Authoritarian Era

Rents were capped in April 1949; martial law began on 20 May. The Korean War brought the Seventh Fleet into the strait. The purges reached Luku's miners and Tsou leaders. In 1955 Dachen islanders were evacuated, thirty kilos each.

From 1956 soldiers ran Matsu and lamps were shaded at night. In August 1958 nearly 57,000 shells fell on Kinmen in two hours. The next August, floods killed 667. Lei Chen was jailed in 1960 for organising a party.

Schooling went from six years to nine in 1968. That summer Bunun children from Hongye beat a Japanese Little League team. In 1970 prisoners at Taiyuan seized guns; five were executed. In 1971 the ROC walked out of the UN.

Women filled Kaohsiung's export zone from 1966. In 1973 an overloaded ferry capsized and twenty-five of them drowned on the way to work. Censors still read every magazine. In 1977 alleged vote-rigging in Zhongli ended with a police station burned.