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The military history of Taiwan spans at least 400 years and is the history of battles and armed actions that took place in Taiwan and its surrounding islands. The objective to take advantage of Taiwan's geographic location gave rise to several conflicts with and among European colonial powers in the 17th century. With Qing and Japanese imperial rule spanning a combined two centuries, armed resistance and revolts were common between and during regime shifts, and Taiwanese served under various armies historically.

Following World War II and the retreat of the Republic of China to Taiwan in the 1940s, Taiwan's military has been the Republic of China Armed Forces. Until 1972, a primary aim of the Chiang Kai-shek-controlled armed forces was to retake mainland China by large-scale invasion. In the modern era, the focus of Taiwan's military has been national defense to thwart any possible attacks primarily from China and its People's Liberation Army forces.

Early contacts and settlements

Early records refer to an eastern island named Yizhou, to which troops of Three Kingdoms state of Eastern Wu visited as early as 230. Some scholars believe this island was Taiwan, while others dispute the theory. The Book of Sui relates that Emperor Yang of the Sui dynasty sent three expeditions to a place called "Liuqiu" early in the 7th century. Historically, the name Liuqiu (whose characters are read in Japanese as Ryukyu) referred to the island chain to the northeast of Taiwan, but some scholars believe it may have referred to Taiwan in the Sui period. Okinawa Island may have been referred to by the Chinese as "Great Liuqiu" and Taiwan as "Little Liuqiu".

During the Yuan dynasty, a patrol and inspection agency (Chinese: 巡檢司) was set up in Penghu around 1281, and Han Chinese settlers were recorded to have visited Taiwan. Yuan emperor Kublai Khan sent officials to the Ryukyu Kingdom in 1292 to demand its loyalty to the Yuan dynasty, but the officials ended up in Taiwan and mistook it for Ryukyu. After three soldiers were killed, the delegation immediately retreated to Quanzhou in China. Another expedition was sent in 1297. Wang Dayuan visited Taiwan in 1349 and noted that the customs of its inhabitants were different from those of Penghu's population, but did not mention the presence of other Chinese.

The Chinese pirates Lin Daoqian and Lin Feng visited Taiwan in 1563 and 1574 respectively. Lin Daoqian was a Hakka pirate from Chaozhou who was chased out of Fujian in 1563 by Ming naval forces led by Yu Dayou and fled to Beigang in southwestern Taiwan. He left the next year to ravage the mainland and stayed active in the region until 1578 when he left for Southeast Asia. Lin Feng moved his pirate forces to Wankan (in modern Chiayi County) in Taiwan on 3 November 1574 and used it as a base to launch raids. They left for Penghu after being attacked by natives and the Ming navy dislodged them from their bases. He later returned to Wankan on 27 December 1575 but left for Southeast Asia after losing a naval encounter with Ming forces on 15 January 1576. The pirate Yan Siqi also used Taiwan as a base.

Chen Di visited Taiwan in 1603 on an expedition against the Wokou pirates. The pirates were defeated and they met a native chieftain who presented them with gifts. Chen recorded these events in an account of Taiwan known as Dongfanji (An Account of the Eastern Barbarians) and described the natives of Taiwan and their lifestyle.

In 1616, the Tokugawa shogunate sent a fleet of 13 ships and 4,000 warriors in an attempt to conquer Taiwan as part of a larger campaign to strengthen Japanese sea power and facilitate its silk trade. Due to a typhoon, invasion forces were dispersed, and only one ship reached Taiwan.

Dutch and Spanish colonies (1624–1662)

In 1542, Portuguese sailors arrived in Taiwan and noted it on their maps as Ilha Formosa (lit. 'beautiful island').

Defeated by the Portugese at the Battle of Macau in 1622, the Dutch East India Company attempted to take Penghu in 1624, building Fengguiwei Fort in Magong. Dutch forces were driven out by Ming authorities and retreated to a sandy peninsula of Tayuan (present-day Anping District) and built a defensive fort to act as a base of operations. This temporary fort was replaced four years later by the more substantial Fort Zeelandia.

In 1626, Spanish forces landed at Cape Santiago in northern Taiwan. They eventually moved westward to modern-day Keelung, where they established Santisima Trinidad as a base for the new colony. They seized the territory from aboriginal inhabitants or destroyed their residences, promising to pay for the damages. According to historian Jose Eugenio Borao Mateo, the Spanish colonists did not ask for tribute from the aboriginal inhabitants, "because in practice they did not consider the natives as vassals, but as heathens to be converted, neighbors and service suppliers."

In 1641, governor of Dutch Formosa Paulus Traudenius launched an expedition on the Spanish settlement of San Salvador in modern-day Keelung. The Spanish positions were well-defended, and Dutch forces were not able to breach the walls of Fort San Salvador. In the following year, the Dutch launched a second assault and successfully captured San Salvador.

An armed peasant revolt led by Guo Huaiyi broke out against the Dutch colonists in 1652 as a response to Dutch head taxes imposed on Han Chinese farmers. With help from aboriginal allies, the Dutch crushed the rebels and Guo was shot and decapitated.

The Dutch ended their rule in Formosa after a months-long Siege of Fort Zeelandia led by Ming loyalist Koxinga, who then established the Kingdom of Tungning.

Kingdom of Tungning (1661–1683)

Koxinga instituted a Ming-style administration modeled on the Six Ministries structure: civil service, revenue, rites, war, punishment, and public works.

In June 1683, Qing admiral Shi Lang, who previously served in Zheng Zhilong's naval fleet then defected in 1646, led a force of 300 warships to Penghu. The Battle of Penghu lasted a little over a week and ended the reign of Tungning.

Qing dynasty (1683–1895)

The Qing administration considered Taiwan a remote backwater territory until the 1870s, when the Japanese invaded Taiwan after what became known as the Mudan incident.

In August 1884, French admiral Amédée Courbet commenced the Keelung campaign in northern Taiwan. In October 1884, Qing defeated Courbet’s Far East Squadron at the Battle of Tamsui, a rare French defeat in the Sino-French War. Courbet dispatched an infantry battalion to capture Penghu in the Pescadores campaign in March 1885.

Advances from the Keelung offensives and Penghu were ultimately overshadowed by the French retreat from Lạng Sơn, which in part brought about the end of the war.

After the French withdrawal, the Qing imperial court decided to separate Taiwan from Fujian as its 20th province, with Liu Mingchuan serving as its first provincial governor.

Japanese Empire (1895–1945)

According to statistics released in 1973, a total of 207,183 Taiwanese served in the Imperial Japanese Army between 1937 and 1945, most as auxiliary forces performing tasks such as transporting arms and helping with agriculture.

World War II

As the Empire of Japan entered World War II, its war efforts included the conscription of Taiwanese soldiers. Official recruitment and conscription in Taiwan began in January 1945.

The Kinkaseki prisoner of war camp was set up in Jinguashi, where around 4,350 Allied soldiers were held captive between 1942 and 1945. The prisoners were forced to work in copper mines under poor conditions.

Of the approximately 210 thousand Taiwanese who served in the Imperial Japanese Army, a total of about 30,000 died in the war. For those who stayed in Taiwan after the war, legislative measures paved the way for a compensation system in 1987 to pay 2 million yen to severely disabled veterans and war-bereaved families. For many Taiwanese veterans and civilian workers who lived in Japan, however, government compensation was denied because they were considered foreign nationals under the Alien Registration Ordinance.

Republic of China and martial law (1945–1987)

On 26 July 1945, the United States, United Kingdom, and Republic of China jointly released the Potsdam Declaration, calling for Japan's surrender. Under the terms, Japan was to be reduced to her pre-1894 territory and stripped of her pre-war empire including Korea and Taiwan, as well as all her recent conquests. On 15 August, Emperor Hirohito announced the Japan’s unconditional surrender. On 2 September, the surrender was formalized in the Japanese Instrument of Surrender.

On 25 October 1945, Governor-General Rikichi Andō handed over the administration of Taiwan and the Penghu islands to Kuomintang official Chen Yi, who accepted the surrender on behalf of the Allied forces under the authorization of General Douglas MacArthur’s General Order No. 1.

As part of the Treaty of San Francisco signed in 1951, “Japan renounces all right, title and claim to Formosa and the Pescadores.” Though the legal status of Taiwan remained undetermined, the treaty’s travaux préparatoires showed a consensus among the states present at the San Francisco Peace Conference that this status would be resolved at a later time in accordance with the principles of peaceful settlement of disputes and self-determination.

Modern era

When the United States Congress enacted the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for FY 2003 on 30 September 2002, it required that Taiwan be "treated as though it were designated a major non-NATO ally." The Bush administration subsequently submitted a letter to Congress on 29 August 2003, designating Taiwan as an MNNA.

Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, public interest in civil defense saw a resurgence due to the threat from China. As of 2022, the Taiwanese civil defense units had 420,000 registered volunteers. In 2023, training shifted to more of a wartime focus with 70% of exercises dedicated to wartime scenarios and 30% of exercises dedicated to natural disaster scenarios, from a previous 50–50 split. Private organizations like Kuma Academy and Forward Alliance provide civil defense and disaster response training to civilians in Taiwan.

In September 2023, President Tsai Ing-wen launched Taiwan's first domestically built submarine into the harbor of Kaohsiung. The submarine, named Haikun (Chinese: 海鯤), cost $1.54 billion and was set to be delivered to the Republic of China Navy by the end of 2024. The goal of Taiwan's domestic submarine program, according to the head of the program Huang Shu-kuang, was to fend off any attempt from China to encircle Taiwan for an invasion or impose a naval blockade. The Haikun uses a Lockheed Martin combat system and will carry American-made torpedoes.

In 2023, China deployed 1,709 military jets into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, compared to 1,738 in 2022 and 972 in 2021. Analysts see the flights as a form of gray-zone activity.

See also

• National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology
• Conscription in Taiwan

References

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