though it is studiously ignored by both parties for extended periods of time. It refuses to simply fade away into the past.
We have too many lessons already showing us how unwise it is to meddle in other nations' civil wars. In the case of China and Taiwan we cannot just apologize and change our policy because we, in effect, created and protected a separate nation that for many years proclaimed itself as the only legitimate China.
I clearly remember listening to the Kennedy-Nixon debates, in which both candidates swore to support and defend the islands to which the losers of the Chinese civil war had retreated. The political climate in 1960 would have made it difficult for either to dissent from that position.
From 1955 to 1980 the US had a formal agreement:
the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty,
designed to prevent China from completing its revolution and reclaiming its island, which was born out of de facto intervention by Truman, related to our other intervention in Korea and general Cold-War attitudes. The Taiwan government was no more democratic than the mainland communists, and executed and imprisoned some 140,000 of its people for suspected disloyalty. But during the time the US continued to officially ignore reality, Taiwan grew from a refuge to a significant industrialized nation, and more recently a democratized one. This has made it nearly impossible, or at least undesirable, for the US to try to undo a diplomatic mistake.Each time we ship promised military equipment to Taiwan it is a refreshed reminder of a policy conflict between the US and China, and there is an increasing need to harmonize US-China relations as China grows economically and a number of issues call for cooperation. Fortunately, China has shown restraint in pressing for a resolution, though they do remind us there is a problem.
The issues surrounding Taiwan call for a great deal of careful thought and, when the time comes, negotiation. The solution may not please everyone involved.
