A Brief History
On December 15, 1978, US President Jimmy Carter announced that the United States would no longer recognize the government of the Republic of China (based on the island of Taiwan) as the legitimate government of China, and instead would recognize the Red Chinese government, The Peoples Republic of China. This agreement went into effect January 1, 1979, and from this time the US has referred to “Taiwan” instead of the “Republic of China.”
Digging Deeper
During the 1930’s and 1940’s the people of China had fought a long civil war between the forces of Nationalist Chinese leader Chiang Kai Shek and the communist Chinese leader, Mao Tse Tung (aka Mao Ze Dong), even during World War II while the Japanese occupied the country. After World War II, despite tepid support from the US, the Nationalists were defeated and evacuated the mainland for the island of Taiwan, where they set up a government in exile in 1949, claiming legitimate right to rule all of China. This left Mao and the communists in charge of mainland China, an ominous early development of the Cold War.
One thing that deserves mention here, is that the original people of Taiwan, also known as aboriginal Taiwanese, are not ethnic Chinese and do not have any national affinity for the country of China. In fact, until Chiang and his Nationalists took the place over, Taiwan was not recognized as part of China.
During the Nixon administration (1968-1974) the US and China started to normalize relations between the 2 Cold War adversaries (who had engaged in serious combat during the Korean War and somewhat during the Vietnam War), and President Carter continued the transition to normal relations. China, being the most populous country in the world and the US being the largest economy in the world were both needlessly hurting themselves by not having normal trade relations. This normalization of relations became even more imperative when China became a nuclear power in the early 1960’s.
Since 1979 the US has maintained a friendly but informal relationship with Taiwan, continuing to engage in trade and providing weapons for the defense of the island. Plus, the reason Taiwan has not been invaded by China is the US promise of defense of the country. Still, the subject of Taiwan has been a sore point in US-China relations over the years and remains so. When President Elect Donald Trump of the US spoke on the telephone with the President of Taiwan in December of 2016, a long tradition of avoiding such tacit recognition had been broken and the government of China was heartily upset, the world media shocked by the breach of protocol.
It seems inevitable that someday China will claim physical sovereignty over Taiwan, but when and how that will happen remains to be seen. Question for students (and subscribers): Do you think this conquest will happen via the process of war? If so, when do you think this reunification would occur? Will the US really fight to keep Taiwan independent? Give us your predictions in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Lin, Hsiao-ting. Accidental State: Chiang Kai-shek, the United States, and the Making of Taiwan. Harvard University Press, 2016.
Tucker, Nancy Bernkopf. Strait Talk: United States-Taiwan Relations and the Crisis with China. Harvard University Press, 2011.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="15023 https://www.historyandheadlines.com/?p=15023">30 Comments
I dont like the war at all why do that
This normalization of relations became even more imperative when China became a nuclear power.
The country the U.S. should really fear the most is China. If American foreign leaders were smart they would want Taiwan to remain an independent nation.
I hope it doesn’t happen in our lifetime. Things could get really ugly. Still hoping for peace throughout the earth. Maybe when the aliens come we will finally unite.
If it does happen they will not use war, it will be the threat of goods and aid.
Hopefully our leaders will work diligently to avoid any military involvement whether China invades Taiwan or not.
I wouldn’t think this would lead to war. Seems as a political ploy to get both sides cooperating.
Hopefully, it will not come to war. Maybe some sanctions imposed, but not war.
I hope we can avoid going to war in this situation.
I hope we don’t go to war its too expensive and we loose a lot of lives on the war field
There has to be another way then to go to war. We shouldn’t be quick to throw up the gloves without first checking other peaceful alternatives.
Sometimes i believe that we don’t think before we make big decisions like this.
I do not think we (U.S.) will ever go to war with China and I don’t think China will ever go to war with us. Taiwan will never be touched by either country and will stay like is.
To involve the United States in a feud between Taiwan and China is bad. A war between the US and China would escalate to WWIII.
I feel that the United States learned our lesson during Vietnam, we need to let other countries handle their own internal affairs. We should never go to war with China.
I do not think the unification of Taiwan into China will ever occur without a war, unless the Unites States of America has a very important political reason for letting China unify with Taiwan.
The United States has no business stepping in between China and Taiwan.
If President Trump sticks to his word, I do not forsee America will go to the aid of Taiwan. The only way I see America assisting Taiwan is if their was some kind of payment for our assistance.
I did not know that Taiwan was not originally associated with China. I sometimes feel that America should keep the peace by staying out of other countries relations. It’s almost like we go looking for problems to be involved in.
China considers Taiwan as part of their territory. Although, Taiwan thinks of itself as an independent country. The people of Taiwan elected their own president, which China does not recognize. When President Trump won the election Taiwan’s President called to congratulate him. The fact that President – Elect Trump took the call angered China. This dispute between Taiwan and China has been going on for years, I do not see the United States entering into the dispute.
I was not aware that Taiwan was not part of China. I think America should stay out of the issues between Taiwan and China. I do not think any good could come from it.
I never knew the Chinese nationalists fled to Taiwan. I think we need to help Taiwan from China conquering it.
Do I think the US should fight to keep Taiwan independent?…NO!! We are already involved in enough. And to what benefit will that be for us?
America always has to stick their nose into something!!!
So I think that China should not try to take over Taiwan, but i’m sure they will eventually seek it. I don’t understand why we still have wars over territory. Hopefully the U.S. will not be involved if it comes to war.
China should have no claim over Taiwan and I think our new president should have kept with the protocol.
In fact, many Taiwanese want to return to China, they admit that they are Chinese
Mao ze dong is one of the impressive and greatest leader in the history of China, he was brave enough by leading Chinese solider, and he was having a smart thoughts about how to wining the war in the past. Nowadays, many people admit that they are part of Chinese. The truth is they really is.
Yet another reasonI think our current president is unfit for the job.
I feel they should be able to claim to be what they feel they are.