ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Taiwan’s political evolution and the diplomatic death and rebirth that paralleled the evolving political transformation. The dominant figure during this period was Chiang Ching-kuo, the son and heir of Chiang Kai-shek, the president of the Republic of China. The younger Chiang had served as the head of the government of Shanghai during the civil war of the late 1940s and had proven himself to be an effective leader. The government’s policy of repression took other forms as well. The small and highly radical New Testament Church had established a community on a mountain in Tainan county, about an hour’s drive from the island’s western coast. Taiwan also actively cultivated relations with Australia during this period. In July of 1991, the ROC economics minister was invited to Australia to discuss trade and promote economic ties.
