On Monday, September 13, 2021 at 9:52:37 AM UTC-6, Paul S Person wrote:
> IIRC, the original idea was that they were the legitimate rulers of
> /all/ of China. Taiwan was just the only bit they could hold on to.
> But perhaps that has changed.
Sadly, although the Communists were much, much worse, the Nationalists
weren't perfect. Thus, Mao Tse-Tung was able to exploit their faults to
gain power, and there were issues in Taiwan as well.
Taiwan was not a democracy under Chiang Kai-Shek, even if it was an ally
of the United States. Although the Mandarin-speaking refugees from the
mainland were a minority in Taiwan, Mandarin, and not the language of
the majority of the people resident in Taiwan, one of the Southern Min
family of Chinese dialects, was the official language of Taiwan. Businesses
were seized on false accusations of collaboration with the Japanese from
Taiwanese businessmen, so that people who lost property to the Communists
on the mainland could go back to being wealthy businessmen. Basically,
instead of peacefully staying in refugee camps instead of meddling in the affairs
of the Taiwanese people.
Over the years, however, politics in Taiwan liberalized, and it is a democracy
today. Currently, the party in power is the DPP, the Democratic People's
Party. This party represents the pre-existing Chinese people of Taiwan (not
to be confused with the indigenous people of Taiwan, a small minority that
also exists).
It is due to the internal politics of Taiwan that the issue of "Taiwan Independence"
arises. The U.S. has warned Taiwan not to act provocatively, and Red China has
stated that it would view Taiwan proclaiming independence from China as a
provocation, but the Republic of China is already not part of, and independent from,
the People's Republic of China.
The reason that some people in Taiwan reject Taiwan being part of the historic
nation of China, as opposed to the despotic tyranny of the People's Republic of
China, which, of course, any sane person would reject, is due to things like a
stratagem the Kuomintang used to maintain a grip on power while still holding
electiions - they filled dummy parliamentary seats representing the mainland
with their own members.
Much of Taiwan's history has only recently come out. For more information on
the conflict between the waishengren (mainlanders) and the benshengren
(majority inhabitants of Taiwan), one can look up things such as the February
28 incident.
John Savard