ABSTRACT
After the communists’ victory in the 1946-49 Chinese civil war, the defeated Kuomintang (Nationalist) government took refuge in Taiwan (Formosa). Although ruled by Japan from 1895 to 1945, Taiwan was an old Chinese province. For many years the refugees from the mainland, who formed less than 20% of the population (now 21 million), kept power in their own hands and insisted that the true government of China was the one in Taiwan, which would in time return to Peking (now Beijing).
