So the west is winning, is it? Only if you’re a delusional Trump toady, Mr Pompeo, by Simon Tisdall

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

1 hour ago, frankfurter said:

Maybe you should study the histories of Tibet, ROC (akaTaiwan), Kashmir... just to avoid misunderstandings. 

 

I have, and China, historically, had no claim on Tibet, Formosa or the portion of Kashmir that they claim.

Tibet was annexed to secure a source of freshwater. Formosa is desired for no other reason that it is a ‘loss of face’ to the Communist Chinese. Not too sire why they maintain a claim to Kashmir. Problably something akin to claiming the entire South China Sea.

[Dan Warnick + 6,100]

4 hours ago, frankfurter said:

Maybe you should study the histories of Tibet, ROC (akaTaiwan), Kashmir... just to avoid misunderstandings. 

 

Okay.

A Brief History of Taiwan: Early History, Modern Era, and Cold War Period

Early History

For thousands of years, Taiwan had been home to nine plains tribes. The island has attracted explorers for centuries that have come to mine sulfur, gold, and other natural resources.

Han Chinese began crossing the Taiwan Strait during the 15th century. Then, the Spanish invaded Taiwan in 1626 and, with the help of the Ketagalan (one of the plains tribes), discovered sulfur, a main ingredient in gunpowder, in Yangmingshan, a mountain range that overlooks Taipei. After the Spanish and Dutch were forced out of Taiwan, Mainland Chinese returned in 1697 to mine sulfur after a huge fire in China destroyed 300 tons of sulfur.

Prospectors looking for gold started arriving in the late Qing Dynasty after railroad workers found gold while washing their lunch boxes in the Keelung River, 45 minutes northeast of Taipei. During this age of maritime discovery, legends claimed there was a treasure island full of gold. Explorers headed to Formosa in search of gold.

A rumor in 1636 that gold dust was found in today’s Pingtung in southern Taiwan led to the arrival of the Dutch in 1624. Unsuccessful at finding gold, the Dutch attacked the Spanish who were searching for gold in Keelung on Taiwan’s northeastern coast, but they still didn’t find anything. When gold was later discovered in Jinguashi, a hamlet on Taiwan’s east coast, it was a few hundred meters from where the Dutch had searched in vain.

Entering The Modern Era

After the Manchus overthrew the Ming Dynasty on the Chinese mainland, the rebel Ming loyalist Koxinga retreated to Taiwan in 1662 and drove out the Dutch, establishing ethnic Chinese control over the island. Koxinga’s forces were defeated by the Manchu Qing Dynasty’s forces in 1683 and parts of Taiwan began to come under the control of the Qing empire. During this time, many aborigines retreated to the mountains where many remain to this day. During the Sino-French War (1884-1885), Chinese forces routed French troops in battles in northeastern Taiwan. In 1885, the Qing empire designated Taiwan as China’s 22nd province.

The Japanese, who had had their eye on Taiwan since the late 16th century, succeeded in gaining control of the island after China was defeated in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). When China lost the war with Japan in 1895, Taiwan was ceded to Japan as a colony and the Japanese occupied Taiwan from 1895 to 1945.

After Japan’s defeat in World War II, Japan relinquished control of Taiwan and the government of the Republic of China (ROC), led by Chiang Kai-shek’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), re-established Chinese control over the island. After the Chinese Communists defeated ROC government forces in the Chinese Civil War (1945-1949), the KMT-led ROC regime retreated to Taiwan and established the island as a base of operations to fight back to the Chinese mainland.

The new People’s Republic of China (PRC) government on the mainland, led by Mao Zedong, began preparations to “liberate” Taiwan by military force. This began a period of Taiwan’s de facto political independence from the Chinese mainland which continues today.