The April 6 Incident refers to the dispatch of military police by the Taiwan Provincial Security Command on April 6, 1949, to arrest students at National Taiwan University and Taiwan Provincial Teachers College. Subsequently, there was an overhaul of the student body throughout Taiwan, resulting in the expulsion or punishment of so-called unruly students. Although the trigger was an excuse on March 20 that students rode bicycles with passengers, which was against the rule, the crackdown can be seen as part of the suppression of the Taiwan student movement by officials under Taiwan Province Governor and Commander-in-Chief Chen Cheng. This event became the most representative political incident on campuses during the White Terror period in Taiwan and is considered the beginning of postwar Taiwan's White Terror era.
Background
editIn August 1945, after the end of World War II, Taiwan was handed over to the Republic of China. Chinese officials who came to Taiwan to rule believed that the Taiwanese people, after 50 years of Japanese rule, had been "Japanized" and "enslaved" by Japan. Taiwan's intellectuals and elites were seen as loyal to Japan, and thus, there was a need to decolonize and sinicize Taiwan to construct nationalism. Disregarding the aspirations of Taiwan's elites to become the leading force in society, the government saw Taiwan as a vassal of China in politics, society, and culture. However, this governance policy sparked resistance from Taiwanese society, coupled with economic chaos such as inflation, gradually undermining the people’s identification with China.
At that time, Taiwanese students were also very concerned about current events, such as the Soviet Union's refusal to withdraw troops from Northeast China and the Shen Chong incident involving a female university student in Beijing. In July 1946, the Shibuya Incident in Tokyo, clashes between Japanese police and Taiwanese people, resulting in the arrests and trials in court-martial for many Taiwanese, sparking outrage in Taiwanese society. In December of that year, students from the Provincial College of Law and Business called on students across Taiwan to demand government accountability. They joined forces with students from National Taiwan University, student autonomous associations from various schools in Taiwan, and support groups for the Shibuya Incident, holding a rally at the Zhongshan Hall in Taipei. After the demonstration, they marched separately to the Office of the Governor of Taiwan Province, the Taiwan Provincial Council, demanding justice and protesting at the US Embassy in Taiwan. Over three thousand students and civilians participated, marking the beginning of postwar Taiwanese students' involvement in political demonstrations.
After the February 28 Incident in 1947, the government of the Republic of China became concerned that student self-government associations would become hotbeds for student movements, so they stipulated that student self-government bodies were to be supervised and directed by principals and disciplinary personnel. In April 1948, the first National Assembly passed the "Provisional Regulations for Mobilization During the Period of Suppression of Communist Rebellion," granting the President the authority to exercise emergency powers. Consequently, by the end of the same year, based on a decision made in a meeting of the Executive Yuan, martial law was declared nationwide except in four provinces including Taiwan and the Tibet region. Meanwhile, the defeat in the Battle of Huaihai weakened the ruling Kuomintang(KMT) regime in China, prompting President Chiang Kai-Shek to plan ahead for a rear base in Taiwan. In January 1949, he appointed Chen Cheng as the governor of the Taiwan Provincial Government, and on February 1, he also assumed the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Taiwan Provincial Security Command. On March 14, the Executive Yuan appointed Chen Cheng to supervise military and political institutions and personnel stationed in Taiwan on behalf of the central government. In April, the Central Committee of the Chinese Nationalist Party(KMT) passed a resolution appointing Chen Cheng as the director of KMT’s Taiwan Office, which endowed him sole control over the military and political affairs of Taiwan.
Incident Details
editAccording to a report from the Taiwan Shin Sheng Daily News, on March 20, 1949, two students, Heh Jing-Yue from the Law School of National Taiwan University and Lee Yuan-Hsun from the Provincial Teachers College of Taiwan, were stopped by police officer Hsieh Yen-Chang around the Chung Shan Road Police Station in Taipei for riding a bicycle with passenger, which was deemed a violation of regulations. Around 10 p.m. that night, the two students were transferred to the 4th Police Precinct. Upon learning of this, students from both schools gathered and protested to the 4th Police Precinct, demanding severe punishment for the responsible personnel, compensation for medical expenses, and an apology from the police chief. Although the two students were released after 11 P.M. that night, they did not receive an apology from the chief of the Taipei City Police Department. Consequently, the inspector-general and precinct chief, representing the police chief, were brought to the dormitory of National Taiwan University by students. As the students' demands were not clearly addressed, on the morning of March 21, students from both schools protested again at the Taipei City Police Headquarters and presented five demands to the police chief, Liu Jian-Lieh, including a public apology from the police chief to the injured students, and publishing a guarantee in the newspaper that similar incidents would not occur again. If these demands were met, the students would return to schools. After negotiations, Chief Liu apologized, the offending police officer was put under surveillance, and a public apology was published in the newspaper, after which the students returned to school.
As the civil war between the Nationalists and Communists intensified, there were continuous calls for peace talks between the two parties. Student movements across the country also gained momentum. The Communist Party instructed its branches in various schools to combine student struggles for livelihood with political struggles against the Kuomintang, sparking student movements across the country. Due to rising prices and living difficulties, students from National Taiwan University and Teachers College protested or submitted letters to the government authorities repeatedly, demanding scholarships and improvement of food provisions. These protestors usually consisted of students from Mainland China, they seemed to echo the student movements across China calling for "an end to the civil war and peaceful salvation of the country" and "opposition to hunger and persecution."
On March 29th, Youth Day, university and high school students in Taipei held a bonfire celebration at the sports field in the law school of National Taiwan University, announcing the establishment of the Taiwan Student League and the Taipei City Joint Student Union of Universities and High Schools, based on the student autonomous bodies of various schools. Yeh Cheng-Song, a student from the law school of National Taiwan University, served as the president. Taking the demands of student movements across China such as "ending the civil war and peacefully saving the country" and "opposing hunger, opposing persecution" as their own, they called for the unity of students across Taiwan. At that time, Yeh Cheng-Song was also the secretary of the Communist Party's Taiwan Provincial Working Committee at the law school of National Taiwan University. Using the student association as a cover, he actively developed organizational activities and propaganda. His activism on campus indicated that Communist Party had infiltrated the campus.
On April 1st, a student demonstration supporting the Communist Party's views took place in Nanjing. Upon his return to Taiwan from Nanjing, Provincial Governor Chen Cheng, after hearing about the activities of Taiwanese students, believed that the situation was worsening. To prevent Taiwanese students from aligning with the student movements in China, he decided to take preemptive actions and carry out a strong suppression. Before launching the arrests, Chen Cheng called for meetings several times to discuss solutions. Fu Ssu-Nien, the president of National Taiwan University at that time, agreed and proposed the principle of "act quickly, act thoroughly, and avoid bloodshed." However, Hsieh Tung-Min, the dean of Teachers College, did not dare to agree due to the seriousness of the matter. On April 5th, the Taiwan Provincial Security Command issued the first batch of arrest lists, including 14 students from National Taiwan University and 6 from Teachers College.
In the early hours of April 6th, military police blockaded the student dormitory of Teachers College, demanding that the students surrender those listed for arrest, but they were met with resistance as students barricaded themselves with tables and chairs. During the standoff, Hsieh Tung-Min twice demanded that the students hand over the listed students but to no avail. In the early morning, the military police forcefully entered the dormitory, serious conflict broke out, and approximately three hundred students were taken for questioning to the barracks of the Third Army Division(now Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall). At the same time, military police also surrounded the student dormitories on Hsin Sheng S. Rd. and Tsing Tao W. Rd. at National Taiwan University, but there were no major conflicts as university staff identified students on the list for arrests. Nonetheless, some students resisted during the arrests, and were taken away by the military police on charges of obstructing official duties, resulting in the arrests of about thirty to forty students.
In response to the arrests of students, Taiwan Provincial Governor and Commander-in-Chief Chen Cheng issued a public statement on "Rectifying Student Behavior". On April 7th, he ordered the Provincial Teachers College to suspend classes, requiring students to re-register. On the 8th, the "Student Behavior Rectification Committee" was established. The president of the College Hsieh Dong-Min resigned, and Liu Chen assumed the position of Director of the Committee and acted as interim president. Subsequently, on the 11th, Chen Cheng hosted a banquet for the college's teachers, reiterating the purpose and determination to rectify student behavior. After several meetings and discussions, thirty-six students from the college were expelled, and classes resumed on April 29th.
On the other hand, Fu Ssu-Nien, the president of National Taiwan University, continued to negotiate with the Security Command, requesting the release of students not on the arrest list and lawful trials for those on the list. NTU announced the resumption of classes from April 9th, while on April 6th, students had organized the "April 6 Incident Rescue Committee" and launched a rescue operation. On the 12th, the Rescue Committee explained the incident to the public, and the NTU Student Autonomy Association held another rally, hoping to unite all students under the protection of the faculty, but to no avail. On the 13th, National Taiwan University officially resumed classes. On the 15th, Lin Rong-Hsun, Chairman of the NTU Student Autonomy Association, and student representative Lu Jue-Hui held a press conference, demanding that President Fu Ssu-Nien rescue the students and bring the case to a swift conclusion. However, the university cited that the conference did not consult with the president and director of discipline beforehand, resulting in Lu Jue-Hui receiving punishment for two major demerits, and Lin Rong-Hsun receiving a warning.
Impacts and Reparation
editThe academia generally regards the April 6 Incident as the suppression of student movements. In fact, on April 6th, several persons not from these two schools were also arrested, including writer Yang Kui, Chien Kuo High School student Chang Guang-Zhi (pen name Heh Wugan), journalist Shi Hsi-Mei (pen name Gelei), Dong Pei-Huang, Chong Ping-Shan, among others. The suspension of the "Bridge" supplement of the Taiwan Hsin Shen News Daily due to the arrest of its editor-in-chief Shi Hsi-Mei caused the cessation of the reconstruction discourse of Taiwan literature centered around the Daily, resulting in significant impacts on the exchange of new and traditional literature between postwar China and Taiwan, as well as the development of Taiwanese literature and culture.
After the April 6 Incident, the arrests of students by the Taiwan Provincial Security Command continued, and the pursuit operations persisted into the 1950s. On May 19, 1949, the Taiwan Provincial Security Command issued martial law throughout Taiwan. And starting on the 27th, further decrees were issued to prohibit public gatherings, associations, protests, strikes, and school walkouts, aiming to consolidate stability within Taiwan. Thus the April 6 Incident is regarded as the prelude to the White Terror and a significant turning point in the postwar transformation of Taiwan's academic atmosphere. After the April 6 Incident, the state enhanced its control over ideology by conducting party-state education and anti-communist propaganda. Military officers were stationed on campuses, in the name of strengthened military training in schools, resulting in limitation over free speech on all campuses.
In 1995, student clubs from National Taiwan University and National Taiwan Normal University(formerly Taiwan Provincial Teachers College) initiated the April 6 Incident reparation. In addition to petitioning the Control Yuan to establish an investigation team for the April 6 Incident, they also demanded the release of archival materials from both universities to the public. In June of the same year, the Academic Affairs Council of the National Taiwan University decided to form an investigation team for the April 6 Incident to collect and reorganize related information. In June 1997, a summary report was submitted, interpreting the April 6 Incident as a proactive response by students to the dilemma of the Chinese Civil War. The report viewed April 6 as a spontaneous demonstration of students, unrelated to Communist Party instigation or government subversion. Unfortunately, it faced severe repression from government authorities, resulting in a shift towards conservatism on campuses.
In addition, during the March 1996 Academic Affairs Council meeting of National Taiwan Normal University, considering the severe impacts and tragedies caused to students by the April 6 Incident, it was deemed necessary to conduct a reexamination and uncover the truth. The decision therefore was made to establish the "April 6 Incident Research Group" at NTNU. In June 1997, a research report was submitted, detailing the causes, course of events, actions taken by the Student Discipline Committee, and punishment imposed upon students. It concluded that the April 6 Incident marked the beginning of political intervention in higher education by security agencies from the government. NTNU also found the reasons for expelling some students to be questionable.
In December 2000, the government of the Republic of China amended the "The Compensation and Redress for Political Cases during the Martial Law Period in Taiwan”, adding victims of the April 6 Incident as eligible recipients, with related determinations and compensations in charged by the “Compensation Foundation for Improperly Handled Insurrection and Espionage Trials during the Period of Martial Law”. On January 11, 2001, Minister of Education Tseng Chi-Lang, on behalf of the government, apologized to the students and their families for the suffering, declaring that the incident was unrelated to Communist infiltration and subversion, but rather stemmed from demands for social justice. The victims of the April 6 Incident received official vindication eventually.