The February 28 Incident
On 27 February 1947, monopoly bureau agents searching for contraband cigarettes in Taipei beat a vendor and fatally shot a bystander; the next day guards at the Chief Executive's Office opened fire on petitioners, and unrest spread across the island, with many mainlanders beaten or killed. A citizens' settlement committee put forward demands for political reform while the Nationalist government negotiated and sent troops from the mainland; Nationalist forces landed at Keelung on 8 March, followed by a crackdown and "pacification" in which many members of Taiwan's elite were arrested or disappeared. The death toll remains disputed; a 1992 Executive Yuan report estimated 18,000 to 28,000. Long a taboo subject in Taiwan, the incident was the subject of an apology by Lee Teng-hui as head of state in 1995 and of a compensation act. Beijing describes it as a just action by Taiwan compatriots against autocratic rule.
Background: Taiwan after Retrocession
On 25 October 1945 the surrender ceremony for Taiwan was held in Taipei, and the Nationalist government set up the Taiwan Provincial Administrative Executive Office with Chen Yi as Chief Executive. After fifty years of Japanese colonial rule, many Taiwanese at first had high hopes of the "motherland", but the takeover was soon followed by official graft and the looting of the island's resources, while the Executive Office continued and extended the monopoly and trade-control systems. US Vice Consul George Kerr reported at the time that the government exercised total or partial control in at least 32 major fields of economic activity, and that the monopoly system was "impoverishing the Taiwanese". Few Taiwanese held senior posts: in the first provincial government the only Taiwanese department head was Sung Fei-ju, deputy director of education.
From a Contraband Raid to Island-Wide Unrest
On the evening of 27 February 1947, monopoly bureau investigators and police searching for contraband cigarettes outside the Tianma Tea House in Taipei beat an elderly woman vendor, and in the commotion a bystander was shot and killed. On the morning of the 28th, crowds marched with drums and gongs, stormed the Taipei branch of the Monopoly Bureau and burned its contents, then went to petition at the Chief Executive's Office, where they were met with machine-gun fire; protesters also occupied the radio station in New Park and broadcast to the whole island. The Garrison Command declared temporary martial law in Taipei that day. The US Consulate in Taipei reported that when the firing died down that evening some 10 to 15 people had been killed, both mainlanders and Taiwanese, and that mob violence was "directed solely against mainlanders". The unrest quickly spread across the island, and many mainlanders were beaten or killed.
The Settlement Committee and Negotiations
In early March, people's representatives and some government representatives formed a "committee to settle the February 28 incident", holding public sessions. On 2 March Chen Yi agreed in a radio address to release all those detained unconditionally and to compensate the dead and wounded; the two sides agreed on terms to calm the situation, including withdrawing patrols and lifting martial law, while demands for political reform were to be put forward by 10 March. On 5 March the Nationalist government's information ministry in Nanjing, citing the Central News Agency, said that up to 3 March about 100 Taiwanese and about 400 people from other provinces had been killed or wounded. In various places residents also organised against the troops — US reports mention fighting around Zhongli and Taoyuan — and some delivered a signed petition to the US Consulate asking for joint UN administration of Taiwan. On 8 March the committee presented Chen Yi with its reform demands, known as the "32 articles", including a provincial autonomy law, elections for mayors and county magistrates before June, freedom of assembly, association and the press, and the abolition of the Garrison Command.
Troops Land and the Crackdown
Meanwhile Chiang Kai-shek had ordered troops sent from the mainland. At dusk on 8 March some 2,000 Nationalist troops landed at Keelung, and martial law was reimposed in Taipei the next day. On 10 March Chiang Kai-shek told the weekly memorial service that regular troops had been sent to Taiwan, accused Communists of instigating rebellion, and said the committee's demands exceeded the powers of the provincial and even the central government and that many were "unconstitutional"; the same day Chen Yi dissolved the committee. A crackdown and "pacification" followed, in which many members of Taiwan's elite were arrested and disappeared — Sung Fei-ju was taken from his home on 11 March and Juan Chao-jih, general manager of the Taiwan Shin Sheng Daily News, on 12 March, never to be seen again. Defence Minister Bai Chongxi arrived on 17 March on a "pacification" mission; Kerr reported that his investigation in effect endorsed Chen Yi's handling. In April the Nationalist government abolished the Executive Office and set up a Taiwan Provincial Government under a civilian, Wei Tao-ming.
Casualties, Taboo and Redress
Casualty figures remain disputed: a 1992 Executive Yuan research report estimated that 18,000 to 28,000 people were killed in a crackdown that lasted into early May, a figure that is still debated. Under the long period of martial law that followed, the incident became taboo in Taiwan, mentioned only four times in major newspapers between 1948 and 1984. Investigation began only after martial law was lifted in 1987: in 1988 Lee Teng-hui still said it was a matter for historians, and in February 1992 the Executive Yuan published its research report. On 28 February 1995, at the unveiling of the 228 Memorial Monument in Taipei, Lee publicly apologised as head of state; on 7 April that year the February 28 Incident Disposition and Compensation Act took effect (renamed in 2007), designating 28 February as Peace Memorial Day, and in December the Memorial Foundation of 228 was established. By June 2018, 2,312 compensation cases had been approved.
Narrative Comparison
| Source | Narrative |
|---|---|
| Jiefang Ribao editorial, "The Taiwan Autonomy Movement" (20 March 1947); TAO spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (28 February 2025) | At the time, an editorial in Yan'an's Jiefang Ribao on 20 March 1947 said that "the Taiwanese people's peaceful autonomy movement was forced to rise in self-defence by the armed massacre of the Chiang Kai-shek government", that the movement was "entirely reasonable, lawful and peaceful" and had turned to armed struggle "entirely because Chiang Kai-shek forced it", and that "at least three to four thousand Taiwan compatriots were killed or wounded"; it endorsed the committee's 32 articles and declared, "Your struggle is our struggle." Beijing's official characterisation today is that the incident was "a just action by Taiwan compatriots against autocratic rule and for basic rights, and part of the Chinese people's struggle for liberation". In 2025 a Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman accused the DPP and "Taiwan independence" forces of "distorting it into the 'starting point of Taiwan independence'" to stir up hostility towards China. |
| Nationalist information ministry press conferences (5 and 19 March 1947) and Chiang Kai-shek's memorial-service remarks (10 March 1947), as reported in FRUS 1947, vol. VII | The Nationalist government at the time attributed the incident to riots over the enforcement of cigarette regulations and stressed the role of Communists. On 5 March Information Minister Peng Hsueh-pei said the riots "were caused by enforcement of regulations against unauthorized cigarette dealers" and that Chen Yi "has promised to take a very lenient attitude". On 10 March Chiang Kai-shek told the weekly memorial service that regular troops had been sent, accused Communists of instigating rebellion, and said the committee's demands were beyond the competence of the provincial and even the central government, "many of them unconstitutional". On 19 March the ministry added that there were no detailed casualty statistics and that some Communists among Taiwanese returned from Hainan Island "have contributed in no small measure to the malignant character of the riots". (As reported by the US Embassy from official statements and press accounts in Nanjing.) |
| Lee Teng-hui, address at the 228 Memorial Monument (28 February 1995); Memorial Foundation of 228 | Taiwan's democratic-era government acknowledges state responsibility. At the unveiling of the 228 Memorial Monument in 1995, Lee Teng-hui said he had lived through the incident and had long grieved over "this historical tragedy, which need not have happened yet did, and which could have been kept from spreading yet was not", and that "as head of state" he took "responsibility for the wrongs committed by the government" and offered "my deep apology", pledging to make the truth public, compensate victims and establish a memorial day. The Memorial Foundation of 228 presents the 1992 Executive Yuan report, the 1995 monument and compensation act, the foundation itself and the opening of the National 228 Memorial Museum in 2011 as a "gradually developing process of redressing injustice" in Taiwanese society. |
| US Consulate Taipei and Embassy telegrams and Kerr memoranda (March–April 1947; FRUS 1947, vol. VII) | In early March the US Consulate in Taipei reported that the government had violated the truce terms agreed with the people's representatives and "appears to have temporized by promises while maneuvering troops toward city", while also noting that "Formosans, so far unarmed, have resorted only to clubs and fists in their savage attacks on mainlanders". The consulate judged that Formosans "strongly desire status as Chinese nationals" but would resist "all unrepresentative authoritarian governments imposed from mainland", and at one point urged immediate American or UN intervention "to prevent disastrous slaughter"; the Embassy instructed it not to become involved in any way. After the crackdown, Vice Consul George Kerr argued that Bai Chongxi's investigation in effect endorsed Chen Yi, and the Embassy commented that Chen had been given the opportunity "to remove from the scene some of the ablest and soundest of the native elements". |
| Jonathan D. Spence, "The Other China" (New York Review of Books, 1992), reviewing Lai, Myers and Wou, A Tragic Beginning (Stanford University Press, 1991) | Reviewing A Tragic Beginning by Lai Tse-han, Ramon Myers and Wei Wou, the Yale historian Jonathan Spence summarised how the mainland personnel who took over Taiwan rapidly looted its resources and imposed a maze of taxes and monopolies, until resentment exploded in February 1947; in days of rioting "many mainland Chinese were killed or savagely beaten by Taiwanese", and the troops then sent "behaved with great cruelty", the massacre continuing until late March and "leaving at least eight thousand Taiwanese, and possibly many more, dead". He notes that the authors are "at pains to show" that the Taiwanese elite was not "wiped out", and argue that the incident spurred the KMT to think more constructively about economic reform and a "model province", while the independence movement remained fragmented — thereby reducing the massacre's long-range importance; Spence himself stresses that the survivors "were terrified and cowed". |
| Juan Mei-shu, Global Views Monthly (1996) | Juan Mei-shu, daughter of Juan Chao-jih, general manager of the Taiwan Shin Sheng Daily News, recalled: "On 12 March that year, five unidentified men came to our house and, before my eyes, forcibly took away my father, who was ill in bed in his pyjamas; we never heard from him again." She and her mother searched everywhere, but "no agency would admit to taking him"; they petitioned Chen Yi, who replied that Juan was one of Taiwan's elite and that troops would be sent to rescue him if his whereabouts were known. After forty-five years the KMT's answer was still that "Juan Chao-jih's file never existed"; only in 1991 did she find the charge against her father: "chief conspirator in a plot to rebel during the 228 Incident, using the newspaper for subversive activities, and using the newspaper to sow discord between soldiers and civilians." |
Key Milestones
- Surrender in Taiwan; Executive Office set up
The surrender ceremony is held in Taipei; Chen Yi becomes Chief Executive.
- Contraband raid at the Tianma Tea House
Agents beat a woman cigarette vendor and fatally shoot a bystander in the commotion.
- Shooting at the Executive Office
Petitioners are met with machine-gun fire; protesters seize the radio station and temporary martial law is declared in Taipei.
- Chen Yi accepts some demands
He agrees to release detainees and compensate casualties; the settlement committee begins work.
- Committee presents the "32 articles"
Demands include provincial autonomy, elected local officials and abolition of the Garrison Command; at dusk about 2,000 troops land at Keelung, and martial law is reimposed in Taipei the next day.
- Settlement committee dissolved
Chiang calls its demands "unconstitutional" and blames Communists; Chen Yi dissolves the committee and "pacification" begins.
- Bai Chongxi arrives
Defence Minister Bai Chongxi arrives as the government's special envoy.
- Lee Teng-hui apologises
At the unveiling of the 228 Memorial Monument Lee apologises as head of state; the compensation act takes effect on 7 April.
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