ABSTRACT
During World War II, the allies had planned to take Quemoy in preparation for an invasion of Taiwan, then in Japanese hands. Peking's forces would still have had to cross a hundred miles of turbulent ocean to reach Taiwan. The explanation for Chiang's refusal to abandon Quemoy and Matsu lay in his fear of anything that would lead to drawing a clear line down the middle of the Taiwan Straits and hence to the formal separation of Taiwan from the rest of China. Better to have Taipei representing China in the United Nations and in most of the world's capitals than to lose an entire province by allowing a situation in which Taiwan could be considered an independent state. The People's Republic of China had not tried to take Quemoy and Matsu because they were Taiwan's links to the mainland and refutation of that claim.
