According to Chinese sources, Chinese migration to Taiwan began as early as A.D. 500. Taiwan seems to have been known, albeit vaguely, to Sung Dynasty historians as early as the 10th century. Dutch traders first claimed the island in 1624 as a base for Dutch commerce with Japan and the China coast. Dutch colonists administered the island and is predominantly aborigine population until 1661. The first major influx of migrants from the Chinese mainland came during the Dutch period, sparked by the political and economic chaos on the China coast during the twilight of the Ming Dynasty and at the time of the Manchu invasion.
In 1664, a Chinese fleet led by the Ming loyalist Zheng Chenggong (known in the West as "Koxinga") retreated from the mainland and occupied Taiwan. Zheng expelled the Dutch and established Taiwan as a base in his attempt to restore the Ming Dynasty. He died shortly thereafter, and, in 1683, his successors submitted to Manchu control.
Manchu China ruled Taiwan as a frontier district until it was declared a separate Chinese province in 1886. During the 18th and 19th centuries, migration from China's coastal Provinces of Fukien and Kwangtung steadily increased, and Chinese supplanted aborigines as the dominant population group. In 1895, a weakened Imperial China ceded Taiwan to Japan following the first Sino-Japanese war.
During its 50 years (1895-1945) of colonial domination, Japan expended considerable effort in developing Taiwan's economy. The Japanese established agricultural research stations, farmers' cooperatives, and large-scale irrigation projects that raised Taiwan's agriculture from primitive subsistence farming to a thriving market economy. The construction of a modern transportation network and a series of hydroelectric and thermal power plants was the beginning of an economic infrastructure that became the foundation for Taiwan's later industrial development. Under Japanese rule, an advanced school system spread literacy and gave Taiwan an educated labor force.
At the end of World War II in 1945, Taiwan reverted to Chinese rule. During the immediate postwar period, the Nationalist Chinese administration on Taiwan was repressive and corrupt. These conditions led to extreme Taiwanese discontent with the newly arrived authorities from the China mainland, and antimainlander violence flared on February 28, 1947. The uprising was swiftly and brutally suppressed by Nationalist Chinese troops. Although Taiwanese and mainlanders have learned to live together amicably and prosperously over the ensuing three and one-half decades, a lingering distrust remains beneath the surface.
Toward the end of the civil war on the China mainland, some 2 million predominantly military, government, and business refugees fled to Taiwan. After the communist victory, Chiang Kaishek established his "provisional" capital in Taipei in December 1949.
In early 1949, the Nationalist authorities started implementing a far-reaching and highly successful land reform program. The redistribution of land among small farmers was followed by a significant increase in farm production. In the land reform program, the Nationalist authorities compensated large landowners with commodities certificates and stock in state-owned light industries. Although some landowners were left impoverished by the compensation, others were able to turn theirs into capital with which to start new, nonagricultural commercial and industrial enterprises. These new entrepreneurs became Taiwan's first industrial capitalists who, with refugee businessmen from the mainland, managed Taiwan's transition from an agricultural to a commercial, industrial economy. Since 1949, Taiwan has developed steadily into a major international trading power. Tremendous prosperity on the island has brought economic and social stability.
Current Political Conditions
When President Chiang Ching-kuo died on January 13, 1988, he was succeeded by Vice President Lee Teng-hui, who had been elected along with Chiang by the National Assembly to a 6-year term in 1978.
President Lee Teng-hui also is Acting Chairman of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT-Nationalist Party). Formerly Mayor of Taipei and Governor of Taiwan Province, Lee is aware of the pluralistic nature of Taiwan's society and will continue Chiang Ching-kuo's policy of opening the political process to more Taiwanese participation while still maintaining effective KMT control.
The KMT organization closely parallels the administrative structure at all levels. Most of the top officials, including cabinet members and the governor of Taiwan Province, are members of its Central Standing Committee. The Central Standing Committee is elected annually by the Central Committee of the KMT from nominees proposed by the party's chairman. At lower levels, KMT committees are organized on a provincial, county, and district basis and in various vocational groupings.
Party funds are derived from dues and contributions paid by members and from the proceeds of party-operated businesses. The KMT has more than 2 million paying members, about two-thirds of whom are of Taiwanese origin. Most senior military officers and civilian officials are KMT members.
A revision of the constitution in 1948 granted virtually unlimited emergency powers to the president. These powers remained in effect until July 15, 1987, when President Chiang's reform initiative resulted in the lifting of martial law. For the nearly four decades under martial rule, emergency powers were the basis for strict security measures. Opposition to basic policy (such as expressing views contrary to the authorities' claim to represent all China, or supporting independent legal status for Taiwan) were considered seditious and thus punishable under martial law. Otherwise, however, personal freedoms, particularly during recent years, were considerable.
Concurrent with the lifting of martial law in 1987 was passage of a new national security law (NSL). In a significant departure from martial law, the NSL ensures that civilians will not be subject to court martial. Further, the NSL transfers control of Taiwan entry and exit permits from the Taiwan Garrison Command, a military security organization, to civilian authorities. However, the NSL still forbids groups to violate the constitution, or advocate communism or the division of "national territory."
Beyond the recent lifting of martial law, Taiwan authorities are considering further political reforms with the goal of moving toward a more democratic system. Proposals for reforms are being formulated in press censorship, labor rights, the judicial system, lifting the ban on new political parties, future composition of the legislature, rationalization of the legal basis of provincial authorities, and others.
Until 1986, Taiwan's political system was effectively one-party. Two minor political parties had been organized since before the KMT retreated to Taiwan, but they had no significant influence or following. In addition, candidates opposing the KMT ran in elections as independents or "nonpartisans." These "nonpartisans" met with increasing success, and by the elections of 1977 and 1980, they had captured about one-quarter of Legislative Yuan seats up for election. Later, in 1983 elections, strong KMT organization temporarily reversed the "nonpartisans" gains. However, before elections in 1986, many "nonpartisans" grouped together to formally--although illegally--form Taiwan's first new political party in over four decades: the Democratic Progressive Party. Despite the official ban on forming new parties, Taiwan authorities did not prohibit the DPP from operating, and in 1986 elections, DPP and independent candidates captured more than 20% of the vote.
Since the DPP came about as a coalition of formerly independent "nonpartisans," its membership includes factions with widely varying positions on political issues. Most DPP leaders hold moderate opinions and see their primary purpose as implementing gradual change and providing a system of checks and balances in the political structure. However, due to its orientation toward the Taiwanese population, the DPP platform includes outspoken positions on some of the most sensitive issues in Taiwan politics. For example, the DPP advocates "self-determination," a term party leaders say is not necessarily a call for Taiwan's secession from China but a demand that the people of Taiwan be allowed to determine their own future. However, a number of ranking DPP officials do, in a direct challenge to steadfast tenets of both the Kuomintang and the P.R.C.'s leaders, openly advocate Taiwan independence. The DPP also advocates abolishing permanently elected mainlander seats in the National Assembly and Legislative Yuan, as well as other changes in the political system.
Under current law, the DPP is still considered to be an illegal party (although in early 1988, authorities were formulating proposals to allow legalization of new parties). However, despite its lack of official status, as well as its vocal advocation of reform in areas most sensitive to Taiwan authorities, the authorities have not significantly restricted DPP activities. In fact, authorities have made increasingly visible efforts to maintain communications with the DPP. Recently, KMT leaders advanced what has become de facto recognition of the DPP by publicly consulting with DPP members on formulating legislation.
Although friction between mainlanders and native Taiwanese remains a problem, it has abated with time and the gradual melding of the two Chinese communities. In 1972, Premier Chiang Ching-kuo began a concerted effort to bring Taiwanese into more senior positions in the central administrative apparatus. Taiwanese now hold 8 of 19 ministerial positions in the cabinet and 14 of 31 positions on the KMT Party Central Standing Committee. Of the some 2 million KMT members, about 70% are Taiwanese. Taiwanese hold most of the elective and appointive positions at the provincial and local levels; nonetheless, mainlanders continue to exercise overwhelming control in the central governing bodies.
Upon withdrawing from the mainland to Taiwan in 1949, President Chiang Kai-shek brought with him a relatively sophisticated bureaucracy, party organization, and military establishment designed on the scale of China as a whole and much larger than required to rule Taiwan. Despite the burden this bureaucracy placed on the island's limited resources, it contributed to the authorities' ability to implement policies to which they had earlier been committed but had been unable to carry out while governing the mainland. These policies, aided by generous U.S. aid in the early years and the hard work of the local population, greatly facilitated the island's rapid modernization.
Source: U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, March 1988.