On this day, 28 February 1947, the 228 incident took place in Taiwan, when an anti-government uprising was violently suppressed by the nationalist Kuomintang government, killing thousands and beginning a white terror which would kill thousands more. Economic mismanagement and corruption had worsened living standards of the poor, and the price of rice had increased over 400-fold in just 16 months of nationalist rule. Then on 27 February a government tobacco agent killed a widow selling cigarettes. The following day protests began. Security forces cracked down violently, killing several, sparking an uprising across the island. Civilians took over large parts of the country, and formed committees to keep order and make demands of the administration, with some groups seizing weapons. On 8 March, Chinese troops from the mainland began trying to take back control, killing, mutilating and looting indiscriminately, and jailing and executing organisers. At least 5000 were killed, including many communists, against whom a “white terror” would then begin, and last until 1987, in which tens of thousands more people were imprisoned, executed or “disappeared”.
Pictured: A crowd in front of the Tobacco Monopoly Bureau, February 28, 1947.
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