Bai Chongxi - Involvement in Taiwan

Involvement in Taiwan

The riots following the 228 Incident of 28 February 1947 that broke out in Taiwan due to poor governance by the central government appointed officials and the garrison forces caused many casualties of both native Taiwanese and mainland residents. Bai was sent as Chiang Kai-shek's personal representative on a fact finding mission and to help pacify the populace. After a two week tour, including interviews with various segments of the Taiwan population, Bai made sweeping recommendations, including replacement of the governor, and prosecution of his chief of secret police. He also granted amnesty to student violators of peace on the condition that their parents take custody and guarantee subsequent proper behavior. For his forthright actions, native Taiwanese held him in high regard.

Bai had another falling out with Chiang when he supported General Li Zongren, his fellow Guangxi comrade-in-arms, for the vice presidency in the 1948 general election when Li won against Chiang's hand picked candidate, Sun Fo. Chiang then removed Bai from the Defense Minister post and assigned him the responsibility for Central and South China. Bai's forces were the last ones to leave the mainland for Hainan Island and eventually to Taiwan.

He served Chief of the General Staff since 1927 until his retirement in 1949. After he came to Taiwan, he was the appointed vice director of the strategic advisory commission in the presidential office. He also continued to serve in the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang . He reorganized the party from 1950-1952.

After the Communist victory, some of Bai Chongxi's Guangxi troops fled to French Indochina where they were detained. Others went to Hainan in retreat.

In 1951, Bai Chongxi made a speech to the entire Muslim world calling for a war against the Soviet Union, claiming that the "imperialist ogre" leader Joseph Stalin was engineering World War III, and Bai also called upon Muslims to avoid the Indian leader Jawaharlal Nehru, accusing him of being blind to Soviet imperialism.

He and Chiang never reconciled and he lived in semi-retirement until he died of cerebral thrombosis on 1 December 1966 at the age of 73.

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Bai was then given a military funeral by the government, with a Kuomintang Blue Sky with a White Sun flag over his coffin. Bai was buried in the Muslim section of the Liuzhangli (六張犁) Cemetery in Taipei, Taiwan.