In the current international political climate, there are few more precarious situations than the one that has been long simmering between China and Taiwan. Taken at its simplest form, this dispute appears to be a simple battle among two places with differing vantage points. One, Taiwan wishes to form an independent
state and break the hold that the other, China, has over it. However, when examined more closely, it becomes clear that the outcome and actions of this disagreement have ramifications that reach far beyond Asia and well into the western world as well. Before a proper assessment of today's dispute can be made, it is vital to examine the events of many years past that have led to this point.
The story dates all the way back to 1945 and the end of World War II. After Japan formally surrendered to the United States of America, they begin a process of returning to China all territories that it had colonized. Among these territories was Taiwan, then known as Formosa. After Japan relinquished its controls of Taiwan, life for Taiwan's citizens does not change much under the rule of China's Nationalist forces, although they had held out hopes that the end of Japan's control would lead to their liberation. Instead, the Kuomingtang and imigrating mainlanders ended up exacerbating the country's problems.
The next significant incident occurs in 1947, when Monopoly bureau officials in Taiwan beat up a woman who is suspected of peddling cigarettes on the black market and also shoot a passerby who attempts to intervene. Known as the "2-28" incident because of its date of occurrence, the event sparks an island wide revolt which ends with upwards of 20,000 people being slaughtered at the hands of the Kuomingtang. In December of the same year, Mao Tse-tung and ...