#923 Why did the Chinese government move to Taiwan?

The Republic of China’s government lost a war with the Chinese Communist Party in 1949 and fled to Taiwan. — Photo by Belle Co: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-high-rise-buildings-981150/

Why did the Chinese government move to Taiwan? The Republic of China’s government lost a war with the Chinese Communist Party in 1949 and fled to Taiwan.

We have to go back a bit further than 1949 to look at this question. People have lived on the island of Taiwan for thousands of years. Stone tools have been found there dating back 15,000 years. About 7,000 years ago, the people who lived there spread out into the Philippines and other South Asian countries. Throughout most of its existence, other than small amounts of trade, the Empire of China had very little knowledge of Taiwan. The various tribes there lived an isolated life. That changed when the Europeans started to arrive. The Portuguese were the first to map the island in 1542 and they called it Formosa, which is Portuguese for beautiful island. Taiwan was called Formosa by many people until the end of World War 2 and if you look at old maps of the war, you can see the name. The Chinese arrived and set up The Dutch East India Company arrived in 1624 and set up a colony at a place called Tayouan, which became Taiwan. The Dutch encouraged Chinese farmers to emigrate and farm the land, and the number of Chinese people reached 50,000 by 1660. The Qing dynasty annexed Taiwan in 1684 and made it Chinese. This lasted for 200 years until the Japanese defeated China in the Sino-Japanese war and occupied Taiwan. That occupation lasted until the defeat of Japan at the end of World War 2, which brings us up to the start of our story in Taiwan.

We need to go a little back in China as well. By 1911, the Qing dynasty had lost a lot of power and there was a lot of resentment in the country. China had lost two opium wars to Britain, and Japan was becoming a very powerful player. Millions of Chinese were living abroad and they started to demand that the Qing dynasty reform. Several different groups sprang up within China to call for change. Most of these groups were held together as the revolutionary alliance and they were led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen. As pressure continued to mount and several small revolutions began in different areas, the Qing emperor’s government (he was only 3 years old) realized that he would have to abdicate, which he did in 1912. Dr. Sun became the new president of the Republic of China. He resigned the same year in favor of Yuan Shikai.

Yuan was not the president everyone expected him to be. He took on the role of a dictator and declared himself emperor in 1912. The people threatened to rise up and he abdicated, restoring the republic. He died very shortly after, but the revolution had failed. Dr. Sun tried to set up a government but he couldn’t and there ended up being several different factions. In the meantime, Japan started its conquest of Asia. By 1940, there were two parties vying for control of China: the Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese Communist Party under Mao Zedong. They had to put their differences aside and unite to fight the Japanese.

When the Japanese were defeated at the end of the Second World War, Chiang Kai-shek’s party rose to prominence as the head of the Republic of China. He created a constitution and was elected as the first president in 1948. Mao Zedong hadn’t disappeared though, and from 1945 onwards he fought the Chinese Civil War. The Soviet Union supported Mao’s communists and the USA supported Chiang’s party, but by 1949, the communists had taken most of mainland China.

By the summer of 1949, the leaders of the Republic of China could see that they weren’t going to be able to win and they began to relocate their resources to Taiwan. They sent troops, their air force, Chinese artifacts, and as much gold as they could get out of the country to Taiwan. Mao proclaimed the People’s Republic of China on October 1^st 1949 and all people loyal to the Republic of China fled. It is estimated that by December, over a million people had left for Taiwan.

Chiang set up a government in Taiwan and he used the gold he had taken from China to finance it. These days, we worry that China is going to try to reclaim Taiwan, but for many years there was the possibility that it would be the other way round. Mao entered into his Great Leap Forward to modernize the country and millions of people died in famines. The People’s Republic was not strong and Chiang came up with plans to invade and take back the country. He knew that the USSR would support Mao and he knew that he needed American support. That support wasn’t forthcoming. Chiang still laid plans to invade and came pretty close, but, by the end of the 1960s, China was much stronger and in 1964 they became a nuclear state. There was no way that the Republic of China, exiled in Taiwan, could retake the country and they gave up. And this is what I learned today.

Photo by Belle Co: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-high-rise-buildings-981150/

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