The original "White Terror" took place in 1815 following the return of King Louis XVIII to power; people suspected of having ties with the governments of the French Revolution or of Napoleon suffered arrest and execution. The term was originally intended as a reflection of "Reign of Terror", the most radical period of the Revolution.

More generally, the term is used, mainly by leftists to describe a right-wing counterrevolution.

In reference to the Chinese Civil War, the "White Terror" was an attempted suppression of Communists and Communist sympathizers by Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang government. Beginning in 1927, the White Terror spread through many major Chinese cities, most notably Shanghai.

A direct cause for the failure of the First United Front, Chiang's "Bloody Double Cross" saw his armies turn against their former Communist allies. Death Squads patrolled the cities, on order to shoot anyone suspected of Communist leanings.

In reference to the 228 Incident on Taiwan in 1947, the "White Terror" describes the suppression of political dissent and public discussion of the massacre. In the decades following the incident, many thousands of Taiwanese were imprisoned or executed for their real or perceived opposition to the Kuomintang government, leaving many native Taiwanese with a deep-seated bitterness to the mainlanders. Fear of discussing the 228 Incident gradually decreased with the lifting of martial law in 1987, cumulating in the establishment of an official public memorial and an apology by President Lee Teng-hui in 1995.

ja:白色テロ zh:白色恐怖