Blog 8

Danielle Orrock

Blog 8

November 8, 2012

            Defining terms in Political Science is a difficult task. One term in particular is Genocide.  The textbook defines it as “a coordinated plan seeking to eliminate all members of a particular ethnic, religious, or national groups, through mass murder.” (Samuels, 2012, p. 279). In order to examine this definition further we will look at the example of the armed conflict that occurred in Taiwan in 1947.

            First some background on Taiwan.  Before and leading up to World War II Taiwan was under Japan’s control, and immediately following Japan’s loss in WWII China regained control over Taiwan (Taiwan’s 400 years of history). It was about a year and half later on February 27 that a policeman killed an elderly woman selling smuggled drugs that started a series of protests and mass killings. The Chinese government sent over soldiers and police who would openly shoot into crowds killing hundreds. It was a couple days later that the government decided to hunt down and jail or kill “students, intellectuals, prominent business men, and civic leaders” (Durdin). Over the one month period is it estimated that from 5,000 to 10,000 Taiwanese were killed (Newsweek).

            The first part of the definition sates that it genocide is coordinated, and with this example you see that. Even though, at first the killings might not have been coordinated, with the police and military just opening fire at large crowds of people, as time went by the did develop a strategy to their killings. Who they decided to kill is the second part of the definition. They began to go after the Taiwanese with power or influence or even knowledge, where once caught they were either imprisoned or executed (Durdin). The last part of the definition is that they kill through mass killings with the Chinese government succeeded in by opening fire on large groups of protestors.  

 With the term genocide one tends to think of it having to be on such a large scale as the holocaust, but as you can see this example fits in great with the definition. The only variance this example has with the definition is that the people the Chinese government wanted to get rid of would be best classified as a revolt. Although they were a national group, as mentioned in the definition, they were targeted because the Chinese wanted to crush their protests. It might also be confused with interstate warfare, but the fact that Taiwan was under Chinese’s control, doesn’t make the cut.  

The one addition I would make to the definition, would be to make revolt groups as another category of people that might be eliminated through mass murder.  So the new deifintion would be a coordinated plan seeking to eliminate all members of a particular ethnic, religious, national groups, or revolt groups, through mass murder.

Works Cited

Durdin, P. (1947, May 24). Terror in Taiwan. The nation. Retrieved from http://www.uta.edu/accounting/faculty/tsay/feb28tn.htm

Newsweek. (1947, April 7). Formosa: the bloody hand. Retrieved from http://www.taiwandc.org/228-intr.htm#News

Samuels, D. (2012). Comparative politics. University of Minnesota, Michigan: Pearson.

Taiwan’s 400 years of history. (2007). Retrieved from http://www.taiwandc.org/hst-1624.htm