Kinmen
Kinmen, alternatively known as Quemoy, is a group of islands and a county of Taiwan, only east from the city of Xiamen in Fujian, located at the southeastern coast of the People's Republic of China, from which they are separated by Xiamen Bay. Kinmen is also west from the closest shoreline of the island of Taiwan across the Taiwan Strait.
The county consists of the major island of Kinmen along with several surrounding islets, as well as Wuqiu Township remotely located northeast from the rest of the county. Kinmen is one of two counties that constitute Fuchien Province; the other is Lienchiang County.
Kinmen's strategic location in the Taiwan Strait has caused numerous confrontations, making it a visible embodiment of political change on cross-strait relations. In August 1958, Kinmen was heavily bombarded by the People's Liberation Army during the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis. Travel restrictions between Kinmen and the main island of Taiwan were lifted in 1994 following the end of decades-long military administration over Kinmen. A direct ferry route to Xiamen was inaugurated in January 2001 following the establishment of the Three Links.
The People's Republic of China claims Kinmen as part of its own Fujian Province and considers Wuqiu to be a separate territory of Fujian apart from Kinmen itself; conversely, the ROC claims the Dadeng Islands as part of Kinmen, even though the PRC has effectively transferred the jurisdiction of those islands to Xiamen.
Names
Kinmen means 'golden gate'. The name was first recorded in 1387 when the Hongwu Emperor appointed Zhou Dexing to administer the island and protect it from pirate attacks. The spelling "Kinmen" is a postal romanization. This transcription system is a variation of Nanking Syllabary, a system developed by Herbert Giles in 1892. It was adopted by the Chinese Imperial Post, part of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service led by Irishman Robert Hart. It is based on pronunciation in the Southern Mandarin, or Jianghuai, dialect. This dialect is widely spoken in Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, including the city of Nanjing. The Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs uses "Kinmen," while the United States Board on Geographic Names gives "Kinmen Island." Jinmen is the island's name both in Tongyong Pinyin and in Hanyu Pinyin. Chin-men / Chinmen is the Wade–Giles romanization of the county and island's name.Quemoy, pronounced , is a name for the island in English and in other European languages. It may have originated as a Spanish or Portuguese transcription of the Zhangzhou Hokkien pronunciation of the name, Kim-mûi. This is the most common form of the islands' name in English. For example, works that deal with the First and Second Taiwan Strait Crises and the 1960 United States presidential election debates when the islands received prominent worldwide news coverage all use the word Quemoy. In addition, the former National Kinmen Institute of Technology was renamed National Quemoy University in 2010. Kinmen scholar Wei Jian-feng advocates the use of the word Quemoy to better connect the island to "international society or achieve more recognition in the world". Kimoi is a Hokkien-derived spelling also used in the postal romanization system.
History
Humans have lived on Kinmen for 5,800 to 8,000 years. During the reign of Emperor Yuan, the Five Barbarians invasion of China led six extended families to flee south and they settled in Kinmen, then called Wuzhou. More people settled there during the Tang dynasty, changing the name from Wuzhou to Kinmen.During the Ming dynasty, more migrants settled in Kinmen. Koxinga used Kinmen as a base to capture Formosa and Penghu from the Dutch. He cut down trees to build his navy, resulting in massive deforestation that made Kinmen vulnerable to soil erosion.
The Prince of Lu, a member of the Southern Ming dynasty, resisted the invading Manchu Qing dynasty forces. In 1651, he fled to Kinmen, which the Qing dynasty took in 1663. During the Qing Dynasty, the Kinmen area was part of Tungan County.
20th century
After the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912, Kinmen became part of Fujian Province. In 1913, the Kinmen area was made part of Siming County. Kinmen County was established in 1914. In 1928, the county came under direct administration of the provincial government.The Empire of Japan captured Kinmen in 1937 during the Second Sino-Japanese War. They blockaded the island on September 3 and landed on October 23. Fighting was light with ROC forces fleeing rather than fighting. The only casualty was sustained by a local self-defense unit. Many of the residents fled to the mainland or to Southeast Asia. The purpose of the Japanese seizure of Kinmen was to use it as a position from which to attack the neighboring city of Xiamen which they would seize in May 1938. Following the seizure of Xiamen many of the locals who had fled there returned to Kinmen.
After the capture of the island the county government went into exile in Dadeng. The Japanese administered Kinmen as a special municipality of Xiamen; the government was composed of locals, people from other parts of occupied China, and Taiwanese.
A poor harvest in 1938 brought challenges for islanders. The Japanese engaged in economic development of the island including through the use of forced labor. KMT forces engaged in two serious attempts to retake the island and kept up a low level campaign against the Japanese. In 1943, insurgents kidnapped two Taiwanese officials who had been overseeing the salt fields and took them to China before executing them. In retaliation the Japanese authorities rounded up 300 young men from the local community eventually executing four.
Towards the end of World War II conditions worsened with Japanese authorities conscripting 500 locals into the military and confiscating household goods. The island came under allied bombing including one attack on 30 August 1944 which killed 19 locals.
Post-war
World War II ended on 15 August 1945 with the surrender of Japan. Following the end of the war there were attacks by locals against Taiwanese who took shelter with the Japanese garrison. Kinmen was effectively ungoverned until 3 October 1945 when ROC forces landed and installed a new government. A celebration on October 10 marked the end of hostilities. Locals who had survived the war following their conscription by the Japanese were treated as traitors by the KMT occupation authorities.After the establishment of the People's Republic of China by the Chinese Communists in October 1949, Kinmen County was claimed by both the Nationalists and the Communists. Dadeng, Xiaodeng and Jiaoyu were taken by the Communists on 9 October or 15 October 1949. While those islands are still claimed by the ROC, they are governed as part of Dadeng Subdistrict, Xiang'an District, Xiamen, Fujian, China.
On 25 October 1949, People's Liberation Army forces landed on Kinmen Island near Guningtou beginning the Battle of Kuningtou. ROC forces successfully defended the island and prevented an attack on Taiwan.
At the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, retired Admiral Charles M. Cooke Jr., advisor to President Chiang Kai-shek, opposed withdrawing ROC forces from Quemoy. On 26 July 1950, ROC forces on Dadan Island, in total 298 soldiers, repulsed an attack from a People's Liberation Army force of 700 soldiers that landed on the island. General Douglas MacArthur and other US officials supported ROC efforts to defend the islands.
The PLA extensively shelled the island during the First and Second Taiwan Strait crises in 1954–1955 and 1958 respectively. In 1954, the United States considered responding by using nuclear weapons against the PRC. Again in 1958, General Nathan Farragut Twining and the Joint Chiefs of Staff believed that the United States should not permit the loss of the islands to the communists and recommended to President Eisenhower the use of whatever force was necessary, including atomic weapons.
The phrase "Quemoy and Matsu" became part of American political language in the 1960 U.S. presidential election. During the debates, both candidates, Vice President Richard Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy, pledged to use American forces if necessary to protect Taiwan from invasion by the PRC, which the United States did not recognize as a legitimate government. But in the second debate on 7 October 1960, the two candidates presented different opinions about whether to use American forces to protect Taiwan's forward positions, Quemoy and Matsu, also. Senator Kennedy stated that these islands – as little as 9 kilometres off the coast of China and as much as 170 kilometres from Taiwan – were strategically indefensible and were not essential to the defense of Taiwan. Vice President Nixon maintained that since Quemoy and Matsu were in the "area of freedom," they should not be surrendered to the Communists as a matter of principle.
Earlier in the debate, then-Vice President Nixon mentioned:
Later in the debate, Edward P. Morgan asked then-Senator Kennedy:
Then-Senator Kennedy responded to Morgan's question saying:
Then–Vice President Nixon retorted:
After the third debate on 13 October 1960, Kennedy's advisers spoke with then Secretary of State Herter and said Kennedy was willing to revise his position on the Quemoy and Matsu issue so as not to give the Communists the impression that the USA would not stand united against aggression. Nixon pointed out the change in Kennedy's position but decided not to press the point due to the importance of the USA's role in what was an extremely tense situation. Nixon's polls among Republicans and Democrats showed overwhelming support for Nixon's position on the issue.
File:Three Principles of the People Unites China.jpg|thumb|"Three Principles of the People Unify China" Wall built before the 1987 Lieyu massacre on Dadan Island facing mainland China.
Kinmen was originally a military reserve under the martial law curfews, which eventually led to the tragedies of innocent civilian casualties, such as the 1985 Shi Islet slaughter and the 1987 Lieyu massacre. The island was returned to the civilian government in the mid-1990s, after which travel to and from it was allowed. Direct travel between mainland China and Kinmen re-opened in January 2001 under the mini Three Links, and there has been extensive tourism development on the island in anticipation of mainland tourists. Direct travel was suspended in 2003 as a result of the SARS outbreak, but has since resumed.
Many Taiwanese businessmen use the link through Kinmen to enter the Chinese mainland, seeing it as cheaper and easier than entering through Hong Kong. However, this changed following the 2005 Pan–Blue visits to mainland China and the 2008 presidential and legislative victories of the KMT, that allowed easier cross-Strait relations. Kinmen has experienced a considerable economic boom as businessmen relocate to the island for easier access to the vast markets of the PRC.
On 30 June 2014, Dadan Island and Erdan Island were handed over from the military to civilians, represented by Kinmen County Government. Since 1 January 2015, tourists from mainland China could directly apply for the Entry & Exit Permit for Taiwan upon arrival in Kinmen. This privilege also applies to Penghu and Matsu Islands as means to boost tourism in the outlying islands of Taiwan.
On 23 August 2019, the sixty-first anniversary of the beginning of the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis, President Tsai Ing-wen visited the Taiwushan martyrs' shrine in Mount Taiwu where she placed flowers and offered incense.