One does not need to search very thoroughly to find mountains of work on the rise of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the revolution of 1949 or “miracle” economic growth on Taiwan after the Kuomintang (KMT or “Nationalists”) took power following its retreat from the mainland.

What is difficult is finding literature that treats the two incidents of 1949 as two sides of the same coin. Because Taiwan quickly became a market-oriented, pro-capitalist American ally, while China adopted socialist policies at home and revolutionary ones abroad, the idea of comparing the development of the two seemed somewhat pointless.

So, many studies of the two begin with 1949, as if the events preceding were the history of some third country. And yet, these decades paved the way for revolutions on both the mainland and on the island of Formosa. Indeed, there certainly was an island revolution. That revolution was primarily a socio-economic one. Later, democracy would bloom in Taiwan. Taiwan’s successful economy and eventually successful democracy made it one of Asia’s proudest success stories. Numerou

However, the situation was not as well as it seemed. For starters, economic growth was confined to the industrial coast. On top of that, the agricultural areas of the “hinterland” were doing poorly, suffering from hard economic times and drought. The KMT’s position was not helped by the fact that conditions in the rural areas resembled something almost feudal. Landlords owned huge swaths of land and twisted as much money and production out of their tenants as possible, allowing most farmers on a subsistence existence. Most importantly, however, was the fact that the Chinese state was essentially bankrupt by the end of the 1920s that truly damned the KMT in the rural west. Imperial China had seen agriculture yield increase during the 19th Century, along with the population. Despite the potential for revenue, the state’s only source of money was a small 5% to 6% tax on the harvest (as opposed to 30% to 40% in Japan). The state’s impotence allowed the hinterland to be run by landlords, who (as explained before) exploited the peasants. Despite the low official tax rate, peasants were effectively being saddled with a huge, regressive tax burden. Thus, any efforts to raise taxes by the national government amounted to a threat to the very existence of peasant families.

Some topics in this essay:
China Taiwan, Kuo Liu, Furthermore KMT, Nationalist China, Imperial China, KMT CCP, Western Europe, Chiang KMT, KMT China, Northern Expedition, land reform, china taiwan, red army, chiang kai-shek, economic policies, economic growth, cultural revolution, chinese people, nationalist army, kmt china, chinese soviet republic, military leaders north, “crossing 1949 divide”, philip huang calls, taiwan land reform,