ABSTRACT
Some aspects of the historical geography of China up to the end of the Manchu dynasty are given in Chapter 6 (pages 63-7). There was a succession of empires. Each in its turn matured to a climax of power, administrative efficiency and territorial extent, later to fall apart in the confusion, rebellion or invasion which was the direct or indirect result of oppressive and incompetent government. This pattern continues into recent times. The Nationalist regime, which replaced in I9II the corruption and inefficiency of the closing decades of Manchu rule, promised well at the start under the leadership of Sun Yat Sen, only to become as corrupt as its predecessors by World War II. After a civil war it was replaced on the mainland in I949 by the Communist regime, though its leader, General Chiang Kai-shek, withdrew what was left of his forces together with about a million refugees to the island ofTai>van (Formosa). There Chiang Kai-shek continued to claim authority over all China. The situation was absurd: the strong and progressive Communist regime, ruling effectively from Peking over more than 5 0 0 million people, was denied full international recognition; the remnant of the Nationalists, governing only the eight million people of Taiwan, was allowed to retain its seat on the Security Council of United Nations, as though it had the authority to speak for all the Chinese people.
