[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 3]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 3420]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              COMMEMORATION OF TAIWAN'S ``2-28 MASSACRE''

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ROBERT E. ANDREWS

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 13, 2012

  Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to observe the 65th 
commemoration of Taiwan's ``2-28 Massacre.'' The massacre was an anti-
government uprising in Taiwan that began on February 28, 1947 and was 
violently suppressed by General Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese Nationalist 
Kuomintang (KMT) government during the following weeks. Estimates of 
the number of deaths vary from ten thousand to thirty thousand.
  In the fall of 1945, 50 years of Japanese occupation of Taiwan ended 
after Japan had lost World War II. In October of that year, the United 
Nations handed administrative control of Taiwan to the KMT-administered 
Republic of China, ROC. Sixteen months of KMT administration on Taiwan 
led to the widespread impression among the people of Taiwan that the 
party was plagued by nepotism, corruption, and economic failure.
  Tensions increased between the Taiwanese people and the ROC 
administration. The flashpoint came on February 28, 1947 when in Taipei 
a dispute between a female cigarette vendor and an officer of the 
Government's Office of Monopoly triggered civil disorder and open 
rebellion by the native Taiwanese against KMT repression.
  During the following weeks, Chiang's government sent troops from 
China to Taiwan. The Chinese soldiers started to round up and execute a 
whole generation of a Taiwanese elite of lawyers, doctors, students, 
professors etc. . .
  It is estimated that up to 30,000 people lost their lives during the 
turmoil. During the following four decades, the Chinese Nationalists 
continued to rule Taiwan with an iron fist under a Martial Law that 
would not be lifted until 1987.
  Mr. Speaker, the Massacre had far reaching implications. Over the 
next half century, the Taiwanese democracy movement that grew out of 
the event helped pave the way for Taiwan's momentous transformation 
from a dictatorship under the Chinese Nationalists to a thriving and 
pluralistic democracy.
  In some ways, the 2-28 massacre was Taiwan's ``Boston Massacre'' for 
both events functioned as the cradle of a move by both peoples to full 
democracy and helped galvanize the strive to independence.
  Mr. Speaker, I have said it before: ``Freedom is not negotiable.'' 
May the lessons learned from the 2-28 Massacre continue to inspire the 
people of Taiwan in their struggle for freedom, full independence, 
international participation, and for the continued enhancement of the 
mutual relationship between Taiwan and the United States.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in commemorating this sad but 
important historical event.

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