ABSTRACT
The population of Taiwan is almost entirely Han Chinese, with a small percentage of aborigines. Prior to World War II, most of the Chinese inhabitants were descendants of emigrants from Fujian and Guangdong provinces, who began arriving around the seventeenth century. Later, during World War II, Taiwan was used by Japan as a major staging area for attacks against both the Chinese mainland and Southeast Asia, including the Philippines. Truman's decision to interpose the Seventh Fleet between Taiwan and China was a crucial turning point in US policy, because he reversed US policy of not intervening in the Chinese civil war and instead sought to neutralize military confrontations between the Chinese Communists and the Nationalists. With the outbreak of the Korean War, Taiwan became important to protect the southern flank of US war efforts in Northeast Asia. US policy reviews in 1985 and 1986 had the effect of further stabilizing Washington-Taipei relations.
