-deo.html
Niceeeeee, I was always interested in the ROC history in the cold war, Asia in general is more interesting in my opinion, even tho I'm European, we always focused on Europe at school and kinda ignored the other parts of the world, so some Asian cold war history is always welcome, thank you so much
Its nothing like Cuba. Cuba is an island which was an American puppet state under a dictator whom overthrew said dictator for a communist dictatorship. Cuba is not reliant on any other country for its existence as shown by the fact the USSR collapsed yet Cuba still exists. Taiwan by comparison is the remnants of a regime on the mainland and it is entirely dependent on the US for its continued existence.
I've been very interested in land reforms. it's interesting how the ROC instituted widespread land reforms in Taiwan to increase the number of landholding families. The success of Communist land reform on the mainland, and the failure of the ROC to implement similar reforms drove much of the outcome of the civil war. I guess they finally figured it out, but far too late.
@2:48 that dude just fell off his horse, and then the horse took off without him. Taiwan is a separated territory from an enemy state of the Allied powers by the end of WW2, and as a result should be a trust territory as required by Article 77 of the UN charter. As the primary victor of the Pacific theater, the US should be in charge of the trusteeship, and only delegated the responsibility to the Republic of China in MacArthur's General Order No. 1. Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the ruling KMT party at the time knew this full well, and wrote as such in his correspondence to his appointed governor. This means Chiang was fully aware that he was violating international law when he unilaterally annexed Taiwan, and declared it a province of ROC. His government massacred Taiwanese elites, confiscated food, resources, and conscripted men from the island for his war effort against the Chinese Communist Party, all of which violates international law. The US as the primary victor should then be responsible to oversee Taiwan's trusteeship. In fact, most of the KMT's troops were ferried over to Taiwan by the US navy. After Chiang's unilateral annexation of Taiwan, the US seriously considered removing him, however, the US gave up once the Korea War broke out. Aside from Taiwan's geo-political importance, the US' financial, technological, and military aid to Taiwan, as well as patrolling the Taiwan strait with the 7th fleet, and the Taiwan Relations Act, stemmed from that responsibility to the people of Taiwan, and not some sort of favors to Chiang, the KMT autocracy or the ROC government. The US allowed the current situation to become what it is, and chose to let the people of Taiwan live under constant threat of a Chinese invasion and endured brutal dictatorship for a good 70 years. Chiang justified staying a dictator for life by declaring forever martial law, which gave him and his party with unlimited powers. During martial law, a representative of the military is installed at every school, and students in high school or higher education would repeatedly be asked to join the KMT. Those who refuse would get punished by their school and have that be on their permanent records, which would affect their later careers if they enter any industry controlled by the KMT, which had extensive state owned businesses controlling power, fuel, finance, law, sugar, fertilizer, salt, concrete, and farmer unions. The KMT also employed Late-immigrant gangs to do their dirty work and get rid of political opponents. The most famous would be Chiang's son ordering gang members to murder an Taiwanese American author who published a biography about him in the US.
Interestingly enough, when Taiwanese speak of "independence" they are actually talking about merely staying as Taiwan and giving up their claim to the nation of China, rather than seeking independence from the Communist regime on the mainland. I always assumed there was something else going on due to the language used, but it was explained to me by a Taiwanese person. They also explained the two major factions in current day Taiwan. Firstly you have the blues which hold onto the nationalist KMT ideology, who have a desire for re-unification with the KMT as the ruling party of a unified China, even if it IS unlikely at the present the idea would be to "stay the course" as it were. The other major faction, who are called the greens, want to discard the outdated "ROC" title and become merely Taiwan. You can see the shift towards this position in recent years, and this faction is a lot more popular amongst younger generations in Taiwan, and they are also the current ruling party. Despite saying all of this, I must point out that this is a very general description of the situation on the ground and of course the society as a whole has a whole range of views which don't align with either side of the debate. And of course
Now the KMT are incredibly unpopular, and even the incredibly pro-independence party has as much popular support as them, although the KMT have a lot of power at the grassroot level, due to "old people."
4:13 is the footage of Chiang Kai-Shek returning to Shanghai, his home base and financial base, from Chong-qin in 1945, not Taiwan, he actually does not care too much about the lost province and even denied the returning of Okinawa to ROC due to his troop shortage for civil war till everything was lost in mainland
The 228 incident in 1947 comes to mind. It was an uprising against the KMT, which was put down after the KMT brought troops from the Mainland. They later purged anyone involved
Modern Taiwan is one of our biggest allies in the Pacific. I pray that the PRC will not try and invade it. Maybe Ukraine will show that smaller doesn't always mean easy.
I think its more like the case with Persia-Iran and Kiev/Kyiv, where its just the international use that changed whilst it had allways been known localy as we know it today
"Formosa" was given by Spaniards used by foreigners. While "Taiwan" was from an aboriginal tribe. Taiwan is the name used by Taiwanese but Formosa is also used somtimes.
Formosa was used internationally for the past 400 years. Formosa was named by the Portuguese that never colonized the island. “Taiwan” was derived from the Chinese name “台灣”, where is Anping in the current day Tainan. The name became the island name because the Dutch colonized the region called Tayowan, Tayuon…etc. because of an aboriginal tribe in the region. Later the Chinese settlers and the Europeans also used the region’s name to call the island. The name “Taiwan” did not appear in writing until after mid 1800s. after Qing had standardized Romanization system. After Japanese ruled Taiwan, it happens that Japanese romanization of 台灣 is also Taiwan. Aboriginal tribe->the Dutch-Tayowan/Taioun/Taivan->the Chinese 大員/台灣->Standard Romanization -Taiwan Formosa was written on Qing, Japanese, and KMT’s early officially documents. The short lived republic on the island in 1895’s official name was “Formosan Republic”. Actually, in 1960 Rome Olympics, Taiwan under CKS joined the game by using Formosa. Of course CKS did not like it at all. I guess changing from Formosa to Taiwan was also KMT’s policy of Sinicization of Taiwan. For example, in 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the name became “Taiwan” for the first time.（KMT’s ultimate goal is ROC.. KMT did not like Formosa nor Taiwan). Btw “Formosa” is banned in CCP China because they say it was the Western imperialism on China. If you know Taiwan’s history or the short intro above, you would know that it’s BS.
Through the 1960s Americans widely believed that Taiwan was a Democratic country similar to the United States. In the 1970s the truth finally emerged: Taiwan was a dictatorship, there was no free speech. A Taiwanese-American journalist in San Francisco was assassinated by Taiwanese spies (like the Skirpols in Salisbury, UK). This caused a lot of backlash against Taiwan, but not in favor of the Chinese Communists - with whom we now friendly. I think this loss of popular support in the U.S. contributed, along with Chiang's death to the liberalization of Taiwan - which led to the real Taiwanese economic miracle. And if you took all the bad things Chiang did and all the good things he did - they would be no where as bad as how Chiang and his wife were viewed by Americans. Yes they got a lot of positive press, it didn't take long for Americans to see right through them. If you'd asked Flying Tiger fighter pilot Greg 'Pappy' Boyington to name a political issue important to him he'd probably have said 'Are Corsairs or Hellcats the better fighter aircraft.' Yet in his auto-biography he excoriates the Chiangs the one time he attended a dinner in their presence. And the most important thing to learn from the repression in Taiwan - it wasn't the least bit necessary. The Taiwanese, and I've known many, hate communism as much as the Hong Kongers. They never needed threatening. There is currently a legal and operating openly Taiwanese Communist Party promoting reunification -it's clearly a complete joke with zero credibility.
I also recommend people watch a video called :" What if the Chinese Communist lost the Chinese Civil War". It basically shows that Chinese Communist and Chinese Nationalist(KMT) are almost identical to each other just with different skins.
Very interesting. Planned economy, land reform with government taking over private land, authoritarian rule with opposition squashed, it sounds very communist. I understand that things like land reform and multi years plans were needed and helpful within the scope of that time period, but it's interesting that the ardently anti communist government was not afraid to use communist'ic ideas when it was in service of their long term goals.
Learning about the so-called Asian tigers, their Economic Policies seem to have much more in common with Senator Sanders than American conservatives and Libertarians
Everybody has their excuses. Morality and politics are infinitely maliabe and everything can be justified and rationalized. I'm sure the "real" communists declared that they produced dividends. Everybody can be a winner
The KMT's structure was very Soviet, because they had help from the Soviets in the 1920s. Chang Kai Shek's eldest son went to the Soviet Union for an education, there's weird a relationship there.
It’s not a communist thing. Communism is about the rights of workers, and not a single communist state did that, largely because any leftwing movement became overtaken by soviet influences groups who got aid from the soviets. Or by Maoist groups aided by China (until after the Cold War and China stopped pretending they were even remotely communist). The “soviets” didn’t actually have the right to say how they worked, and many other left wing groups especially during the Russian civil war revolted. This is kinda why I’m always confused that planned economy and authoritarian rule are considered communist, as many other groups used it. Along side that many countries attempting to modernized used it, South Korea comes to mind.
@LibtardsStillCant SilenceMe20 Islam isn’t a political system. I can guess you have some odd views. I could argue the brutal colonial governments claimed more, either directly or indirectly. Most communist deaths come from gross mismanagement, which I would compare to the Irish famine. White terrors in most countries were far more deadly then red terrors (Spain comes to mind), and alongside that the white terrors tended to be much more indiscriminate, targeting the poor and lgbt (Spanish land owners would ride out on horseback and hunt the poor believing if they were poor they were communists) alongside gross crushing of ethnic minorities. White terrors also tended to be less divisive, red terror in Spain was criticized and since the left wing of Spain was more fragmented, some groups like those in Catalan did not participate. Islam is not a political system, it would be like me calling Christianity a political system. They are religions, and Judaism with a far stricter religious law than both (if you’re orthodox Jewish), is never called a political system funnily enough.
Yes please! I would welcome an extra episode on the white terror and additionally on the 228 incident and why the West welcomed only fascist regimes in Asia including Taiwan. Tschiang Kai-Shek's son was trained as tank commander by the Wehrmacht while native Taiwanese and their own identity were completely ignored. Taiwan a lot nations prise Taiwan and its peaceful transition of power to the DPP from the KMT in 2000, but in fact Taiwanese themselves had to pay with own blood to achieve this, without any external support besides private NGOs and their members like Lynn Miles, Linda Gail Arrigo and Jerome Keating.
When it came to industrial and commerce development in the 60s and 70s, the biggest difference between Taiwan and S Korea was that Taiwan did not develop its own brands (maybe with the exception of TMSC) and also did little on soft power while S Korea did both. Hence while S Korea managed to turn from a ‘small dragon’ to a worldwide powerhouse, Taiwan did not and not helped by diplomatic isolation (until Trump, arguably) either.
Also the fact that Taiwan don't really rely on large conglomerate (Chaebol), that literally runs everything in S Korea today, to boost its economy. It rely more on medium and small enterprise with a couple big corporate to lead its economy.
统一集团，台积电，(Taiwan enterprises that are very famous in the mainland) The help of Japanese and white people to the mainland is limited, but Taiwan has given the mainland a lot of help. The KMT ignores heavy industry, but South Korea has a lot of heavy industry (Samsung not only owns electronic products, but also many shipbuilding and chemical industries). Fortunately, the mainland attaches great importance to heavy industry
@@可爱包-c4v Actually KMT do care about heavy industry, but they kept it as national enterprise, which makes it uncompetitive since they don't need to do their best to get order. Whereas S Korea let the Chaebols take the initiative while the gov't make laws and give them support. So this is why S Korea today is owned by the Chaebols, but they do show that private business is more healthy that national enterprise in the long run. Kinda like how China was dominated by nationalize enterprises before their economic reform but were later either annihilated or privatized by private enterprises.
you know why Taiwan lost soft power? because KMT can promote Chinese culture to overseas, like old manlanders watch Taiwanese drama from ancient dyansty, but DPP as independentist can't promote Chinese culture to overseas, then Taiwan doesn't know what culture they should promote, both KMT or DPP are not familiar with aboriginal culture.
The picture in 10:14 and 10:30 is about the 228 incident (1947, two years before Chiang Kai-Shek fled to Taiwan, most victims were "the province people", those who had been ruled by the Japanese colonial government), but not the white terror (after 1949, new migrants and the province were about half-half of the victims) actually. Both of them are often mentioned together but not the same thing.
When I heard of the reforms performed in this video I couldn't help but wonder. "What if" the Kuomintang had enacted all of these reforms before losing mainland China? My compliments to all those who made this video a reality.
I mean it was probably only possible to enact those very reforms when they were reduced to Taiwan which was much easier to govern due to its smaller size.
In order to get the help of the United States to resist Japan, the Kuomintang signed an unequal treaty with the United States, which led to the collapse of the mainland economy. In the early days, the United States made money from its allies without restraint, like the United States did in Latin America
At least the Republic of China still exists unlike the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam)! I really wished the Nationalists won the Civil War! Chiang Kai-shek screwed up and he is to blame for the loss of the mainland. Some American government officials and military officers also didn't like him. If only the Nationalists have a more charismatic leader who can draw the peasants to its cause, they could possibly emerged victorious?
Drawing the peasants to their cause wouldn't have happened just because of charisma. It would've required extensive land reform and enacting actual policies in favour of the peasants - like they later did on Taiwan, as presented in the video. But on the mainland, alienating big landowners and implementing "communist-looking" policies was much more difficult because they would've been directed against their own supporters. So whatever their charisma, a leader would've drawn the peasants to their cause only if they had promised agricultural reforms that could rival those of the CCP.
Chiang kai shek almost did win the civil war, but the Americans forced him to sign an armistice (see the Marshall mission) in the hopes of ending the war early and with a compromise. Spoiler alert it didn't work, mao built up his power in manchuria and kicked chiang kai sheks arse.
I grew up in the Chinese Mainland, and sure, we have a lot histories that are written with a bias, but the Taiwanese education on the Chinese Civil War was truly, something else. I've had many Taiwanese telling me the KMT lost due to Communist treachery, or American secret support, and that all the Mainlanders were brainwashed. It was never about their sheer incompetence that they could not defeat a foe that was literally on the run for 20 years. So I am glad to be an English speaker who can seek independent sources, but I do pity those who can't or don't.
7:50 Not holding elections until they hold elections in the mainland. This reminds me of how the PA is basically stopping elections until they can get East Jerusalem which in effect leads to no elections.
The Question is not if Taiwan exist from the View of most Nations (like mine) its who Held the Title of the Real China. Until the 60s Taiwan Was the "Real China". Sadly its now the PRC
Interestingly, the Nationalists offered troop aid during the Korean War, and the US prevented that or any attempt to attack the mainland while the PRC was involved in Korea.
@@Back909 look up TSMC and other big firms. All born in mainland China facts don't lie. TSMC is worlds largest semiconductor producer. People forgotten during the Civil War. Nationalist took the brightest students etc.. along with them to Taiwan. For some reason youtube don't like links. So you have to google yourself TSMC etc..
@@armchairwarrior963 I'm Taiwanese, TSMC made by Morris Chang(nationality:ROC and USA) 35years ago, Do u know how poor china was during the time? You can Google it's background. I know you support China,but about TSMC worldwide company at least do basic research before ur China bullshit propaganda.
@@Back909 Ah a person who refuses to even read. How does it feel to be ignorant just for being ignorant sakes. Chang was born in Ningbo, Chekiang. When he was young, he wanted to become a novelist or journalist, though his father persuaded him otherwise.[3] However, the elder Chang was an official in charge of finance for the Yin county government and later a bank manager.[4] Due to his father's career change and also the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Chang family lived in Nanjing, Guangzhou, Chongqing and Shanghai. Morris Chang spent most of his primary school years in British Hong Kong between the ages of six and eleven. In 1941, the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong began and Chang's family went back to Shanghai and Ningbo to live for a few months, eventually making their way to the Nationalist government temporary capital in Chongqing. In 1948, as China was in the height of the Chinese Civil War, a year before People’s Republic of China established, Chang again moved to Hong Kong.[4]
I'm interested in the White Terror, including how the CCP, KMT, today's various political parties on the island, local Indigenous peoples, and the international stage viewed it both at the time and to this day.
Chiang Kai Shek AKA Cash My Check was a by-word for political corruption. The US lost interest in him in WW2 because of his failure to fight the Japanese and diverting Lend-Lease supplies to his own coffers. That is why the US did not aid him in the 1945-49 civil war. The British kept him and his KMT out of Hong Kong.
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Please do an episode on the White Terror. Thank you and keep up the great work!
I would definitely want to learn more about the White Terror. You can find a lot about the Red Terror. But objective information about the White Terror is very hard to find.
And how the Indigenous Taiwanese are still treated as second class citizens to this day. (afaik)
Cover a topic on the Feburary 28 incident
Children must know the horrors of violence and dictatorship
Magnificent Video
I had a schoolmate whose family fled to Brazil because of the White Terror. His grandfather was a Christian student leader who participated in the democratization movement in the 1950s. Eventually, with the end of the dictatorship, he returned to Taiwan and was even honored in parliament. But it's funny that he always said that the main crimes were never recorded, because most of the executions were always clandestine and officially designated as "accidents" or robbery. He claimed that the real death toll easily exceeded 30,000, because virtually every family had someone arrested, tortured or killed even for criticism and silly statements, while he lived there (around 1958-9).
But hey, it sure got rid of the communists. Therefore Chiang needs to be praised the same way Pinochet is in many circles! 🤦🏻♂️
@@davidw.2791 your god damn rhit he is
@@davidw.2791 Now the KMT has become CCP bootlickers so Chaing kinda failed on that one too
@@KathyXie he succeeded to turn the country into an anti communist bulwark.
@@KathyXie It was the CCP infiltration of the KMT in the early days of the 1920's which led to the expulsion of Chiang by the leftists from the KMT.
"Made in Taiwan" was quite prominent in Sweden during the 80s as I was growing up. It was synonymous with poor quality. I remember a comedy sketch wherein the world is a mess, and at the end the camera pulls out to reveal the stars of the universe spelling "Made in Taiwan". It's remarkable how quickly that label and image disappeared and for "Made in China" to become the synonym for poor quality.
Iirc, made in Japan was the same.
I remember a similar joke in a goosebumps novel. It was a big meme in the 80s and early 90s. Now they're associated with high tech chips so that's good progress.
It was fairly prominent here in the US as well, when I was a kid (late 80s/early 90s). Every once in awhile I’ll be rummaging through an old box of stuff, and will come across something with the “made in Taiwan” tag on it. A weird type of nostalgia. 😊
Just so happens that the late 80s was about the time they switched from making cheap plastic toys and sneakers to microchips and motherboards...
@Watcher interesting! 😆
2:02 Kuomintang loss in Chinese Civil War & exile to Formosa (Taiwan)
3:34 Political reforms of KMT (still under Chiang Kai Shek's leadership)
5:47 Martial law in Taiwan & one-party rule
7:57 Reception in the international stage
9:57 Handling of communists & other oppositions (The White Terror)
11:21 Economic crisis & subsequent Economic & Agricultural reforms (Taiwan miracle)
14:33 Industrial reforms (Two four year plans)
17:07 Foreign (mainly US) aid
18:28 Project National Glory (plan to take back China which was later abandoned in 1972)
3:20 *Book Recommendation*
The Great Exodus from China:Trauma,Memory & Identity by Dr. Domenic Meng-Hsuan Yang
Or just watch the whole thing. Children and their attention spans these days lol
Not my Chinese children.
thanks sooo much for the summary. watched the video, but this serves as a good refresher. peace ✌️
@@pistachiodisguise1286 but I'm from Republic of China. I'm Republic Chinese.
My earliest memories are of living on Taiwan 1954 - 56. My father was a US Army officer and Advisor. We lived in the middle of the island by Taichung. My dad told stories of a place called "The Racetrack" up north in Taipei. It was an actual racetrack where Chiang Kai-shek sent people he didn't like and they never came back.
Of course there are other things I actually remember. Airplanes flying over dropping leaflets and long columns of tanks and half-tracks running around the island. Chiang was always threatening to invade the mainland back then.
Edit - I became a Merchant Marine officer and visited Taiwan many times from 1974 to 1998. Watched the island grow from dirt roads and bicycles to bright lights and fancy cars. I was also very glad to see Taiwan become a democracy. It has been a long hard road for the Taiwanese people.
Chiang sounds kinda like a capitalist Kim Jong Un.
Should be highlighted that during the time, there was also Kuomintag in Myanmar, who essentially were setting up their own country within them, and participating in opium trade. They attempted to invade China several times aswell.
I am a Taiwanese living in Taichung, Taiwan. We are grateful to Americans.
Without the United States, there would be no democratic Taiwan today.
@@KashiARTW & bring back the Kuomintang from DPP government in 2025 Taiwanese Election
@@azimisyauqieabdulwahab9401 Most people don't like the Kuomintang. Today's Kuomintang is more pro-Communist-CCP and pro-China. Anyone who likes freedom and democracy will not vote for the Kuomintang.
I very much enjoyed this. I think more people need to know about Taiwan and it’s history. I hope you do another episode about Taiwanese history from the late 70s onward.
My first experience living and working in Asia was in Taiwan in the mid 1980s. Much love for Taiwan and the Taiwanese people then and now. 🇹🇼🇹🇼
Thank you for bringing greater attention to the authoritarian element of KMT rule on Taiwan. A deeper dive into how the White Terror influenced Taiwan's political trajectory would be incredibly welcome as it is often overlook by Western understanding of how Taiwan became the vibrant democracy it is today.
love seeing the history of Taiwan, very underrepresented in the west.
Because nobody wants to upset PRC
@@glennmandigo6069 This paints a negative picture of Taiwan. They were a brutal dictatorship. The west doesn't want you to know this as it doesn't fit the narrative of "China bad, Taiwan good".
South Korea was also a brutal dictatorship until recently
And I'm pro-democracy, so don't accuse me of simping for Putin's Russia or something
@@Josep_Hernandez_Lujan also NATO had dictatorships like Greece, Portugal and Spain, being this last 2 f4scist countries
@@Josep_Hernandez_Lujan How does stating historical facts paint a negative picture of Taiwan? It is a fact that the KMT committed brutal atrocities to Taiwanese people already living on the island: mass incarcerations, banning all languages except Mandarin, extrajudicial executions, and so many more. However, these were the actions of the KMT government at the time and not a reflection of who we are today. The transformation of Taiwan and South Korea into democracies is something to be proud of, even more so due to the "bloodless" transition. Even to this very day we are still trying to rectify injustices that were committed during the dictatorship era.
@@David_Kan Bloodless? Many people died and the native Taiwanese are still treated as second class citizens
Taiwan is a full liberal democracy today but it’s easy to forget that a generation ago they were ruled by a dictatorship that was no better than the one in China right now.
China is not a dictatorship
Where did you learn that?
The Kuomintang didn’t pursue the destruction of Chinese history and culture and didn’t implement fatal economic policies
@@LogOut4Me._.it is common knowledge.
@@Bensaccount-qk6pst is common knowledge to western influenced countries. The real history was different.
You should learn Chinese history from Chinese not westerner.
@@erwinlee2842 are you saying that according to "real" chinese history, China is not ruled by a dictatorship?
As a Taiwanese, it is my natural interest to see you cover more about White Terror period.
White people don’t like to learn about the KMT because it makes them look bad. Americans don’t want to hear about us imposing dictatorships on countries. We only want to hear that we have everyone democracy.
@@zeitgeistx5239 Taiwan is a great country now but white people think it was always that way lol
if only 4400 people died in a 40-50 year period, that's not that bad.
@@jonathankessler7436 It's not PRC or USSR bad, but still bad. Also that doesn't count February 28 Incident in 1947 (White Terror officially started after ROC retreated to Taiwan at 1949), which killed about 30,000 Taiwanese in 3 months.
@@POCLEE a lot of them were communist inspired uprisings. Not all of those killed were innocent civilians.
Good to see a video on the ROC. Visited Taiwan twice a couple of years ago. To understand the early years of Taiwan under the ROC, the February 28 incident ( 二二八事件) would be a good starting point.
Anything about Taiwan is always much appreciated!
Now I really want a video on the Kuomintang occupation of Burma's Shan State in the in the 50s.
If I'm correct, the KMT were using Burma to wage a guerilla war against the PRC
@@garmenlin5990 yes, they also pretty much created the golden triangle and made the shan state a war lord area of Myanmar to this day. Because the Burmese army had to fight them they and were unable to fight off other rebellions like the KNDO and CPB. Because of that Myanmar is still in a civil war to this day and because of this civil war and having to deal with KMT at the same time the government become weak and ended up in a coup in 1962 which has lasted to this day. So as a Burmese I am not too happy with what the KMT did.
Dr. Yang was one of my professors at the University of Missouri. Nice to see him get a shout out on here.
Thanks for covering such an interesting topic! My maternal great grandfather was one of those that were taken and never heard from again during the White Terror, more specifically during the 228 incident, it is nice to see this topic discussed and the stories come to light. Thank you for such an informative channel! Big fan of this and your sister channels
Finally, a documentary about this.
I always get instantly happy when i see new @thecoldwar episodes lol. You do a great job David. Quick idea for you guys if I may? In relation with current world events, maybe a Cold War™️ lesson (lessons maybe?) about Ukraine and their 20th century history, especially with their membership in the Soviet Union, Holodomor, Collectivization, the first 5-year plans under Uncle Joe, industrialization, exploitation, subjugation, stagnation and eventually liberation, revolution and invasion. All those "-ations" most definitely make a helluva good story and can inform people's opinions and give some context and history to what's going on right now in Ukraine. Anyway, hope you guys see this, think it would be a hit. Anyway, thanks for the upload today and please carry on doing your thing.
Soothing and sweet love song,isn't it? I love the both lyrics(Chinese & Japanese).Thank you for sightseeing of Taipei(cool pictures).I really enjoyed it.🚌🚖🚊,
A video on the changes/status of the political condition to the present time of Taiwan would be helpful when the time frame for such would be informative.
Honestly, the "press the bell button" segment at the end is all you need to listen to to know the content of the video.
I love how his Russian pronunciation is amazing and his Chinese pronunciation is just "make it rhyme with BANG" (3:21)
Yeah we definitely need a White Terror video. These stories need to see the light of day.
KMT was a much well educated party compared to CCP back then. You can say whatever bad things you like to KMT but you can not deny the truth that it was the KMT who actually created modern China to begin with. CCP won the civil war because they were the leader of masses and farmers and KMT was at its weakest time after defeating Japan. Also KMT wasn’t united as CCP didn’t help them either. The defeat of KMT in Chinese mainland, is a huge national disaster for Chinese people and there must not to be another Chinese civil war between main land china and Taiwan in the future.
In the post-Cold War period following the White Terror, Taiwan also met the divisions and quarrels between Hokkien-Taiwanese nationalism and Chinese nationalism. In addition, the issue of "Waishengren" is also worth discussing. Not all mainlanders who moved to Taiwan during the Second Chinese Civil War in 1949 were supporters of the KMT. Most of them are fleeing the Chinese Communist Party's terrorist rule. When studying the 228 event and the period of the White Terror, we can explore it from various angles of academic research. After 1945, the Taiwanese Communist Party was active and under the orders of the Chinese Communist Party, which became one of the factors of the 228 Incident.
Thank you so much for talking about this! This is an important part of modern history that is mostly ignored.
Starts 2:02
Yes! Deeper dives in future episodes!!
I think you could make a filler episode later on on the names/demonyms of Taiwan in the international stage after it lost its seat in the UN.
There really are quite a variety of names used for Taiwan in the international stage with different causes (and political meanings) behind them. "Republic of China", "Taiwan", "Chinese Taipei", "China Taipei", "Chunghwa", "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" ...
I believe that this will be an interesting topic to see from you guys:)
I second this. it's a good suggestion
Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu are actual islands in the straits.
Formosa and the Pescadores if you read old articles before 1970s.
Great to have videos like this explaining complex relationship of Taiwan (including how they claimed all of mainland, and technically still does). Some western media way oversimplify this topic and make it seem like China is threatening to take over another country for no reason
👌
They claim a lot more than just mainland China. They also claim Mongolia and parts of other countries. Ibx2cat made a good video about this: This Country Claims To Own 300x Its Actual Territory
@@Josep_Hernandez_Lujan 10 points have been added to your social credit score
@@homuraakemi493 Facts don't care about your feelings. Educate yourself. I bet you didn't even watch Ibx2cat video (who is a British guy and not pro-China at all)
President of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen's major announcement: "Taiwan and the People's Republic of China are not subordinate to each other." This is not “Taiwan claims to own China” like you said. Usually the CCP-Chinese like to say that Taiwan's claim to own China is just an excuse for CCP to invade Taiwan. In fact, only the old Kuomintang claimed to own China, however, today's ruling party, the DPP, doesn't say that at all. The DPP is a party that pursues more independence
I sincerely thank the KMT for bringing stability and prosperity to Taiwan and prevented a communist take over of Taiwan, especially to the many soldiers who followed Chiang to Taiwan. A lot of them were never married, were far away from their hometown and relatives in the Mainland, sacrificed their youth and what-could-have-been personal lives to the protection of Taiawn from the CCP. Without them the Taiwan as we know today wouldn't exist.
Its called Formosa not tie one
@@YonIon996 It's Taiwan since the Qing dynasty
Regarding its importance in local memory today, it's quite surprising David didn't raise (or at least mentioned) the 228 events. Hope he will if a second video comes out
Great segment. Fascinating story of a land in a really bad situation that eventually evolved into a Cinderella story, with Taiwan a significant developed economy and democracy in the world now - just a great country to visit.
As for the KMT history, there was a big round of repression aimed at native Taiwan residents in 1947, with the February 28 incident. That was at a time when it wasn't necessarily certain that the KMT would lose the Civil War (in fact, the KMT took the old Chinese Communist bastion of Yan'an in March of that year, and key battles were just unfolding in Manchuria then). But not well known is that Taiwan was one of the more developed provinces due to Japanese investment in the colonial years of the Japanese Empire.
The latter point is important, because the KMT was able to pursue "right wing" land reform like that in Eastern Europe between the world wars, in redistributing resources that were Japanese assets - something that was recognized in the peace agreement between the PRC and Japan after the San Francisco treaty.
Ezra F. Vogel has a good, succinct chapter on Taiwan's development in his book "The Four Little Dragons" from 1990/1991.
You should make a video about the Taiwan Garrison Command....that would be quite interesting.
I never realised the extent to which the USA supported the development of Taiwanese industry and economy. It certainly explains how they got so technically proficient.
I wonder what the possibilities would be us they had invested that much effort and expertise in one of their own states.
They abandoned the Philippines to rebuild Japan and Taiwan who are much closer to China.
No mention of the shipping of the gold reserve from mainland to taiwan when roc lost the mainland, which is how the new currency was established.
The issue of Taiwan independence is not a Chinese issue. It is not a choice between reunification of China and separation from China.
The true color of the issue of Taiwan independence is an unfinished decolonization job.
Why decolonization should be applied to Taiwan? First, Taiwan was a Japanese colony since 1895. Because Japan renounced her territorial sovereignty over Taiwan in 1952 without designating the successor, Taiwan became a former colony with undetermined status.
Second, because the post-war disposition of Taiwan is still undetermined, the Allied Powers’ post-war military occupation arrangement is still effective. In other words, Taiwan is still a territory under Allied Powers’ military occupation.
Finally, according to UNGA Resolution 1514, decolonization should be applied to non- self-governing territories and lands under military occupation is certainly non-self- governing. Hence, decolonization should be applied to Taiwan.
The Allied Powers’ military occupation is an operation of All allied members of the world war 2. The Allied Powers as a whole, is the owner of military occupation rights, and members mentioned on the occupation plan General Order No.1, are the actual executors. They are empowered agents of all members of the Allies.
The ONE CHINA cage cannot and should not cover the Allied Powers’ military occupation entity and Taiwan.
So you may ask, what can I do? Well, if you are a member of legislature in any sovereign state, please spend some time to check related archives and confirm the facts mentioned in this video, stop passing bills or resolutions demanding executive branch to form official diplomatic relation with the ROC regime, stop pushing executive branch to form official diplomatic relation with the ROC regime, and use the facts you have confirmed to ask executive branch, especially the department of foreign affairs, about their position on the status of Taiwan.
Please ask the executive branch, especially the department of foreign affairs, about executive branch’s position on Taiwan’s status based on the San Francisco Peace Treaty. If the answer is not clear, request the executive branch to do research. Then pass resolution to request executive branch to support the entity of the Allied Powers’ military occupation to represent people on Taiwan in international organizations as observer, and request executive branch to demand the UN to put Taiwan on the list of non-self-governing territories.
If you are a nice person, and you really love Taiwan and its people, please check related archives and confirm the facts.
Also, please stop requesting your government to form official diplomatic relation with the ROC regime, but instead, request your government to study the actual situation of Taiwan.
To help Taiwan and its people, please stop calling 🇹🇼this the national flag of Taiwan and stop regarding the ROC regime as the Taiwan government. Because this will only put Taiwan and people on Taiwan into the ONE CHINA cage.
ua-cam.com/video/lss2OdMhi90/v-deo.html
Niceeeeee, I was always interested in the ROC history in the cold war, Asia in general is more interesting in my opinion, even tho I'm European, we always focused on Europe at school and kinda ignored the other parts of the world, so some Asian cold war history is always welcome, thank you so much
please do one on the white terror. thank you.
Sounds like Cuba except on the other side of the Cold War.
Its nothing like Cuba. Cuba is an island which was an American puppet state under a dictator whom overthrew said dictator for a communist dictatorship. Cuba is not reliant on any other country for its existence as shown by the fact the USSR collapsed yet Cuba still exists.
Taiwan by comparison is the remnants of a regime on the mainland and it is entirely dependent on the US for its continued existence.
Always pretty interesting topics and well done videos 💯☯️ Keep up the good work
Thanks
I've been very interested in land reforms. it's interesting how the ROC instituted widespread land reforms in Taiwan to increase the number of landholding families. The success of Communist land reform on the mainland, and the failure of the ROC to implement similar reforms drove much of the outcome of the civil war. I guess they finally figured it out, but far too late.
Yes, you should make an episode about the White Terror!
@2:48 that dude just fell off his horse, and then the horse took off without him.
Taiwan is a separated territory from an enemy state of the Allied powers by the end of WW2, and as a result should be a trust territory as required by Article 77 of the UN charter. As the primary victor of the Pacific theater, the US should be in charge of the trusteeship, and only delegated the responsibility to the Republic of China in MacArthur's General Order No. 1. Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the ruling KMT party at the time knew this full well, and wrote as such in his correspondence to his appointed governor. This means Chiang was fully aware that he was violating international law when he unilaterally annexed Taiwan, and declared it a province of ROC. His government massacred Taiwanese elites, confiscated food, resources, and conscripted men from the island for his war effort against the Chinese Communist Party, all of which violates international law. The US as the primary victor should then be responsible to oversee Taiwan's trusteeship. In fact, most of the KMT's troops were ferried over to Taiwan by the US navy. After Chiang's unilateral annexation of Taiwan, the US seriously considered removing him, however, the US gave up once the Korea War broke out. Aside from Taiwan's geo-political importance, the US' financial, technological, and military aid to Taiwan, as well as patrolling the Taiwan strait with the 7th fleet, and the Taiwan Relations Act, stemmed from that responsibility to the people of Taiwan, and not some sort of favors to Chiang, the KMT autocracy or the ROC government. The US allowed the current situation to become what it is, and chose to let the people of Taiwan live under constant threat of a Chinese invasion and endured brutal dictatorship for a good 70 years.
Chiang justified staying a dictator for life by declaring forever martial law, which gave him and his party with unlimited powers. During martial law, a representative of the military is installed at every school, and students in high school or higher education would repeatedly be asked to join the KMT. Those who refuse would get punished by their school and have that be on their permanent records, which would affect their later careers if they enter any industry controlled by the KMT, which had extensive state owned businesses controlling power, fuel, finance, law, sugar, fertilizer, salt, concrete, and farmer unions. The KMT also employed Late-immigrant gangs to do their dirty work and get rid of political opponents. The most famous would be Chiang's son ordering gang members to murder an Taiwanese American author who published a biography about him in the US.
Interestingly enough, when Taiwanese speak of "independence" they are actually talking about merely staying as Taiwan and giving up their claim to the nation of China, rather than seeking independence from the Communist regime on the mainland. I always assumed there was something else going on due to the language used, but it was explained to me by a Taiwanese person.
They also explained the two major factions in current day Taiwan. Firstly you have the blues which hold onto the nationalist KMT ideology, who have a desire for re-unification with the KMT as the ruling party of a unified China, even if it IS unlikely at the present the idea would be to "stay the course" as it were. The other major faction, who are called the greens, want to discard the outdated "ROC" title and become merely Taiwan. You can see the shift towards this position in recent years, and this faction is a lot more popular amongst younger generations in Taiwan, and they are also the current ruling party.
Despite saying all of this, I must point out that this is a very general description of the situation on the ground and of course the society as a whole has a whole range of views which don't align with either side of the debate. And of course
Now the KMT are incredibly unpopular, and even the incredibly pro-independence party has as much popular support as them, although the KMT have a lot of power at the grassroot level, due to "old people."
4:13 is the footage of Chiang Kai-Shek returning to Shanghai, his home base and financial base, from Chong-qin in 1945, not Taiwan, he actually does not care too much about the lost province and even denied the returning of Okinawa to ROC due to his troop shortage for civil war till everything was lost in mainland
Cool video but what happened to the native population of taiwan and what where there interactions with the new han chinise citizens?
The 228 incident in 1947 comes to mind. It was an uprising against the KMT, which was put down after the KMT brought troops from the Mainland. They later purged anyone involved
@@Isaaxz123 I meant more as in the indigenous aboriginal people. Not the chinise colonists who lived their before the new wave of han chinise
Modern Taiwan is one of our biggest allies in the Pacific. I pray that the PRC will not try and invade it. Maybe Ukraine will show that smaller doesn't always mean easy.
In Ukraine's example, it's also a very poor country with an easy-to-use land border. While the ROC is quite resourceful + it's an island.
america moment
Typical white person comment.
@@zeitgeistx5239 white people exist, theres nothing we can do about it😞
taiwan is much smaller than ukraine and china is much richer than russia. i think an invasion would be much faster than the current war we're seeing.
Make the episode of the White Terror pls
Thank you.
Yes episode on White Terror please!
The white terror was horrible and mostly rooted in cultural tensions between the KMT mainlanders and the local Taiwanese.
Great reminder
2:46 when was Formosa renamed to Taiwan?
I think its more like the case with Persia-Iran and Kiev/Kyiv, where its just the international use that changed whilst it had allways been known localy as we know it today
"Formosa" was given by Spaniards used by foreigners. While "Taiwan" was from an aboriginal tribe. Taiwan is the name used by Taiwanese but Formosa is also used somtimes.
@@Nathan-jh1ho wasn't it Portugal?
@@typiclyjohny5114 Yes, my mistake
Formosa was used internationally for the past 400 years. Formosa was named by the Portuguese that never colonized the island.
“Taiwan” was derived from the Chinese name “台灣”, where is Anping in the current day Tainan. The name became the island name because the Dutch colonized the region called Tayowan, Tayuon…etc. because of an aboriginal tribe in the region. Later the Chinese settlers and the Europeans also used the region’s name to call the island.
The name “Taiwan” did not appear in writing until after mid 1800s. after Qing had standardized Romanization system.
After Japanese ruled Taiwan, it happens that Japanese romanization of 台灣 is also Taiwan.
Aboriginal tribe->the Dutch-Tayowan/Taioun/Taivan->the Chinese 大員/台灣->Standard Romanization -Taiwan
Formosa was written on Qing, Japanese, and KMT’s early officially documents. The short lived republic on the island in 1895’s official name was “Formosan Republic”.
Actually, in 1960
Rome Olympics, Taiwan under CKS joined the game by using Formosa. Of course CKS did not like it at all.
I guess changing from Formosa to Taiwan was also KMT’s policy of Sinicization of Taiwan. For example, in 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the name became “Taiwan” for the first time.（KMT’s ultimate goal is ROC.. KMT did not like Formosa nor Taiwan).
Btw “Formosa” is banned in CCP China because they say it was the Western imperialism on China. If you know Taiwan’s history or the short intro above, you would know that it’s BS.
Through the 1960s Americans widely believed that Taiwan was a Democratic country similar to the United States. In the 1970s the truth finally emerged: Taiwan was a dictatorship, there was no free speech. A Taiwanese-American journalist in San Francisco was assassinated by Taiwanese spies (like the Skirpols in Salisbury, UK). This caused a lot of backlash against Taiwan, but not in favor of the Chinese Communists - with whom we now friendly. I think this loss of popular support in the U.S. contributed, along with Chiang's death to the liberalization of Taiwan - which led to the real Taiwanese economic miracle.
And if you took all the bad things Chiang did and all the good things he did - they would be no where as bad as how Chiang and his wife were viewed by Americans. Yes they got a lot of positive press, it didn't take long for Americans to see right through them. If you'd asked Flying Tiger fighter pilot Greg 'Pappy' Boyington to name a political issue important to him he'd probably have said 'Are Corsairs or Hellcats the better fighter aircraft.' Yet in his auto-biography he excoriates the Chiangs the one time he attended a dinner in their presence.
And the most important thing to learn from the repression in Taiwan - it wasn't the least bit necessary. The Taiwanese, and I've known many, hate communism as much as the Hong Kongers. They never needed threatening. There is currently a legal and operating openly Taiwanese Communist Party promoting reunification -it's clearly a complete joke with zero credibility.
I also recommend people watch a video called :" What if the Chinese Communist lost the Chinese Civil War". It basically shows that Chinese Communist and Chinese Nationalist(KMT) are almost identical to each other just with different skins.
KMT would be so much better than any communist ideology party, as a Chinese I wish KMT did not lose the civil war and was still here in China 🇹🇼
No they aren't😮. Maybe until 1960. Communist China murdered 20 million atleast 2 times on purpose.
I'd be very interested in an episode about the white terror.
It could be very illustrating a video about the Singaporean Economy Miracle.
Very interesting. Planned economy, land reform with government taking over private land, authoritarian rule with opposition squashed, it sounds very communist.
I understand that things like land reform and multi years plans were needed and helpful within the scope of that time period, but it's interesting that the ardently anti communist government was not afraid to use communist'ic ideas when it was in service of their long term goals.
Learning about the so-called Asian tigers, their Economic Policies seem to have much more in common with Senator Sanders than American conservatives and Libertarians
Everybody has their excuses. Morality and politics are infinitely maliabe and everything can be justified and rationalized. I'm sure the "real" communists declared that they produced dividends. Everybody can be a winner
The KMT's structure was very Soviet, because they had help from the Soviets in the 1920s. Chang Kai Shek's eldest son went to the Soviet Union for an education, there's weird a relationship there.
It’s not a communist thing. Communism is about the rights of workers, and not a single communist state did that, largely because any leftwing movement became overtaken by soviet influences groups who got aid from the soviets. Or by Maoist groups aided by China (until after the Cold War and China stopped pretending they were even remotely communist). The “soviets” didn’t actually have the right to say how they worked, and many other left wing groups especially during the Russian civil war revolted. This is kinda why I’m always confused that planned economy and authoritarian rule are considered communist, as many other groups used it. Along side that many countries attempting to modernized used it, South Korea comes to mind.
@LibtardsStillCant SilenceMe20 Islam isn’t a political system. I can guess you have some odd views. I could argue the brutal colonial governments claimed more, either directly or indirectly. Most communist deaths come from gross mismanagement, which I would compare to the Irish famine. White terrors in most countries were far more deadly then red terrors (Spain comes to mind), and alongside that the white terrors tended to be much more indiscriminate, targeting the poor and lgbt (Spanish land owners would ride out on horseback and hunt the poor believing if they were poor they were communists) alongside gross crushing of ethnic minorities. White terrors also tended to be less divisive, red terror in Spain was criticized and since the left wing of Spain was more fragmented, some groups like those in Catalan did not participate. Islam is not a political system, it would be like me calling Christianity a political system. They are religions, and Judaism with a far stricter religious law than both (if you’re orthodox Jewish), is never called a political system funnily enough.
Yes please! I would welcome an extra episode on the white terror and additionally on the 228 incident and why the West welcomed only fascist regimes in Asia including Taiwan. Tschiang Kai-Shek's son was trained as tank commander by the Wehrmacht while native Taiwanese and their own identity were completely ignored.
Taiwan a lot nations prise Taiwan and its peaceful transition of power to the DPP from the KMT in 2000, but in fact Taiwanese themselves had to pay with own blood to achieve this, without any external support besides private NGOs and their members like Lynn Miles, Linda Gail Arrigo and Jerome Keating.
When it came to industrial and commerce development in the 60s and 70s, the biggest difference between Taiwan and S Korea was that Taiwan did not develop its own brands (maybe with the exception of TMSC) and also did little on soft power while S Korea did both. Hence while S Korea managed to turn from a ‘small dragon’ to a worldwide powerhouse, Taiwan did not and not helped by diplomatic isolation (until Trump, arguably) either.
Taiwan is much smaller than South Korea, such a comparison is unfair
Also the fact that Taiwan don't really rely on large conglomerate (Chaebol), that literally runs everything in S Korea today, to boost its economy. It rely more on medium and small enterprise with a couple big corporate to lead its economy.
统一集团，台积电，(Taiwan enterprises that are very famous in the mainland) The help of Japanese and white people to the mainland is limited, but Taiwan has given the mainland a lot of help. The KMT ignores heavy industry, but South Korea has a lot of heavy industry (Samsung not only owns electronic products, but also many shipbuilding and chemical industries). Fortunately, the mainland attaches great importance to heavy industry
@@可爱包-c4v Actually KMT do care about heavy industry, but they kept it as national enterprise, which makes it uncompetitive since they don't need to do their best to get order. Whereas S Korea let the Chaebols take the initiative while the gov't make laws and give them support.
So this is why S Korea today is owned by the Chaebols, but they do show that private business is more healthy that national enterprise in the long run.
Kinda like how China was dominated by nationalize enterprises before their economic reform but were later either annihilated or privatized by private enterprises.
you know why Taiwan lost soft power? because KMT can promote Chinese culture to overseas, like old manlanders watch Taiwanese drama from ancient dyansty, but DPP as independentist can't promote Chinese culture to overseas, then Taiwan doesn't know what culture they should promote, both KMT or DPP are not familiar with aboriginal culture.
The picture in 10:14 and 10:30 is about the 228 incident (1947, two years before Chiang Kai-Shek fled to Taiwan, most victims were "the province people", those who had been ruled by the Japanese colonial government), but not the white terror (after 1949, new migrants and the province were about half-half of the victims) actually. Both of them are often mentioned together but not the same thing.
I'd get Nord VPN if it included an option that removes all ads from youtube videos, including those made by content creators.
I loved living in Taiwan in the mid 1980's and still miss a lot about that place. Would also like to learn about the white terror.
Yes, we want an episode on the White Terror.
Can you do a video about Augusto Pinochet?
When I heard of the reforms performed in this video I couldn't help but wonder. "What if" the Kuomintang had enacted all of these reforms before losing mainland China? My compliments to all those who made this video a reality.
I mean it was probably only possible to enact those very reforms when they were reduced to Taiwan which was much easier to govern due to its smaller size.
@@aze94---Yeah but I asked "What if" the Kuomintang tried to reform itself for the better before losing China? Would history have been any different?
国民党丢掉大陆之前和美国签了不平等条约（因为国民党需要美国的帮助去反击日本），这导致大陆的经济陷入崩溃。老实说，我觉得美国在早期对他的盟友太竭泽而渔了，拉丁美洲的经济也是非常差。
@@可爱包-c4v---Friend I can't read a single character of what you said. Please translate it.
In order to get the help of the United States to resist Japan, the Kuomintang signed an unequal treaty with the United States, which led to the collapse of the mainland economy. In the early days, the United States made money from its allies without restraint, like the United States did in Latin America
Please cover the White Terror.
Amazing to think that Taiwan was able to achieve all of this without a “Raid: Shadow Legends” sponsorship!
Great video can you do an episode about the white terror , and the same period in south korea and south vietnam?
and american-backed dictatorships in entire latin america, you know united fruit company stuff,, banana republic
At least the Republic of China still exists unlike the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam)! I really wished the Nationalists won the Civil War! Chiang Kai-shek screwed up and he is to blame for the loss of the mainland. Some American government officials and military officers also didn't like him. If only the Nationalists have a more charismatic leader who can draw the peasants to its cause, they could possibly emerged victorious?
Drawing the peasants to their cause wouldn't have happened just because of charisma. It would've required extensive land reform and enacting actual policies in favour of the peasants - like they later did on Taiwan, as presented in the video. But on the mainland, alienating big landowners and implementing "communist-looking" policies was much more difficult because they would've been directed against their own supporters. So whatever their charisma, a leader would've drawn the peasants to their cause only if they had promised agricultural reforms that could rival those of the CCP.
Chiang kai shek almost did win the civil war, but the Americans forced him to sign an armistice (see the Marshall mission) in the hopes of ending the war early and with a compromise. Spoiler alert it didn't work, mao built up his power in manchuria and kicked chiang kai sheks arse.
I grew up in the Chinese Mainland, and sure, we have a lot histories that are written with a bias, but the Taiwanese education on the Chinese Civil War was truly, something else. I've had many Taiwanese telling me the KMT lost due to Communist treachery, or American secret support, and that all the Mainlanders were brainwashed. It was never about their sheer incompetence that they could not defeat a foe that was literally on the run for 20 years. So I am glad to be an English speaker who can seek independent sources, but I do pity those who can't or don't.
enjoyed this, also seen some of the Ben Franklin's being printed had their mask on, lol.
"9% percent inflation is still high"
Me who lives in Argentina with more than 50% anual inflation: 🌚
yes please on white terror episode
Please do up a video on the White Terror era.
Can you do videos about life in South Korea and South Vietnam during the Cold War
Dang. This video has radically altered my view of Taiwan.
The great game of Bell buttons.😉
7:50 Not holding elections until they hold elections in the mainland. This reminds me of how the PA is basically stopping elections until they can get East Jerusalem which in effect leads to no elections.
cant wait for the Republic of Vietnam Episode
Tell us more about the White Terror!
Because of... or in spite of?
I would love to hear more about the white terror in a future video!!
Please make a video on the White Terror.
The Question is not if Taiwan exist from the View of most Nations (like mine) its who Held the Title of the Real China. Until the 60s Taiwan Was the "Real China". Sadly its now the PRC
Interestingly, the Nationalists offered troop aid during the Korean War, and the US prevented that or any attempt to attack the mainland while the PRC was involved in Korea.
Majority of Taiwan's electronic firms ie semiconductors were founded by Mainland Chinese.
That's totally bullshit.
@@Back909 look up TSMC and other big firms. All born in mainland China facts don't lie. TSMC is worlds largest semiconductor producer. People forgotten during the Civil War. Nationalist took the brightest students etc.. along with them to Taiwan. For some reason youtube don't like links. So you have to google yourself TSMC etc..
@@armchairwarrior963 I'm Taiwanese, TSMC made by Morris Chang(nationality:ROC and USA) 35years ago, Do u know how poor china was during the time? You can Google it's background.
I know you support China,but about TSMC worldwide company at least do basic research before ur China bullshit propaganda.
@@armchairwarrior963 even Wu mao, little pinky not making propaganda on TSMC, i don't know where your knowledge from...Baidu??
@@Back909 Ah a person who refuses to even read. How does it feel to be ignorant just for being ignorant sakes.
Chang was born in Ningbo, Chekiang. When he was young, he wanted to become a novelist or journalist, though his father persuaded him otherwise.[3] However, the elder Chang was an official in charge of finance for the Yin county government and later a bank manager.[4] Due to his father's career change and also the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Chang family lived in Nanjing, Guangzhou, Chongqing and Shanghai. Morris Chang spent most of his primary school years in British Hong Kong between the ages of six and eleven. In 1941, the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong began and Chang's family went back to Shanghai and Ningbo to live for a few months, eventually making their way to the Nationalist government temporary capital in Chongqing. In 1948, as China was in the height of the Chinese Civil War, a year before People’s Republic of China established, Chang again moved to Hong Kong.[4]
I LOVE TAIWAN !!!
Fortunately, today Taiwan is a a functional democracy.
My grandfather was also arrested by the Kuomintang police before, but I still don't know the reason
Well the era known as white terror in taiwan will eventually become an inspiration for detention series of game and movies
I'm interested in the White Terror, including how the CCP, KMT, today's various political parties on the island, local Indigenous peoples, and the international stage viewed it both at the time and to this day.
Damn..You've been talking about the cold War for 3yrs
Chiang Kai Shek AKA Cash My Check was a by-word for political corruption. The US lost interest in him in WW2 because of his failure to fight the Japanese and diverting Lend-Lease supplies to his own coffers. That is why the US did not aid him in the 1945-49 civil war. The British kept him and his KMT out of Hong Kong.
Truth
*Capitalist kim jong un
@@YonIon996 He is just crazy
You did not mention they went to Hinan island too. Sort of a wikipedia half ass work
7:46
Is that a typewriter from China?
So many characters.
I would love to know more about the White Terror
White Terror episode please!