Chinese Civil War/Taiwan
After years of internal rebellion (Boxer, White Lotus) and international humiliation (Opium Wars, Shimonoseki), the Qing dynasty finally collapsed after 268 years in 1912, bringing an end to two thousand years of imperial rule in China. China began republican rule and Sun Yat Sen, leader of the Chinese National Party (also known as the Kuomintang) became its first elected President. Leninist-Marxist ideas flowed east from the Soviet Union and in 1921, the Chinese Communist Party was founded after the May Fourth Movement as a legitimate political faction. In an effort to consolidate his power and unite China, Sun Yat Sen sought aid from the Soviet Union and an alliance between the Soviets, the KMT, and the CCP was formed. However, the communist ideals within this alliance strengthened, fomenting much rivalry and distrust between the KMT and CCP. In 1927 Chiang Kai Shek, now the leader of the KMT, decided to violently purge all communist influence from local government and conflict brewed, starting primarily at the hotbed of Wuhan before spreading to other cities. This marked the beginning of the Chinese Civil War.
The KMT was much stronger than the CCP's Red Army and the Communists had to retreat from urban centres to their countryside bases. The most symbolic of this retreat was the Long March when in 1934 the Communists led by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai had to break through KMT encirclement and trek 50,000km to north-western China. Out of the 100 000 who started the trek, only 8000 survived. The outbreak of World War II was the reason for a symbolic truce in 1937, as both the KMT and CCP decided to focus their energies on the invading Japanese imperial army. In 1945, with Japan now defeated, the civil war re-commenced. The impact of World War II was more detrimental to the KMT than to the CCP. The CCP had engaged more in guerilla tactics while the KMT nationalists involved themselves in more traditional forms of direct warfare, thus suffering huge losses to the Japanese. The Soviets, who were integral in chasing the Japanese out of Manchuria, also decided to leave the strategic region to the Communists instead of the KMT government, giving the CCP access to arms and vehicles left by the retreating Japanese army.
By 1949, the Communists had begun to make huge military gains and were also enjoying widespread popular support by promising land reforms to peasants. After the decisive Battle of Liaohsi, the KMT were well and truly defeated and evacuated to the island of Taiwan with two million supporters. On the 1st of October 1949, the People's Republic of China was proclaimed by the CCP.
Although there were numerous skirmishes on outlying islands, the CCP communists could not gain a foothold on Taiwan island while the KMT nationalists could not gain on the mainland. Both of these parties aspired to be reunited under the One-China policy but no meaningful progress was made on either side. The US stationed the 7th Fleet in the Taiwan Straits to curb further conflict and by 1950, focused their attention to the Korean peninsula. Taiwan remained under KMT-enforced martial law to guard against any Communist infiltration.
By 1971, the UN and broader international community recognized the PRC as the sole legitimate representative of China and the ROC/Taiwan (while hitherto a founding member of the UN) was expelled. It was only in 1987 that martial law on Taiwan was lifted and political parties could be newly formed, paving the way towards democracy. In 2000, elections in Taiwan were won by the Democratic People's Party and the concept of full Taiwanese independence was brought into public consciousness.
