The Kaohsiung Incident

On December 10, 1979 — International Human Rights Day — Formosa Magazine organized a massive public rally in Kaohsiung demanding democracy, an end to martial law, and the release of political prisoners. What began as a procession of torches down Chungshan Road escalated when authorities encircled the marchers with armored vehicles and tear gas, deploying riot police to forcefully disperse the crowd before launching mass arrests across the island over the following three weeks.

Core Dangwai figures including Shih Ming-teh, Huang Hsin-chieh, Annette Lu, Chen Chu, Lin Yi-hsiung, Yao Chia-wen, Chang Chun-hung, and Lin Hung-hsuan were indicted for "sedition" — a capital offense — and hauled before a military tribunal whose verdicts had historically been foregone conclusions. The trial proceeded under intense international scrutiny, however, with American congressional staff, Amnesty International observers, and foreign correspondents forcing the regime to open the courtroom to domestic press for the first time in a sedition case.

The defendants used that unprecedented opening to transform the dock into a pulpit: they delivered impassioned statements defending the legitimacy of peaceful assembly, cross-examined prosecution witnesses about torture during detention, and quoted the Republic of China Constitution back at their judges. Although the principal defendants received heavy sentences — from twelve years to life imprisonment — the Kaohsiung Incident instead sparked broader social sympathy and political awakening, deepened by the chilling February 1980 murder of Lin Yi-hsiung's mother and twin daughters while he was still in custody. The defendants' defense attorneys — including Chen Shui-bian, Frank Hsieh, Su Tseng-chang, You Ching, and Chang Chun-hsiung — later became key drivers of Taiwan's democratization, in many cases converting their courtroom experience directly into political careers.

This volume recreates the complete course of the Kaohsiung Incident, from the torchlit rally and the midnight arrests to the courtroom confrontations and the second-generation trauma that shaped an entire democratic cohort, presenting this pivotal event that changed Taiwan's destiny by turning a planned show of state strength into the opposition's most galvanizing public platform.