Quoted: Taiwan and their people are decendants of the Nationalist party who fled when Mao came to power promisng the people all sorts of stuff.
Ghost
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Actually, Chiang Kai Shek and the remnants of the KMT fled to the island of Formosa as it was called then, and set up their own government. The population of the island were NOT descendents of Chiang and the KMT, they were indiginous people. The KMT ruled by martial law for 40 years; human rights were a huge stumbling block for the KMT to gain mainstream acceptance here in the U.S. The transition in the country over the last 15 years has been remarkable, both in terms of economic progress and political progress.
The once outlawed opposotion DPP is now in power, and both the DPP and KMT have large numbers of native born Taiwanese in their ranks. The Vice President, Annette Lu, is a native born Taiwanese, and was jailed for 5 years by the KMT for her participation in political dissent back in the 80's.
After the derecognition of Taiwan, the Congress passed The Taiwan Relations Act, which sets forth our relationship with the RoC as law. Among other things, it states that the U.S. shall provide Taiwan "defensive" military hardware...(they buy it, we don't give it to them).
The chicomms have pitched a fit over this part of the TRA for years, and every time we go to sell something to them, they freak.
For whatever reason, Taiwan is a thumb in the eye of the Chicomms, who attempt to block everything Taiwan does. Their view USED to be "Taiwan, like a ripe apple, will fall from the tree some day", or words to that effect. The fact is, they've NEVER renounced the use of force to "re-unite" Taiwan with the motherland, even though the US has been putting pressure on them to do so for years.
The TRA doesn't explicitly state we will come to Taiwan's aid if attacked by the chicomms; our mutual defense treaty with Taiwan is not in effect anymore, so the jury is split on what our obligations are under the TRA; morally, to not come to their aid would be to sell one of our most fervent allies anywhere right down the river. Pres. Clinton dispatched a couple of carrier battle groups to the region several years ago when the Chicomms started testing missiles in the Taiwan Straits around election time.