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Some number of events in China prior to 1945, when the spotlight focused on Taiwan, should be highlighted before discussing the time period of conflict.
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The most important of these preceding events is the drastic change in the Chinese political system.
The Manchu dynasty was the last to reign in China, despite its efforts to modernize and eliminate its constituency's sense of deprivation.
Several rebellions succeeded one another until Dr. Sun Yat-sen, a Christian-educated former physician interested in westernizing the politics of China, successfully dislodged the Manchus from their seat of power in 1911.
The next year, Sun was elected the president of the newly formed Republic of China.
He mistakenly stepped down in favor of a powerful warlord to preserve national unity and prevent civil war; the warlord, in turn, attempted to reinstate the old dynastic system.
Sun was able to bring him down in 1916.
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Dr. Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925)
(courtesy of The Bretton Collection and Microsoft Corporation)
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Of great significance for Taiwan was the political party system Sun set up in his lifetime.
While fighting off warlords who were attempting to accede to dynastic rule, Sun established the Kuomintang (KMT), or Nationalist Party, and began to seek out ways to build his power.
The Soviets and the Communist Chinese provided military support; Communists were admitted into the KMT near the end of Sun's life.
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Dr. Sun's actions would have deep impact on Taiwan-China relations in the years following his death, but since he had no knowledge of these future consequences, his individual personality can't be considered in the final analysis.
More likely, Sun set up the stage for the ensuing drama.
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Two Leaders
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Out of the shadow of Dr. Sun Yat-sen came Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong, two historical leaders who would figure heavily in the coming conflict between Taiwan and China.
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Mao Zedong (1893 - 1976)
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Mao was born the son of a peasant, and worked his way to gain an education, which included much Marxist teaching.
After unsuccessfully pursuing a career in teaching, he turned to politics and helped organize the Chinese Communist party in 1921.
When the Communists allied with KMT in 1923, Mao became a full fledged party worker.
Soon, however, Mao began to see discrepancies between Soviet-style Communism and the sort of Communism that would work better with the Chinese people.
While Mao may have left a legacy of arguable merit, he did understand one thing very well: it was the people that made or broke a leader.
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Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975)
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Chiang began his career in the military, first meeting Dr. Sun while in military college.
Chiang joined Dr. Sun in his quest to eliminate dynastic rule, participating in all of Sun's major battles, before and after the initial overthrow.
After Sun died, Chiang was the one who was able to exert the most power over the KMT.
Being the leader, Chiang conducted military campaigns against the remaining warlords; he also terminated alliance with the Chinese Communists.
Chiang did not want to ally himself with the Soviets; despite his desires, he was forced to realign with the Chinese Communists to defeat invading Japanese as a unified force.
During this Sino-Japanese phase of the World War II, Chiang was recognized as the leader of China by the world.
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1945 - Present
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The end of World War in 1945 brought Mao's and Chiang's attentions back to each other, and civil war broke out.
During this civil war of Communist Chinese versus Nationalist Chinese, a player important later in the future attempted to intervene.
The United States tried to act as mediator between the fighting parties; failing the mediation attempt in 1947, the war came to a decisive Communist victory.
The Nationalist army collapsed in 1949 with the surrender of their top general, and Chiang and the KMT were forced to flee to the little island province of Taiwan.
The United States ended any further attacks on the Nationalists by sending in their Seventh Fleet (in part to prevent the spread of the Korean War) and training Nationalist troops, creating a shield for the new government to work behind.
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Much of the next decade was involved in building a power base by each respective leader.
Mao was elected president of his People's Republic of China (PROC), having earned support from the millions of peasents across the country.
Meanwhile, Chiang met with some degree of trouble in Taiwan.
His troops had gone to the island and not treated the native Taiwanese well; in 1947, they had massacred some of the population.
The Taiwanese, however, has become disillusioned with Communist rule, and when Chiang's government had been present for awhile, the island's attitude became a little less tense.
Chiang became president of the Republic of China (ROC); with economic and military assistance from the U.S., Chiang was able to firmly establish his government on the island.
By using Taiwanese in his government, and by strengthening the economy of Taiwan into a competitor in foreign trade, Chiang successfully created a platform on which to build a Taiwan of the future.
A Taiwan that began to look more and more like its own country.
For the purposes of this paper, from now on references to "Taiwan" and "the Taiwanese" indicate the mixture of KMT and native Taiwanese.
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Important Events
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Perhaps one of the most important "events" during this time period was the Cold War.
The "democracy against communism" struggle shaped foreign policy for many of the more powerful nations, especially the United States.
The U.S.'s role in the Taiwan-China conflict is large; by taking the anti-Communist stand on every issue, the U.S. naturally took Taiwan's side.
This meant military and economic support, as well as status; the ROC took a seat in the United Nations Security Council because of the U.N.'s deomcracy-kind policies.
Since Taiwan wasn't Communist, it was therefore seen as the seat of power for the entirety of China.
In 1954, the U.S. signed a mutual-defense treaty whereby both governments would take punitive actions against the PROC if it attacked Taiwan or any Taiwanese holdings.
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One other event involving the U.S. and its democratic allies is much less known.
A document stating Taiwan's status as a nation was drawn up with Chiang and the U.S. as main signatories.
The document, however, was never signed because those involved believed that Chiang and the Nationalists would eventually take all of China back.
Instead, the U.S. drew up the Shanghai communique, which recognized that Taiwan was a part of China, and that it would take interest only in peaceful settlement of the Taiwan question.
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Another event of importance was the economic growth of the ROC and the economic decline of the PROC.
Again with U.S. aid, the ROC was able to implement vast economic improvements while still pouring massive amounts of money into defense spending.
Almost $4 billion in U.S. assistance had gone towards giving Taiwan the healthiest economy in all of Asia by the mid-1960's, when aid was terminated.
Future programs continued to bring economic success to the island, making it one of the "tigers" of Asia.
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China, on the other hand, had attempted to put Mao's unique brand of communism into effect, culminating in the utter failure of "The Great Leap Forward."
The Great Leap Forward had been designed to bring China to the edge of utopian communism and was a revolutionary reaction to the failure of the moderate "Hundred Flowers Campaign."
Between 1959-1962, more than 20 million died due to the fall in agricultural production of the Great Leap.
Although Mao understood that the Soviet policy of heavy economic reliance on industrialization would not work in China, he was unable to make his own style work.
Rebelling against the members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who had forced the abandonment of the Great Leap in 1960, Mao initiated the Cultural Revolution.
The Revolution not only decimated the party and some of the population, it also resulted in more economic setback.
In 1976, Mao died, and the PROC could finally attempt to move on.
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U.S. policy again brought another critical event; the ROC and PROC would not share any trade partners, so when the U.S. began to build relations with the PROC, Taiwan was left out in the cold.
China was accepted into the U.N. Security Council in place of Taiwan in 1971; the ROC was expelled altogether from the U.N.
When President Nixon visited Beijing in 1972, it spelled out the end of most diplomatic relations for Taiwan.
Most of the rest of the world recognized the PROC as the "true" China, and by 1979, the U.S. had formalized relations with the PROC.
By 1980, the defense treaty of 1954 had lapsed, and all that remained to Taiwan's advantage was its trade relations.
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Repeated attempts to retake Taiwan as the 23rd province have also been important events.
Many times the PROC has attempted to solidify its belief that Taiwan is indeed ont of its provinces; each time, Taiwan had rejected the offer.
The last attempt to date began in 1991 when the Taiwanese government drafted a plan for a three-phase reunification with the PROC.
In 1993, the two governments sent representatives to Singapore for the first high-level contact in about 40 years.
Relations deteriorated, however, in 1995.
The only relations which seem to work are those of the Chinese and Taiwanese businessmen who are working and becoming richer together.
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The ROC and PROC continued on different political paths as the years continued.
Aged Chinese Communists continued to hold the office of president in the PROC (especially since opposition parties weren't tolerated) and attempt to make their Communist system work.
In the ROC, however, democracy was on the rise.
1989 brought the first election in which opposition parties were allowed to participate in the National Assembly, and in the National Assembly's voting for the president.
And in 1996, the first direct election by the people for the office of president was held.
The KMT, who still maintain the goal of reunification with China under a Nationalist government, were reelected in majority, but the independence, which had previously been considered treasonous, parties captured a quarter of the vote, too.
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The last events to be examined are the recent quarrels between the ROC an the PROC.
To show its disapproval of the "renegade province of Taiwan" holding elections, China began to hold "missile tests" in the Taiwan Strait.
Tests they were obviously not, for the PROC broadcast its displeasure over the coming elections, both at home and around the world.
They even went so far as to tell the U.S. that they would launch their M-9 missiles on Taiwan if president Lee Teng-hui was re-elected.
Chinese policy towards Taiwan had been set since the days of Mao, who said he would wait "100 years to bring the island back into the fold."
The PROC called the ROC "only leaders in a region of China [the PROC]."
Chinese Premier Li Peng said that China seeks a peaceful recovery of Taiwan, but also says that China "has not foresworn the use of force."
Reason enough for more and more of the Taiwanese to seek complete independence from China.
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