Overview
In the 1970s, John K. Fairbank wrote, "The Taiwan issue is the ticking time bomb in U.S. China policy." In this book, Ralph Clough offers a masterly analysis of the Taiwan dilemma set against the background of the island's history, politics, and economic development.Clough begins by tracing the changing attitude of the United States toward Taiwan - from disinterest after World War II to deep concern that began with the Korean War and continued until the peace in Vietnam. He then undertakes a thorough description of the island and its people. He discusses Taiwan's political structure, the strengths and weaknesses of its society, and the evolving relationship between native Taiwanese and the mainlanders who arrived after 1945.
Clough fully examines the complex military situation and the unfinished civil war between the island and the mainland. He discusses, too, the war of diplomacy between the two Chinas, carrying his account into the 1970s and Taiwan's expulsion from the U.N. He describes Taiwan's fight for survival as an independent state and its efforts to maintain commercial relations, particularly with Japan...