Retreat of the Republic of China Government to Taiwan
In the final stage of the Chinese Civil War the Nationalists began moving air force units, artefacts and gold to Taiwan from 1948, while in 1949 the government moved from Nanjing to Guangzhou, Chongqing and Chengdu. On 7 December the Executive Yuan resolved in Chengdu to "move the government to Taipei"; it began work in Taipei on the 9th, and Chiang Kai-shek flew to Taiwan on the 10th. Around one million soldiers and civilians came with the government, by some estimates more. Chiang "resumed his duties" as president in Taipei on 1 March 1950; after the Korean War broke out in June, the US sent the Seventh Fleet into the Taiwan Strait, and the divide between the two sides has persisted ever since.
Background: From Nanjing to Guangzhou
By the end of 1948 the Nationalist armies had suffered successive defeats in the Liaoshen, Huaihai and Pingjin campaigns. In his diary on 24 November 1948 Chiang Kai-shek wrote that to "revive the nation and raise the banner of revolution again" he would have to "choose a simpler environment, narrow the scope, reform fundamentally and start anew". According to research by the Taiwanese writer Chen Chin-chang, the geographer Chang Chi-yun had already proposed Taiwan to Chiang as a place of retreat in 1948. Air Force institutions and equipment began moving to Taiwan from August 1948; on 10 November the transfer to Taiwan of artefacts and books from the Palace Museum, the National Central Library and Academia Sinica's Institute of History and Philology was approved; and from the end of November the Central Bank's gold reserves began to be shipped secretly to the island in batches.
On 21 January 1949 Chiang announced his "retirement", and Vice President Li Zongren became acting president. Premier Sun Fo promptly announced that the government would move south, and from 5 February the Executive Yuan treated Guangzhou as the seat of government. Chiang had already appointed Chen Cheng chairman of the Taiwan provincial government in December 1948, and Chen took office on 5 January 1949.
Retreating South
In late April the People's Liberation Army crossed the Yangtze and Nanjing fell; Premier He Yingqin led the central government offices south to Guangzhou. By now Taiwan had become a rear base for the Nationalists: from 20 May the Taiwan Garrison Command imposed martial law across the island, which would last 38 years, and on 15 June a currency reform introduced the New Taiwan dollar. That month Yan Xishan succeeded He Yingqin as premier.
On 1 October the People's Republic of China was proclaimed in Beijing. Guangzhou fell on 14 October and the government moved to Chongqing, and in late November to Chengdu. Chiang, as Director-General of the Kuomintang, travelled between Taiwan and the mainland, while Acting President Li Zongren flew from Nanning to Hong Kong on 20 November and in December left for the United States, citing medical treatment; Bai Chongxi's plan to make a stand in Guangxi also came to nothing.
The Chengdu Decision and the Move to Taiwan
On 7 December 1949 the Executive Yuan held its last meeting before the move, in Chengdu, resolving that "the government will move to Taipei, and a general headquarters will be set up in Xichang to command the army, navy and air force in operations on the mainland". On 8 December Premier Yan Xishan and Vice Premier Zhu Jiahua flew to Taipei with the main cabinet members and announced that the Executive Yuan would begin work in Taiwan from the 9th. On 9 December the Executive Yuan held its first meeting after the central government's move, at the Taipei Guest House, deciding to house the Presidential Office and the Executive Yuan in the Jieshou Hall (today's Presidential Office Building) and to notify the provinces and envoys abroad by telegram.
Shortly after noon on 10 December, Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo finished their last meal on the mainland in Chengdu and boarded a plane for Taiwan; Chiang Kai-shek never returned to the mainland. On 27 December Chengdu came under Communist control.
People and Property
There is no precise count of how many people came to Taiwan with the government. Chen Chin-chang estimates that about 500,000 civilians and 500,000 military personnel arrived between 1948 and 1950, roughly one million in all; other estimates run as high as 2.5 million. Property shipped to Taiwan included the Central Bank's gold, radio stations, ships and factory machinery. Artefacts from the Palace Museum and other institutions reached Keelung in three shipments, the first carried by the naval vessel Chung Ting in late December 1948; the portion brought to Taiwan amounted to about one-fifth of the Palace Museum collection that had been moved south.
The arrival of so many soldiers and civilians in a short time also unsettled Taiwanese society. Researchers note that mainland refugees suffered the trauma of displacement, while native Taiwanese in the island's main cities also experienced social upheaval — the latter is rarely remembered collectively in Taiwan today.
Resumption of Office and a Settled Divide
On 5 January 1950 US President Harry Truman declared that the United States had no desire to obtain special rights or establish military bases on Formosa, would not become involved in China's civil conflict, and would not provide military aid or advice to Chinese forces on the island. On 14 February China and the Soviet Union signed the Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance in Moscow. On 1 March Chiang Kai-shek issued a statement in Taipei announcing that he had "resumed his duties" as president, saying that Li Zongren had "gone abroad for treatment ... with no date for his return", and calling for the "recovery of the mainland".
The Korean War broke out on 25 June. On the 27th Truman announced that he had ordered the Seventh Fleet to prevent any attack on Formosa, called on the government on Taiwan to cease air and sea operations against the mainland, and said that the future status of Formosa must await the restoration of security in the Pacific, a peace settlement with Japan, or consideration by the United Nations. The division between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait has persisted ever since.
Narrative Comparison
| Source | Narrative |
|---|---|
| Xinhua commentary, "The Chinese People Must Liberate Taiwan" (15 March 1949) | Nine months before the move, a Xinhua commentary said that "the Kuomintang reactionaries headed by Chiang Kai-shek" dreamed of sheltering under American military protection and "making Taiwan the base for their last struggle"; the Chinese people would "absolutely not tolerate" American "illegal aggression" against Taiwan, nor "the Kuomintang reactionaries using Taiwan as the base for their last struggle". The task of the liberation struggle, it said, was "to liberate all of China, until Taiwan, Hainan Island and the last inch of Chinese territory are liberated": "the Chinese people must liberate Taiwan". |
| Chiang Kai-shek, statement on resuming office (1 March 1950); Premier's remarks at the 2,659th Executive Yuan meeting (9 December 1999) | In his statement on resuming office, Chiang said the Communists had "arbitrarily changed the name of the country and set up a usurping regime" and concluded a "bogus treaty" with the Soviet Union that "sold out our national territory and resources"; announcing that he had "resumed his duties and continues to exercise the powers of the presidency", he acknowledged that "the nation's affairs have come to this; I blame myself for my failures of leadership", and called for "sweeping away the Communist bandits and recovering the mainland". Fifty years later, Premier Vincent Siew, marking the 50th anniversary of the Executive Yuan's move, said the move had been made "to ensure the continued functioning of the nation's leadership", and that the day "marked the beginning of fifty years of separation and separate rule across the Taiwan Strait". |
| President Truman, statements of 5 January and 27 June 1950 | On 5 January 1950 Truman, citing the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Declaration, said that for the past four years the United States and other Allied powers had accepted the exercise of Chinese authority over Formosa; the United States had "no desire to obtain special rights or privileges, or to establish military bases on Formosa at this time", would not become involved in the civil conflict in China, and would not provide military aid or advice to Chinese forces on the island. After the Korean War broke out, his statement of 27 June said that the occupation of Formosa by Communist forces "would be a direct threat to the security of the Pacific area", that he had therefore "ordered the 7th Fleet to prevent any attack on Formosa", called on the Chinese government on Formosa to cease all air and sea operations against the mainland, and said that "the determination of the future status of Formosa must await the restoration of security in the Pacific, a peace settlement with Japan, or consideration by the United Nations". |
| Dominic Meng-Hsuan Yang, The Great Exodus from China (Cambridge University Press, 2020), ch. 1 abstract | The historian Dominic Meng-Hsuan Yang studies the migration as social history. He argues that the influx of civil war refugees in the late 1940s and early 1950s produced two forms of "social trauma" in Taiwan: one experienced by the mainland refugees themselves, the other by native Taiwanese living in the island's major cities. The former is shown both by personal testimonies given decades later and by census, archival social data and newspapers; the latter "is not remembered collectively nowadays", yet is revealed by the same documentary evidence, which leads him to stress the need for historical research to put contemporary memories in perspective. |
| Chuang Yan and Chuang Ling (via Taipei Times, 7 November 2021) | Chuang Yan, who joined the Palace Museum in 1925, oversaw its collection's many wartime moves; in his essay series Stories from the Mountain Hall he wrote that he had been moving these objects "for half of my life". His son Chuang Ling recalled that in December 1948, aged ten, he crossed the Taiwan Strait with the first shipment aboard the Chung Ting, sleeping on top of one of the 772 large crates on board, about 320 of which held Palace Museum artefacts from Nanjing. |
Key Milestones
- Decision to ship artefacts to Taiwan
Transfer of artefacts and books from the Palace Museum, National Central Library and Academia Sinica to Taiwan is approved.
- Chiang Kai-shek "retires"
Chiang announces his retirement; Vice President Li Zongren becomes acting president.
- Government moves south to Guangzhou
From this day the Executive Yuan treats Guangzhou as the seat of government.
- Martial law in Taiwan
The Taiwan Garrison Command imposes martial law across Taiwan; it is lifted only in 1987.
- New Taiwan dollar issued
Taiwan reforms its currency and issues the New Taiwan dollar.
- Chengdu meeting resolves to move to Taiwan
At its last meeting before the move, in Chengdu, the Executive Yuan resolves to move the government to Taipei.
- First cabinet meeting in Taipei
The Executive Yuan holds its first meeting after the move, at the Taipei Guest House.
- Chiang Kai-shek flies to Taiwan
Chiang Kai-shek flies from Chengdu to Taiwan with Chiang Ching-kuo, never to return to the mainland.
- Truman's statement on Formosa
Truman declares that the US will not become involved in China's civil war or give military aid or advice to Nationalist forces on Taiwan.
- Chiang resumes the presidency
Chiang issues a statement in Taipei resuming the duties of the presidency.
- Seventh Fleet ordered into the Strait
After the outbreak of the Korean War, Truman orders the Seventh Fleet to prevent any attack on Formosa.
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