Taiwan Quotes
This quotation illustrates a huge reversal of policy. When Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists were defeated by the Communist Chinese in the Civil War, the Nationalists retreated to the island of Formosa (Taiwan) which was the only Chinese Province they held. There was the thought of setting up a separate nation on Taiwan, but Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists insisted that there was only one China and that they were the rightful government. At the time they held the Chinese UN Seat. The Communists also insisted that there was one China and Taiwan was a part of it with the Nationalists there being rebels. Chiang Kai-shek maintained that the people really wanted the Nationalists and they could take back the mainland. That turned out to be unrealistic and then the UN seat was given to the Communists as they were the de facto government of all of China except the province of Taiwan. There was nothing that the Nationalists and Communists agreed upon except that there was one China and Taiwan was a part of it. That, and the request of the Nationalist Chinese, has been the U. S Policy for decades. However by the 21st century, it was clear, even to the most fervent Nationalists, the Chinese Communists had won the allegiance of the majority of the Chinese people and they were not going to be successful in mounting a counter-revolution. Moreover, the Communist Military was much superior and some of the Nationalists started worry that Taiwan would be governed by the Communists along with the rest of China, So Lu and other Nationalists, flip flopped and took the position that Taiwan was an independent country—a view that is not recognized by the U. S. or China.
With the successful Chinese Communist Revolution, the Nationalists were driven off the mainland of China and occupied the island of Formosa (Taiwan) and had a small garrison of soldier on two tiny islands off the Chinese Coast, Quemoy and Matsu. The communist Chinese government wanted control of all three of the Nationalist held islands. It became a campaign issue or whether or not the United States should go to war to protect the two tiny islands from the communists even though there were no civilians on them and they had virtually no value other than symbolic. Nixon, took the position that the Chinese Communists must be stopped as they had world conquest as their objective. Philosophically, many Communists of the time, following Marxist theory, actually believed that Capitalism would crumble and communism would take its place. In that sense many felt that the world would be communist. China, as we now know, was more concerned with counterrevolution by the nationalists, expansionism and growth of Vietnam (her ancient enemy), the rise of Japan, border wars with India, and constant threats from Russia and China had no military plans for world conquest.
