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The 228 Incident (Chinese: 二二八事件; pinyin: èr èr bā shìjiàn; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Jī-jī-pat sū-kiāⁿ) or 228 Massacre was an uprising in the Republic of China (Taiwan) that began on February 28, 1947 and was suppressed by the Kuomintang government, resulting in thirty thousand or sixty thousand civilians killed. The number "228" refers to the date of the incident, February 28.

This event is now commemorated in Taiwan as Peace Memorial Day. Official government policy had repressed the education of the events until recently, for various reasons. Many of the details of the incident are still highly controversial and hotly debated in Taiwan today, as the largely conservative-controlled government often tries to stifle discussion on the topic. Some people point to Communist involvement as a "justification" for the KMT's action.

Taiwan was placed under the administrative control of the Republic of China after 50 years of colonial rule by Japan two years earlier by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), and tensions between the local Taiwanese and mainlanders from China had increased in the intervening years. The flashpoint came on February 27, 1947 in Taipei when a dispute between a female cigarette vendor and an anti-smuggling officer triggered civil disorder and open rebellion that would last for days. The uprising was shortly put down by the military of the Republic of China.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/228_Incident

The options for china were three: The communists, the nationalists, or the warlords. They could choose industrialization, corruption, and brutality;
corruption, incompetence, and brutality; or feudalism, corruption, and brutality.