Retreat of the government of the Republic of China to Taiwan

Following their defeat in the Chinese Civil War, on December 7, 1949, the remnants of the Nationalist government of the Republic of China (ROC), alongside many refugees, retreated to the island of Taiwan (Formosa).

The flight to Taiwan took place over four months after Mao Zedong had proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Beijing on October 1, 1949.

As World War II ended, the Republic of China, who ousted the Qing dynasty in 1911, regained control of Taiwan in 1945 after the surrender of Japan and placed it under military occupation.

The civil war between the Nationalist Party of China (Kuomintang, or KMT for short) under Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under Mao Zedong traced back to KMT's Shanghai Massacre in 1927, which triggered Communist insurgencies such as the Nanchang Uprising and the Autumn Harvest Uprising, as well as the formation of the Chinese Red Army.

Both sides sought to defeat the other and control all of China, and this need to eliminate the other party was seen as necessary by both Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek, but for completely different reasons.

For Mao, the elimination of the "old society" dominated by clans of wealthy oligarchs would forever end the feudal system in China, encouraging and preparing the country for socialism and communism, which he deemed to be the future for humanity; for Chiang, other warlords and political opponents were simply a great threat to his personal dominance within the central government, as evident in Chiang's long-held political philosophy of "[one] must quell the domestic before resisting the foreign" (攘外必先安內).

[2] The ideological unity of the CCP, and the experience acquired in guerilla warfare fighting the Japanese, prepared them for the people's war against the Kuomintang.

Mao proclaimed the establishment of a new republic in Beijing on October 1, while Chiang fled to the island of Formosa (Taiwan), where approximately 300,000 soldiers had already been airlifted.

Throughout 4 months beginning in August 1948, the ROC leaders relocated the Republic of China Air Force to Taiwan, taking over 80 flights and 3 ships.

[2] Institute of History and Philology director Fu Ssu-nien spearheaded a rush to persuade scholars to flee to Taiwan, as well as bringing books and documents.

As the defeated Nationalists fled to Taiwan, they stripped China of liquid assets including gold, silver, and the country's dollar reserves.

[7] The written record was kept as the top military secret by Chiang in the Taipei Presidential Palace and the declassified archives only became available to the public more than 40 years after his death in April 1975.

[9] The National Palace Museum claims that in 1948 when China was going through its Civil War, executive director Chu Chia-hua and others (Wang Shijie, Fu Ssu-nien, Xu Hong-Bao (Chinese: 徐洪宝), Li Ji, and Han Lih-wu) discussed shipping masterpieces to Taiwan for the artifacts' safety.

[11] The plan was not fully implemented and completed due to insufficient cabin space and differing opinions on the relocation of artifacts to Taiwan.

The historian Jonathan Fenby proposes that "hyperinflation [during the Chinese Civil War] undermined everyday lives and ruined tens of millions, hampered by a poor taxation base, increased military spending and widespread corruption.

After the retreat to Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek established a dictatorship over the island with other Nationalist leaders and began making plans to invade the mainland.

He had asked his son Chiang Ching-kuo to draft a plan for air raids on the provinces of Fujian and Guangdong,[15] from where many ROC soldiers and much of the population of Taiwan had origins.

[16] The 1960s saw the "Great Leap Forward" in mainland China lead to catastrophic famines and millions of deaths, as well as progress by the PRC towards possible development of nuclear weapons.

Army Lieutenant General Zhu Yuancong took the role of governor and officially launched the project to compose a prudent plan of operations to recover the lost territories in mainland China.

At the same time, the establishment of Project Juguan[clarify] came to light whereby military members began to work out a possible alliance with American troops to attack mainland China.

April 1964: During this year, Chiang Kai-shek arranged an ensemble of air-raid shelters and five military offices at Lake Cihu (Chinese: 慈湖), which served as a secret command centre.

June 17, 1965: Chiang Kai-shek visited the Republic of China Military Academy to convene with all mid-level and higher officers to devise and launch the counterattack.

June 24, 1965: At least ten soldiers died during a training drill to feign a Communist attack on major naval bases in southern Taiwan near Zuoying District when rough seas overturned five landing craft.

[15][18] August 6, 1965: A People's Liberation Army Navy torpedo boat ambushed and drowned 200 soldiers as the Zhangjiang naval warship carried out assignment Tsunami Number 1, in an attempt to transport special forces to the vicinity of the Eastern mainland Chinese coastal island of Dongshan to carry out an intelligence gathering operation.

Surprised by the heavy loss of life in the naval battle at Magong, Chiang gave up all hope for Project National Glory.

Having said this, according to General Huang Chih-Chung, who was an army colonel at the time and part of the planning process, Chiang Kai-shek never completely gave up the desire to recapture China; "even when he died (in 1975), he was still hoping the international situation would change and that the Communists would be wiped out one day.

"[15] The failure of Chiang's Project National Glory changed the course of Chinese and Taiwanese history, forever altering cross-strait relations.