Nationalist China

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nationalist China was an informal phrase to describe the Republic of China government in Taiwan during the Cold War. It was named so due to the Nationalist Party which ruled in Taiwan and to distinguish it from Communist China (the People's Republic of China) on the Chinese mainland.

The term has fallen out of favor since multi-party elections ushered the Democratic Progressive Party into power. With multiple parties competing and being represented in the Legislative Yuan and the presidency under the DPP, Nationalist China has lost its meaning.

The term has also been used anachronistically to described territory controlled by Nationalists before their retreat to Taiwan in 1949. Some historians use it to distinguish from territory held by warlords, communists, or the Japanese occupation forces and their puppet governments.

After Chiang's defeat at the hands of Communist guerrillas led by Mao Zedong, he and the ruling Kuomintang party fled to the nearby island of Taiwan and set up a similar government there.

Taiwan under Nationalist rule came to be known as the Republic of China, and was given recognition in the United Nations as an act of defiance against the newly Communist People's Republic of China on the mainland. After the Nixon administration of the United States initiated a policy of détente with mainland China, diplomatic recognition in the U.S. and Western bloc in general shifted to the People's Republic of China over the Republic of China, though the U.S. has vowed to help Taiwan defend itself if it is attacked.