Taiwan Province - History

History

In 1683, following a naval engagement with Admiral Shi Lang, Koxinga's (Cheng Ch'eng Kung) grandson Zheng Keshuang and ruler of Taiwan submitted to the Qing Dynasty (then romanised as Ch'ing Dynasty). Then the Qing Dynasty ruled the Taiwanese archipelago (including Penghu) as Taiwan Prefecture of Fujian Province. In 1875, Taipei Prefecture was separated from Taiwan Prefecture. In 1885, the Taiwanese archipelago was made a separate province.

In 1895, the Taiwanese Archipelago, including Penghu, was ceded to Japan following the First Sino-Japanese War. Under Japanese rule, the province was abolished in favour of Japanese-style divisions. After Japan surrendered in 1945 Republic of China obtained control of Taiwan.

The ROC government immediately established Taiwan Provincial Government under first Chief Executive Chen Yi in September 1945. Chen was extremely unpopular and his rule led to an uprising - the 228 incident. Chen was recalled in May 1947 and the government-general was abolished.

When the Republic of China government was relocated to Taipei in 1949 as a result of the Kuomintang's (KMT) defeat by the Chinese Communist Party forces in the Chinese Civil War, the provincial administration remained in place under the claim that the ROC was still the government of all of China even though the opposition argued that it overlapped inefficiently with the national government.

The seat of the provincial government was moved from Taipei to Zhongxing New Village (Chunghsing Village) in 1956. Historically Taiwan Province covers the entire island of Taiwan and all its associated islands. The city of Taipei was split off to become a province-level municipality in 1967, and the city of Kaohsiung was split off in 1979 to become another province-level municipality. In December 2010, Kaohsiung County left the province and merged with the original Kaohsiung City to become an expanded Kaohsiung City, Taipei County became the province-level municipality "New Taipei". The cities and counties of Taichung and Tainan were also merged, respectively, and elevated to province level.

Until 1992, the governor of Taiwan province was appointed by the ROC central government. The office was often a stepping stone to higher office.

In 1992, the post of the governor of the province was opened to election. The then-opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) agreed to retain the province with an elected governor in the hopes of creating a "Yeltsin effect" in which a popular local leader could overwhelm the national government. These hopes proved unfulfilled as then-Kuomintang member James Soong was elected governor of the Taiwan province by a wide margin defeating the DPP candidate Chen Ding-nan.

In 1997, as the result of an agreement between the KMT and the DPP, the administration of the province was streamlined in curtailed constitutional changes. For example, the post of provincial governor and the provincial assembly were both abolished and replaced with a nine-member special council. Although the stated purpose was administrative efficiency, Soong and his supporters claim that it was actually intended to destroy James Soong's power base and eliminate him from political life, though it did not have this effect. In addition, the provincial legislature was abolished while the Legislative Yuan was expanded to include some of the former provincial legislators.

The provincial administration has been greatly streamlined in 1998, and handled most of its power to the central government. The counties and provincial cities under the province then considered to be the primary divisions in the country. In contrast to the past where the head of Taiwan province was considered a major official, the Governor of the Taiwan Provincial Government after 1999 has been considered a very minor position.