Editing February 28 incident (section)

==Uprising and crackdown==
[[File:Taipei 228 Memorial Museum 20050629.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Today's [[228 Peace Memorial Park|228 Memorial Museum]] in Taipei is housed in a broadcast station that played a role in the incident.]]
[[File:Terror In Formosa (The Daily News, Perth, 1947).jpg|120px|left|thumb|"Terror in Formosa", a news article from ''[[Daily News (Perth, Western Australia)|The Daily News]]'' of [[Perth]], reported the status in March.]]
[[Image:228 Incident g.jpg|200px|thumb|Angry residents storm the Yidingmu police station in Taipei on February 28, 1947]]
[[File:Chen Chengpo nd.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Painter and Professor [[Tan Teng-pho]] was killed in [[Chiayi]]]]
[[File:228 Incident k (cropped).jpg|thumb|200px|Those who were shot in the February 28 Incident.]]

On the evening of February 27, 1947, a Tobacco Monopoly Bureau enforcement team in Taipei went to the district of {{nihongo|{{ill|Taiheichō|zh|太平町}}|太平町}}, [[Twatutia]] (Dadaocheng in Mandarin), where they confiscated contraband cigarettes from a 40-year-old widow named Lin Jiang-mai (林江邁) at the [[Tianma Tea House]]. When she demanded their return, one of the men struck her in the head with the butt of his gun,<ref name="chou3"/> prompting the surrounding Taiwanese crowd to challenge the Tobacco Monopoly agents. As they fled, one agent shot his gun into the crowd, hitting a bystander who died the next day. The crowd, which had already been harbouring feelings of frustration from unemployment, inflation, and corruption towards the Nationalist government, reached its breaking point. The crowd protested to both the police and the gendarmes but was mostly ignored.<ref>{{citation |date=February 28, 1947 |url=http://nrch.cca.gov.tw/ccahome/search/search_meta.jsp?xml_id=0001716464&dofile=getImage.jsp?d=1241951145639&id=0001648015&filename=cca100003-np-mingpo19470228-03-i.jpg |journal=民報社 |trans-title=Yanping Road last night checked the smuggling team and shot and killed the people (the people's newspaper) |script-title=zh:延平路昨晚查緝私煙隊，開槍擊斃老百姓 (民報社) |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120715052919/http://nrch.cca.gov.tw/ccahome/search/search_meta.jsp?xml_id=0001716464&dofile=getImage.jsp%3Fd=1241951145639&id=0001648015&filename=cca100003-np-mingpo19470228-03-i.jpg |publisher=Taiwan Ministry of Culture:National Repository of Cultural Heritage |language=zh |archive-date=July 15, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Protesters gathered the next morning around Taipei, calling for the arrest and trial of the agents involved in the previous day's shooting, and eventually made their way to the Governor General's Office, where security forces tried to disperse the crowd. Soldiers opened fire into the crowd, killing at least three people.<ref>{{cite web |year=2003 |title=Seizing cigarettes incident |url=http://www.2003hr.net/English/cul_xb0102.php |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060306231311/http://www.2003hr.net/English/cul_xb0102.php |archive-date=March 6, 2006 |access-date=March 6, 2006 |work=Reflection on the 228 Event—The first gunshot}}</ref> On March 4, the Taiwanese took over the administration of the town and military bases and forced their way into a local radio station to broadcast news of the incident and call for people to revolt, causing uprisings to erupt throughout the island.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Durdin |first=Peggy |date=May 24, 1947 |title=Terror in Taiwan |url=http://www.taiwandc.org/hst-1947.htm |url-status=live |journal=[[The Nation]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060424070637/http://www.taiwandc.org/hst-1947.htm |archive-date=April 24, 2006 |access-date=April 22, 2006}}</ref><ref name="Smith085">{{cite journal |last=Smith |first=Craig A |date=2008 |title=Taiwan's 228 Incident and the Politics of Placing Blame |url=https://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/pi/article/view/4228 |journal=Past Imperfect |publisher=University of Alberta |volume=14 |pages=143–163 |issn=1711-053X |access-date=November 13, 2014 |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304071023/https://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/pi/article/view/4228 |url-status=live }}</ref> By evening, [[martial law]] had been declared, and curfews were enforced by the arrest or shooting of anyone who violated the curfew.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}

For several weeks after the February 28 incident, Taiwanese civilians controlled much of Taiwan. The initial riots were spontaneous and sometimes violent, with mainland Chinese receiving beatings from and being killed by Taiwanese. Over 1,000 mainlanders were killed.<ref name="Smith085"/><ref>Zhu Tianwen 朱天文, Bei qing cheng shi 悲情城市 [''[[A City of Sadness]]''], DVD, directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien侯孝賢 (Taiwan: 3-H Films/Era, 1989)</ref> Within a few days, the Taiwanese were generally coordinated and organized, and public order in Taiwanese-held areas was upheld by volunteer civilians organised by students and unemployed former Japanese army soldiers. Local leaders formed settlement committees (or resolution committees), which presented the government with a list of [[32 Demands|32 demands]] for reform of the provincial administration. They demanded, among other things, greater autonomy, free elections, the surrender of the ROC Army to the Settlement Committee, and an end to government corruption.<ref name="Smith085"/> Motivations among the various Taiwanese groups varied; some demanded greater autonomy within the ROC, while others wanted UN trusteeship or full independence.<ref>{{cite news |last=Durdin |first=Tillman |date=March 30, 1947 |title=Formosans' Plea For Red Aid Seen |newspaper=The New York Times |url=http://228.lomaji.com/news/033047.html |url-status=dead |access-date=March 6, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060215114430/http://228.lomaji.com/news/033047.html |archive-date=February 15, 2006}}</ref> The Taiwanese also demanded representation in the forthcoming peace treaty negotiations with Japan, hoping to secure a plebiscite to determine the island's political future.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}

Outside of Taipei, there were examples of the formation of local militias, such as the Communist-inspired [[27 Brigade]] near Taichung. In Chiayi, the mayor's residence was set on fire, and local militias fought with the military police.<ref name="twreporter-chiayi2">{{cite news |last=Yang |first=Bi-chuan |date=February 25, 2017 |title=The 228 Massacre in Chiayi: "The Airport and Train Station Were Washed with Blood |newspaper=The Reporter (報導者) |url=https://www.taiwangazette.org/news/2019/3/5/the-228-massacre-in-chiayi-the-airport-and-train-station-were-washed-with-blood |access-date=August 19, 2018 |archive-date=May 8, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190508143812/https://www.taiwangazette.org/news/2019/3/5/the-228-massacre-in-chiayi-the-airport-and-train-station-were-washed-with-blood |url-status=live }}</ref>

The [[Nationalist Government (China)|Nationalist Government]], under governor Chen Yi, stalled for time while it waited for reinforcements from [[Fujian]]. Upon their arrival on March 8, the [[National Revolutionary Army|ROC troops]] launched a crackdown. ''The New York Times'' reported, "An American who had just arrived in China from [[Taipei]] said that troops from the mainland China arrived there on March&nbsp;7 and indulged in three days of indiscriminate killing and arrest. For a time, everyone seen on the streets was fired upon, homes were broken into, and occupants were arrested. In the lower income sections the streets were said to have been littered with dead.<ref>{{cite news |last=Durdin |first=Tillman |date=March 29, 1947 |title=Formosa killings are put at 10s 1000s |newspaper=The New York Times |url=http://www.taiwandc.org/hst-1947.htm |url-status=live |access-date=April 22, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060424070637/http://www.taiwandc.org/hst-1947.htm |archive-date=April 24, 2006}}</ref>

By the end of March, Chen Yi had ordered the imprisonment or execution of the leading Taiwanese organizers he could identify. His troops reportedly executed, according to a Taiwanese delegation in [[Nanjing]], maybe between 3,000 to 4,000 people throughout the island, though the exact number is still undetermined.<ref name="dpp Qs 20123">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=February 29, 2012 |title=DPP questions former Premier Hau's 228 victim figures |newspaper=[[The China Post]] |location=Taipei |url=http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2012/02/29/333129/DPP-questions.htm |access-date=November 14, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129014431/http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2012/02/29/333129/DPP-questions.htm |archive-date=29 November 2014}}</ref> Detailed records kept by the KMT have been reported as missing. Some of the killings were random, while others were systematic. Taiwanese political leaders were among those targeted, and many of the Taiwanese who had formed self-governing groups during the reign of the Japanese were also victims of the February 28 incident. A disproportionate number of the victims had been discharged from the [[Imperial Japanese Army]] and came back unemployed. They were involved in the riots and looting and beat up recent immigrants from China. They presented the most fear, as they looked no different from Japanese soldiers from the mainland.<ref name="Smith085"/>

Some political organisations that participated in the uprising, for example the [[Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League]], were declared "communist". Many of their members were arrested and executed.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wang |first1=Xiaobo |title=Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League and the February 28 Incident |date=February 2004 |publisher=Straits Academic Press |location=Taipei}}{{page needed|date=February 2022}}</ref>

By late March 1947, the central executive committee of the KMT had recommended that Chen Yi be dismissed as governor-general over the "merciless brutality" he had shown in suppressing the rebellion.<ref>{{cite news |date=January 14, 1949 |title=Chiang to Formosa? |newspaper=Argus-Press |location=Owosso, Michigan |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1978&dat=19490114&id=IpEnAAAAIBAJ&pg=6456,1329226 |access-date=April 8, 2019 |archive-date=August 11, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210811041733/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1978&dat=19490114&id=IpEnAAAAIBAJ&pg=6456,1329226 |url-status=live }}</ref> In June 1948, he was appointed provincial chairman of [[Zhejiang]] province. In January 1949, he attempted to defect to the Chinese Communist Party, but [[Chiang Kai-shek]] immediately relieved Chen of his duties. Chen Yi was escorted to Taiwan and later imprisoned in [[Keelung]]. In May 1950, a Taiwan military court sentenced Chen Yi to death for espionage. On June 18, he was executed at [[Machangding]], Taipei.<ref name="ChenX2">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=June 18, 1950 |title=Formosa Chief Executed As Traitor |newspaper=Schenectady Gazette |agency=AP |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1917&dat=19500619&id=yaE0AAAAIBAJ&pg=820,2825535 |access-date=November 13, 2014 |archive-date=August 11, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210811041732/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1917&dat=19500619&id=yaE0AAAAIBAJ&pg=820,2825535 |url-status=live }}</ref>