Moving KMT to Taiwan

by Luke Diep-Nguyen

​Following the Second World War and the surrender of Japan, the Nationalist Government, or Kuomintang Government (KMT), faced another threat from the rising Communist support and military, which was willing to overthrow the Nationalist Government to install their Communist system. The threat of the Communist Party to the Nationalist Government was more substantial and more significant than before the war was due to significant changes within both parties during the war. During the war, Communists gained support from the population due to victories of the Japanese military and a more stable system than the corrupted Nationalist Government. 

Another reason was that the population began to support the Communists more, and the Nationalist Government was being seen as more corrupted and lost due to their strings of defeats. There was blame against the Nationalist Government for the Fall of Shanghai and the Rape of Nanking. While the civil war had taken a lull during the war with Japan, the Communists would use their more stable and more robust military and political system to resume their struggle with the Nationalist Government. In an attempt to prevent the Communist spread, the U.S. decided to support the Nationalist Government. However, the U.S. realized that the Nationalist Government would lose because of their military and economic inferiority to the Communists. In preparation for the inevitable movement of the Nationalist Government and Nationalist Chinese, the U.S. and the Nationalist Government had been studying different areas to find refuge and create a Democratic Chinese state that would build up until it was strong enough to return to China and overthrow the Communist Chinese Government. The place that was seen as an essential economic, political, and military asset was Taiwan.  
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Taiwan was a valuable source for economic and agricultural production for the Japanese, and when it was turned over to the Chinese, it was used to increase agricultural production rates. Since the Cairo Conference in 1943, Taiwan and the Penghu Islands were already decided to be given to China following the surrender of Japan. Before moving the Nationalist Government leaders, a state government was already established over Taiwan. As the Communists began claiming the advantage over the Nationalists military, Nationalist officials and many Nationalist supporters began to take refuge in Taiwan and establish their new government in Taiwan. Their establishment in Taiwan disrupted the native population due to the strict ruling that the Nationalist Government enforced and the mainlanders' negative views towards the Taiwanese natives, which they saw as influenced under the Japanese. The preconceived notion that the Nationalists had on the aboriginal would affect the relationship between the mainlanders and the aboriginals. The book Taiwan: The Israel of the East will provide more on the movement of the KMT Government to Taiwan and the effect that it would have on the aboriginal. 

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