Today in Labor History February 28, 1947: The Kuomintang government in Taiwan put down an anti-government uprising known as the February 28 Incident. They killed 28,000 civilians. And in the White Terror that followed, the government killed, imprisoned or disappeared 30,000 more. These events helped spark the Taiwanese independence movement.
Today in Labor History December 10, 1949: The People’s Liberation Army began its siege of Chengu. This was the last city held by the Kuomintang (KMT) on mainland China. It forced Chiang Kai-shek’s troops and government to retreat to Taiwan. Then, on this same date in 1979, the Kuomintang, themselves, brutally suppressed pro-democracy protesters in Taiwan at the island’s first Human Rights Day celebration. The KMT arrested nearly all opposition leaders and held incommunicado for two months. The country had been under martial law and one-party (KMT) rule from 1949 until the late 1970s. In 1978, President Carter severed ties with the repressive island nation.
"Deliberately grounded on a tiny reef in the #SouthChinaSea, part of an island chain claimed by the two Asian countries, the #BRPSierraMadre is now the unlikely base for a detachment of Filipino marines who stand guard over the atoll, scanning the turquoise waters for Chinese ships." #AyunginShoal#SecondThomasShoal#Philippines