ABSTRACT
There has been much controversy about China’s rule over Taiwan before the end of the nineteenth century. After the defeat of the short-lived Dongning Kingdom (1661–1684) of the Ming loyalist and pirate Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga), the island was formally incorporated into the Chinese empire. From Beijing’s perspective, however, Taiwan was still considered a barbarous and dangerous stretch of wilderness on the very fringe of China’s cultural realm, whose unruly population was, according to a popular verdict of the time, renowned for “every three years an uprising, every five years a rebellion.” 1 China’s precarious hold over Taiwan, which was mostly limited to the Northern and Eastern coasts, was frequently called into question by Western powers: over the course of the nineteenth century, several shipwrecked crews had been attacked and killed by Taiwan’s war-like aboriginal tribes, 2 and the Chinese Imperial court was unwilling or unable to prevent or avenge these atrocities. This ambiguity became fully apparent in December 1871, when a Ryukyuan ship (over which Japan claimed authority) was shipwrecked on the Southern coast, and most of the 69 sailors on board fell victim to hostile aborigines. When the Japanese imperial court demanded indemnities for the lives and property lost, the authorities in Beijing refused on the grounds that the “unruly” aboriginal population of Southern Taiwan lay outside of China’s jurisdiction. This unsatisfying response triggered an angry Japanese punitive expedition in May 1874 that, however, had to be abandoned after a few months due to the heavy losses suffered from tropical diseases. In November 1874, after the Chinese court had finally consented to pay compensations, the Japanese duly withdrew their remaining forces.
