On February 28, 1947, on the island of Taiwan, police confiscated cigarettes being sold illegally by a woman, who was injured by the officers. When news of the incident spread, residents violently rebelled against the mainland Chinese, who governed Taiwan. Commercial signs with the ideograms spelling "China" were removed, and in some cases, Japanese-language signs reading "Away with Military Tyrants" appeared. Violent incidents also occurred, with mobs attacking anyone who could not respond to them in Japanese or the Taiwanese dialect.

As the hours passed, the protests spread across the island. Taiwan's military governor, Chen-Yi, secretly requested reinforcements from the mainland. They arrived on March 8, 1947, and soldiers opened fire on the population. A few days later, order was completely restored. Reprisals targeted anyone who might pose a threat to the regime: teachers, doctors, lawyers, and students.

The February 28 incident was sparked by the islanders' growing resentment toward their new occupiers. Initially, at the beginning of Taiwan's handover from Japan to China, the Taiwanese welcomed their newfound homeland with welcoming committees and celebrations, but they soon changed their minds. The socioeconomic divide, Chen-Yi's authoritarianism, and the corruption spread by the mainlanders increased tensions between the governed and the rulers.

During the Japanese colonisation (1895-1945), the Taiwanese faced considerable discrimination, but also experienced great economic development. When the first Chinese soldiers arrived on the island in 1945, the inhabitants were astonished to see how crude, poorly disciplined, and dirty the Chinese troops were; most of these men came from rural China, which was vastly less industrialised than Taiwan.

Furthering the population's resentment were the raids on Taiwanese private property. Chinese bureaucrats sought to enrich themselves by requisitioning property, which they passed off as bequests from the Japanese colonisers. The Taiwanese even coined the saying "dogs go, pigs come." What they were referring to was that the Japanese, i.e., dogs, although intimidating, respected local property; the Chinese, on the other hand, the pigs, had nothing to offer and plundered everything.