History of Taiwan (1945–present)

As a result of the surrender and occupation of Japan at the end of World War II, the islands of Taiwan and Penghu were placed under the governance of the Republic of China (ROC),[note 1] ruled by the Kuomintang (KMT), on 25 October 1945.

In 1987, martial law was lifted and Taiwan began a democratisation process, beginning with the abolition of the Temporary Provisions and culminating with the first direct president election in 1996.

Chen Yi's administration was marred by corruption, as well as a lack of discipline in the military police assigned to occupation duties, resulting in a severe undermining of the chain of command.

The government's program of "De-Japanization" also created cultural estrangement, along with tensions between the growing population of migrants from the mainland and the pre-war residents of the island.

The clashes between police and residents that followed quickly spread across the island, and grew into a general rebellion against Chen Yi and the Chief Executive's Office in what came to be known as the February 28 incident.

The February 28 Incident was a prelude to the White Terror of the 1950s, resulting in ethnic tensions between pre-war and post-war residents, as well as the genesis of the Taiwanese independence movement.

Wey Daw-ming, whose parents were scholars, became the first Governor of Taiwan Province and, during his administration, reduced the scope of the public enterprises, which had grown significantly under Chen Yi.

[5] On 20 July 1946, Chiang Kai-shek launched a large-scale assault on CCP territory in Huabei with 113 brigades (a total of 1.6 million troops), starting a new phase of the Chinese Civil War.

An attempt by the CCP government to take the ROC-controlled island of Quemoy was thwarted in October 1949, halting the PLA advance towards Taiwan.

However, due to the Chinese Civil War, the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion were passed as an amendment to the Constitution of the Republic of China.

The official rationale for the Provisions was the ongoing Chinese Civil War and ROC was effectively under the military rule of the KMT during the period of mobilization.

The KMT rule of Taiwan under martial law until the late 1980s had the stated goals of being vigilant against Communist infiltration and preparing to retake mainland China.

The late 1970s and early 1980s were a turbulent time for the Taiwan-born as many of the people who had originally been oppressed and left behind by economic changes became members of Taiwan's new middle class.

Free enterprise had allowed native Taiwanese to gain a powerful bargaining chip in their demands for respect for their basic human rights.

In October 1971, Resolution 2758 was passed by the UN General Assembly and "the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek" (and thus the ROC) were expelled from the UN and replaced as "China" by the PRC.

[19] Attempting to maintain good relations with the PRC, Taiwan avoided any criticism of the Tiananmen Square Massacre and the media was largely barred from reporting on it.

Lee's statement was met with the PLA conducting military drills in Fujian and a frightening island-wide blackout in Taiwan, causing many to fear an attack.

They were re-elected the next day, although the Pan-Blue Coalition disputed the legality of the result due to the close margin of the election and the shooting incident.

In 2005, an ad hoc National Assembly passed constitutional amendments ruling that elections for the Legislative Yuan change to use of parallel voting, aiding the formation of a two-party system.

[23] On 24 May 2017, the Constitutional Court ruled that same-sex couples have a right to marry, and gave the Legislature Yuan two years to adequately amend Taiwanese marriage laws.

In October 1949 a PRC attempt to take the ROC controlled island of Kinmen was thwarted in the Battle of Kuningtou halting the PLA advance towards Taiwan.

On 3 September 1954, the First Taiwan Strait Crisis began when the PLA started shelling Quemoy and threatened to take the Dachen Islands.

On January 24 of the same year, the United States Congress passed the Formosa Resolution authorizing the President to defend the ROC's offshore islands.

Though the United States rejected Chiang Kai-shek's proposal to bomb mainland China artillery batteries, it quickly moved to supply fighter jets and anti-aircraft missiles to the ROC.

One high-profile defector was Justin Yifu Lin, who swam across the Kinmen strait to mainland China and is now Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of the World Bank.

In order to effect negotiations with mainland China on operational issues without compromising the government's position on denying the other side's legitimacy, the ROC government under Chiang Ching-kuo created the "Straits Exchange Foundation" (SEF), a nominally non-governmental institution directly led by the Mainland Affairs Council, an instrument of the Executive Yuan.

Chen's repudiation of the 1992 Consensus combined with the PRC's insistence that the ROC agree to a "One China" principle for negotiations to occur prevented improvement in cross-strait relations.

Mainland China and Taiwan resumed regular weekend cross-strait charter direct flights on 4 July 2008, for the first time in six decades, as a "new start" in their tense relations.

[43][44] On 7 November 2015, a meeting was held by ROC president Ma Ying-jeou and CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping in Singapore.

After retreating to Taiwan, Chiang learned from his mistakes and failures in the mainland and blamed them for failing to pursue Sun Yat-sen's ideals of Tridemism and welfarism.